Tag: writing

Reflecting on six weeks of isolation

This is the view from my window”


Gloomy, isn’t it. The window is right by my downstairs workstation, however, where I do most of my writing. Sometimes it’s sunny. Sometimes I see people walking past and cars driving by.

This is my life under quarantine.

So are my experiments with sourdoughs. Today, a loaf of yeast water no-knead bread (Henrietta) sits on the stovetop, waiting for its time to bake. (Yeast water is different from sourdough in that you have what amounts to a weak wine working on the bread dough). 

So is my writing. I took a break from adding a stronger beginning to Prodigies yesterday; I should be able to finish that today and then go through the book to adapt things. 

So is coffee. Between my husband’s roasts brewed in a vacuum pot and the Nespresso machine for mid-afternoon cups, I’m covered.

So are the fountain pens I’m collecting — All under $25, mostly Japanese (Pilot Metropolitan, Platinum Plaisir) and German (Lamy Al-Star), and a really inexpensive Jinhao that looks like a Lamy made by Rubbermaid). This and ink is where my allowance has been going the past few months, as I like collecting practical things I can use.

So is my teaching online. And the Zoom faculty meetings. 

I don’t have it too bad, despite the view out my window being very limited. My husband and I still have jobs that allow social isolation. We have money for groceries. We have four cats. We have each other. We’re staying healthy.

This quarantine is so much harder for so many other people.

Unmotivated



I’m not feeling it today.

Some days, I don’t feel like writing, and today is that day. I need to write that next chapter to Prodigies (the revision adds four chapters, maybe 5). I need to write this blog (I am writing it, but it’s taking a lot of will to do it.) 

I’m tired (still). Maybe the coffee will help. 

A change of scenery would help, but I can’t go anywhere!

The best remedy for procrastination in my opinion: Write for five minutes. If you want to quit after that, do so. But chances are you’ll want to write more, once you’re in it.

Except today. I don’t think it’s going to work today.

Maybe the coffee will help.

The Incomplete Dev Edit

Right now I’m adding for chapters to the beginning of Prodigies, in order to reveal the character better and capture more of the spirit of Save the Cat (in other words, placing the character in her before life, setting a theme, introducing a debate).

What frustrates me is that this book went through a dev editor, and I in good faith thought that I had done what I needed to in the book, only to be tipped off by a thoughtful agent who rejected me: “I loved the beautiful description you started with, but I lost interest in the characters.” I had to figure out for myself, given what I recently learned about plotting from Save the Cat, what I needed to do. This is something I couldn’t have figured out myself, given my familiarity with the characters, and something I needed the dev editor to pick out for me.

I’m ashamed that I sent this out to query with this kind of flaw in it. I have found similar flaws in other books of mine — I start right into the action, and apparently this is bad. 

I wish someone had told me.

A Sunday Morning in the Age of COVID

(There was to be a picture here, but for some reason I can’t get my pictures to mail to me.)


Sunday mornings in my house: 

This much hasn’t changed: Classical music in the background — today it’s an album of violin concertos. 

Coffee — currently we’re drinking a store-bought coffee; usually we drink beans that Richard roasts himself. 

Cats — there are four, although one seldom comes upstairs. One of them, Girlie (the patched tabby with the attitude) is sitting next to me. She helps me get my work done.

Now, in the time of COVID: Breakfast is usually cereal, but in the quarantine I’ve discovered that I like playing with sourdough starter, and so sourdough bread as french toast is the featured meal of the day. I will make more sourdough bread later. I’ve named my starters: Marcy is a Polish whole wheat starter, Horatio is a home-captured wild yeast, and MarcyxHenrietta is an accidental batch that got spiked by the yeast water known as Henrietta.

My computer — I work on my writing on Sundays. Normally, I would be on my way to the cafe to write for a while. Now I write in a corner of the living room, burgundy and gold. I hate to be far from the action, which is part of why I used to write at the coffee shop. I miss the coffee shop.

 The view through the window — all the snow from the freakish snowstorm has melted, and the sky is a blue-grey. I need to get out, even if it’s just a trip in the car to the local park.

Today, for some reason, feels like Easter (which it is for the Orthodox faiths) and I have hope that we will rise from this pandemic a more thoughtful people.

Collecting Kindness

Today, one of my favorite Internet Cats, Maya, is #collectingkindness. Toward this end, she is asking people (I love the imagery of this) for pictures, poems, essays, etc about what they consider kindness to be.

To me, kindness is giving without calculating a return, without regarding how the other compares to you relative to color, race, ability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or religion. Just giving, whether that be a smile, a favor, a conversation, recognition, love. No strings attached.

April Snowstorm

We’re under a winter storm warning. We’re supposed to get 4-10 inches of snow today. In April.

The timing is all wrong. This should have happened on April 1st.

I don’t know what to do but laugh, because the alternative is to scream. Isolation is starting to be a bit difficult for me, and a dump of snow when it’s supposed to be Spring is just making matters worse. 

I have no choice, though, but to shelter in place during the pandemic. I have no choice but to accept that our spring is going to be bifurcated by ten inches of wet, cold fluff. I don’t get a say in matters beyond my control, so I sit behind my computer and field work emails and work on improving my writing. 

But what to do with the mood — with the tiredness, with the frustration, with the crabbiness? I’m not sure. Maybe I need to sleep more, but I get 8-9 hours of sleep a day. Maybe I need to sleep deeper. Maybe I need to get out — oh, wait, we’re on shelter-in-place and a major snowstorm is coming.

All I can do is keep  my sense of humor up and stay productive. And drink coffee, definitely drink coffee. 

Happy Third Blogiversary!



This blog has seen many milestones in the past several weeks. The 1000th post, the 40,000th view, and now the third blogiversary.

I have been writing this blog for three years, almost daily. Some days I write short passages, some long, some funny, some dead serious. I have written about transcendence and depression, of pandemic and boredom, of my ups and downs of writing. But I have written daily.

I am not the most disciplined person, so the fact that I’ve been able to write almost daily for three years is a revelation to me. A commitment I didn’t think I would be able to make.

I hope to write more in the future, at least till my fourth blogiversary, and maybe beyond…

Stretch Goals (Personal development)



A Reminder: All Goals Should Be Smart

I know I’ve talked about SMART goals — all our goals should be Specific, Measurable, Action oriented, Realistic, and Time-bound. It’s good to write these down to have something to refer to and direct your energy.


Stretch Goals!
But what if we fulfill those goals? We need new goals, and we want them to continue the progress of the met goals. Stretch goals are these next level of goals. They should be as we’re nearing success in the first tier of goals, so we can build them using the momentum we currently have.

Examples:
  • I am nearing 1000 followers on Twitter. Now I would like to see 2k. I now plan I will acquire 2000 followers by June 1 through a combination of getting my name out there by making and following and liking posts, and following others. 
  • I have just finished the developmental edit stage of my WIP. My next stage is to find beta readers, then collect their comments and edit some more. (This goal has not reached SMART goal status; notice I haven’t developed it enough to make it SMART)
What now?
Look at your goals. What’s the next step? Start plotting that! 
If you want help with that or SMART goals, drop me an email at lleachie@gmail.com.

Twitter as #writingcommunity (Personal development, Social Media for Writers)

Oh, that’s how you do Twitter!
I just wanted to announce that I’ve figured out Twitter. I even pinned a tweet!



#writingcommunity is my Favorite Place
I have fallen in love with Twitter, especially the #writingcommunity.

Why have I fallen in love with #writingcommunity?
#writingcommunity Twitter is different than mainstream Twitter (although I don’t have much knowledge of other specialty Twitters). It’s surprisingly social. Some of the discussion is about writing, but some of it is simply “tell me how your day went.”  It uplifts, commiserates, and makes people laugh.

One of the activities in #writingcommunity is following each other.There are two reasons: one of the purposes of Twitter for writers is to add to one’s “writer’s platform” or media presence. One of the things many publishers and agents ask is about your writing platform, because that means potential buyers for your book. The more important part, though, is the interaction I mentioned above. 

Is #writingcommunity for you?
If you’re a writer or an aspiring writer, a thousand times yes! Think about it — you have thousands of people who are good with words. Playing with words is a natural consequence. You have people with writing as a commonality; they’ll talk about writer’s block and rejection.

Goals, Not Resolutions



I don’t do resolutions, I do goals.

Resolutions come from a position of weakness: I’m not doing good enough, I need to fix something. Goals come from a position of strength: I want to make something new happen.

Resolutions aren’t backed by planning. Goals are — and in making the parameters of the goal SMART (specific, measurable, appropriate, relevant, time-constrained). The plan follows, and the plan increases the chances of success.

Here are my revised writing goals for the New Year:

Short-term: 

  • ·       Develop a platform plan by March 1, 2020
  • ·       Write/submit 5 short stories/poems/flash fiction by December 31, 2020
  • ·       Revise via developmental edit by March 1, 2020
  • ·       Send 50 queries for Gaia’s Hands by February 1, 2020
  • ·       Send 50 queries for Whose Hearts are Mountains  by October 1, 2020

 Long-Term:  

  • ·       Get an agent
  • ·       Publish my first book
  • ·       Discuss with agent further books
  • ·      Develop personal sales presence
  • ·      Develop idea for next novel

Notice that my long-term goals are not SMART, largely because they depend on things beyond my control. I put them in as motivational, as a way to envision where I’d like to be. As that trajectory becomes clearer, I will be able to make them SMART.

I have other SMART goals for the year — one is to lose 30 pounds by December 31, 2020 through eating a well-balanced 1500 calorie a day diet and exercising (the development of getting physically fit is in another goal). I will evaluate my goal every month or so and adjust accordingly if I’m not losing 2.5 pounds a month. (If I’m losing more, that’s fine!)

Well-laid plans will beat resolutions every time. Unless they gang aft agley, I guess.