What up Wednesday 12 Dec 2015

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

The Coast!//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Here’s another example of why writing is hard: recently I finally got into the groove of writing a story that had a nice voice. That’s kind of hard to keep going once you walk away from the story and come back to it later. When I have thought about how the story is going to go, I end up listing things that happened, rather than letting the character in all her glory, explaining how things happened.

It’s really frustrating.

Again, it’s that thing someone said before about how you make your own work and you’re not that excited about it because you know you can do better. You’ve seen other people hitting the mark that you want to reach, and when you do subpar art, it makes the effort less of an achievement.

Also, I’ve finally accepted that I shouldn’t work on anything that I haven’t spent a long time thinking about. When I have the story in my head, I can sit down when it’s working time, and get into a scene I already know will happen. Not following an outline so much, because those always change as the story goes along, but having seen scenes in my head a bunch of times already. That makes it easier to sit down cold after a few days of letting life get in the way.

So, I have 8 days of work left until my Christmas break. Today’s my last full day off until then. (Not including Sunday.) Then it will be days and days of being festive and enjoying time at home.

I really love being at home, especially when I’m busy most of the time.

And, my foot is driving me crazy. First they told me I had plantar fasciitis, which isn’t surprising since it started when I started working in the library this time last year. I went to the doctor and the physical therapist all for my stupid foot. Also, my lack of Weight Watching has greatly contributed to this foot harassment. That’s another pain in the butt, because I’m trying to walk more, but with a dodgy foot, activity is something I can’t really do without pain. Yesterday, for example, my arch was feeling better, but then the top of my foot started hurting when I put my old shoes on. I have to wear these big, clunky athletic shoes with arch supports, and it’s just annoying.

Anyway, today is a day of rest and writing. Happy Wednesday!

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Update for December

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

I may as well make an update while I have a chance, because I’m not really going to be able to until Christmas time.

I started my IT job last week and it gives me even less time to write or do much work. I have six people in my office, and most of them come in really early, so I don’t really have alone time. I could bring my laptop in and hide in the staff room at lunch, maybe, but I’ll have to gauge how the job will work. No one stays in that office all day – they’re always on call to other libraries.

So my creative time is at an all-time low. I’ll work some today, and try to get back into the feel of the story, but that’s going to be a one shot deal. I recently saw a GIF that read, “All I want for Christmas is time to write,” which about sums it up.

But aside from that, I’ve been reading Elizabeth is Missing, which is something different for me as well. Every morning, I leave early, take my one bag because I have to travel light now – never know what library I’ll end up in – that holds my Kindle. I have an hour commute because I don’t drive at all over there. I just get on with it, in the fine British tradition.

So, no, I didn’t get a complete or even a half manuscript done in November. I can only plod along at my own leisure. I read a quote this week, saying you should write without an audience in mind, like, just write for yourself. I don’t know if that’s entirely possible. Everything I write is a key away from being published online for someone to see. Everything we do, we know we can publish in some form or another, and naturally I think, “People would like this, no, maybe they won’t.”

But no matter, it has to get done one way or the other.

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What Up Wednesday 11 Nov 2015

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

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For my second instalment of What Up Wednesday, I can offer some information about my current NaNoWriMo project.

I’m always second guessing what project I should be working on. Last week I decided to work on the Wattpad story I started on vacation in September. Of course, the moment that I made the decision to work solely on this story for a whole month, the second guessing came back.

“Why not work on this book? That other book? Why?”

But then it hit me in the most simplest way – it doesn’t matter.

I can work on one thing for a month and ignore the other story ideas I have for a while. There’s always next month and the month after to go back to them. What I didn’t work on last month, or even what I was working on, can wait a month while I do this gut instinct response project.

It doesn’t matter.

So far I have 4383 words of the small 25,000 word goal I set myself for my own personal NaNoWriMo experience. I think putting things in perspective and aiming for smaller goals sort of makes it easier on me. Too often I have the grandiose idea of what the whole series and all the characters will do. Granted, that’s fun in itself, but it means trying to work out too much all at once. This way, I’m taking it in smaller chunks.

It’s been too easy for me to get involved with the routine of work, even though there’s not much going on at the library at all. Without the word count aims, no matter how small for each day, I would only have the day job to place my aspirations in. That’s just not enough.

Steve and I have been talking about how day jobs suck the creative opportunities out of it for us. At the end of the day, what do we have to show for what we’ve done, especially if we’re just working on something that someone else has given us as a project to do. We’re a small piece of the puzzle there. At home, with our own work, we can take pride in doing our own book or our own artwork. There’s more self satisfaction and pride in that kind of work.

Anyway, for my book inspiration I’ve been reading The Secrets We Keep and Life and Death. I’ve been using Word, Scrivener, Wattpad, and Evernote to get my word count down. I even added my story to Inkitt for the NaNo contest. Wish me luck!

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Writing by the seat of my pants

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

Typewriter Letters//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Write. That’s the most important thing, right?

I was watching a documentary on Ian Fleming, and his advice about writing was to just get the story down.

Writing about 2,000 words in three hours every morning, ‘Casino Royale’ dutifully produced itself. I wrote nothing and made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before I might have despaired.
~ Ian Fleming

Now, my biggest hang-ups are indecisiveness. What should I write about? Is what I’m writing the right thing I should be writing at the moment? Is this anything anyone would read? Would I read this? Etc.

So, what I started working on today was what I started working on in Wattpad while I was back home in Florida in September. I’ve always wanted something contemporary and girlie like Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars, and the beach made a perfect setting.

But I have no plot. I have no outline. Just a basic idea. I’m just going to write stuff and make a huge mess and see where it leaves me. I’m not expecting to get to 50k this month, maybe 25k if I’m lucky. But that’s fine for me at the moment.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great NaNoWriMo. Keep on writing. The finish line will be there, so we have to keep running, walking, and even crawling toward it.

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What Up Wednesday 28 Oct 2015

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

More beer

Since Wednesday is my only day off half day, I’ll try to update with a What up Wednesday theme for posts. I’m intentionally not making it What’s up Wednesday because the apostrophe doesn’t translate well when my auto links generate to Twitter.

So, what’s up?

1. I’ve been offered a position on the IT team for the libraries, so sometime after Christmas, I presume, I’ll be moved to a big customer first centre to hang out with the librarians and the techies. I’ll still be an assistant, but I’ll be roaming about, learning and teaching and computing. Yes, I am totally excited.

2. We watched the first episode of Mr. Robot, which was really good much to my surprise.

3. Last movie I watched was Jurassic World – better than I thought it would be as well.

4. We bought our tickets to The Force Awakens. We’ll go on opening night after work. Hooray!

5. I watched the rebroadcast of Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch. That was, hands down, one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I’ve never been to a really, big time play before, so after seeing it on a cinema screen, I can only imagine how much more amazing it was live. I really could write a whole review on the thing because it was so well done, but just trust me when I say you have to see it. It was movie quality with awesome sound and set design, and they moved the play along so well it was just … well, see it when it comes out on DVD.

6. I’m still reading Life and Death. I only get to read a bit at a time, and it is interesting, I’m just snatching a few pages here and there during my commute.

7. I hear from my high school/college bestie on FB messenger. That’s always a nice thing.

8. I’ve been invited to a birthday party for one of the girls at work – that’s a nice thing too.

9. I bought Sims 4 finally because it’s only £30 at Game. Not sure if it’ll work on my current PC, but I thought I’d try it now that we’ve updated to Windows 10.

10. I had an incident with the bus Monday morning. Our stop was covered in “there will be bus reroutes” signs, but no info where we can actually get the bus. The neighbour and I have no had to walk all the way down the road to the next stop up. On the bright side, I now have a little chat with my neighbour in the morning.

11. No real writing done. I really need to brainstorm ideas. At least I have the weekend off to start NaNoWriMo properly.

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