Fourth Assignment

Here is my fourth assignment from the creative writing workshop I'm taking.

Q? What writing tools do you have and would do you want or need? 

A.) I have an imac desktop computer that is very nice to write at when I get to stay in one place. It's in my classroom/dining room. I have an open floor plan so I can see all over my house and keep tabs on what is going on while I'm at my desk typing. However, I find that I do much more web surfing from the desktop than anything. I like checking my email best from it. (I have no idea why. Bigger screen maybe?)

I also have a macbook laptop. I bought a blue silicone cover for the keyboard so it stays clean wherever I take it. I like the macbook because it allows me to go anywhere I want to go, different rooms in the house or outside places. I find that I get more work done on the laptop for some reason. I think it must be because it allows me to go so many places, like the couch or bed where I can be comfortable and I'm able to sit down and get the words out, verses being tied to a chair and desk.

   Also I have a 5-star notebook and a Bic Velocity pen that I carry around to jot notes down and to write things longhand sometimes. If I have a stray thought or dream, it goes in the notebook, because it's quicker than opening up a pc and writing it down.

Q? What type of writing props do you have, if any?

   A.) I don't have any writing props, but I LIKE the idea of having one. I especially like the idea of the figurine that you can pack around and put by your laptop wherever you go! I may go hunting for one now! I don't require props though for writing. I require the right atmosphere. I have to be semi-relaxed. I can't write when I'm jittery, anxious, or agitated. If I do it's all angry and incoherent. 

   I guess if you call it a prop, I HAVE to have a keyboard. I'm a fast typer and am able to write best with a keyboard. My thoughts flow fast, and so do my fingers. Handwriting is way too slow for me.  

Q? Where do you prefer to do your writing and does that place exist or do you need to still create it?

    A.) I can write pretty much anywhere, as long as its relaxing or I can write in a very busy place where I feel like no one is noticing me. I CAN'T write in a place where I can't concentrate and feel as if I'm being observed. So basically, I need to be mostly by myself or in a very crowded place where I can get lost in the crowd. I don't want to be noticed while writing; I feel like people may invade my privacy and I can't get to that quiet place in my mind where I can create and write.

Second Assignment

Here's my second assignment in my creative writing workshop I'm taking at universalclass.com

Q? I was asked to describe my fear(s) that hold me back from writing. From giving it my all.

Here's my answer.
A.Hmm.... You want to know my fears on writing? 

I'm like most everyone else on the planet and have the fear of writing words that suck, that are pure drivel.  I fear that no matter how long I try and practice, that the best work I can produce would belong in the trash compactor. It's also a scary thing to put your words out there. To let pieces of yourself go, your words, and to be exposed to others. It's so easy to get hurt that way. It takes courage to put yourself out there and to keep banging into that brick wall, until it comes tumbling down. It takes courage, perseverance, and discipline. 

I know I have weak areas that I do need to work on in my writing, one of them being dialogue. I have no problem talking to people in real life, so why can't I get my characters to open up more on the page?

I was reading an article not too long ago that suggested you go out in public and eavesdrop on people around you. I did this today in K-Mart. A lady was talking to two acquaintances about her daughter's voice lessons that may or may not happen the day after Christmas. She thought it was funny that the music teacher was going to hold lessons the day after Christmas, and was going to take her, until her mother-in-law called and announced that she was going to hold a family dinner. So the lady had to back out of the lessons. (This had to be the most boring conversation in the history of conversations). I moved on, after stupidly standing there staring at brown and white teddy bears in hoodies. Did I mention I was in the toy section?

Hoping for more interesting dialogue, I wondered into the pharmacy isle looking for the latest spin style brush from Con-Air for hair-care. I happened upon an older gentleman, with a country twang and a walking cane talking to a couple of old friends. He was telling them how he was broke and hobbling around with the cane. He said he had a chiropractor who x-rayed him, when he walked with pain in the knee. The doctor asked him if he had fallen. The gentleman said, "No, I haven't." But then he got to thinking. "Well, about six months ago, I was out plowing the back 40 and I stepped down off my tractor and fell over. But I got back up. I was ok." The doctor said, "That's the way these injuries occur. Something minor gets pulled or inflamed and you can't tell, but it will set up a huge problem down the road." The gentleman continued to tell his friends, how many weeks of adjustments he had to go through to get his leg feeling better again. But he still wasn't there yet, as he still had the cane.

Since I didn't get lucky enough to hear any juicy gossip, I paid for my purchases and left the store. Perhaps, I could try going to the local bar for more scintillating conversation? 

 I suppose the key to conquering your fears, is just to face them. Don't look at fear at something that paralyzes you, but instead as a tool to make you think on your toes, to grow and adapt, and become something more that you are at the moment. It can be a tool for growth. That's how I choose to look at it!

First Assignment

Here's my first assignment I was asked to complete in my creative writing course at universalclass.com.

Q? Describe the room your in.

A. The light reflects off the eggshell white walls of the bedroom I find myself in. It's late, I'm sitting in bed with my favorite patchwork quilt pulled up and bunched around me. Even though it's late, my toddler hasn't found her way to dreamland yet and is amusing herself by looking at her story books next to me. 

This room looks like a toy bomb went off in it. A pink, polka dotted toy bomb. There is a two-story Barbie mansion sitting in the middle of the room, with Barbie dolls in all states of dress and undress lying all around it. I wonder if the party at the Barbie mansion got out of control, and perhaps the jealous Porcelain Fairy Doll, (who didn't get invited to the party), used the Fisher Price phone to call the GI Joe cops? Perhaps that's why the dolls are laying all about the room looking as if they have partied too hard. Prince Charming has lost one boot and his crown.

The ponies must have come to the party too, or been invited to the corner of the room, for a tea party. A toy table has been set up in the corner with fake cake and teacups for a tea party not to be missed. My Little Ponies are all around in varying colors from pink to green. The brown contrast of the room's carpet really sets off the yellow color of Buttercup Surprise Pony's plastic body.

My gaze drifts from the toy-strewn floor to the walls of this room. Magical art abounds, fairies fly across the walls, flowers bloom on the windowsill, and a huge painting of "The Swan Princess" ballet hangs over the full size bed.

It's a room of magic, of imagination, and inspiration, of rainbows, and childhood giggles all wrapped up in the smells of lavender and vanilla. It's a room for dreamers. 

Creative Writing Workshop via Universal Class

Q? What's playing on my playlist?
A. Skillet "Falling Inside the Black"

So I was visiting my local public library's website and found an exciting discovery. Universal Class is now available, offering tons of online classes that you can take for FREE! I love learning new things and I'm a HUGE fan of office supplies. I love pencils, pens and notebooks. I hated elementary, secondary school, except my senior year, BUT I LOVED college. I managed to amass two college degrees. I've missed being a student so I was so stoked to find out that I can take classes for free. 

     I immediately enrolled in Gregg Shorthand 101 and a creative writing workshop. I shortly dropped the shorthand course because I discovered that it would take a HUGE amount of effort, time and practice for me to learn how to write shorthand. I thought learning shorthand would be a good skill for me to have as I am always writing. But after evaluating the pros and cons, I decided that a more effective use of my time would be to take the creative writing course. With the digital age today, voice recorders and software abound and I'm also a super fast typist so, for me, even learning how to write shorthand would not be as fast as me typing. 

   I did decide to take the creative writing workshop and I thought that I'd post my assignments online for you guys to read. If I am spending time learning and sharing something new, then why not share here on my blog too? So the next few posts will be in relation to the writing exercises that I'm being asked to do in my class.

   Blessings!

    

Universal Class

Hi,
  Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm the worst about regularly updating my blog. For some reason, it's hard for me to remember to log in and write a blog entry. I have no problem with twitter or tumblr, but for some reason this blog seems like more effort to update. I think its because twitter and tumblr are so quick and I feel like I don't have to compose elaborate sentences that relate to each other to form paragraphs. I feel like I can be random on twitter and tumblr. It's ok for me to shoot out a quick 142 characters on life, love or what I'm having for lunch. But on my blog, here, I feel that I need to compose an elaborate posts.
So from now on I'm going to post like I would on twitter and tumblr and see what comes of it. I'm going to let myself hang loose. WARNING: May result in random, unrelated blog posts that could be a waste of time reading OR may be entertaining, madcap, dramatic reading! Time will tell!

Enjoy The Moments Life Offers To You

My best friend found herself in the ER today and was admitted to the hospital. Now she is facing lots of scary tests and possible diagnosis. It's not a fun place to be in, personally, nor to watch someone you care about in. It got me to thinking, life is so short. You never know what is around the next corner. And I find myself writing this post today with a thought I wanted to share with you.
     
If you find something in this life that inspires you, that you are passionate about, then don't hold     back....Give thanks for it.....Grab it...Hold on to it....Celebrate in it....Lose yourself in enjoyment for a blissful moment.

Is it the company of a friend? Is it stargazing or watching sunrises and sunsets? Drawing or painting? Or  is it a good book? Is it movie night with the family? Is it quiet moments with your spouse or your best friend? Is it skydiving or hang gliding?

Whatever it is that you enjoy, then embrace it and cherish the moments you have doing that activity!  If it's someone that inspires you, then pick up the phone or write a note thanking that person and telling them how much they mean to you. If it's something that inspires you, then make sure you make time in your schedule for that activity.

                                    Enjoy those moments that life offers you.

When you find yourself in the middle of chaos, instead of getting insane about it, stop yourself and find something good about it and when you find those things in life that bring you enjoyment, embrace them and don't feel guilty about it.

I find that when you take time out for yourself, then you feel more energized, your soul is nourished and you can administer to the needs of others better.  You feel as if you have more of yourself to give.

Sometimes when the kids have thrown me in a tizzy and chaos reigns supreme and I find my temper getting short, I try to stop and think, "One day they are gonna be grown and gone and I'll be old, in this house alone, so I'm gonna enjoy this noise and chaos today because one day I'm gonna be missing it."

I'm embracing those moments of external chaos instead of causing more internal chaos for myself and getting spun up about it.

And tonight, while praying for my friend, I'm enjoying the gift and ability of being able to write. A chance to communicate with you.  Getting my thoughts out and down on paper is an extremely therapeutic activity that I truly enjoy and I am getting lost in it tonight....

Thank you for reading my words. If your a believer, I would covet prayers for my friend. Send one up for her tonight, The Big Guy will know who your talking about.

I love book trailers! Short, sweet and to the point they give you a taste of the novel that you are checking out, except instead of just words they have music and special effects. I think they are very effective for getting your book noticed and an excellent marketing tool!
I'm a huge fan of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series. I devoured the first three novels (Iron King, Iron Daughter, & Iron Queen) within a week of me finding out about them, and now she's released the final book (The Iron Knight) that will wrap up the story arc for Megan and Ash! I can't wait to read it! If you haven't read this series, YOU MUST READ IT!
Not sure if it's for you? Then watch this book trailer for The Iron Knight and decide for yourself!

National Novel Writing Month (Nov 1-30)

 If you haven't heard about NaNoWriMo it stands for National Novel Writing Month and spans the entire month of November. The goal is to write 50,000 words over the course of the month.

It's insane and tons of fun and every year NaNo's get together at write-in's all across the globe and churn out the words. Many complete their novels and some even go on to successfully sell and publish their novels. It can be a great success or an epic failure; depending on your statistics over the course of NaNoWriMo.

Regardless of weather you participate in NaNoWriMo or not, there are some good things to be learned from it. Like:

1. Setting goals. You have a long term goal of writing that novel that's been in your head for the past year, but how do you get there?

By setting short term goals. If you set a goal of a certain word count each day or week to achieve, and do it, then you CAN get that novel written. It's just one word at a time. It's up to you how you want to set that goal.

The goal is to write 50,000 words. Divide that by 30 days and (I'm rounding up here) you get a goal of 1,700 words a day you need to write. If you can do 1,700 words a day then that will actually get you 51,000 words in a 30 day period which is 1G over the winning mark. Personally, when setting goals, I like to hit just a little above of where I actually need to be; it allows me a nice comfort zone so that if I do find myself slacking etc.. with my small comfort zone, I'll still hit my mark.

It's personal choice. You can set your word count goals however you wish. Maybe instead of 1,700 words a day; you want 10,000 words over the weekend. I have seen authors do this. If you aren't on Twitter, get on it, and follow #nanowrimo. You'll be able to connect with other Nano's and participate in writing sprints. Many authors will post that they are going to go for a 1,000 words at the top of the hour and ask others to join them. Competition always makes it more fun! After the hour you get to post if you made it or not. I've seen writers repeat this pattern over and over during the course of a day. So you can easily write a few thousand words over a weekend just by doing this method.

2. Learning how to Outline. I've read the bios of a lot of NaNo's and it seems that those who outline their novels do the best in achieving their goal of 50,000 words. An outline can keep you focused and on task and allow you to use your time effectively. There is nothing worse than spending an hour writing 1,500 words only to figure out later that you'll need to cut them because they don't fit. Or just sitting down and writing a bunch of random crap to end up with 50,000 words, but it turns out that it's such a mess that you're not sure what your looking at, and you decide that it would be easier to rewrite the entire thing than trying to shape that word blob monster into an actual novel.

By writing a general outline for your novel, you can write the storyline in correct order, staying more consistent to where you want your story to go, and before you know it you'll be hitting that wonderful goal of 50,000 words and you'll arrive there with something that you can work with!

3. Networking. NaNoWriMo is a fun time to connect with other writers. When you make your account at http://nanowrimo.org you choose your home area and if your lucky you have people who are NaNo'ing near your home. You can participate in write-ins which are a lot of fun. There's something about being around a lot of other writer's furiously pounding away on their laptops to get your inspired and focused! Your less likely to slack if you see people around you are are passionate about taking their writing seriously.

If you don't have anyone close to you, then you can join write-in's online; many will host virtual write-ins via Google chat and other methods. If your creative you could probably do one on Twitter also. (If you can't tell, I absolutely love Twitter).

Writing is a solitary activity and it can be very isolating.  Connecting with other writers is a wonderful opportunity. Not only does it cement it in that you are a writer and that you are striving to achieve a big goal, but it lets you know that you are not alone, that there are others out there just like you. Support and encouragement from real life writers can be as effective as the M&M's and espresso that you promise yourself if you can just hit that next word goal!

National Novel Writing Month is a lot of fun. Crazy, insanity fun! If you haven't done it yet and are thinking of it, go on!!! You'll be surprised at what you can achieve if you take it seriously and set some goals that you consistently work at. You may surprise yourself! Even if you don't hit the 50,000 mark, any amount that you write is better than if you'd never tried. You'll have a start! Everything gets written, one word at a time!!!!

If you are participating, please leave me a comment. Let me know your user name and I'll add you to my buddy list. It's so much fun to connect online. Feel free to add me to yours also. My username is maliyah_ash. I look forward to seeing you achieve those word goals this year!!
Wishing you much success this year!!!!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I'm thrilled that you've taken time to stop by!


 I'm all over the internet and I wasn't sure if I needed an official blog or not, but according to the guru's "YES YOU NEED A BLOG!" So here I am blathering like an idiot on this blog post.


I'd like to see myself post to this blog once a week, but honestly I'm not sure what is realistic for me. I have never kept a blog before. I should be able to do bi-monthly posts for sure, we'll see as I go along. When I'm not posting here, you can find me at twitter (which I love!), facebook and tumblr (where you'll hear me rant about everything).


I'd like to use this blog to talk about the craft of writing, discuss my writing progress, and talk about tools you can use to master the craft, and anything else that relates.  Oh, I'm also a Homeschool Mama so I'll be talking about Homeschooling also, perhaps curriculum or how to keep life in balance between homeschooling and writing, etc...


I'm also gonna be talking about the books that I'm reading and throwing some nuggets of wisdom from them out there into the universe.


So friend me, follow me, link to me.....whatever floats your boat....I'm sure if you wander around cyberland in the writing circles or are an avid book reader we'll run into each other again.


Nice meeting you!
Blessings!