Tia Silverthorne Bach's Blog, page 78

Frenzy and the Muse: ROW80 and #writemotivation Updates

They are called challenges for a reason. I find I've challenged myself into quite the frenzied state. Add blogging daily to my two writing challenges (see updates on those below) and mix... a guaranteed recipe for frenzy. Oh, and let's not forget I'm writing a follow up to Depression Cookies and working on my first YA novel.

So what happened last night?

A dream.

Not just any dream, but a dream inspiring a new story. Normally I have very vivid dreams, but this one was shadowy. I woke up and remembered little, except this: She was only eighteen, but she was the new queen and desperate to find her king. The fate of her world and Earth depended on it.

Are you kidding me?

I can barely find time to write the two I'm working on, much less start obsessing over a new one.

But, thus is my muse-driven life.

So, with all this energy and determination (and commitment) to write, how did I do this last week. Well...

A Round of Words in 80 Days

Writing: My goal is to write 500 words a day minimum, my test mile. Since Wednesday, I've written 0 words toward my WIP. I've done some outlining and mental planning, but zero words. UGH! Yet, I've written a total of 1,195 words for blog posts.

I'm starting to believe the muse only gives me so many words a day, and the blog posts are sucking them away. I need to dedicate my #teamsprinty #ROW80 wordsprints to my WIPs only. (I did one on Friday, but needed to finish an editing project).

Editing: Speaking of editing, I finished another project and ready to start on more. I'm hoping to really kick it into high gear in May, so I can ease back in June.

Blogging: Daily, thanks to Blogathon and BlogHer's NaBloPoMo. My favorite this week: Five Reasons I Try Things that Terrify Me. Now I just need to keep taking my own advice and write these novels. Yes, I'm terrified of failure, but you can't win if you don't begin!

Social Media: This is where the challenges overwhelm me. I want to get around to as many blogs as possible, but with it's near to impossible. I loved A to Z and couldn't visit nearly as many as I wished. It's frustrating. I end up visiting people who visit me first and then trying to visit more.

Reading: I read a great, but demanding, book recently. Although I enjoyed it, it took way too much out of me mentally. I need a light read, and quick! This book, which I will review this week on Mom in Love with Fiction, jumped all over time and included lots of science and technology details.

Exercise: Today is No Diet Day, but I shall not let that deter me. ;-) Still running and trying to avoid sugar.

Write Motivation

1. Write a minimum of five days a week for a total of 2,500 words on my works in progress.
Well, darn it. I wrote five days, but only 500 words of it was for my WIP. Must. Do. Better.

2. Get current novel, Depression Cookies, up on Smashwords by month's end.
Still working on this goal, and I should meet it early. Dare I say.

3. Read a book every 10 days, plus at least one craft book in the month of May.
On goal, but need to start a craft book soon.

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I will survive May, and I am determined to learn from it. One thing I've already figured out... June and July are novel-writing months. My blog will be relegated to 3-4 times a week postings if it kills me. I need to devote my writing muse to my novels.

How's everyone else doing this month?

Saturday Snippets

I love blog challenges, but posting daily for most of the last year has been equal parts fulfilling and exhausting. I've promised Mom we will finish our Depression Cookies follow-up this year. It will take focus and all my extra creative juices.

My goal is to post on the following schedule this summer to see how it goes:

Monday--Open Theme
Wednesday--Writing Theme / ROW80 Updates
Friday--Fun Facts Friday
Sunday -- ROW80 Updates

Funny, even as I typed this, I found myself hesitating. Since May of last year, I have posted 369 times. But the first step to beating an addiction is admitting it, right? I think I just might be addicted to posting. 

I digress... during Blogathon, I'm going to have snippets of interesting things I've seen or read on Saturdays.

Today's Saturday Snippets

National Scrapbooking Day

Today is National Scrapbooking day. I love these odd "holidays" created by some wonderful committee of creative types. Or at least that's how I imagine it. I'd love to come up with a few special days myself. Possible post idea? I think so.

I tried scrapbooking with my first baby, but quickly lost momentum. It's a lot of work. Yet, I love seeing the story created by a scrapbooked page. Then again, I'm addicted to storytelling.

One of these days, when I discover the secret of creating more time, I might try scrapbooking again.

Are you a scrapbooker? What's your favorite part?

Grammar Funny


Have a wonderful Saturday and Cinco de Mayo!

A New Way to Choose Books: Whichbook.net

Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I found the coolest new tool: Whichbook.

From their site:
If you're not good at remembering book titles, or if you are the sort of reader who likes to choose by browsing round a little and seeing what tempts you, Whichbook is the perfect solution to help you find what you are looking for.

Everyone has their favourite writers who can be trusted to deliver the goods. But there are thousands of books out there. One of those might satisfy you even more but how can you tell? Whichbook enables you to search for a book that up to now may only have existed in your own mind! Move the sliders to express what you’re looking for and see what comes up. Scroll down to see all the books which match your chosen sliders or click Find similar to see books which match the specific title most closely. If you don't fancy any of the books offered, change your choices and try again - there are millions of different individual permutations possible.
Every title on Whichbook has been read by one of a changing team of 70 people who are drawn from libraries and literature organisations and come together to share training to create the entries. The ratings and comments are created by real readers who care about books.
In choosing titles for the site, we concentrate on the books people won’t find by themselves and go for the widest range possible. Books must be fiction or poetry, written or translated into English and published in the last 10 years. We don’t include the biggest bestsellers as everyone knows about them already (though sometimes we’ll have added a book before it became a bestseller!) We do include lots of intriguing and less well-known titles. If you’d like to suggest a book to be included please contact us.
I love to find books off the beaten path, and I loved playing with this tool. Whichbook lets readers choose various attributes they are looking for in a book, including: happy/sad, funny/serious, safe/disturbing, expected/unpredictable, and many more. Or, you can choose based on character, setting, and plot options. I could literally sit and play with this for hours on end.
For fun, I put in funny, unpredictable, beautiful, and demanding... this was my result:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Book Summary: This book is full of every delight that a novel could possibly offer. A mystery, a strange adventure, a tender coming of age drama, set in a city dense with people and tragedy and weather. The book is full of powerful ideas, glittering humour and packed with startling characters. It takes you to a real place, and lets you right in to its heart.

Then, I used the character, plot, setting feature with female, generations, USA South for this top result:

The Orange Blossom Special by Betsy Carter

Book Summary: A warm and deceptively light story of recently widowed Tess coming to terms with bringing up her daughter without her husband. Set in Florida in the sixties, it deals with bereavement, love, friendship and prejudice. The characters are believable and warm despite their flaws and eccentricities.

I can't wait to try these two out. If I like them, I'll definitely be using Whichbook more often.

How do you choose books? 

Five Reasons I Try Things that Terrify Me

We all have fears. Some of them are legitimate and founded; those are ones we have tried and have reasoning to dislike or avoid. Others are based on assumptions or influence. Those are the ones I like to tackle. I don't want unwarranted fear holding me back.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.Eleanor Roosevelt
Five Reasons I Try Things that Terrify Me

Living
What's the point of life if we don't try new things? It's easy to build fear of the unknown, but it can only become known if you try it. That doesn't mean we should ignore our gut... I'm okay with never trying bungee-jumping.

Growth
I like to grow and expand my interests, because I think it makes me a better person. Every day I learn something new, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Some things I don't like, and some I love. But I hope to constantly be adding to both lists. Sometimes knowing what you DO NOT like is as important as knowing what you do.

Children
I don't want my fears to automatically become theirs. I want them to see me embrace life (responsibly and with preparation, of course), so they do. As a mom, it's so much more about what we show them than what we tell them.

Success
Few things impede success like the fear of failure. If you constantly look over your shoulder, you can't see the opportunities that lie ahead. (So much easier said than done.)

Regret
None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, so I don't want to assume there will be another day to overcome my fears. Today is as good as any.

If you are afraid of heights, I'm not suggesting you climb Mt. Everest. Although I'd certainly be impressed. Just don't let that fear keep you from climbing to the top row to see you child's college graduation.

There are certainly universal fears... like losing a child. I don't know a parent who doesn't legitimately have that fear. Or maybe it's losing a parent.

Why do you face your fears? What are you afraid of?

Speeding By: ROW80 Check In

What about A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) makes Sunday to Wednesday go by in such a flash?! Actually the whole round is scooting by too quickly.

I have a brief update since I'm posting daily for Blogathon (and other challenges) this month. Normally I'd include the ROW80 update in a post, but I've been trying to write posts ahead.

My Update

Writing: Only 516 words since Sunday. But to be fair, I spent six hours in a car on Tuesday (coming back from a quick trip to North Carolina to meet with friends, family, and clients). I hope to make Thursday and Friday #teamsprinty #row80 wordsprints this week.

Blogging: Like crazy. I will post one a day here in May. Mom in Love with Fiction may have to suffer a bit this month.

Editing: Back to it. I hope to spend an hour tomorrow and Friday focused on client editing.

Social Media: Some days it feels like I'll never get around to all the blogs I want to. But I'm trying. Honestly.

Reading: Can't. Keep. My. Eyes. Open. Lately.

Exercise: Still getting up at 5:30am two days a week to run plus one long run. I'm happy.

I hope my ROW80 friends are kicking it. Check out their awesomeness here.

There's a Poet Within All of Us

Poetry terrifies me. It's not for the faint of heart or soul. The scariest part of last year's Blogathon was the Haiku day. Instead of facing my fear, I wimped out and asked Mom, a multi-published poet, to write it.

This past weekend, I attended a poetry reading lead by my cousin, Marty Silverthorne*. After he finished reading, someone asked him why he wrote poetry. He simply said, "Because I was good at it." He talked about trying to write a short story, but not being able to come up with the words. Yet, I feared poetry for the same reason.

I think the problem is how I define poetry: a specifically structured and obscure string of words meant to invoke great emotion and insight. 

In reality, poetry is a "form of literary art that uses the aesthetic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning." Really, isn't all writing poetry? All writers manipulate words to evoke meaning and themes, and along the way find a rhythm and flow.

So this year, I will be tackling the haiku all by myself (look for it on May 21st). I promise to do my best not to sully the term poetry... too much.

For your amusement, I ran across three poems I had published in high school (I wrote them as part of a mandatory English assignment).

Rain
The rain
Falling slowly
Finally meets the ground
Carrying the fallen
Dead leaves onward

Wind
The wind blows harshly
Hoping to wake the people
To the sun's first light

Hell
I told the Lord I want to go
Where I can still see lovely snow,
Hear the buzzing bees,
And smell the pine trees.
I will be without these below.

My favorite... Hell. Anyone who knows me or has read this blog for awhile knows I hate snow. The one upside to Hell for me would be the lack of snow.

Are you intimidated by poetry, either writing it or reading it?

* Marty's poetry has been featured on my blog before:  A Family Steeped in Creative Arts and Celebrating the Ties that Bind.

Maniac May & Time for Blogathon

The month of May is bringing out the maniac in me. But for good reason...

Although I officially started this blog on January 1, 2011, I didn't focus on it until I joined May 2011's WordCount Blogathon. It was exactly the kickstart I needed, and I will forever be grateful to its leader, Michelle Rafter, and all the wonderful bloggers I met.

It's a year later, and I am thrilled to again participate in WordCount Blogathon 2012! The goal is to post every day in the month of May.

But to further challenge myself before my crazy lovely children invade my home end school in June, I am also doing #writemotivation and BlogHer's NaBloPoMo (theme = Play) this month. This in addition to A Round of Words in 80 Days. For more information on any of these challenges, please click on their links.

Crazy for me, but should be interesting for my readers!

I hope you'll join me this Month to see what I come up with. If you are stopping for the first time from any of these, please say Hi in the comments and I will visit you back.

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Details about #writemotivation, from K.T. Hanna's The Scribble Muse blog:
1. Make a list of realistic goals for the month – and achieve them.
2. Make a Blog Post every week (preferably Monday, but if you don’t post on Mondays just add it to the next day you would normally post ). This is to help us keep tabs on our own progress, and for others to cheer us on if it’s a difficult week. Please link to the post in the #writemotivation hashtag
3. Visit your #writemotivation team mates blogs, and participate in the #writemotivation hashtag to cheer people on

My May Goals
1. Write a minimum of five days a week for a total of 2,500 words on my works in progress.
2. Get current novel, Depression Cookies, up on Smashwords by month's end.
3. Read a book every 10 days, plus at least one craft book in the month of May.

I will do #writemotivation check ins with my ROW80 ones on Sundays.

Zero Zig-Zagging to Zenith = Z: Blogging from A to Z

Zenith (noun)
1. the point on the celestial sphere vertically above a given position or observer. 2. a highest point or state; culmination


The A to Z journey is like most of my writing journeys. You start at zero, and hope through creative inspiration you can reach something close to a zenith. What started with A, has now reached Z.

Writing is a journey with many ebbs and flows, or zigs and zags. On any given day, I believe I've reached a high point only to want to accomplish more or to be sidelined by an obstacle. The best parts are really the zig-zagging, the moments of learning and growing.
I think one of the reasons people quit is because they're afraid they won't be able to get better and better; that they have to come to a zenith of some kind. Conrad Hall
I'll strive for the zenith, but focus on the journey.

Speaking of journeys, it's hard to pick my favorite posts from this month, because each one taught me something. Here are the top five according to page views and comments:

C = Corner of Crazy & Creative
G = Grammar
I = Isn't it Ironic?
K = Kick It or Kiss It
M = Mauling Malapropism

I've so enjoyed the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. A special thanks to the hosts:
Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out,
Alex J. Cavanaugh,
Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs,
Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report,
Matthew McNish at The QQQE,
Tina Downey at Life is Good,
Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie,
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude,
Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse,
Elizabeth Mueller,
Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs,
Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain,
Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small

I'll definitely be joining again next year! Will you?

Mirror Mirror: ROW80 Update

Tonight I took my baby girl to see Mirror Mirror . I am quite the fan of fairy tales, and love to see them retold. My daughters and I watch Once Upon a Time together, so I was really looking forward to another Snow White saga.

Seeing age old fairy tales revisited and different spins on classic tales gives me hope as a writer. I'm always worried that my ideas aren't original enough, and I don't want to do what's already been done.
What I have to remember is that no two people, much less authors, see life through the same lenses. Even if we came up with the same story, we bring to it our own experiences and emotions. Snow White is a basic tale, but look what it has spawned. In addition to the television show and Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman is slated to hit theaters on June 1, 2012.

I say bring on the fairy tales. I'm looking forward to all the interpretations, and I love the reminder that we all have a tale to tell.

FYI: I love Once Upon a Time, but I was only mildly entertained by Mirror Mirror.

My ROW80 Update

A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) is the writing challenge that knows you have a life. Participants set goals and check in on Sundays and Wednesdays for support and encouragement.

Writing: Thanks to another #teamsprinty #ROW80 wordsprint (Monday-Friday, 2:00-3:00pm EST), I logged 1,128 words since Wednesday's check in. Not stellar, but I'll take it!!

Editing: Sent off my first beta read comments. I haven't heard back yet, so I hope I didn't scare her away.

Blogging: A to Z ends tomorrow, and it's been a blast. In case you missed these... Writing Wanderlust = W, Xanthippe & Xenophon = X, and Yakety Yak = Y.

Social Media: Still in catch-up mode.

Reading: My head has been hitting the pillow hard the last few days, so I've slowed down.

Exercise:  Running going well, but food is not. I'm visiting my mother this weekend... need I explain further?

Hoping all my ROW80 friends, and anyone else trying to meet goals, are doing well!

Yakety Yak = Y: Blogging from A to Z

I am a woman surrounded by women. As the oldest of three girls and now mom to three daughters, my life is destined to be full of yakety yak. I'm not complaining, conversation is character study for a writer.

Still, I have to admit the lyrics of The Coaster's song, Yakety Yak, often come to mind these days. My oldest daughter is 12 (the other two are 10 & 7), so I've only just begun the journey through teenagerdom. The next time I'm asking for something and getting a lot of lip service, I think I might just break out into song.

Yakety Yak

Take out the papers and the trash
Or you don't get no spendin' cash
If you don't scrub that kitchen floor
You ain't gonna rock and roll no more
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Just finish cleanin' up your room
Let's see that dust fly with that broom
Get all that garbage out of sight
Or you don't go out Friday night
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

You just put on your coat and hat
And walk yourself to the laundromat
And when you finish doin' that
Bring in the dog and put out the cat
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Don't you give me no dirty looks
Your father's hip; he knows what cooks
Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

And two extra verses from me for fun:

You are too young for some snot-nosed fool
to be making you squeal and drool
So get back to putting your clothes away
And please don't let your thoughts stray
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

I'm doing this for your own good
so stop hiding 'neath that hood
Don't be thinking you invented yak
'Cause your Mama mastered talking back.
Yakety Yak (cut me some slack)

If you enjoyed the extra lyrics, give me some comment love.

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Tune in Monday, April 30th for the last A to Z post, and don't forget to check out other alphabetizing bloggers here.