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How many is too many?
WIPs (Work in Progress) progress faster if you mainly focus on one at a time. Of course, sometimes it’s not possible. Maybe you’re really stuck and need to get your head out of it for a while. Maybe (like me) you get so engrossed you absolutely need to switch gears for a little while to…
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I’m done. Now what?
I finished my first draft. It still needs work, so what comes next? Novel writing is a lot of work, and by the end for me it becomes all-consuming; pushing everything else out of the picture because I can’t focus on anything else. Now that I’m done with this draft, I feel spent, as well…
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Writing every day isn’t always possible
Why do I write every day? Well, it’s complicated. I personally prefer to, but lately life has been stressful, so I’ve been taking more mental health days than I usually do. Today all I managed was a couple lines in one document and two paragraphs apiece in two others. I got a few ideas started…
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Coping Skills are Fundamental
A small reason why I write is therapy. Not that I intended to do that, at least not at first. For a while in the middle, and even occasionally today, it can help me process some of my own difficult feelings. But the reality is writing can only do so much. At the end of…
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3 AM
Three AM and I are unfortunate friends. For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled to sleep well. Even as a baby sleep eluded me, and it’s only gotten easier as I’ve gotten older. Three AM is said to be the time of artists and dreamers, but with it comes a few demons as well. I’m never up at three AM because I want to be, after…
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Mental Illness and Me, part 2
Over the last twenty years I’ve been diagnosed with most everything under the sun at some point. For most of that time the only thing doctors could agree on was that I’m bipolar. I mean, it’s kind of obvious when the first antidepressant I tried right off the bat made me manic for a month.…
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Schedules and How They Work for Me
9:00 am: Wake up, make coffee for breakfast 9:05 am-10:00 am: Pet Skye, put Skye down, try to get words done, rinse repeat 10:01-10:20: write 10:21-11: pet and wrangle Beerus (much like Skye) 11:00 am-1:00 pm: words Lunch Afternoon reading or school stuff or time for other projects Dinner Television (currently Star Trek Deep Space 9) School maybe, other projects maybe More words …
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Outlines, yay or nay?
Do I use outlines? Certainly. But I’m relatively new to them. I finished my first book without one, which is probably part of why it took eight years to finish. And it still needs work, being a first novel and all, so it’s currently shelved while I work on other projects. For my second one,…
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Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder
I suppose it’s natural for a fantasy author to be into table top role playing games. I mean, it’s an interactive story. The Game Master is sort of the narrator, and the players the characters, right? And I’ve been playing a not insignificant amount of time. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons when Second Edition…
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Notebooks
I love notebooks, as well as pens. I love the tactile sensation of the pen gliding over paper, of the little scratch as I make my mark on the pages. I love the smell of the paper and the hint of ink, and it always brings a smile to my face when I finish with…