Writing Our Stories

Broken Heart (Photo credit: Gabriela Camerotti)

If you’ve read through some of my previous posts, you’ve probably noticed I have a leaning towards personal types of writing.  I love essays, journaling, and memoirs.  Our lives are stories and everyone has a story to tell.  My life is so overflowing that right now this is where my heart can find release to pour things out.  I have to write it down.

As with any form of writing you choose to partake, it’s said one of the best steps to do is read the form of writing you want to write.  I’ve been working on a memoir, so I’ve been reading memoirs.  Two memoirs I really enjoyed reading were Falling Apart in One Piece by Stacy Morrison and Eat, Pray, and Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  The memoir I’m currently reading is The Victoria’s Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming by Jennie Nash.  It is about her journey through breast cancer, which my step mother is currently having to face.

I’ll read anything if it strikes me right, but I tend to read memoirs written by women about their lives.  Either the book’s description or a brief flip through has to catch my eye with something I can relate to on some level.  I do have the book On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King on my wish list to read.  I love reading about writers’ lives.  Another memoir I have read was Literary Life by Larry McMurtry.  Unfortunately, it did not top my list for enjoyable memoirs.  It seemed to have a bit much pomp and a little too over factual for my tastes, but that’s just me.

One of my absolute favorite bloggers is Kat Collins.  She has a wealth of writing information and resource links on her blog.  She is also doing something I had never heard of before, but is an interesting idea.  She is blogging a memoir book she is writing :  The Good Wife.  She has some guest blogs on the topic of blogging a book at her Kat Collins blog, then you can go to the other blog to read her book thus far.

If you’ve ever been hesitant to write, maybe you’ll decide the truth is easier than fiction.  I’ve found my life is so unreal at times it seems, it’s just easier to write about it than try to make things up.  You can start small.  Start keeping a journal about your life or choose to write one story or blog post till you have enough for a book.  Two good organizations to learn more about writing memoirs are National Association of Memoir Writers and Story Circle Network.  Happy writing…

P.S. – I forgot another memoir I recently finished and thought was well written was If I Am Missing or Dead by Janine Latus.  Warning is it’s sad and a tragic story of abuse.  It’s a story I think many women need to read.

Related articles

• How Real Can I Be? (storycirclenetwork.wordpress.com)
• While I was writing… (sherrylcook.wordpress.com)
• It’s About Time Someone Breathed New Life into Writing Memoir – Award-Winning Author Lynn Cook Henriksen Tells How She Did it in Recent Interview with Judith Marshall (prweb.com)

Backing Up

If you are a writer, I cannot say enough about backing up your work. Back up, back up, back up, and have a back up for your back up.  Ok, I guess that’s enough back ups.  I’ve been having computer troubles which have thrown me in a near panic.  Luckily or unluckily as the case may be, I have no deadlines for my writing at least.

I just do not relish the thought of all the work I have put into my writing to just evaporate into nothingness.  I have many of the things I’ve written in actual notebooks, but a lot of my writing was stored on my computer.  A limited amount of my computer writing was stored on one of those flash drives that insert in the USB ports, but not everything.  Another note on this subject shortly!

Fortunately my daughter’s boyfriend is a bit tech savvy and was able to restore my lap top computer to working order again.  He was nice enough to also get the antivirus program on it as well.  My computer once again works, better than ever, but he had to wipe it clean.

Some of my writing was on the flash drive, but the next time I went to pull something up on the computer, a message told me the device had malfunctioned.  What?!!!  I thought those were supposed to be safe as back ups, then my daughter tells me she has had one mess up once that she used for music.

Flash drives may be good for portability so you can easily pull your writing up on another computer, but I don’t personally now consider them a good way to back up your writing.  I know there are online cloud places you can store writing, but I don’t have much experience with those.

After I finally could think clearly, I remembered we had had Carbonite.  It was a program my husband wanted on the computer to back up our files online and to think I had complained about spending the money.  I now love it!  It helped me be able to get back my beloved pictures and writing.

Carbonite will do a complete restore of files or you can go into the backup files to pick and choose what you would like restored.  I did the pick and choose option as there was a lot of junk I didn’t need back on the computer.  I’m not very tech savvy, yet it was easy to figure out once I logged onto the website.

* Side note on writing progress-  I have been on a writing roll the past two days and eagerly working away on my memoir.  I have several books in various stages of progress but it is my main WIP.  I am so excited that I’ve written a little over 3,000 words since yesterday and it now has a grand total of 20,404 words.  Hooray!!!  And just in case you happen to be one of those people who word counts makes crazy, no I’m not obsessed about the word count.  It will be done when the story is done.

Related articles

• Dropbox for Writers (rantravewrite.com)
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Weeding Through Freelance Writing Resources

MSI laptop computer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m still working on one day being able to earn more money through my writing, but it hasn’t happened yet.  I’m not giving up and it is a work in progress, but at least I’m learning along the way and I’m enjoying writing.  This week my plan is to go at submitting some more of my work with renewed vigor as well as continue working on my memoir.

I thought I’d share some of my experiences so far with certain freelance writing resources.  Time is valuable and I like to make the most of it.  I spend enough time keeping up with email and social media(facebook and pinterest), so I don’t want to spend more of my valuable time uselessly searching for freelance jobs in difficult to find places.  I’d rather spend my time writing.

Please keep in mind these are just my opinions based on my personal experiences.  Without further adieu,here are the lists :

Favorites

• Yahoo! Contributor Network – This is one of the first places I started submitting my writing to and is still one of my favorites.  You can choose assignments from the site, but I’ve had more success writing about my own topics.  I’ve earned between $3 to a little over $4 per article.
• www.newpages.com – I love this site.  It has listings for literary magagzines, calls for submissions, and writing contests.
• www.freelancewritinggigs.com – I check this site every weekday.  It has listings for freelance writing and blogging jobs.  I like the fact that if it’s available, it will have listed beside the job if can telecommute.
• www.pw.org – Much information is available on the website, however, I receive Poets & Writers magazine monthly on my kindle.  It’s very affordable at only $1.25 per monthly issue.  It has helpful articles, calls for manuscripts, writing contests, and more.
• www.fundsforwriters.com – I receive two of the free newsletters, Funds for Writers and FFA Small Markets, weekly in my email box.  The newsletters have articles, paying markets, and contest information.
• www.writersweekly.com – I receive this weekly free newsletter on Wednesdays in my email box.  This newsletter has articles, paying markets, and freelance job listings.

Not Worth My Time

• www.freelancer.com – I signed up and created a profile.  This site has a 30 day free trial and afterwards it is $4.95 per month.  I canceled before my trial period was up.
• www.craigslist.com – I’ve used this site to successfully find furniture and farm animals in my area, but have not had any luck finding writing jobs.  Some of the other freelance resources above already list freelance jobs found on craigslist, so it’s also a case of why duplicate work.
• www.textbroker.com – I found a suggestion for this site in an eBook a freelancer wrote, but have been sorely disappointed.  It took a bit of doing to get started with the site including submitting a copy of my driver’s license.  I’ve also been checking the jobs daily and have found nothing of interest in the writing assignments.  Most of the available topics would bore me out of my skull and I’d rather take my chances elsewhere.

Related articles

• Freelance Writing: Should You Specialize? (freelancewritingadventuresblog.wordpress.com)
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Celebration and Inspiration…

I’m back, but I have spent the past couple of days celebrating my daughter Selena’s 18th birthday!  We took a trip to Atlantic Beach in North Carolina.  It’s our favorite beach.  I’d like to share a few photos and maybe you’ll find some writing inspiration…Enjoy! -

Daughter Selena feeding the seagulls…

Lovely Ocean View

Ocean Waves

Lots of shells on the beach…

 

Journaling and Other Writing Pursuits

As I’ve shared before, I’m an avid reader.  This evening, I just finished the book Note to Self : On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Samara O’Shea.  Absolutely loved it!  The author is blatantly honest and the book is written like she’s conversing with a close friend, the reader, as she shares many of her own intimate journal entries.  There are numerous sample journal entries throughout the book, including several historic examples as far back in time as 1665.  I was delighted to learn the famous author Louisa May Alcott journaled throughout her life.

Journals can be an excellent way to closer examine our lives.  The author makes suggestions for some topics you may want to write about in a journal.  Journaling could be as simple as recording your daily activities, documenting a dream, or even divulging inner thoughts you would never say aloud.  No matter what you choose to journal about, I do agree with the author’s sentiment that one of the most important people we should be honest with are ourselves.

My writing progress as of late has been a little slow on the end of writing which may bring in financial benefits, but I’ve been writing.  Journaling has by far been my favorite means of writing as of late, since there are some things in my life I’ve been working through.  I’ve actually looked forward to journaling and sought out my journal more often since I gave myself freedom to write in it as I want rather than a required daily entry.

* Enough about journaling, now a little side note about my other writing escapades.  To borrow a phrase from my teen daughter, Camp Nanowrimo was an “Epic Fail” for me and I did not accomplish the goal.  On the positive side, it did inspire me to attempt writing fiction and I wrote a whopping 6,127 words thus far on my novel for the month of June.  Not bad, considering I was devoting a lot of time to several other projects, including gardening.  I will hopefully finish writing it one day, as I am interested in the story. If you’d like to try it, there is another camp coming up in August.  Besides my novel, I’ve also continued writing poetry and worked on adding to the memoir I’m writing.

Related articles

• Louisa May Alcott (milesbeyondthemoon.typepad.com)
• What Else Do I Write in My Journal? (quinncreative.wordpress.com)
• Does Writing A Journal Help You Write a Novel? (kristinastanley.net)

Never Stop Writing

“Rejection”, the dreaded word for many writers.  Simply put, whatever the piece of writing, it is not wanted by whomever it was sent to for publication.  It could be for any reason from poorly written to not right for this publication at this time.  I’ve been fortunate and so far only received nicely worded rejection letters.  I have read some writers have, at times, received much less than kind rejection letters.  Rejection is part of being a writer.  At least if I’m being rejected, it means I’m trying and trying takes a certain amount of courage.

I like to think I’m not too thin skinned.  I don’t go running for the covers and crying upon receiving a rejection letter.  I don’t stop writing.  I don’t stop trying to submit my writing, but I do find I slow down.  Maybe I shouldn’t, but it’s like I find myself wanting to know that at least one thing I have written and sent out into the world will be accepted before I continue sending more forth.  So far I have received 6 rejections and still have 8 pieces of my writing I’m waiting to hear back on.

Sometimes it’s funny how many coincidences happen on days I’m thinking about something.  Yesterday was just a down day.  I needed a little encouragement and motivation.  While reading my email, I just happened onto a couple of things that encouraged me as a writer.  I thought I’d share them with you just encase you need to add to your supply of motivation.  (Much lower calorie way to do it than the dark chocolate bundt cake with dark chocolate icing I made yesterday afternoon, but boy was it tasty.)

One was a post by a freelance writer named Connor Rickett I read yesterday.  He shared a story of how one of his short stories was rejected, but it led to him getting a paid assignment.  Goes to show sometimes rejection can lead to good things.  In the same blog post he also shares a video of another writer, Neil Gaiman, giving an encouraging commencement address to a group of students.  Mr. Gaiman shared about his aspirations of being a writer and striving towards your dreams.  All of this can be found on Connor’s blog – Cities of the Mind.

The other bit of writing encouragement I ran across was on BubbleCow.  It was a post titled Famous Writers Who Were Rejected Before Making It Big.  It contained a list of 11 famous authors who faced rejection.  Yes, the failures of others does make me feel better.  It reassures me that many writers whose works are quite well known today faced rejection, often in record numbers of rejection slips, before their book or other piece of writing was accepted.  This knowledge helps me to continue to try, even in the face of rejection.

Life continues on.  I keep striving to improve my writing and learn more about the craft of writing.  Yesterday also made me think of the song Tomorrow, which Little Orphan Annie sang in the movie.  I like the hopeful part of the song, “The sun’ll come out tomorrow…”  I’ll keep hoping and not give up.  I can’t.  I’ve found I like writing too much.  If you’re a writer at heart, no matter if you’ve had something published or not, never stop writing.

 

Taking Chances

Poem based on Monday Melting prompt (week 20) from Rosemary Mint blog :

Lines of character upon her face
Feminine flair with ribbons and lace
Warrior spirit out of hiding
No longer silently residing
Hungry for a chance to live life
Conquering sorrows and denying strife
Willing to risk for just one chance
Tasting sweet love, a true romance

Camp NaNoWrimo . . . Novel Writing!

Life has been busy, so I’ve not had as much time to blog as I would like.  Holding my breath and thinking things are slowing down.  At least the dust appears to be settling.  Still waiting to hear back on submissions I have sent out into the world.  Still managing to continue to journal and actually enjoying it since I’ve freed myself of thinking I must do it every single day.  And of course, of course, I am reading!

As if I don’t have enough to do, I’ve decided to try Camp NaNoWriMo.  I’m in a cabin, have settled in, and attempting to write my first fiction novel.  Only have a little over 2,300 words so far, but it’s early in the month.  I’m normally a non-fiction and poetry type gal, but thought it would be fun to give fiction a try.  You never know if you like something, unless you try.

Camp NaNoWrimo

This is the first time I’ve ever tried anything NaNoWriMo.  The big month is in November, but I’ll see how this goes first.  I didn’t even know what NaNoWriMo stood for until a few months ago.  In case you are as clueless as I was, it stands for National Novel Writing Month.  The goal is to begin something new, not an old project, and write at least 50,000 words.

The novel I am working on is a romance fantasy novel.  I thought it would be good for my first attempt as much of the advice I’ve read about writing novels is to write the type of novel you enjoy reading.  I love to read historical romance, but am not too good at history, hence the fantasy.

I got in a creative spurt yesterday and even had a little fun!  Yes, the kind of creative fun you can remember from art class in school.  Using markers and crayons, I created a map of the kingdom and surrounding areas the companions in my novel will be traveling through as they embark upon their quest.  Now I have an inspiring poster to kind of help keep me on track.

Hopefully this week will be calmer and productive.  It can be both can’t it?  I’ll hope so anyway.  Happy writing…

Related articles

• Camp Nano, day 1 (run4joy59.wordpress.com)
• National Novel Writing Month (opinionatedduck.wordpress.com)
• Camp NaNoWriMo Day 1 (resurrectedwriter.wordpress.com)
• Camp NaNo START! (hecticnovember.wordpress.com)

Poem from Midweek Melting Prompt

Here’s a poem I made using words from the Midweek Melting prompt at the Rosemary Mint blog :

Old Barn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No More Tomorrows

Far away in the remote hills
Solitary decaying old barn
The door echoed its creak
The only sound to be heard

Full extent of sorrow known
Soon she would find release
Climbed up into the hay loft
Wishing for an eternal sleep

Tied to rough hewn timber
Means to end tomorrows
Never to need remember
Put away all the sorrows

Moved braid of hair aside
Rough knot against her nape
Slowly off slipped her feet
She had made her escape

Poem from Melting Monday Prompt

This is a poem I wanted to share, which I created using words from the Monday Melting poetry prompt on the Rosemary Mint blog.  There are several unique images there as well to use for inspiration.  I loved the butterflies this week.  Go on over and get inspired.  Use your creativity to make a poem.

English: Photograph of a Monarch Butterfly. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fluttering Free

Vulnerable and scared
Folded into my self
Cocooned in safety
I morph into a stronger me
Making my pleas coherent
Saying, “No more of this”
Break free from fear
Flutter into living life
Flutter into being me