Category: Work in Progress

Categories
change Work in Progress

Shaking up the routine.

Since Sunday, I’ve been working out of The Write-Brain Workbook, which I checked out from the library. I’ve had this book in my possession for a month and a half now, but only got the chance to actually peruse the book this week. I hadn’t been too familiar/enthusiastic about using workbooks/prompts (sometimes they don’t really help me anyway), but so far, all the exercises I have completed from this workbook have been enlightening and inspiring.

Yesterday, I wrote a piece that lasted more than the recommended ten minutes; I could have stayed writing much longer, but I had to cut it off at thirty minutes since I had to get ready for work. Soon, I’ll have to go back and add to it; it’s an interesting piece about sampling sodas at a fair in the middle of nowhere.

Lately, I’ve been feeling like a lot of my daily life has become too routine and predictable, and I’m wanting something dynamic to either happen or for me to go and do something dynamic. I made some small “progress” towards changing things up this past weekend by amusingly buying completely different items for my weekly groceries (read my food blog post about this incident). A lot of my daily life does revolve around routine; we all go through it, I suppose. My schedule is like a ticking clock, constantly: this is when I’m supposed to eat, when I’m supposed to work, sleep, et. al…. It’s comfortable to have a routine, but sometimes, it also becomes mind-numbing.

So when things are shaken up, it gives new life to my days…although most of the time I end up feeling so tired/exhausted from the new adventures that I quickly return to my tried-and-true routine. I’m not sure why that’s the case; but right now, I am yearning for something different yet again.

Categories
goals inspiration Novel 1 Work in Progress

Goals Written from January

I was thumbing through some notes from one of my notepads last night and came across a list of goals I had written from early last month. To my relief, I found a couple of goals that made me change my mind about how I had been feeling about self-publishing:

– Self-publish short story collection by May 2009
– Publish Novel 1 via agent

Ah, so that was what I had originally intended, at least, early last month. So, that puts me a bit more at ease, although now that I realize I had wanted to find an agent, I’m going to need to move a little faster and efficiently on revising the manuscript. Deadline for the revision: June. I don’t know why I have been telling others that I will publish my novel by summertime; I probably got that mixed up with my short story collection.

I had to shake things up for myself today since I noticed that I had been stuck in a routine for the past month and a half; because of this change in routine, I got a few good sparks and have jotted down a few new notes in my to-go notebook. When I came back home from my brief outing, I was able to start some rewriting on Novel 1; hooray!

I’ve also been blogging like crazy, especially on my food blog, Cinnamon Juice. It’s getting a little more buzz these days, thanks to a couple blog rolls and Twitter. It’s good to see that people are interested in my thoughts about food and related topics.

Hoping for another productive day tomorrow.

Categories
#amwriting Novel 1 question short works Work in Progress

New Story Post; Characters & Settings and Tangibility

It’s safe to say that I can breathe again after a less-than-fruitful week. For the past two weeks, I haven’t had much time to devote to my writing; in general, I haven’t had much time to myself due to festivities for Chinese New Year and my birthday over the past two weekends. Don’t get me wrong: I love celebrations, I love time with family and friends, but like any other person, I also love time spent alone.

I feel like I can’t fully function/be alert with tasks/work when I do not have at least one full day to myself to do whatever I want to do. Even though on certain days of the week I still have time before and after work to myself, it’s never enough for me to have those pockets of time. I need a full day.

So, because of the lack of time lately, my updates to my website and my short works had been suffering; only today was I able to get around to adding another short story to my website (called “Riches to Rags” under Other Works); it’s slightly longer than my other work, and the POV is from a man instead. As always, please feel free to leave feedback/reviews on my comments post.

I’ve been working hard on developing more about my characters from Writing the Past, but I’m having trouble with a couple of elements; in general, I feel like this is a weak point in my writing at this stage. The question goes–

When writing non-Science Fiction/Fantasy, is it important/mandatory to have real location names (i.e., names of real cities like New York, San Francisco, Fairfax, etc.)? Also, is it necessary to directly address characters’ ethnicities/cultural backgrounds?

The reason why I struggle with these aspects of writing is because I do not want to box my characters into the stereotypes or “familiar” things akin to familiar locations, cultures, etc. It may be a controversial matter, but I don’t want to feel like I am limited to only writing about Asians, Asian-Americans, etc. and their plight of living in certain conditions/cultural conflicts/etc. What exactly is accepted/not accepted though? What makes a storyline tangible, easy-to-relate?

Any insight is appreciated.

Categories
Birthday Memories family gifts passion Photo 365 photography Who I Am Work in Progress

Start of another month; birthday wishes.

The first of February, and it’s amazing to look back on the previous month and realize the new doors of opportunity, windows of inspiration that have opened for me already this year:

1) My passion for writing has surged forward with a vengeance, giving me extra motivation to get the word out on my writing, building a fan base and also giving me more reason to go back and revise my shorter works. Despite a hectic weekly schedule, I have made big strides in my goals this past month.

2) Since I began the Photo 365 project on New Year’s Day, I have found more joy in taking pictures every day. My interest in photography has become heightened again, and I look forward to seeing the small things in my daily life through my camera lens. The extra photo opportunities have also helped me find more writing ideas.

I’m looking forward to more opportunities being presented to me as time unfolds.

In other news; the end of January came and went rather interestingly. Greetings for my birthday came a couple of days earlier when I received a surprise vase of flowers at the office (sent from my older brother and his family). It was a very pleasant surprise to receive, albeit the commute home that night was quite an amusing one (I kept receiving stares and random smiles from strangers since it must have looked a little strange to see someone holding a VASE of flowers, not a simple bouquet). I rarely ever receive flowers, but I find that when I do receive them, I feel a rush of emotions within me.


PhotobucketPhotobucket
PhotobucketPhotobucket
Photobucket Photobucket

I spent my birthday yesterday quietly with a few of my relatives and some close friends. I didn’t want too much for my birthday; just some quiet time to relax and reflect. I received a few more email/phone birthday greetings than expected, so that was nice. I feel like the past few years I haven’t felt overly excited for my birthday; sure, I’m still happy when the day comes, and I appreciate all of the greetings/well wishes, but it’s also just another day in my life that I’m happy to have. I wonder if I will continue to feel this way as the years go by.

Categories
#amreading contest inspiration Novel 1 Work in Progress

Finding Inspiration From Others & Delays

Recently, my bus rides have been consumed with reading Blind Your Ponies, by Stanley G. West. It is a thick monster of a book, and at times it’s hard to follow the plot since West writes from multiple points-of-view, but nonetheless, I have enjoyed the story so far. It’s been captivating my attention on the bus rides to and from work that I don’t even have the time to think about using my iPod these days.

Reading the book, however, has made me also realize a lot of things about my own writing. The prose in West’s book is smart and rather lyrical; I continue to wonder if my writing will reach that point someday. Yesterday, I went back to the public library to do more research in the writing magazines; I found myself feeling more humbled by the articles I read on how to improve my drafts and my general sense of writing.

The past week or so has been dry for me, writing-wise. Things began to slip a little bit last Wednesday, but I’ve still managed to keep up the momentum for my daily Novel 1 check-in. I should really start referring to that book with its working title, so I can feel more sense of completion. Since the deadline for ABNA is already less than a week away, I’m disappointed to say that I will not have my manuscript ready for submission. Well, it was worth the try to aim high so soon; I will still continue to aim for self-publishing the book by this summer.

Well, my Muse will come back yet.