Category: Writing

My Weekly Update – Reflections on Campnano

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle12 Comments

Well another writing challenge done and another win.  Yea me.  Not an enthusiastic win, but a win, nonetheless.  It was not as easy or as successful content wise as June.  But, again, I won.  I have to keep reminding myself there are more words on the page today then there was 30 days ago.

I learned a few things about myself as a writer during this challenge.  I learned I can write even when I’m not 100% certain whether the story will work, not 100% certain that the story even makes sense and not 100% certain there is enough content to even be a story.  Those concerns were rolling around in my head all month and still I won.

I missed not having the daily connection and support from other challenge participants during the process.  I just felt more connected to other writers during Junowrimo.  You could always go online and find a sprint to participate in.  It wasn’t as easy to nail down writing groups this month.  I also enjoyed getting to know the other participants during June.  My cabin mates were not the most talkative people.  I guess they were busying writing.

But, I now except the fact my mind seems to like deadlines.  And, the 50K in one month challenge is still the best opportunity to get a novel written in one month for me.  Now I am looking forward to finishing this story in September and on to the next one in November.

I have to admit, after November, I hope no one creates another monthly writing challenge.  I think I will need a break until Junowrimo starts next summer.

Here is a small excerpt from my 2nd novel.  Enjoy, because that’s all you are going to get:

“Be careful getting up.” When the blood rushed back to the rest of my body and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to pass out  I walked over to the mirror. I couldn’t speak. And, I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.  It was beautiful. I looked beautiful.
“I look fucking hot.” The shop started howling. I turned to Thomas. “What do you think?”
“Wait, what the hell are you asking him for?” Sebastian said.  He looked defeated, like I kissed his best friend.
“You don’t like girls with tattoos.” Bass scrunched up his face and shook his head.
Two of the shop guys high fived, laughed and pointed at me. “She’s got you down, Bass.”
“Shut up,” Bass said and walked over to me. “Who told you I don’t like girls with tattoos?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.” I was enjoying myself. “Ok, what do you think?”
Bass was standing to close behind me. To close for someone who I just meet and I realized I was standing in the middle of shop with no shirt on and my bikini top tapped on.  “This tattoo was made for you.  You look beautiful.”  We held each others stare in the mirror to long for two people who really didn’t know each other.  But, I wasn’t going to look away first.

Post to Watch

Ironic because two posts that caught my attention this week were on people watching.  It is one of my favorite past times.  When I move to a new city, I always scope out the best locations to people watch.  It gives me such insight into characters, dialogue and even the nonverbal way people interact with each other.  Plus, I am a nosey person by nature.  You can learn a lot about people just by watching them.

Snotting Black is one of the first blogs I started to follow and last week she posted an interesting letter to the guy whose date she observed from a distance. Check out Notes I Took While Watching Your Date.

Carol Kilgore wrote an interesting guest post on My First Book blog about people watching, event watching and names that as a writer I found helpful.

My New Followers
I hit over 4,000 followers on twitter last week.  How cool is that?  Thank you to my tweeps and to my new followers; The Inner Wild Kat & E.K. Espinoza.
 
Next Weeks Schedule
Monday – Summer:  Fact or Fiction – Post #1
Wednesday – Summer:  Fact or Fiction – Post #2 & Insecure Writer’s Support Group
Friday – Summer: Fact or Fiction – Reveal Post
Sunday – My Weekly Update
*Tattoo Tuesday will return next week. 

Sydney Aaliyah is a Guest

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle10 Comments
I hijacked Arlee Bird’s blog; Tossing it Out 
Looking for Direction – Writing Careers
I figured that giving the opportunity to reach an audience considerable larger then my own, I would seek some advice on writing careers.  I have been researching careers in writing for some time now. And, all I need is something to tide me over until I become a famous author.  The choices are a little confusing or maybe I am lazy, but I can’t seem to find a job that quite suits me. You be the judge?
Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Dog Days of Summer Blog Fest – Ultimate Vacation

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle32 Comments

When I heard about this Blog Fest I had to join.  Thanks so much Jeremy Bates.  Great idea.  Since I haven’t had much of a summer and no hint of a summer holiday, I would like to at least hear about others enjoying their summer.  Click on the badge to read other summer inspired posts.

Along with living vicariously though my fellow blog hoppers, I wanted to share with you my Ultimate Vacation.

I have a long bucket list of places I would like to visit all over the world, but my Ultimate Vacation might surprise you.  I would like to drive across the United States.  I know it doesn’t have the history of Europe or the cultural diversity of of Asia, but I think it would be so much fun to visit different parts of America and see first hand the american culture in all it’s forms.  I have it mapped out already.

I would start in Maine in the springtime.  I picture a harbor in Maine with a lighthouse as the perfect place to start my cross country adventure.  Next stop would be New Hampshire to visit Dover established in 1623 (a long, long time ago) and Vermont to the Ben & Jerry’s factory.  All the ice cream I can eat.

Then, I would spend a few days in Boston (great city), then New York (greater city) and New Jersey (I have to get to Pennsylvania some how) and then proceed west.

Next, I would stop in Philadelphia.  Walnut Street is one of my favorite places to shop and I haven’t spent nearly enough time there.  After shopping, it would be nice to drop in on family and friends in Maryland, DC and Virginia.

I would make a quick drive through Kentucky to get to Chicago.  Chicago would be my food stop.  From the pizza to 3 restaurants that are on my bucket list, I would leave Chicago full.

I would head over to Wisconsin (cheese and white water rafting), then Minnesota (Mall of the Americas). While the weather is still good, I would spend some time in South Dakota.  I really want to see Mount Rushmore.  Montana would be fun, too.  It it’s not to cold, camping in Glacier National Park would be amazing.

I would drive straight through Wyoming to go skiing in Colorado, spend a week at a writer’s retreat in Taos, New Mexico, and then relax in a spa retreat up in the red mountains of Sedona, Arizona before driving to Vegas for some serious indulgence; food, shows and gambling.

I would proceed north, to Lake Tahoe for some golf and then proceed to Oregon to explore some of the ghost towns and then wind up in Seattle, Washington for what else, but coffee.

All in all this trip would take about a year.  But, just think of the things I would see, adventures I would have and the stories I would write.

That is my Ultimate Vacation. What is yours? 

My Weekly Update – Camp, Compliments and Candy

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle10 Comments

Camp NaNoWriMo

Four days in and I have to say that it is a lot more challenging then the last writing challenge I did.  Being on goal is about the only good thing I can say about the experience so far.  But . . .

It is still early and I still love the story.  I was happy to get some great advice about POV last week from my blog friends.  My concerns about writing from the male point of view were reduced by an admission from AM Schultz.

amschultzcom says: We have had lots of fine interactions on the Twitter and on the blogs, so I am going to share a little secret with you, but you can’t tell anybody else:“But, my biggest concern is that I have never writing a story from a man’s POV. What if my big strong, sensitive guy starts sounding like a girl?”When nobody is around, and our machismo is not on public display, ALL men sound like girls. :-)

For the rest of you doing Camp NaNoWriMo, how was your first few days? 

Compliments

I received one of the best compliments the other day and all because I RT’ed a post.

I am not brining this up to brag (although it is official, I am awesome), but to bring attention to what doing so little can mean to other writers and bloggers.

I will continue to support the blogging community to make myself worthy of writing along side great bloggers such as Paul at All Groan Up.

Candy 

I was in the Green Grocery yesterday and they had restocked.  Let me back up a little and explain.  I live at a resort 45 minutes away from a decent grocery story.  But, there is a little convenience store on the resort campus, which stocks it shelves once every 6 months.

I was pleasantly surprised that yesterday was a restock day.  That means, writing snacks for the week; Sour Skittles, Soda Water & Cheese Crackers.

What is your favorite writing snack?  

New Followers
Sundavanjava
club fang
Keith Addison at Sleepless in New Castle
Jillian Heath at 72 Original in Mint Condition
Writer’s Block 55
Lily Ennis
Nicolette Reed
 
 
Next Weeks Schedule
Tuesday – Tattoo Tuesday
Wednesday – Sydney Aaliyah Quotes the Movies
Friday – The Dog Days of Summer Blogfest 
Sunday – My Weekly Update
 
 
 Special Shout Out to my big brother.  It was his birthday yesterday.  He put his life online years before I had the nerve to.  Thanks so much for the inspiration.  

Insecure about POV

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle38 Comments

How appropriate that the August installment of Insecure Writer’s Support Group would fall on the first day of Campnano.  In my case, there are going to be a lot of insecurities that will be exposed or resolved based on this months writing activity.

I have been reading and researching a lot on POV lately.  My Campnano project is about two characters and I tell the story from both of their point of views; switching back and forth between the two through out the story.  I have a good outline and a good game plan, but what is missing is why these two POV’s should be in the same story.  I feel they shouldknown not sure how to show that in the story just yEt. And, I am a bit concerned about how to distinguish from one point of view to the other.

But, my biggest concern is that I have never writing a story from a man’s POV.  What if my big strong, sensitive guy starts sounding like a girl?  That can’t happen or it will throw the whole story off.

Even though I am a planner and I have a plan, this is probably one of the few times in my life that I know I won’t stick to the plan and it is a little scary and exciting at the same time.

I guess from my fellow support group members, all I need this month is a big rousing “You can do it.”

Then I am good until next month.

Anymore POV concerns I need to be aware of before I dive into this project head first?