L.M. Sherwin's Blog, page 4

Old Treasures: my writing notebooks

These are only a few of the gazilion notebooks like them lying around my house…

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen. Some of my favorite possessions are the writing notebooks I’ve filled over the years. Usually spiral bound notebooks, I’ve littered thousands of pages with my stories, drawings, and outlines. I love to go back and look at these old treasures and see how different my writing was in years past. How differentI was when I wrote those scenes.

Excuse t...

The Importance of Projects Without Pressure

Participating in NaNoWriMo this year taught me the importance of having writing projects without “pressure”. By pressure I mean: the intent to publish. I knew going in that I I had no intention of publishing my NaNoWriMo story. This immediately put me in a better mood to write. As I’ve mentioned my particularly nasty writer’s block before, I won’t go too far into detail with it here. The fact was, however, one good project without publishing pressure was enough to get me out of my writer’s bl...

NaNoWriMo = Complete! (And other random thoughts…)

I did it! I’m very pleased to say that I completed NaNoWriMo this year. Here’s my nifty little banner to prove it!

Yeah, that’s right. *Happy Dance* I ended up writing an “exercise” piece. I never planned to publish what I set out to write with NaNoWriMo this time around. I’ve written very sparsely on my blog this year (and for that I am sorry), but I’ve written recently about my hellish 2013 writer’s block from hell (redundancy is intentional…). My goal for NaNoWriMo was to get myself back...

NaNoWriMo Update

I’m pleased to say that NaNoWriMo is going really well! I’m on track to finish my 50,000 word manuscript two whole days early! I’m not a super fast writer, but I’m pleased with my avg. word count of about 1800 words right now. The story I’m writing isextremelydifferent than what I usually write. It’s turning out to be a first-person, present tense religious historical fiction piece. (O_O) I told you it was different than what I normally write.

I am having great fun with this little exercise....

NaNoWriMo 2013, Here We Come!

I’ve always wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo and this year, I’m giving it a shot! Since I’ve been dealing with a really terrible writer’s block this year, I’m just diving in (without an outline, and only a cursory idea of what I’m writing about) and am going to have terrific fun seeing what I come up with. I’m taking a break from all other projects just to write for the pure fun of it. I love writing and in all the writer’s block angst I’ve experienced this year, I had forgotten that the re...

Book Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire

Author:Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games Trilogy

Length: 391pages

Genre:Young Adult / Sci-Fi / Action-Adventure / Dystopia

Rating:5/5

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. YE HAVE BEEN WARNED.

As much as I loved the first book in the series, I lovedCatching Fire even more. In this second installment in the Hunger Games Trilogy, we get to see the depth of pain that Katniss and her friends experience under the Panem government’s tyrannical thumb. We get to see Katniss and Peeta living in t...

The Worst Writer’s Block Ever

I’ve avoided writing about it for fear of…well…I don’t know what, exactly. I guess I’ll plow ahead now that I’ve started, though. 2013 has been the year of “writer’s block from HELL”. I mean it. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It has been tough to even write a paragraph pretty much since January 1st. I’m ashamed of it. It makes me feel like I’m not a proper novelist. I’ve started second guessing my books and thinking that they’re not worth the paper they’re printed on. I’ve started f...

Polishing Drafts Before Sending Them To The Editor

I use Grammarly for proofreading,because knowing the language of language is totally meta.

It is fairly common to suffer from mild insanity while polishing up your final drafts. It’s tedious. It takes forever. By the time you’re sitting there tapping the keys for the last time, your brain is a bit…well…exhausted. You’re ready to beD.O.N.E.(with all capitals).Because of this, it can be nearly impossible to catch every single typo, punctuation error, or grammatically confusing sentence. All of t...

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Hunger Games

Author:Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games Trilogy

Length:374 pages

Genre:Young Adult / Sci-Fi / Action-Adventure / Dystopia

Rating:5/5

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. YE HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So, I was one of those people who lived under a rock for years and didn’t read this book when it first came out. *GASP!* Shocking, I know. I’m actually weird like this, but I’m really good at avoiding spoilers and staying away from hyped-up-things until I’m good and ready to wade in and get my f...

I’m a Winner! (Of Lindsay Buroker’s New Book!)

I am majorly stoked, y’all. I was one of the lucky 50 folks who won Lindsay Buroker’s new eBookTorrent from her blog contest a while back. *Happy Dance* I am so excited! I adore that woman’s writing. She is such a talented, prolific (insanely…), and witty author. If you’ve never read her books,Torrentmight be a terrific place to start since it is from a brand new series calledRust & Relics. I can’t WAIT to read this one. I’ll be sure to put up a review ASAP.

Her other works includeThe Emperor’...