Marie Alice Writes & Reads

Dealing with the back-to-school new schedule

It looked like a tiny little star.

My kiddo’s heart. The first time I saw it, sitting most awkwardly in a medical chair which – I don’t know how – someone had successfully stuck in the smallest room of the fertility clinic.

A tiny star blinking fast.

It could have been a little shooting star, some hope just passing by.

Lucky us, the tiny little star stayed. And grew.

Today, my kid is starting kindergarten.

Of course, I was expecting the excitement, the mama tears.

But not the time-consuming aspect of getting ready to go to school.

Continuer la lecture de « Writing Adventures Day 3: Back-to-School »

How to stop oneself from writing too much (Do You Know?)

You know that feeling.

That fizzely fizzeling energy more so.

Every word is flowing, ready to go, ready to change the reader’s world.

One with the words, in front of that page. You’re at the right place, doing precisely what makes sense. What you’re meant to do in a way.

Write a story for the people of the world to enjoy.

As many people as possible (0f course).

Therefore, it’s tempting to keep going.

Just half-an-hour.

Or until 11pm.

Top.

Highway to Fail

It might sound harsh, but for your humble novelist here, pushing it even a little more than planned is THE way to fail my writing goals.

Especially the nearly unrealistic ones!

Since I burnout it all out, words and will to write, I’m on a self-care mission.

No matter my writing drive, when that clock hits 10 pm, or 9pm if the day job stuff has been stuffy-to-the-top like today, I have to stop.

Although it is hard as heck to tame that stubborn writer mind of mine!

Geez.

Only yesterday, I did the exact opposite of what I need to do – hear that brain, what I need to do – to keep the mojo up and running for a long, long while.

Will I never learn? Yes indeed, fellow writer. I will.

See, today went oh so well.

I don’t mean to brag or anything, it’s just such a wonderful feeling, I can’t help but share it with our whole writing community!

Anyhou.

8pm ding dang somewhere on an old pendulum clock (this a lovely, lovely English word, pendulum).

What’s with the pendulum clock now you may ask, dear fellow writer?

Because one was hanging on a wall in my grandparent’s house.
A little house sitting happily on the side of a very long Main street. We could see the horse pension from the kitchen window. My grandmother sat nearby on a comfy rocking chair.
Now that clock lives in my mother’s house, as a mere wall decoration.
The clock did mark every hour and half-hour. In the silence of the old days, without a radio or a tv, the pendulum clock voice must have been sort of comforting.
I wrote a bit about the grandparents of the main character today, maybe that’s why the souvenir came to visit the present.

Anyhou.

8pm came, and I stopped. Right in the middle of a sentence too.

Quite frustrating and rewarding at the same time.

All there’s left to do is relax, read a bit, and try not to think about the next sentence.
The next chapter.
The next everything!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

New project!

Exciting, isn’t it?

Energy level? Off the roof.

Imagination sparkles? Sparkling dazzlingly.

This is gonna work. This time, oh this time, it’s gonna work.

You hear that world? Three months top, that writing project will be query ready.

It will get published.

*sigh*

How many times have those words come around in the past thirty years!!!

That’s where I stop, look back at the beautiful writing life mistakes of the past and breath.

Hold It

I’ve been there before. Burning myself up by rushing into a new writing project.

It’s so much fun, the idea is brand new, the characters too.

Too often, however, I would rush through Act 1, because I wanted to see what surprises lurked behind the fun&games part… And, yes, I’ll admit it, I’m always looking forward to writing to the « we’ll they kiss now » part.
Just kidding… almost.

Now that I’m not that old but still wiser (just a bit!) than before the last writing project, I take a different approach with these three writing projects.

For years, I would write my stories in a linear order. It just makes sense to do so.

But there’s a writing hack I never even consider before doing research on productivity among authors’ blogs and AuthorTube channels.

Writing chaos!

Explanation.

Writing Hack Time

Little reminder: I’m writing tween and young adult genre novels (fantasy, romance, sci-fi, and all that comes in between).

It is my very humble opinion the following writing hack truly works best with genre literature.

That being said.

You’re the writer, you’re the person, you decided. I just want to share about the writing craft.

Before I start the first draft of a writing project, I write a bunch of outlines. After several tries out of different outlining methods, I adopted Katytastic work frame: set a number of chapters within the famous 3 acts storyline, and decide on the word count for each chapter.
Then, I write the major scenes, starting sometimes in the middle, the near end, etc.
Then, time to first draft the story, now in a linear order.

The major scenes may change or be deleted altogether, but, doesn’t matter, because at least, I got it out of my system.

As for my writing productivity stats, I saw them getting better.

Still, there’s room for improvement and I’m looking forward to putting this writing hack to the test again.

This Beloved Old Story of Mine

I did it. I did it. I DID IT.

I started outlining a new idea.

But.

Outside of the scheduled writing time for the big plan. So no harm done to my tat intense writing goals.

The first goal is: to finish the story that what supposed to be done… two years ago.

It’s a relief to read… I wrote a decent good sort of a ghost story!

Tweaks in and there, about ten chapters to re-write, and done. By November.

That is the writing goal for now anyway.

I’m as ever grateful to know you’re here, taking the time to read this.

Thank you.

Until next time!