Blog Planning

I started working on a strategy for my new blog today. Evidently, I should have done that with this one. Glad the 50 or so of you haven’t been holding that against me. The hardest part right now is narrowing my focus, from “food” down to something specific enough to write about. I’m in no danger of running out of material no matter what I pick, but I’m still tempted to keep my options open… to the tune of maybe three related subjects.

Meanwhile, I got another blog idea that’s new and shiny! And probably harder, but in the exhilarating kind of way. I might as well spend a couple hours on that, planning topics and mapping structure and finding a place for it on my calendar. If it’s not all sparkly after a couple weeks, I’ll have a nice template for something else.

My student’s lightning strike is now a short story, and I have one of my own to review, too. By “review” I mean “rewrite entirely.” Standard procedure. It’s never as wonderful in Draft One as it is by Draft Three. Or Seven.

I’m still pretty happy with all this. I’m blogging, teaching on a small scale, writing, and I’m organized.

This is awesome.

Writing Bug Makes Nest

I’d like to say that I haven’t been afraid of The Blank Page all week, but that’d be a lie. My desire to write has outweighed my reluctance to write, by a lot. I’m so happy to come to this with a will, instead of with images of cruel overlords, who look like me, whipping me towards the keyboard.

Now I’m wondering: is this a visiting Muse? Is she staying? Does she like cookies? I can make cookies if she’ll stay.

Or can I give myself credit for forced habit formation? Did all those weeks of making myself write x words bring my natural interest in writing back to life (after it died in a university business program and an accounting job)? Not that it ever quite died, it just got sick, and weak, and… punk.

Whatever it is, I’m happy. I am going through my day with an inner ear cocked for Whatever to tell me it’s time to write. Then I hear it! It won’t shut up until I listen and obey. I’m not sure why that corner of my mind is a better overlord than the one that makes goals and lists and organizes things… Maybe because it’s skipping around with cool ideas, and not brandishing a whip.

It feels permanent. I hope I’m sensing that correctly, and not via the Wishful Thinking portal.

Inspiration Storm

My area saw a huge thunderstorm last night. This morning I found an email in my inbox from my writing student: his next project got blown away by a new idea. I got an idea yesterday, too. I wrote a short story draft in the morning, then spent the rest of the day buried in wedding stuff. Then came the rain… and lightning! I told my student that there must have been inspiration blowing in ahead of the storm.

Fiction Returns

It’s been a while. Fiction has been creeping up on me for a week or so. I’ve had some material floating back and forth in my head, taking up space and attention and energy… I guess it just wasn’t going to go away unless I wrote it down.

Good.

Write when You’re Cranky

You know those times when you successfully bite your tongue on a whole lot of things you shouldn’t say? I won’t reveal what kind of record I have on that tally sheet, but I will say that when I do manage to not talk, I stay up that night as the repressed emotions radiate out of my body at the rate of 1/100 of a degree per minute.

There’s a shortcut out of this: journal writing.

Maybe I shouldn’t make and keep a running record of my worst moods, but if conflict is the core of fiction, then I have a great store of material that illuminates some awful, embarrassing, human reactions to what happens in life.

If this happens to you, I suggest the following: write down (and then password-protect) all the things you knew better than to say. After that, write down what you wished could have happened. Then maybe throw in some realism. Make grandiose plans. Admit limitations. Get depressed; write about that. Then stop.

Write when you’re cranky.

But write down the beautiful moments, too.

Fledgling Approaches World

My writing student is ready to submit one of his short stories for print publication for the first time. He’s investigating that process, giving his story one final edit, and asking questions about simultaneous submissions. It’s exciting! He’s written about half a dozen stories since I started working with him, and this one shows all of his strengths. He’s come so far!

I made sure to warn him that the rejection rate is high for new writers when we first discussed submitting his work to magazines. But I can’t help myself from getting drawn into the excitement. I know I shouldn’t be so hopeful, but I am!

Good luck, kid!

Recipe Weekend

For the record, it was actually my bridal shower, with many wonderful things besides recipes, but since this is a blog about writing, and because my next project is to write about food, Recipe Weekend is what I’ll call it.

On the awesome side, many of these recipes came with stories and/or traditions. It was just perfect.

Brainspace Approaching Limit

Lucidlunatic made a good point when he/she recommended I give my attention to just one project to improve progress on that project. Also, the wedding is about two months away, and I think I’m running out of space in my brain. Food always gets my attention, so I’ll focus on that. Also, the brothel story has a high weird factor, and while I’m usually good with that, now (with limited brainspace) I’m not up for dealing with it in a way that could make sense to a larger-than-me-sized audience.

Food wins.

Cake

I’m seeing an increased interest in cake all around… convergence is cool. I will make cake; I will write about cake.

If it were me, the cake would not be a lie.

Friends and Food

My fiance and I had a friend over for dinner tonight. We talked briefly about my next blog project: friends and food. He (the friend) has been a part of that happy situation for a while, and was fine with the idea of me putting some of those memories onto the blog. That’s good, because (per 279 Days) I’ve been making notes and jotting down recipes to use as backup content for the days or weeks when I can’t come up with anything fresh. When that happens here, you get a very short post, or I delay or skip a post. Not cool, and it won’t work any better in the future, especially if I want my new blog to be more professional.

Tiny little bits of incremental progress is all I’m making. It’ll have to do.