NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month

Hi all!

    Again I apologize for my absence but that little thing called life keeps getting in my way. Like the fact that our incredibly full house is being re-carpeted, painted outside, getting a new garage door, and a few other things. Timing couldn't be WORSE, the hubby's job is giving him grief for some personal illness issues, my work comp issue is flaring and I'm playing a game of hurry up and wait with the company and lawyers. But the timing though isn't ours to call - ah the joys of renting. But I can tell you that I am working on 20 new articles as I attempt to accomplish some of my personal goals. And speaking of personal goals, this month is National Novel Writing Month - 30 days, 50,000 words; sponsored by NaNoWriMo Organization. Which I have participated in (officially or non-officially for the last 6 years) and I will be participating again this year.

Away a Spell

    My dear readers, I do not wish you to think that I have forgotten this blog or you. I just have been otherwise 'employed.' Over the last few weeks I have  been doing a bit of print and web design for a friend's start-up business while doing research and working on my timeline.

    The timeline itself has taken a lot of work to find a viable solution - the trials of which I have been putting into an article I hope to have published soon. There are so many ways of doing what you want and need in this day that extensive exploration becomes necessity. My hope as always that in cataloging my explorations that I will help save you some of the time that I've spent and help speed along your process.

    Through my dabbling with the design work I have been downloading new programs that are part of the Adobe Cloud service that my husband and I have, and I found a program that has little to do with art design in these resources. I will be exploring this new piece of software in a upcoming post, as soon as I'm done familiarizing myself with it.

    With that I must get back to these projects.

Base Repository Complete; the Crossroads - and Projects Update

Accomplished - Since 07/04/12

• Base Repository Completed

Well it's not as clean as I wanted it to be but it is done. I was down to my last two story series files, the corner stones if you will of the master series - yes I'm one of those sick David-Eddings-type people who not only writes within a "universe" but series within series, sometimes within series - and I realized that to whittle down those files any further it would mean me starting the writing process. So here I am standing on the threshold of where I've wanted to be for the last 4 years. I have so many directions I can go now. Where do I go now?

Projects - Accomplishments and Goals 06.13.12

Accomplished - Since 06/08/12

• Setup Starter Base Repository

Goals - 06/13/12


This next phase is where the true editor will kick in and will take some fair piece of time. When my laptop had that mishap in the hands of the Best Buy Geek Squad I was in the process of setting up files in for a base repository, so essentially I'm finally back to where I was 2 years ago when this started. Well, truth be told I'm a little farther ahead since I've actually achieved Base Repository. "What is the purpose of having a base repository?" you may ask. I wanted to set up a base repository because some of my stories I have been working on for over a decade, and with so many changes to the underlying plot I want to make sure not to back track story concepts that have already landed me at dead ends. Also if there are concepts that I've cut that might now work I'd like to resurrect them if they're good. Lord knows that there have been plenty of things I've cut that I didn't want to but did because it didn't gel with the current plot line, so we'll see if there's anything to salvage.

• Working on Base Repository
• Looking into types of Visual Version Control for file naming

Projects - Progress and Goals 06.08.12

Accomplished - Since 05/12/12

• Setting up files for Base Repository
• Posts:
• Back It Up! Part Two - a tale of almost woe.
• The Birth of a Book - Blog post share
• The wand which weaves; My Favorite Pen
• Started learning Git

Goals - 06/08/12

• Setting up Base Repository
• Looking into Visual Version Control

The wand which weaves; My Favorite Pen

"Art thou a pen, Whose task shall be

To drown in ink What writer's think?

Oh, wisely write, That pages white

Be not the worse for ink and thee."

~ Ethel Lynn Beers~

    For centuries writers have put pen to paper - or parchment - weaving their "webs of words" to enchant their audiences. I cannot speak for anyone else, but every once-in-a-while I have to get away from the computers, the tablets, the phones and put pen to paper; to let the ink flow. When it's easier to paint pictures with words with the feel of my favorite "brush" in hand whispering softly across my writer's canvas instead of the clack-clack of the keys beneath my fingertips. There is something about the journey an idea takes from knocking around in my head, down my arm and into my fingertips - whether the words flow in a gentle cursive or burst forth in a flurry of print and shorthand - and in that moment an idea can become a tangible thing. It is at those times that I find myself so completely immersed in the experience that the words and pages disappear. Almost as if the pen cradled between my fingers were but a vessel for an entity entirely of its own, the story reveals itself. I treasure those moments.

    Throughout time there has been much praise and homage paid to the virtues of the pen. One of the most familiar quotes being "The Pen is mightier than the Sword" coined around the year 1839, by English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The quote comes from Act II, Scene II of his play Richelieu (liberally based on Cardinal Richelieu);

"True, This - Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanter's wand! - itself a nothing! -
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Ceasars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! - Take away the sword -
States can be saved without it."

Famous playwrite William Shakespeare wrote in a similar vein in reference to the tool of the scribe in Act II, Scene II of his classic tragedy Hamlet:

"... many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequils."

But it is not only classic writers who have commented on the worthiness of the hand written word and it's instrument. Even in these modern times Irish author and journalist, Clare Boylan, noted this:

"Some writers have a personal love affair with particular pens. Others do not give a blot what comes to hand so long as it is stick-shaped, silent, and able to make its mark. I was surprised to discover about 70 percent of writers still write full manuscripts by hand." - Clare Boylan

And it is in the spirit of this assertion that we continue on. Now, I happen to be one of those former writers that Clare Boylan mentions, and over the years my writing tool has changed. In this article I'm going to cover several tools that I have used over the years and why. Maybe it will help you find a favorite writing utensil, or maybe it will simply entertain you that a writer can be surprisingly neurotic about something so seemingly trivial.

The Birth of a Book - Blog post share

    I was doing some reading online and found this; Birth of a Book. I thought it was worth sharing and rather funny. Funny but true. Don't get discouraged, just know that it can be a tough road ahead getting from idea to finished product.