Very happy.
Did a sort of draft on the Scrivener corkboard of story ideas. I don't have an exact plan in mind, just sort of go where my characters insist I do. So this corkboard will certainly change - a lot!
I even managed to write 3 chapters.
It's Saturday and my knitting is calling so unless I have some brainwave on the book that I have to get written I'll just enjoy the weekend.
(BTW - I use Scrivener for my writing and only convert it to Word when I send to my publisher.)
In hell souls are trapped in a perpetual state of freefall. Write about one soul's realization that they can manipulate the laws of physics in this realm and their attempts to find a way to control their descent or ascend to a different plane.
Today in Writing History July 7, 1907: Robert Heinlein was born. Heinlein was a pioneer of “hard” science fiction, which emphasized scientific accuracy in science fiction stories. He was considered one of the big 3, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Some of his best-known works include “Starship Troopers,” “Stranger in a Strange Land,” and “The Moon is a Hard Mistress.”
I’ve been putting off writing more of my book for a while now, but have recently become more motivated to write it. I got on Atticus and wrote a few sentences today, but then my cat distracted me and I stopped.
How often do you work on your writing? Sentences a day, paragraph a day, section/chapters? Or a few times per week? What keeps you writing?
It’s a non-fiction book. If that makes a difference.
How often do you work on your writing? [Other questions on how much you write.]
I would advise to put in your mind that any writing you get done is good, and it is all excellent practice no matter how small.
The bad word is fail. Setting goals is good, but it is bad if it allows you to define what failing is for you. It has been pointed out to me numerous times until it mostly sticks that comparing oneself to what others do is searching for the definition of failure. Let's not do that.
Like all the other authors answering this thread have related, we all write except when we don't. It makes us a writer. Personally, when I am in a groove, I can write thousands of words. Then again, I also burnt-out for 14 years and wrote nothing during that time. I do write stuff for Mastodon more periodically than I am actually writing for sale or online publishing, but that's just seasonal. Sometimes the need to write is so intense, characters wake me up in the middle of the night and won't let me sleep.
I am #actuallyautistic, so I've had to learn what works for me, learn how to (in your parlance) lock the cat out of the room, and be okay with writing when the feeling hits me—willing to put the world on hold to do so. Keep focused on you and what you want to do, writing so it feels good and not writing when it doesn't. The rest you'll eventually figure out.
Adding a few more hashtags to see if others will read the original post and add their thoughts.
I’m learning to work [when to write] when I feel like it instead of forcing myself onto a set schedule.
Absolutely agreed! We need to figure out what works for us.
What you reported, and I quoted, I just learned to do for myself. Just in the last couple of years after decades writing. This is self-kindness, self-care, and self-confidence. That last part, self-confidence, is coming to the realization that one will write when the time is right, and it is okay not to fear when or if that will happen. I'm there now. Sounds like you are there also.
Late-Identified #AuDHD: A Starter Workbook is a workbook written and designed by me—a real person with late identified #autism and #ADHD. It is not meant to be diagnostic! It is meant for adults who are early in their self-discovery of what it means to be #autistic and have ADHD. #actuallyautistic#neurodivergent#author@Adhdinos
"A digital forensics machine was used to copy all the data found on old hard drives without interacting with it and so altering it. And a KryoFlux, a clever gadget developed by hobbyists, proved crucial to reading corrupted files on the floppy discs."
I'm trying to resist the temptation to knit for a few days - I need to get back to writing.
I haven't written since my cancer diagnosis except for the edits on the last book.
I'm now determine to write the 5th book in the series and have it to my publisher by the end of the year.
My tankies know that Ukraine cannot join NATO as it is a buffer state. This means important decisions on Ukraine must be taken by Moscow, as Prez’s book explains.
Today in Labor History July 4, 1883: Rube Goldberg, who worked hard to make simple things outrageously difficult, was born. He was a writer, engineer, sculptor and cartoonist. He won a Pulitzer for his political cartoons. Hired as an engineer to design San Francisco’s sewers in 1904, he quit after six months to become a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Today in Labor History July 4, 1832: John Neal delivered one of the first known public lectures in the US advocating for the rights of women, including suffrage and equal pay. Neal was a writer, abolitionist, advocate for racial and gender equality, and creator of the American gymnastics movement. He fought against the poll tax, arguing that both "the poor and the rich are taxed ... under the militia law" which was designed "to defend property of the rich man. The rich, of course, do not appear in the field. The poor do. The latter cannot afford to keep away; the former can." He proposed replacing the poll tax with a property tax. He also wrote that the Indian is the only true native American. (In those days, “Native American meant a white person born in America, as opposed to immigrants). He also wrote that American Indians "have never been the aggressors" in conflicts with European-Americans and that "no people, ancient or modern ... have been so deplorably oppressed, belied, and wronged, in every possible way." And he proposed legalizing interracial marriage, but for proto-eugenicist reasons: so that future generations of "the negroes of America would no longer be a separate, inferior class, without political power, without privilege, and without a share in the great commonwealth." As a writer, he is the first to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch in a work of fiction. Neal was also the first U.S. daily news columnist, its first art critic, author of the first history of American literature, and a pioneer in children’s stories.
My name's Paul Martin, but I generally go by the handle 'Ravanon' online. I'm a former researcher with a PhD in Informatics trying to transition into becoming a #author, wondering about my poor life decisions. I'm also a digital #artist, albeit I don't consider it my day job. Still, it's what I have mostly to show for myself, so I suppose here in the fediverse I'm an artist?
Today in Labor History July 3, 1883: Franz Kafka was born. He died at age 40, of tuberculosis, before any of his major works were published. He was born to a middle-class, German-Czech Jewish family, but declared himself an atheist by the time he was a teen. As a young man, he participated in the Klub mladých, a Czech anarchist, anti-militarist, and anti-clerical organization. Supposedly, he wore a red carnation to school to show his support for socialism. Much of his fiction explores themes of alienation, guilt and power, and is often characterized by protagonists faced with bizarre and often incomprehensible bureaucratic nightmares. His own life was filled with anxiety and self-doubt that provoked him to burn roughly 90% of his own manuscripts, and much of the 10% that survived was lost or never published. In his will, he instructed his friend, and fellow writer, Max Brod, to destroy his work. Brod ignored this request and helped get “The Trial,” “The Castle,” and “America” published.
As I use this account mainly to connect with other writers, and can’t find a local writing group here, I’m looking to move over to #writingexchange but it’s closed. Any recommendations for joining a supportive #writing group would be appreciated. #amwriting#writingcommunity#writers#author
Today in 2001, Mordecai Richler died.
One of Canada's most celebrated authors, two of his novels won the Booker Prize. He also won two Governor General's Awards.
In his life, he wrote 10 novels, one short story collection, children's books, essays & a book about Snooker.
Today in Labor History July 2, 1892: Carnegie Steel locked out workers at its Homestead, PA, plant. The lockout culminated in a major battle between strikers and Pinkerton security agents on July 6. Determined to keep the plant closed and inoperable by scabs, the strikers formed military units that patrolled the grounds around the plant, and the Monongahela River in boats, to prevent access by strikebreakers and their Pinkerton guards. On the night of July 5, Pinkertons, armed with Winchester rifles, attempted to cross the river. Reports conflict as to which side fired first, but a gun battle ensued. Both sides suffered numerous deaths and injuries. Women also participated in the action. In the end, the Pinkertons gave up and surrendered. However, the governor called in the state militia, which quickly displaced the picketers and allowed the scabs in, thus ending the strike. In the wake of the bloody strike, Alexander Berkman, an anarchist, tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie’s agent at Homestead.
K. Friedman wrote about the strike in “By Bread Alone” (1901). Friedman was a Chicago socialist, settlement-house worker and journalist. His novel was an early example of the transformation in socialist fiction from "utopian" to "scientific" socialism. More recently, Trilby Busch wrote about the strike in her novel, “Darkness Visible” (2012).
Today in Labor History July 2, 1822: The authorities hanged Denmark Vesey and 34 others for plotting a slave uprising. An estimated 9,000 were involved in the plot, but only 67 were convicted of any offense. Vesey was a free man living Charleston, South Carolina, who still had enslaved family members. He cofounded the African Methodist Episcopal church (AME) in Charleston, quickly gaining near 2,000 members and the support of white clergy. Charleston at the time had far more black residents than white, including many upper-class free blacks, some of whom had their own slaves. Additionally, many white refugees from the Haitian Revolution moved to Charleston with their black slaves. Consequently, there were many black residents who wanted to replicate the Haitian slave uprising in South Carolina and many whites who were fearful of such a rebellion.
Many of the congregants in Vesey’s church were current slaves and he used the church to help organize the revolt. The uprising was supposed to occur on July 14, Bastille Day, since the victors of the French Revolution had abolished slavery in Saint Domingue. The plan was to attack the arsenal, kill as many white slave owners as possible, like they did in the Haitian Revolution, and then commandeer ships to Haiti. Vesey’s success at organizing thousands of free and enslaved blacks was also his downfall. So many people knew about the plot, that word easily leaked to the white slaveowners. In the end, he was betrayed by two slaves who were loyal to their masters. Several white men were also convicted of participating in the plot. None were known abolitionists and all the white allies received lenient sentences.
Many writers have depicted Vesey or his rebellion in their writing. The title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp” (1855) is a composite of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner. Probably inspired by contemporary criticism of “Uncle Tom,” who she portrayed as a passive martyr, she made Dred a revolutionary escaped slave. Martin Delaney also refers to Vesey in his serialized novel, “Blake; or the Huts of America” (1859–61). Delaney was, himself, a revolutionary free black man. He was an abolitionist, writer and the first and only black man to achieve the rank of major during the Civil War. He was also the first black nationalist, who coined the phrase, “Africa for Africans.” African American writer John Oliver Killens (1916-1987) wrote a biography of Vesey “Great Gittin' Up Morning” (1972). And, more recently, Orson Scott Card portrays Vesey in his “The Tales of Alvin Maker” series (1987-2003).
Inviting all #writers to join us for the fun and friendship of #WritingWonders. You can participate with a WIP or an already published book. Alina, Amelia and I have come up with some hopefully intriguing questions for July. For added fun, several questions are for your characters to answer in their voice. 😊
As always, play the days you want, skip the ones you want. Looking forward to seeing all your answers, finding great books, and meeting new friends. Here you go! #amwriting#author
In hell souls are trapped in a perpetual state of freefall. Write about one soul's realization that they can manipulate the laws of physics in this realm and their attempts to find a way to control their descent or ascend to a different plane.
In hell souls are trapped in a perpetual state of freefall. Write about one soul's realization that they can manipulate the laws of physics in this realm and their attempts to find a way to control their descent or ascend to a different plane.