Scribbling Away in a Better Frame of Mind, October 23

by Liana Posted on October 23, 2013
This entry is part 22 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Before writing, I did a survey of the usual suspects: The Passive Voice, Dean Wesley Smith, Starwalker by Melanie Edmonds (still amazing fiction), and Strange Horizons' Wednesday review and the short story for this week—which was... tough, but good.

Started off with the crossover. I'm feeling a little better late morning (we will not discuss the early morning), so I'm going to dive into a couple stories I put on hold to percolate.

So I got one ficlet out and got a start on the other. Nothing big yet though. Then while waiting for naproxen to kick in, I made the "mistake" of reading City of Glass again. It's surprisingly good and tempting to try to do it for Nano again. Ah, well. We'll see.

Back working on the collaboration piece and just couldn't get far with this being such a huge chore night. Frustrating to get a good start and not have time to continue, but that's life.

Count

  • Fiction: 1354 words - Month to Date: 28,870 words
  • Blog: 234 words - Month to Date: 8,803 words
  • Nonfiction: 0 words - Month to Date: 314 words

365 Challenge

I'm counting the various parts of the AU round robin thecatisacritic started. It just makes sense.

  • 235/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture and Recall Crossover: Cleaning – 440 words
  • 236/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Shattered by Night – 772 words

WIP

  • Butterfly Division: Amnes – 142 words; Total: 359 words
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Reading and Writing, etc., October 22

by Liana Posted on October 22, 2013
This entry is part 21 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Started off editing and writing. I got 379 words on the crossover. Read and commented on the stuff from thecatisacritic.

Lunch break, back to work. Got 327 words on the Butterfly Division fic. Didn't get further because the second scene sketch is MIA. Will look for it later at home.

I started my edits on "Dowse and Bleed" at 13,581 words. Technically, I should be working on Yuletide fic or something, but :shrugs:, the story from inferno is my baby right now. Stopped at 13,663 words.

So I'm scribbling around in all sorts of things while proofreading and doing corporate filings. Don't ask.

Count

  • Fiction: 2186 words - Month to Date: 27,516 words
  • Blog: 232 words - Month to Date: 8,569 words
  • Nonfiction: 314 words - Month to Date: 314 words

365 Challenge

  • 232/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture and Recall Crossover: A Little History – 379 words
  • 233/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture and Recall Crossover: Transition and Redux – 660 words
  • 234/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture and Recall Crossover: Medical Options – 383 words

WIP

  • Buttefly Division: Amnes – 606 words
  • Kingdoms and Thorn poem: The World Backed Down – 76 words; Total: 606 words
  • Kingdoms and Thorn story: Dowse and Bleed – 82 words; Total: 13,663 words
  • Nonfiction: The Poem in Poetry – 314 words
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Allegiant's Out

by Liana Posted on October 22, 2013

And let's face it: usually I don't mind spoilers. After Insurgent, I did want to see what I was getting into. I'm glad I did. I'm going to wait until lithiumlaughter or in_the_blue share what they thought, because I have a real problem with logic issues (read: HUGE problem) and I'm on the fence with whether I'll take the finale very well.

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Winter Tidings of the Scribbler, October 21

by Liana Posted on October 21, 2013
This entry is part 20 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Dear muse,

Please get with it. November is coming and my dance card is now full.

Love,

the scribbler

Feels like winter is here at last, and it's time to get this mind gearing up for November beyond percolating possibilities. Time more to get some serious writing back into gear, especially seeing as I've got plenty besides to do this season.

So checking out the exchange front, I'm thinking through this [unnamed] prompt again and can't even hit it sideways. I already wrote that story, so hm. I guess it's just winging it on the fandom. :grumbles under breath: I had hoped for something to go on. Oh, well. Let's just see what we can come up with.

Well, I was going to fic that, but instead I fanficced my own and thecatisacritic's world again. Seriously, is it okay to post fanfic of this kind of stuff on AO3? I know the original creator and we're working together, but it's seriously AU fanfic.

Back to exchange... Didn't get anywhere on that. Then I spent some serious time hunting up fics to collaborate on, got back wonderful comments on "Dowse and Bleed" which may take it to novella-length, and typed up board meeting minutes. Also, got a 418 word start on a poem. Don't like it all yet, but it's a start.

Beta'd a piece. Hit a few more pages on my proofread. I'll try and pull something together after computer hours, but no promises.

Count

  • Fiction: 2291 words - Month to Date: 25,330 words
  • Blog: 279 words - Month to Date: 8,337 words

365 Challenge

  • 230–231/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture and Recall Crossover: And So It Goes… – 1873 words

WIP

  • Kingdoms and Thorn poem: The World Backed Down – 418 words
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Reading and Writing, October 20

by Liana Posted on October 20, 2013
This entry is part 19 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

So Scrivener has multiple uses, including analysis. I wanted to do an analysis of "Dowse and Bleed" and promptly discovered that I had three scenes of around 3000 words each, give or take a few hundred. This was shocking to say the least. Normally, I don't manage that kind of word count for a single scene.

So I did a lot more reading than writing and some editing. It's like I couldn't get my brain to kick in until after dark. (This might have been due to three meetings, taking minutes, doing board research, and shopping and chores, but hey, a girl's not supposed to make excuses, right?)

I love to write directly to prompts, but not sure that I'm going to do this one for the exchange. En brief, their questions were already answered by the creator. It's hard to write fic to answer them again.

Count

  • Fiction: 340 words - Month to Date: 23,139 words
  • Blog: 163 words - Month to Date: 8,058 words

365 Challenge

  • 229/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: The Only Mercy – 274 words
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Reading and Writing, October 19

by Liana Posted on October 19, 2013
This entry is part 18 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

So yesterday's post got left at work by accident. Will post it Monday and update the weekend posts to reflect accurate numbers. In the meantime, not doing good not reading before writing.

Yuletide assignments went out and all the pinch hits went during Sabbath. Nice. :shrugs: Oh, well.

And it's back to the crossover. And you know what? That's good enough for tonight. It's late. I'm tired and cranky, and boy, do I have a jam-packed day tomorrow. I've got a board meeting and shopping and board research and yuletide and Denny/Laurie reading and rugs to wash and a kitchen to take care of. Ah well.

Count

  • Fiction: 513 words - Month to Date: 22,799 words
  • Blog: 122 words - Month to Date: 7,895 words

365 Challenge

  • 228/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: The Right Question – 513 words
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Reading and Writing, October 18

by Liana Posted on October 18, 2013
This entry is part 17 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

So I did an incredibly poor job of reading nada before writing. Alas! I'm beginning to feel a little fraudulent, but I wonder if I'm just tired. I'm on a cleanse and the weather's changing and I'm working on another longer piece that's plot-driven, a sure recipe for forcing myself to slow down. It's intensely not my strong point. Plot-driven, that is.

But I did get something written today. A crossovery bit of fanfic. There goes 415 words.

Thinking out loud here: I think the problem is that while I got off to a good foot on this Justus story, it was unintentional and I'm having a hard time working it with canon and I hadn't the clue where I was starting, let alone where I was headed. I think I'm going to scrap and redraft. This is a very scary thought.

I could always stop, drop, and write about kittens. I've got two clans, the grammatical and the errata. And then there's Popcorn. It gets messy.

Count

  • Fiction: 415 words - Month to Date: 22,286 words
  • Blog: 193 words - Month to Date: 7,773 words

365 Challenge

  • 227/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: It's a Start Anyway – 415 words
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Reading vs. Writing: Wait, I thought you guys were friends!

by Liana Posted on October 18, 2013

Yeah... not always. And this is the perfect summation and what to do about it, from Kristine Rusch:

Back when I was training myself to sit down and finish something, I learned the hard way that my greatest distraction was not other people or my computer or games or the phone or the television. My greatest distraction was other novels.

If I started reading a novel at lunch, I would finish at dinner. And then I’d deem it too late to write. So I had to make reading my carrot. I didn’t allow myself to read until I was done writing.

I’ve mentioned that a lot before, because the stupid compulsion remains. I cannot read fiction before I’m done writing my own fiction or I won’t get anything done.

But there was another component to my writing back then, one I dropped as the deadlines, publication dates, and payments took over. I wouldn’t let myself read anything if I hadn’t written that day.

In other words, reading was my reward. If I finished 3,000 words, I could read a book. If I didn’t, I couldn’t read until I did.

Carrot, meet stick. Stick, meet carrot. I had forgotten you guys.

- See more at: http://kriswrites.com/2013/10/16/the-business-rusch-carrots-and-sticks/#sthash.FuKcyUvN.dpuf

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Reading, Writing, and Upcoming Schedule – October 17

by Liana Posted on October 17, 2013
This entry is part 16 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

FRIENDLY REMINDER: If your comment vanishes into the spam moderation ether, please email me at info at lianamir dot com so I can fish it back out.

Reading & Proofreading

I had a proofreading job come in, which will cut hard into scribbling time, but add to weather the bank advance cut-off transition, so it's a worthy switch.

I'm also going to put off reading any fiction by anyone else until after I've scribbled each day. This is an experiment. It will take nerves of steel (which I'm not entirely sure I have). More on that tomorrow.

Writing & Fanfic

So I didn't get anywhere with Laurie today. Couldn't find her mental space and realized I needed to dive into canon to do that. Canon's not at work and my lunch break didn't go to writing per usual, so yeah. Moving it down on the to-do list. I consider this a Yuletide piece.

Speaking of which, Yuletide itself is looking amazing. I signed up as a pinch-hitter and browsed through a bunch of letters. I may do the book exchange and I'm definitely going to be writing treats. In the middle of this, I promise to lithiumlaughter that I will indeed get around to hammering my head hard enough on "Everything is Blood" to finish it.

I did start off this morning with a ficlet that could go as a continuation of an interesting crossover fanfic AU (thanks, thecatisacritic) or fit within the regular Kingdoms and Thorn universe. So there's that. I do think it needs more, a continuation and exploration. Don't I have enough ficlets needing that though!

I decided to start posting more on the blog again, which is silly since I'm trying to scribble more fiction, but alas! I tend to be happiest when creatively overextended. Since I've already started doing it, I might as well just admit it.

For NanoWrimo, I still haven't the foggiest idea which book I'll write, though I'm leaning toward something with momentum, which would mean Kingdoms and Thorn or Seven Days. I love Vardin, but I'm not sure I could build up the steam in time for November. And everyone loves Seven Days. Thanks again, lithiumlaughter, for you wonderful comments. I need to get answers to your questions back, come to think of it.

Back on the evening scribbling grind, and this Kingdoms and Thorn piece is coming together again. Not sure what did the trick, but I'm liking the interactions between Justus, Cole, and Larique. I'm also realizing this thing's going to turn into a "Dowse and Bleed" size fic before it's done. Ah, well. At least I'm getting somewhere, 367 words of somewhere wraps the scene. I've a feeling it won't be done today, thecatisacritic, but you prompted it and it's coming. Now I've just got to remember to work in Justus going undercover and noticing a threat no one else does.

I'd be able to write more too, but I have a question it's going to take some percolating to answer. What in the world does that report say? Sometimes readers think we're hiding information for suspense when really, we don't actually know the information yet. Ah, well. Off to percolate. Good night!

Count

  • Fiction: 841 words - Month to Date: 21,871 words
  • Blog: 630 words - Month to Date: 7,580 words

365 Challenge

We're at day 290/365 and written piece 226/365.

Most of these pieces haven't been linked on the challenge page because they're commentfic and I'm editing the mess out of them for publishing. I really do need to get a Kingdoms and Thorn collection pulled together. But first, I want to see in_the_blue's suggestions for expanding "Dowse and Bleed." Seriously. It would be my first novella (not counting MG novel, similar word count) ever.

  • 226/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation – 474 words
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On Christian Introverts by J. S. Park

by Liana Posted on October 17, 2013

So I was perusing valuable links and ran across this gem of a post called "14 Ways to Handle a Christian Introvert." Note: I am a Christian and an introvert. I rolled with laughter. This is me. You read my mind.

An excerpt:

2) We just don’t sing like the front row.

It’s great that extroverts can freely express themselves during worship time.  But introverts sometimes just read the lyrics, connect inwardly, and keep their hands inside the vehicle.  If you see us raising even one hand and singing a few words, we are seriously pushing the gas pedal all the way to the floor.

3) Do not ever rebuke us in public.

Or you and I are done.  Forever. You should never do this anyway.

7) We get super-tired around a lot of people.

My limit is about four hours, and then I actually get a headache from just hanging around human beings.  My Sabbath rest is leave-me-alone-time with my non-judgmental dog.  Give us that time without trying to counsel us about it.

8) Don’t be offended if we don’t reply right away.

Sometimes when we see a Facebook invite to that next big church event, we just let it sit there and think about it periodically throughout the week and then come back to it before committing.  We do the same thing with text messages, emails, phone calls, and you showing up at the door.

10) Please do NOT bring a lot of attention to us.

Not in the church bulletin, not the church site, not for my birthdays, not for that nice thing I did for the homeless — just please, no spotlight.

11) Sometimes we’re just moody.  It’s not depression or a “spiritual attack” or “unconfessed sin.”

One word: space.  Lots of it.

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