Welp

Well, squiders, I’m still not done with Uglies. I thought this would be fairly easy since it’s YA and not terribly long, but sometimes with YA I just don’t connect to the main character very well and then it slows everything down.

Or it could just be a sign of my general state of mind. Who knows! Making progress now, though, so soon.

I’ve also finally made some progress on working on World’s Edge as well. Not much, not what I was hoping for, but sometimes, taking that first step, especially after you haven’t worked on a draft in a while, is the hardest.

I’ve set a goal of 25,000 words on it for Camp starting tomorrow.

Camp Nanowrimo has always been very hit or miss for me. It doesn’t carry the same creative energy that sweeps through a normal Nano. There’s not the in-person stuff, and it’s not as many people. Plus the cabin set-up makes it so you really only have a few people that it’s easy to regularly interact with.

So my Camp history is very spotty. Generally I manage about 10,000 words, no matter what my goal is or what I’m working on. Sometimes I don’t do anything at all, and sometimes I manage 25,000 or more.

I think I can manage 25,000, but I do need to put some sort of schedule into place. I know from experience that if I try to just get to it eventually sometime in the day, it doesn’t happen.

In other news, I’m still playing podcast catch-up. I got a little burnt out on Myths and Legends–turns out 100 episodes of something, when you’re listening to several episodes a week, gets old–so I’m working on some of the other ones that weren’t quite as far behind.

I’m going to talk about two here–Start With This and Inn Between.

Start With This is by the Night Vale creators, talking about creativity and writing. It’s geared toward making your own podcast, but a lot of their tips are general to story telling in general. And it’s nice, just going back over things, as well as learning things that are not necessarily useful for prose but are interesting nevertheless. Knowledge! It is beautiful. And it helps to know that they, too, have issues with anxiety and periods where creating is hard.

Inn Between is a fantasy podcast that takes place at the inn in between adventures. So you don’t hear the adventures so much (unless they follow the characters into the inn) but it’s a really interesting look at character dynamics and a neat twist on the genre. I’m a little behind (at the end of what came out in 2020) and apparently we’re getting new characters for season 3, which makes me a bit sad because I’m very attached to the original characters now.

Well, that’s me! Off to make plans for success, and I shall see you all on Friday. Maybe with a book for discussion! We shall see.

AWOL

Hey, squiders, sorry I’ve been AWOL for the last week. Things have been…stressful.

I keep hoping that my productivity will make a return, but the fact of the matter is that my anxiety is high and I’m finding it really hard to create right now.

Uglies for next Tuesday, hopefully.

Landsquid for today.

I remembered to shade this time.

I hope you guys are doing okay.

Getting Things Done, Kit?

You know, having a website is entirely too much work. Is it too much to ask that it just exists and doesn’t break?

Apparently.

March has been a month, and not a good one. Nothing terrible, just a lot of little things (okay, and one big thing) that are making it hard to concentrate. I would like to say I’m making mounds of progress, making up for a lousy February.

I’m certainly making MORE progress. Is it a reasonable amount?

No, probably not.

It’s frustrating, but I’m trying not to beat myself up about it too much. But part of me wonders when the heck I’m going to get my act together. It’s not like I’m lacking the time in which to work, but I’m not using my time well.

For example, I had two hours this morning to myself, in which I intended to write some on World’s Edge. Instead I made the mistake of checking Discord and got sucked into a trivia competition (which I did end up winning, so there’s that at least).

No writing has occurred.

I have read back through World’s Edge and done some plot work, including overall themes and what needs to happen next. I’m ready to write whenever I actually do it, I guess.

I’m making better progress on my SkillShare class. Admittedly, this one follows one of the Writers’ Motivation series pretty closely, so I’m not reinventing the wheel.

Hm. Snowing again.

Even so, making the class is going slower than I would like. And I haven’t gotten my beta feedback on Book One yet, so I’m still waiting on that.

I’m frustrated at myself. I know I can do better–and more consistent–work than this.

Tips, squiders? Random, vague encouragement?

March ArtSnacks

Here we are, again! But I did actually cancel my subscription this time, so this is the last one. For now.

All in all, I feel like the ArtSnacks was a decent subscription for the price. I got a lot of things I wouldn’t have picked up or tried otherwise. And it’s been fun each month to try and incorporate the different colors and mediums into a cohesive picture.

Maybe in a few months I’ll resubscribe and get some more stuff. We’ll see!

Anyway, here’s this month’s picture:

A bit more stylistic than normal, but I like it, at least.

Let’s go through the thing.

Plumchester Paint Marker
Mine’s kinda an aqua green, which is one of my favorite colors, hooray! I got another one of these in an earlier box. This one felt a little hard to get good color coverage, but I may just need to pump it more. (It’s acrylic paint.) I guess they got new colors so they sent them out again.

Chameleon Color Tones Colored Pencil
This is a double-ended colored pencil–mine is peach and darker peach–and I guess they’re designed to blend together perfectly. It’s a nice color pencil, and the colors do go together nicely. I already have a nice peach-colored pencil, though.

KUM CUB3 Pencil Sharpener
This is a really nice pencil sharpener, and I did need one. Super excited for this, as silly as that sounds. It fits multiple sizes and can work on both pencils and crayons. Also, it’s made of eco-friendly plastic.

Kuretake-ZIG ai Liner Brush Pen
This is a black brush pen, apparently fashioned after eyeliner. Probably not the best idea, since they had to include a warning not to actually use it AS eyeliner. The ink didn’t flow quite as fast as I wanted it to, meaning I had to go over my lines a few times. I definitely prefer the Sakura brush pens, but one can really never have too many, amirite?

ArtSnacks x Blackwing Pencil
It’s ArtSnacks’ 8th birthday! Happy birthday to them. They made these custom pencils for everyone. I sharpened mine with my new pencil sharpener, and they have a cool flat eraser that I can see being useful for more careful erasing situations.

As I said, I’ve had fun with the ArtSnacks! I’d definitely do it again sometime. But for now I’m happy to play with what I have, though I will miss the anticipation. Maybe now I need to find a different sort of challenge, one where you’re tasked to use the materials you have in new ways.

How are you, squider?

WriYe and Revision (Again)

Well, it’s March, and March continues to be connected to NaNoEdMo, even though it’s dead. (And every March, I’m not revising. Well, I might get there later in the month. Or not.)

I feel like we do some variation of this prompt every March, and since this is my third year of doing the WriYe blog prompts, well, I guess if you want more info, check previous Marchs.

Explain your revision process. Do you go through multiple stages of editing?

I’ve talked about it before, but basically I spend a bunch of time looking at the story as it is, then solidifying my arcs and plot lines, and making notes about what needs to be fixed. Then I RE-outline everything and essentially re-write the entire story, even re-typing scenes that are not changing.

I realize this is an inefficient way to work, but I find the story sits better in my head if I work through the whole thing from start to finish. Also, it allows me to take note of issues on a line level, such as repetitive wording or filtering, which gives me less work in the end.

After I finish my major edit, I tend to read the whole thing out loud, which helps me find any weird flow things, fix dialogue, find typoes that I’ve previously missed, etc.

I don’t typically edit again after that, aside from smaller fixes.

Or just one and then leave the rest to the professionals? Do you/will you use professional editors?

As a freelance editor, I recognize the value that having someone else–especially someone else who knows what they’re talking about–look at your work. That being said, I don’t tend to use professional editors myself, mostly because I can’t afford to and partially because I can self-edit fairly decently.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using beta readers and critique partners in place of professional editors. You will need to gauge if you’re getting value out out it, of course–not all feedback is created equal–but if you can’t afford an editor, it’s not the end of the world.

Of course, on the other hand, sometimes it’s easier to use a professional editor than beta readers/critique partners. Oftentimes, betas/CPs are part of an exchange thing–you look at mine, I’ll look at yours–which means you need to have the time to look at someone else’s work too, and betas/CPs aren’t always the most reliable people, so you may find yourself waiting a while, or forever, for feedback. A good professional editor will get feedback to you when they say they will.

So, really, using them or not is up to your personal circumstances. My advice is to edit yourself before you hire an editor. You don’t want to distract an editor with things you could have fixed yourself. And make sure you’ve done your research, and that the editor you’re working with understands what sort of feedback you’re looking for.

That turned into more of a lecture than personal experience, so, uh, sorry!

Anyway, see you guys on Friday!

Moving Forward

Hi, squiders! Sorry about missing Tuesday. It’s been kind of a rough week, but I don’t really have an excuse.

But anyway, we’re in to March! Crazy, right? I know everyone’s focused on how it’s been a year since the world essentially turned upset down, but isn’t that insane? I can remember the last time I did a number of things–we went to the movies on March 8, to the theater on March 12, out to dinner on March 14. No one thought we would still be here a year later, not then.

ANYWAY.

February was a loss, really–I did write some alternative openings for Book One, but with the waiting on feedback and my inability to focus, not much else got done.

Last thing I want is for March to go that way as well. And it could–I am still waiting on feedback. But I’ve come up with a solution.

Do you remember World’s Edge? I worked on it for Nanowrimo in 2019. (Lots of info there, if you’re interested–character pics and worldbuilding and the works.) As a refresher, it follows Marit, who’s taken passage on a ship to escape something back home–a ship that’s attempting an ocean passage no one has successfully made in centuries.

I finished up Nano with about 55K out of a planned 100K.

So, Kit, you might ask, how does this solve anything?

Well, World’s Edge takes place in the same world as the Trilogy and hence, Book One. About 700 years before hand, yes, but same world nonetheless. Which means I can work on completing this draft of World’s Edge without getting too far from the Trilogy, which means, when I have everything I need (and find a direction), it won’t be too hard to switch gears back to revision on Book One.

And I’ll be doing something instead of going insane.

Of course, now I have to figure out where I was and what I was doing. I’ve read back through the current draft. It cuts off rather abruptly, but really I should expect that by now. Hopefully by going through my outline and notes I’ll be able to pick everything back up and get going.

World’s Edge was on my list of things to do this year anyway.

So! Onward!

What are you working on this month, squider?