Writing Mistake #1

OK this may be a shocker...

Writing mistake #1 is: NOT WRITING.

Now I knew this already, but silly me, I decided to take a break over Christmas.

Let me tell you, bad idea. I left off in a place I was having trouble with and instead of pushing through and just getting it done, I avoided it.

And what happens when you avoid something you don't want to tackle?

It gets worse.

So this week my Mom took the boys so I should have plenty of time to catch up on writing.

Wrong.

Monday I avoided writing (pleasant side-effect: the kitchen stayed spotless all day).

Tuesday I sat down to write and got only 124 words, and it was pulling teeth to get that.

Today was a little better, so far I've written 387 words and the going has been slightly easier.

The moral of this story is: don't stop writing!

Ode to Calvin and Hobbes: Death of a Snowman

So we are snowed in.

Really snowed in.

In an area where 2 inches is a blizzard, we got over a foot.

So Danny and I went for a short walk and I was... well... inspired!

What started as just one quick snowman turned into seven (one is hiding from the camera), which turned into a whole scene inspired by Bill Watterson's Snow Goons from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.

I know I haven't talked about writing very much lately, so you'll just have to be content with a literary reference and an update on the Snoy-man.

And by the way, Merry Christmas!

Our Day in the Snow

Here's what we did today...

My husband Danny, of oycomics.com, had the wild idea to make an Oy snowman. If you don't know what an "Oy" is then check out the link above.

We both built it up, Danny did the eyes and I did the coloring job, snow cone style. I used food coloring and water in a spray bottle.

Isn't he cute?

More pictures here.

Watch us build it here.

Legend of Bill Guest Comic Strip!!!

Hey all, check out Legend Of Bill today http://tinyurl.com/4oaa69, you know who drew that comic? Huh? Huh?

That's right it's me!

A while ago LOB cartoonist David Reddick sent a call out for people to submit guest strips and I decided to give it a try. Anyway, how hard could it be, right?

Well, pretty hard actually.

This was my first comic strip EVER and I'm very proud of how it turned out, so please check it out and while you're there go ahead and read through the archives. LOB is a top notch comic by the professional cartoonist/comics creator: The Trek Life,Gene's Journal, RodandBarry, Reddickulous and Garfield. So here's the link again http://tinyurl.com/4oaa69 check it out!

Fayre Tales Excerpt #2, What Do You Think?

Faeries are a kind people. Rumors to the contrary are merely rumors, nothing more. Though, as a people it is hardly fair to expect every individual to be entirely good, just as it is unfair to assume any one individual to be entirely bad. The good have bad in them and the bad have good in them, for each individual has his individual temptations. But suffice it to say, Faeries are a kind people.

Fayre lived with such a people. It had always been painfully obvious that she was not one of them, most obviously, she had no wings. Gran Melia had never been able to explain why; was something wrong with her or was she even a Faery? No one seemed to know. They did their best to help her, though, they made stairs up to their village among the branches, and bridges here and there. But while she was thankful for all their kindness, with every step up the long stairs her heart sank lower in the knowledge that she would never truly fit in.

I Left My Grasp of Punctuation in the 6th Grade

Sometimes I feel like writing with no punctuation whatsoever and letting Danny (darling husband and editor) fill it in later.

My main problem seems to be commas. Sometimes I sprinkle them on, a, bit, too, liberally. Other times I hold back and for fear of putting them in the wrong spot omit them entirely.

Then there are the semi-colons; ugh.

When is it a semi-colon and not a normal colon or a comma? Whenever you see a semi-colon in my writing you can be pretty sure it's Danny's doing; I am truly hopeless with the darn things.

I've gotten so bad, I've started second guessing every mark of punctuation on my page: quotation, apostrophe, even periods

I like punctuation, I do. It can make a piece sparkle, used just right.

So enough with all the punctuation doubting. I'll sprinkle it here and there in the hopes that with time and practice, it loses a bit of its ominous-ness.

No Charge

So for a quick overview of last week's progress, I managed 3,382 words and the total elimination of what was supposed to be a decent chunk of the story in book two.

I was humming along writing the lead-up to a trial that was supposed to span at least two chapters, when I suddenly realized I had no charge. You can't have a trial without some form of charge and for it to carry any weight, any significance, it can't be a weeny charge.

All I had was a politician lying, whoo-hoo. That's so... um...

So, the trial was dismissed and I was left with a gaping hole; I had to go back to the outline.

I think the new version is much stronger and I'm kind of glad the trial didn't work out as planned; I was really dreading it.