I’ll be speaking this upcoming Wednesday afternoon at the Tyler Public Library’s Open Door Writing Group. We meet on the 3rd floor of the Tyler Public Library in the Makerspace from 1-3pm. I’ve been asked to talk about “Forms in Poetry” again and I’ve been practicing writing some different forms so I’ll have some contemporary examples for you! I know it’s the day before Thanksgiving, but we’re home this year for it, so I’m taking a chance on others being as excited about poetry as I am. 🙂 Hope some of y’all can make it! 🙂
Category: Writing
In October, I wrote 3840 words, which is so little that I could cry. But I was busy! More about that later. Of those words,
- 320 were for this blog (2 short posts),
- 667 were for my journal,
- 0 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (I reused an old one for the Open Door Writing Group),
- 1204 were on various social media accounts,
- 1652 were poetry (9 poems),
- and 376 were in short stories (1 piece of flash fiction).
There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything. I spent 10 days on vacation, traveling to, then staying in North Carolina, and driving home. I used every morning as a little writer’s retreat and wrote a lot while I was there. I’m still having trouble with my shoulders, so I spent several days either at the doctor, at the physical therapist’s office, or off getting X-rays and a couple of MRIs. I do have an essay that I found out about an anthology for on the last day of October that I’m going to start writing this week (but that counts for November). I still didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.
As for reading, I read parts of:
- Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery – I’m having trouble getting this book again through Libby, hence taking a break from it)
- The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (audiobook; historical romance)
- Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy)
- The Man with Two Left Feet (e-book; I’m not sure the genre)
…and I finished reading:
- The Honey Witch by Sydney Shields (trade paperback; cozy fantasy)
So I have finished 49 books so far this year (and read parts of another 18, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).
I’ll be speaking this upcoming Wednesday afternoon at the Tyler Public Library’s Open Door Writing Group on “How to Test if a Story Idea is a Good One”. We meet on the 3rd floor of the Tyler Public Library in the Makerspace from 1-3pm. Hope some of y’all can make it! 🙂
As requested by one of our lovely writers, I’ll be talking about “White Space and Line Breaks” at the Open Door Writing Group this Wednesday from 1-3pm at the Tyler Public Library in the 3rd floor Makerspace. Looking forward to seeing y’all then! #writingcommunity #writinglesson #poetry #whitespace #linebreaks
In August, I wrote only 3811 words. I was sick the first half of the month and then moving kids from house to house and editing the second half (so technically I lost a bunch of words off my novel, but we’re not counting those as a negative number of words those days). Of those words,
- 206 were for this blog (2 short posts),
- 0 were for my journal (which I cannot find my paper journal, so that might not be true),
- 1612 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
- 1042 were on various social media accounts,
- 217 were poetry (2 poems),
- and 734 were in short stories (4 pieces of flash fiction).
There were 17 days that I didn’t write anything. Mostly I spent the month either ill (the flu, bronchitis, and a sinus infection, oh my!), moving one kid over a room in the house he’s in so another of my children could move into his old room (and helping that second child as well – child #2 in this scenario was far easier to move) or trying to edit my novel Caro’s Quest down to a reasonable number of words so I can turn it into the editor (today, I hope!). Also, life was still too chaotic, so I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.
As for reading, once again, I didn’t leave any books unread, but I finished reading a ridiculous number of short e-books, all by Martha Wells (the first published author that ever gave me advice – she worked in IT at Ocean Drilling Program at the same time I was a student worker in the publishing department – she was so nice about it when my boss sat me down at her table at lunch one day):
- All Systems Red
- Compulsory
- Artificial Conditions
- Rogue Protocol
- Obsolescence
- Exit Strategy
- Home
- Fugitive Telemetry
- Rapport
- Network Effect
That brings me up to 42 books finished this year and 13 partially read (that number went down because I finished two partially read books). 🙂
As requested by one of our lovely writers, I’ll be talking about writing for contests at the Open Door Writing Group this Wednesday from 1-3pm at the Tyler Public Library in the 3rd floor Makerspace. Looking forward to seeing y’all then! #writingcommunity #writinglesson #writingforcontests
I’ll be speaking this upcoming Wednesday afternoon at the Tyler Public Library’s Open Door Writing Group. We meet on the 3rd floor of the Tyler Public Library in the Makerspace from 1-3pm. I’ll be speaking about what I learned at the Poetry Society of Texas’ Annual Conference. Hope some of y’all can make it! 🙂
In June, I wrote 6604 words, which wasn’t that great, but I’m pretty sure I was burnt out most of the month after all the graduation nonsense. Of those words,
- 320 were for this blog (2 short posts),
- 1258 were for my journal,
- 2854 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for East Texas Writers Guild and one for the Open Door Writing Group and one for the Tyler Public Library’s Try It Tuesday Class),
- 1033 were on various social media accounts,
- 35 were poetry (1 measly poem after last month’s record *sigh*),
- and 1104 were in short stories (5 pieces of flash fiction).
There were only 8 days that I didn’t write anything, so it seems like my count should be higher for all that. I don’t know – I guess my brain was only thinking in super short form this month.
As for reading, I read parts of:
- A Fire at the Exhibition by T. E. Kinsey (audiobook; mystery)
…and I finished reading:
- Jack Glass by Adam Roberts (hardcover; science fiction – do NOT recommend unless you like unexpectedly gory books)
- The Ghost of Marlowe House by Bobbi Holmes (audiobook; paranormal mystery)
So I have finished 29 books so far this year (and read parts of another 14, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).
This Wednesday from 1-3pm in the 3rd floor Makerspace at the Tyler Public Library, I will present my lesson on “Writing Villains”. Hope to see you there!
As requested by one of our lovely writers, I’ll be talking about creating realistic villains at the Open Door Writing Group this Wednesday from 1-3pm at the Tyler Public Library in the 3rd floor Makerspace. Looking forward to seeing y’all then! #writingcommunity #writinglesson #writingforcontests
Lisa Holcomb 