Categories
#amreading #amwriting Novel 4

Writo De Mayo, Day 4

Well, today is technically “Day 1” for me in terms of actually writing so far this month. However, Writo De Mayo officially began over at the NaNoLJers community on May 1, so yes, I am a little behind. I wrote a little bit in Novel 4 right now, and, when sending the draft to my email account (as a back-up), I noticed that the last time I worked on the novel was at the beginning of March. Yikes, has it really been two months?

I was stuck in a sort of limbo over the weekend, and only today am I able to focus a little better. I couldn’t fully sleep the past two nights since I found myself adjusting to yet another new schedule due to my brother’s changing shifts at work. It’s unfortunate that I am a light sleeper, that any light noise wakes me up and keeps me up for some time.

I finally finished Catch-22 late last week, and all I have to say about that book is that it’s confusing. It’s probably a more enjoyable read for people who enjoy reading anti-war books; not to say that I like reading pro-war books, but that genre in general isn’t of interest to me. Plus, the whole book itself was a huge contradiction/Catch-22. That was probably the whole point of the book; well, it was decent enough to read for a month, but I probably won’t go back and read it again anytime soon. I’m back to reading some nonfiction this time around; a couple of self-help books to shake things up.

I’m hoping I’ll be able to update a little more this month due to the Writo De Mayo challenge. I need to pull together more motivation to get this writing done. I have no problems writing daily entries at my other blogs, but somehow, I just can’t muster enough strength to get back to writing fiction. Gotta keep plowing through somehow.

Categories
Slice of Life

The First of May.

I woke up late today to a different world: outside, there was rain, which is not so common for San Francisco at this point in the year. The temperature wasn’t too bad, but after awhile, the wind picked up.

It was as if the rain came around to wash away the worries and stress of the month of April, and starting off the month of May with new life. I suppose May showers are better than April ones.

Categories
challenge community poetry

End of the Poem-A-Day Challenge

Well, I managed to pull through the finish line by catching up on my log of poems last night. I wrote my last poem this morning, and felt a sense of accomplishment wash over me. Sure, most of the poems I wrote this month for the Poem-A-Day Challenge were really rough (I didn’t go back and revise any of them before I posted them on the Poetic Asides Blog), but just knowing I pulled through–it’s an accomplishment regardless. Just like the whole spirit of NaNoWriMo really, except, well, the rough drafts are shown to the writing world.

Here are a couple of my works-in-progress from the challenge; they’re from prompts for 1) writing a haiku, and 2) writing a sestina, respectively. On those days, we were to choose between two prompts: to either write in those styles, or write about them. I chose the second option for both days.

—————————————–

“How to say it?”
Pronunciation is the key
Hey, Ku,
No, no, HI Coo
Hay, Q?
No, not balloon.
Haiku.

—————————————–

“What?”
Honest to goodness
Call me ignorant, but yes
I don’t even know.

—————————————–

More or less, I found it ironic/amusing that I managed to write a haiku for the day I was supposed to write a sestina.

Well, it was at least fun to participate in the whole challenge, even if I did fall behind most of the time. Now, onto May and Writo de Mayo.

Categories
editing goals rant

More on Goals & Editing Pet Peeves

May is just around the corner, which causes for me to feel anxious about re-evaluating my time and my goals. I’ve probably been in this steady state of doing little-to-no writing because I haven’t been focusing on concrete goals lately. Instead of saying “I will write for xx minutes today,” I’ve just been thinking “I need to write, period.”

It’s not much of a motivation booster if you ask me. All those goal-setting worksheets, articles, etc. that I’ve read/worked on over the years have always said, “Make your goals concrete and realistic.” I thought maybe the Poem-A-Day Challenge would kick me up from my writing rut a bit, but I’ve fallen behind on the challenge a lot this month. Perhaps it’s a sign that I’m not quite as interested in poetry as I’d like to be.

On another note, lately I’ve noticed that one of my big writing/reading pet peeves is when supposed professionals make bad typos/grammar mistakes. It happens to the best of us, but where was the editor or peer before the article/writing went out? I find that when I edit others’ works, sometimes I’ll notice the grammar/spelling mistakes more than the actual writing itself. It bothers me that much–I remember reading a paper in college for peer review and I felt in true disbelief about how my colleague was able to even gain admission into college. Really, the paper was poorly written–a lot of run-on sentences, grammatical errors, etc.–I felt bad when I gave the paper back to my peer because it had all red marks over it.

Meanwhile, this leads into another pet peeve of mine: when I ask for constructive criticism from others, but they simply return my draft back saying “Wow, really good” or “Nothing needs to be changed” or something else along those lines. Often times, these people might just be too lazy to say much or really put effort into the editing process; other times, they might be so clouded in judgment (and maybe automatically put a halo over my work) that they tend to not see the loopholes I’ve left in my draft. The most helpful writing advice often borders harsh, yet has enough evidence to back up the criticism. I’d rather someone tell me what I need to work on more than to tell me that I don’t need to change anything anymore. I know I’m not a perfect writer, and, in general, everyone always has something they can improve upon.

Categories
challenge change goals Who I Am

A Quiet Note (Nightmares, Catch-up, etc.)

Since Friday, I’ve been having nightmares, and I already know the reason why they’ve been occurring. A lot of things have been unsettling in my day-to-day life, and I’m under a considerable amount of stress trying to make decisions.

I fell behind on the whole Poem-A-Day Challenge this past week due to other things going on (excuses, excuses). Yesterday, I managed to catch up to Day 16; most of the poems have been tepid still, but just have to keep writing. I had also fell behind on my Cinnamon Juice Blog, but I caught up for the most part. Yesterday was the only day all weekend that I was able to sit down properly and write for quite a bit. I have a feeling days like yesterday may be far and few for awhile.

And that’s about it for now; April will wrap up in ten days, so I wonder if I’ll be ready for May’s challenges by the end of next week. These past two months have been difficult in terms of producing new stories/motivation for rewriting. But, can’t feel any regret from the “time lost”; just keep moving forward.