Categories
#amwriting contest editing New Year reflection

After the holidays;

Sorry I was away for the past two weeks. I spent time back in my hometown with my family and didn’t spend much time on the computer at all. I suppose that’s how holidays are supposed to be spent, right?

Well, with the holiday and the time away from the computer, I also didn’t get much progress done on outlining my novel. I’m aiming to enter the novel into the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award on February 2, so I need to really get going on my editing and revising. I need to get the novel in decent shape for submission.

Another new year is here, and during the final hours of 2008, I was thinking about what I wanted to achieve for 2009. A lot of things happened during 2008, both good and bad; however, as you can see, I survived from all the experiences and managed to learn so much from the past year. I looked over my 101 list I had started last January, and it just amazed me to see the difference in my goals then and my goals now.

It seemed like July was a changing point in my life, since I last glimpsed at my 101 list at that point, and that was also when I was last enthusiastic about posting in this blog and other places online. Will it be the same again this year?

Well, I hope that with this new year that there will be many more changes and experiences to learn from. Cheers to you all for a good 2009.

Categories
Busride Observations observation transportation

Bus drivers, courtesy, "the other side"

While on the bus today, I began to think about things relating to my many busrides and such. Ever since I began commuting to work by 7:30 or so, I notice how I have come to recognize the morning bus drivers and almost the exact times of arrival at my stop.

I was thinking these things, and thinking about others and courtesy. On Tuesday, the bus driver had trouble with making the left turn from Hyde onto Market (that turn is already very tricky). As a result, the driver disconnected the bus from the electrical power lines and, despite attempting to reconnect the bus to the lines, had to tell us all to migrate to the bus behind us. I felt so bad for the driver, although I guess the bus drivers have to deal with situations like this every day.

Anyway, today I caught the bus with the same bus driver, and I greeted him as usual. But, the bus disconnected again today, this time on Fulton and 8th Avenue; I was afraid that we would have to change buses again and again felt bad for the bus driver. Luckily, this time the bus driver was able to keep the bus’s cords connected to the power lines, so we made it downtown safely.

During the bus ride, I was thinking about those situations, and thinking about how hard the bus drivers do work. Yes, some of them may supposedly have “ego problems”, but then again, aren’t they human, too? Still, in the end, they do work pretty hard, and often times passengers are not so appreciative of the bus drivers.

For instance, when I traveled to Colorado a few weeks ago, I boarded a bus from the airport and honestly told the bus driver, “I’m sorry, I do not have small change for the bus.” Instead of being cruel and making me pay $20 for a $7 commuter ride, the bus driver decided he would collect others’ bus fares by hand in order to break the $20 I had. This slowed down the boarding, of course, but it was the driver’s choice to do this.

Well, while he was collecting the fare from other passengers, one guy boarded the bus and almost didn’t pay if the bus driver hadn’t told the guy to stop. “Oh, I thought we didn’t have to pay anymore; I didn’t know it’d take so long to board a stupid bus these days,” said the guy. Of course this statement made the bus driver angry, and he turned to look at me while he responded to the rude passenger, “Well, you know, there are other passengers on this bus besides you.” The passenger didn’t get the hint and just said, “Yeah, whatever.”

It made me feel extremely bad for the driver to know that he was doing me this favor, and then he received crap from another passenger because of his kindness.

Why is it that people do stuff like that though? I mean, to not understand from another person’s point of view. I’m certainly not saying I ALWAYS think about things from another person’s point of view. But, really, when I think about it–I’ve been at both ends of situations like these, and I am sure everyone has experienced both sides as well. Some may choose not to notice it, though, and go on with their lives not even thinking about how things are from “the other side”.

Categories
#amwriting editing Facebook Internet list Twitter

Taking the Next Step–

Thanks for the feedback on my entry about what I should do to self-promote for my writings/novels. For those of you who follow my Twitter, you may have noticed my Tweet about what I plan to do within the next couple of weeks or so:

  • New email account – I would set up my official email through this new account, just so I won’t be receiving a huge amount of mail at my two existing (personal) email accounts. All writing related mail would go to this account.
  • Set up a Facebook Page – I have been researching ways I can get around creating a personal profile on Facebook again (as you can see, I am really trying hard to avoid that option); apparently, I can just create a “Business” account and I could create a Page for myself. However, I’m hesitant in doing this right away, since I’m not sure I would qualify for a Page; Facebook states that they do not usually check the Pages that are created (unless they infringe upon copyright or privacy issues).
  • Writing Blog – Along with the new email account, I would create another blog specifically for my writing and thoughts about writing. I will probably post short stories and maybe some excerpts from longer works. However, I have heard from a friend that if I intend on getting published through agencies, I cannot post any of my novels online since that would be considered “self-publishing”.
  • Domain? – I’m still questioning this option. For the longest time (well, ever since I began using the Internet as a tween/young teenager), I had wanted to buy my own domain. Of course, back-in-the-day, I didn’t really have real use for a domain, it just seemed cool. Now that I am actually presented with the opportunity to have my own domain to establish myself online as a writer….well, I am a little scared at the thought. Do I want my real name plastered around the Internet? I suppose I could go for a pen name, but I don’t really fancy that idea right now (plus, I was mildly traumatized in the past with having pen names and having family members embarrass me with how ridiculous the names were). Anyway, I am also a little stuck on which domain registration service to go with–GoDaddy or Dreamhost? Any other suggestions?
  • Twitter – I’m already on Twitter obviously, but I suppose it would be helpful to have a separate Twitter for my writing updates…right?

These are all tentative plans of course; even though I want to get started on everything right away, I also want to make sure I am making the right decisions as to where I would launch my presence.

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In other news, I have begun looking over Novel 1 and outlining the chapters. I notice that many of the scenes so far have moved too fast, and some of the chapters have been too short. However, I still feel amazed that I was able to write this whole novel last November; at that point in time, I hadn’t written anything creative in quite awhile. It had been so long since I actually wrote anything that even my closest friends were surprised to hear that I was writing a novel.

Anyway, I still feel surprised and impressed at the prose that I did manage to write during that point in my life; if I compare the two works I completed this year with Novel 1, I feel like they pale in comparison with that novel. Well, then again, all three novels are still first drafts, so…there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Plus, Novel 2 and 3 were written from guys’ standpoints, which is difficult for me right now since I am a woman.

Well, it just takes practice.

Categories
Life Decisions

Turning off upon two paths:

As cliche as it may sound, let’s say you have two paths to choose from along the way.

One road is one that you’re very familiar with, one that you’ve traveled many many times and just know it all too well. Have it down in a routine, nothing really shakes it up: life is life, and it can be quite predictable.

The other road, however, causes fear within you, yet it also seems enticing. Risky, but what are the rewards? The rewards are much richer than what you would get if you chose the easy way.

Of course, there are consequences with either roads, as with any other choice in life. But which one would you rather take for the sake of the other?

In one hand, you hold something safe; in the other, you hold something that could potentially be dangerous, but seems to yield bigger rewards.

Which one would you choose?

Hypothetically speaking, of course, but it’s something we all deal with too often in our lives. We see two paths that our decisions could take (sometimes even more than two paths); to take that leap of faith and trust your gut to go with the “road less traveled” (oh, Frost)–often times it is well worth it.

I find myself dealing with these two paths a lot these days; to choose the easy way out, go on in life as it normally goes; or, I could shake things up, no matter how many naysayers I hear discouraging me.

To let fear hold me back–well, that’d just be silly, really. I realize that fear is all in the imagination, really. If I just get rid of the excuses and the paralyzing fear of failure or risk or whatnot–well, I find that I end up faring well in the end anyway.

Categories
change Facebook Internet Myspace NaNoWriMo Work in Progress

Clicking in; completed novels.

Yes, yes, I know, it has been awhile since I last posted. I had meant to post during the month of November to keep you all updated on my NaNoWriMo progress, but, due to the extreme amount of words I was typing every day, I guess I didn’t think to post blog entries in my spare time.

Well, it is hard to believe, but already the end of the year 2008 is upon us all. I had tried to keep with Blog365 the whole year, and I suppose I should pat myself on the back for keeping up with a post-a-day for more than half of the year (through July). That’s a big accomplishment, so..can’t be sad that I didn’t post so well during the rest of the year.

Besides, a lot of things ended up changing and causing some turmoil from August up until now. Even now, though, changes continue to happen, and I find myself lacking a lot of free time. But, I cannot complain really, since these days life is much more enjoyable than before.

Something exciting to share, by the way: I recently completed the novel that I had begun in January of this year, which means I am up to three completed novels. Granted, these novels are all still first drafts, but I would like to see them all published soon. Since I have completed these projects, the next step is to start the editing/revising phase of Novel 1.

Word has spread that I write novels, so it seems like I already have a small core of a fanbase going. I can’t quite decide how I should go about in establishing an “online presence” for my writer identity; I used to have Myspace and Facebook, but of course, we already know what happened with those accounts. I’m not sure if I should create new accounts at either sites (or at any social networking site for that matter) for my professional identity; I’m wondering if I will become tired of the scene again if I do so. I’ve heard some suggestions thrown about on the NaNoWriMo forums about creating blogs for my protagonists, to keep fans excited/at bay before the initial release of my completed work.

I definitely don’t want everyone to lose interest if too much time passes. So, I would like some feedback from others about what would be the best way to go about doing self-promotion for my books and my general identity as a writer.