WRITING - July 2016

I don't have anything public to link to for this round.  Most of my writing was on established projects, and, to be honest, there wasn't nearly as much of it as I'd hoped for.

Stupid heat.

But here are the blog posts for the play-by-play:

day one : in which we begin

day two : in which there were lessons and tacos

day three : when the stupid heatwave began

day four : in which we had exercise and pie

day five : in which we procrastinate with organization

day six : in which we make few words, but it's because we're a senior.

day seven : in which we admit failure, but learn the most important thing.


Also: some links to things I talked about, in case you want them.

ProWritingAid:
It's one of the best software-based editing programs you can find out there.  Run your stuff through it and it'll tell you, in exceedingly great detail, what you've done wrong and how you can fix it.  It won't replace a good developmental editor, but if your structure's pretty good, you can get away with just this for most things.  (But get an editor if you're iffy.  Please.  For the love of all readers, everywhere.)

How To Think Sideways Workshop by Holly Lisle:
This is the workshop I was working through this week.  It's HUGE.  I'm talking a year's worth, or more, of training from the ground up on everything from structuring a novel-length work, to getting your ideas into shape, to editing, to publishing info, to business training.  You walk away from this workshop a much better writer with a much clearer idea of how to get from idea --> book.  Some folks might balk at the price (around $500, I think), but it's worth every. single. cent.  (Ignore the 1998 web design, by the way.  Her designer sucks.  But her content is better than anything else I've ever found...books, workshops, in person classes, even.  This is better.)

Books I tried to read, but found I couldn't learn and write at the same time:

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Fred White
A really good book on idea generation.  I've read about half of it and, while I already kept a writer's notebook, I did get some good ideas on places from which to draw inspiration that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

Wild Women, Wild Voices
Judy Reeves
This is more inspirational/prompty than I thought it would be.  It separates the a woman's wild life into segments, and helps make sense of what they are and how you can express your own experiences with/within each.  The prompts are good, the writing is stellar.  And it does kind of make you want to howl at the moon a little, which is always a bonus.

The Writer's Idea Book
Jack Heffron
They say right on the cover that this is over 800 prompts for you, along with solid advice about making the writing world your own.  I got to about prompt four or five (which is to sit at your desk for 30 minutes every day to write.  If you don't write, fine, but you still have to sit there doing nothing else.), and implemented exactly that thing.  I love it, too, and think that that may be the only reason this book was in my life, because the rest of it is a little meta for me.  I don't want to write about writing.  I don't want to write about my process or how I do this or that or what motivates me.  I do that here, on this blog.  (To be fair, I think it changes as you get into it further, but I decided to stop learning about writing and just write instead and haven't gone back to the book yet.  But that one prompt gives me hope.)

Next writing week's in four weeks! :)