Lost Girl

My husband started watching this show on netflix called Lost Girl. It's about mythical creatures mixing with the human world and all the crazy that ensues. So, I started watching it too, and I'm only about 10 episodes in and I'm so hooked! I love it! It's a very interesting world that the writers put together, and I've been feeling extra inspired lately with my own story about mythical creatures.

Mostly, my story only has humans and fairies, and it hadn't occurred to me that there might be other mythical beings in my world in addition to the fairies, until I started watching this show. I find it rather interesting where I can pull inspiration from.

Like, one of my dolls has been flip flopping with her personality lately, and there is a character in the show that I really love, and the actress has an awesome name. And thinking about changing my dolls name got me thinking that maybe my doll could be a character in my story, and then maybe there are other creatures in my world besides just fairies, and and and! It just goes on and on.

So now I have a new name for my doll and an entirely new personality AND a new plot twist to my story as well as an entirely new section of the world and more characters.

And now I have to write it all down before I forget!

P.S. go watch Lost Girl (if you are 18+, there are some pretty risque scenes).

November is hard.

I feel like every time I get a free moment it's whisked away by housework... or bedtime. ugh.

I have not been doing well at keeping up with NaNoWriMo or my daily writing (although I wasn't expecting to with that, but I was going to try!) Nothing makes you feel more like a failure than actually failing at something. I haven't even been reading! November is just super busy, and it is only going to get more busy.

I am going to keep plugging away at trying to make an effort to do things. But, don't expect much, ok? And if you don't hear from me until next year, I'm probably not dead.... probably just buried under a mountain of DIY gift projects and travel and holiday celebrations and stuff.

Sorry in advance.

Hobbies

This blog is mostly going to be about writing, but I have a lot of hobbies and it's difficult to give all my hobbies consistent attention. So I haven't been writing for the last few days because of my other hobbies.

Some things I like to do when I'm not writing:

Reading. Reading is key if you want to be a writer. I have a hard time reading, though. I'm not good at it. And by that, I don't mean I have a hard time doing the physical activity of reading. I mean, I am not consistent about reading a book. I will read every day for weeks, and then not read for months. Or I will get bored and quit reading a book. Or I will suddenly get obsessed with crappy romance novels and read nothing but that for months. It's weird. I suck at reading.

Photography. I used to take pictures with my Canon every day. I love taking pictures and I love looking at other people's photography. I was very active on flickr for a long time, and am trying to get back into the habit.

Dolls. In 2009 my life changed drastically and I was desperate to find ways to occupy the sudden copious free hours I found myself stuck with. I wanted to take up stop motion, but I needed a doll that 1)I didn't have to make and 2)was very poseable. Thus, I discovered the world of ball jointed dolls! I got my first doll in early 2010 and have been collecting every since. My interest in photography increased when I got my first doll. And dolls have a way of multiplying on their own. LOL I own 6 complete dolls. 3 floating heads. And I have one doll on the way and she should arrive in December.

Sewing. I love to sew! I have sewed all kinds of amazing things in the short time that I have been actually good at it. I made my sisters wedding dress, and bridesmaids dresses. I made my wedding dress, and my bridesmaids dresses. I've also sewn my kids numerous halloween costumes, bags, toys, and repaired plenty of clothes. I even made my daughter a Stampycat quilt!

DIY. I love making stuff from scratch. My latest obsession is to make doll furniture and accessories. Right now I am revamping an old dollhouse for my kids for Christmas, and plan to make ALL the furniture for it from scratch out of cardboard and fabric and stuff around the house. I also have been working on a handmade wig for my newest doll, and I just finished it today! It turned out pretty awesome for my first wig.

What sort of hobbies do you have???

NaNoWriMo Day 3

I decided to do my "Sad Girl" story for NaNoWriMo this year. It's an idea I came up with based on a crying doll I discovered that I would really really love to own some day. I love sad faces. Crying babies are my favorite sad faces! And then I found that doll and just about died! She's so sad and perfect.

Isn't she lovely???

Anyways. I can't rightly justify buying such an expensive doll with such a specific facial expression without a proper background story for her. So I came up with one, and I actually kind of really love it a lot. And this needs to happen. Violette's story must be told!

I had actually already written quite a bit, but decided for NaNoWriMo I'm going to start over because I really don't like my two main characters. And most of the story was going to take place with one character that I didn't care about at all. So i started over, from the VERY beginning.

I like these new characters much better. They're more interesting. And starting at the beginning gives some more background info for the story that I originally was going to tell, and that also will probably be part of the story I'm working on now.

Unfortunately, today I only wrote about 800 words. It's not bad, but I was hoping to write more. I already hit a bump in the road. How does one write a story from the point of view of an animal??? I don't even know! I'm not even sure if that's where I should go with things. Seems kind of silly.

Also, how do you write the death of a person if they aren't really paying attention when it happens???

I think I will just forge ahead like a barbarian writer and leave all these fiddly questions for the editor.

#astoryaday November 2015 and NaNoWriMo

This list is actually from a photography project called A Doll A Day. I couldn't think of any writing ideas - at least not enough to fill a whole month. So I am using this list that was posted on flickr by a user called trobertabq with the hashtag #theidearoom. I'm using this list to get the sparks flying and the wheels turning and nothing more. I may or may not share my writings here. I mainly just want to work on getting the creative juices flowing AND to work on the habit of writing every day. Or at least as much as possible. So here is the list:

1. Aftermath
2. Old
3. Painted
4. Silly
5. Favorite Place
6. Reflection
7. In The Past
8. Tonight I am...
9. Inside
10. Its ______ Outside
11. Movement
12. Opposites
13. Junk
14. Someting New
15. I Wish...
16. Colorful
17. Watching
18. A Landscape
19. I Feel...
20. Work
21. Play
22. My Home
23. A Treat
24. Technology
25. Currently Reading
26. Dark
27. In the Distance
28. End
29. Warmth
30. I Went

In addition to trying to write something every day and using the list as prompts, Its National Novel Writing Month! I already have an account on NaNoWriMo, so I'm going to start working on my story over there. I still haven't decided which story I will work on, but I was browsing the site and discovered that every other year I get a wild hair to write a story and each year its a different story. LOL So I will probably use one of my new stories this year in keeping with tradition.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to reach 50,000 words for the month. There are prizes for all the winners, but mostly the prize is a sense of accomplishment and getting your story down on paper. I'm getting more and more excited just thinking about it.

Let me know if you will be doing nanowrimo! I need more writing buddies!

Write Every Day

I think Stephen King said that if you want to do something well you have to do it every day. And he was probably talking about writing since that's what he does. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors and he does write every single day. He never takes a day off.  Not for holidays or loved ones. And I find that kind of insane. I mean.... everybody deserves a break, right? Maybe hard work shouldn't be rewarded with breaks. I dunno. I'm not a successful writer.

Anyways... my point was, I should write every day. I used to write a lot. I used to belong to a community solely dedicated to writing and I had a lot of fun with it. Some ancient, no longer in existence, website called Bolt.com. I used to post stories and poems and people would leave comments, and they were generally helpful and useful. I think this must have been before the days of the common internet troll. Either way, that website doesn't exist any more, and I haven't found another that I like nearly as much.

When I write STORIES (as opposed to blog posts) I prefer to use pen and paper. I'm not sure why. It's slow, and tedious, and my brain moves much more quickly then my pen, but I like it. It's what I've done for years and years, and probably what I will continue to do. Forever. So I think I will get a notepad I can keep in my purse so I can write every day. Whenever the mood strikes!

I'm thinking of making another blog page just for short stories or poems. So I can blog on the main page about writing, and do all the writing on another page. Seems silly.  I've also had apprehensions about putting ANY of my stories on the internet, because.... you know.... it's the internet. Nothing good can come of that. So I dunno if I will ever post my actual stories here. You guys just get to come along for the ride and read about my experiences...... That also seems silly.

I can't fix everything that you destroy!

We were sitting at dinner and I was playing a joke on my husband, but my daughter wouldn't play along and ruined it and this line popped into my head:

I can't fix everything that you destroy!

And this needs to happen now. Some story needs to evolve from this one line. A short story. But something. Maybe later tonight. Right now the fam and I are on our way to a Halloween dance. 

But this small event also reminds me that I want to start doing some writing exercises. I need to get back into the swing of writing. I feel rusty. I'm pretty sure some parts of my writer's brain are starting to rust over. I can feel it. 

So, if anyone out there has some good websites for writing prompts or exercises please let me know! I'm all ears. Or, web comment boxes...... just tell me. Let's leave it at that. :)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

The other day I was at work making sandwiches because that's what I do for a living, and thinking about the conversation my daughter and I had on the way to school that morning. She had announced that she wants to be a police woman some day and I had said, "Oh that's what you want to be when you grow up?" As I was making sandwiches I thought about myself as a kid and wondered if anyone had ever asked me that.

I don't remember any specific times I was asked, but every kid gets asked what they want to be, and my answer must have been "a writer". I've always loved writing. But no, no one ever asks their kids, "How do you want to make money to support yourself when you grow up?" They say, "What do you want to do??" This little difference leaves the question up for interpretation. So, as a kid, I probably would have answered "I want to tell stories when I grow up."

That's what I did as a kid. I told stories. I wrote them down. I drew them. I dreamed them up. But no matter how I told them, it all came back to just telling it. 

But, I'm grown up (mostly) and I don't tell stories. And I thought, that's really sad. But, do I still want to tell stories??? Yes. Definitely. I still love writing. I love making up stories. I tell my husband stories all the time. So, this blog is to keep me honest, keep me going, find friends and support along the way.... because now that I'm grown up I would like to try to get one of my stories published. And not to make money to support myself, or my family, but to get my story out there! And share it with everyone.

This should be fun. :)