A Look Back at 2017

Hello again. Sorry for this going quiet but, in the long run, this is the ball that gets dropped first in my life. It's not out of malice, but something that just is a natural consequence of wanting to get other things in life done. However, I thought that I would take a look back at the good and, while not bad, the things that I wasn't the most proud of. I don't want to use the word bad because... they're not. It's not a bad thing that things didn't get done or goals didn't get accomplished, it just is. It happened, let's get back on track to make 2018 better, and move on. If you keep on beating yourself up over things that have already happened, then you're never going to move forward. So, in the spirit of that, we're going to move forward on what I got done, what didn't get done, and how I feel about it.

What Got Done:

• I won my 10th NaNoWriMo. While the project itself isn't finished, I'm still proud that I started it and that I have an idea of the overall world. It is very much a telling myself the story type draft at the moment and I am more than okay with that.
• I am at the farthest of my editing in Mystery of the Dark than I thought I would be. I'm slowly getting the entire thing edited and sent back and 2018 will be the publishing year. It has to be. I'll talk about this more in the second section.
• The sequel for Mystery of the Dark is slowly being written. The 3rd book is completely done and just needs plot tweaking. I know what I'm doing for the 4th and 5th book, even somewhat the 6th and 7th. The entire series is plotted out with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th book having titles - Slight of Hand, Flash of Fang, Song of Siren - that correspond to what supernatural being is focused on in each book as well as the overall plot arc too.
• I moved! It's a whole suburb over but I am walking a ton more (ok, not now, it's winter and FREEZING in the Midwest). I call this a what got done because it feels really good.
• I have released over 100 pounds and working on the next 70 more to get to my overall goal.

Okay, next section. Those four are really good and awesome and shouldn't be swept aside. Let's talk about what didn't get done.

What Didn't Get Done:

• Mystery of the Dark to the publishing stage. Yes, this is on me and I completely understand that but, at the same time... I don't think I was ready. Every time I thought of publishing, I got scared shitless and dragged my feet even more with editing. So, yeah, I wasn't ready and it's good to get that off my chest. However, this is going to be a 2018 goal and we'll get more into that with the 2018 goals post that will go up on Monday.
• I haven't lost enough weight. This is more of a funny, because I've released over 100 pounds (not all last year, but you know, total) but I feel like I've been going slower at it. So I'm going to strengthen my Bright Lines (feel free to go Google) and get back to food journaling.
• My areas of the house are unorganized. Sure, the majority of the boxes are gone but not all of them. My drawers are a mess, there are clothes that I should donate, so on and so forth. Also, I might need to go rearrange my bedroom because my head is up by a window (did I mention it's cold here?!) or possibly move all of my things into the basement to have an own apartment type space. We'll see. The basement is huge and my work area is down there.

So, yeah, things didn't get done, but other things did! I think the entire series being completely plotted and four out of six / seven books being titled is awesome. I think losing all the weight I have is awesome. I have been awesome this year and I need to focus on that. I also need to move forward, which might be my 2018 phrase with forward being my word, and that's what I'm going to do. One foot in front of another, picking myself up when I fall, and not beating myself up so much. It'll be a slow journey but I hope you stick with me to see where we go in the crazy year of 2018.

Happy New Year and see you on Monday! Happy writing and/or editing.

Renaming and Reclaiming Goals

First things first, I am renaming this blog as I have been getting away from the books part of what this blog is dedicated to. I am still reading, slowly, but I just haven't been wanting to do reviews. It's selfish, but I want to keep my views to myself or post something small to Goodreads. If you were here for the book reviews, the very few that I did, feel free to find and friend me on Goodreads. Just mention that you found me here first and I will friend you back. I only don't friend back those who seem like spam accounts or accounts that are about hooking up only (I'm looking at you Instagram). So, yes, renaming the blog. It is going to now be Words 'n Geekery. I am naming it that because that's what I do here. I spew words, either through writing a blog post here or writing my books / fanfic, and I geek about things.

I am going to have up a review post about Star Trek: Discovery as I have some strong feelings on it. I am just sort of sitting on my feels at the moment as I want to rewatch the pilot. I also have negative feelings on the fact that CBS is making us pay for the show but that's a tangent best for the post. Also, I plan on having more posts talking about things that I do on a normal basis, like Starbucks stuff and Avengers and everything that I love talking about. I just feel that it should be on a bigger scale. On this note, another reason for renaming the blog is that I am working towards having Words 'n Geekery be a podcast as well. I don't know when this is going to happen. I am slowly working on it now to get it up by the end of the year but it might be early 2018 because NaNoWriMo is coming.

credit memegenerator

I'm just here for the GoT memes, I know nothing about the show or the book outside of the first one. It's just not my thing, which... yeah. That might also be another topic coming up or it might be a podcast episode. We'll see. However, that's not all we're here to talk about today.

The second part of the post title says reclaiming goals. I set goals for myself at the beginning of this year and I'm slipping on them. This is okay because I'm starting to feel they're slipping because I'm not ready for the end result just yet. Like I wanted to get Mystery of the Dark out to publishing houses this year. This might still happen and I'm terrified. It might also be an early 2018 thing and I get less terrified. The being terrified part is not because it's new but because... I'm not a social person. I have issues putting myself out there when I need to be in front of people talking, even on a one on one basis, because my brain works better in writing format. I am better in email where I can go back and re-read what I've written a million times (or not) before sending it off. My brain freezes in front of people sometimes. So, I want to work on that and I think doing the podcast will help with that as well because, even with it not being a live audience, it's still an audience.

The next part is that I want to start having quarter goals as well as big year goals. So, with WriYe, we have the year sectioned into four quarters and they're much like the financial quarters. Quarter 1 is January through March, second one is April through June, third is July through September, and the fourth is October through December. Those are the four quarters of the year. For the last quarter that is coming up, I am going to make myself some quarter goals and do my best to stick with them. One of those quarter goals is going to be the same as the big year one that I have which is to get Mystery of the Dark out of the final editing stage to the push it out to publishers stage. It's just something that needs to get done. Another quarter goal is to read more. While I have been reading and reading slowly, I haven't been finishing books. So I'm going to try and read 1 new book and finish 1 book that I've been in the middle of for forever. Magic's Price, I'm looking at you, as you're the first big one I'm going to try this on.

So, it's stuff like that. I also have a quarter goal of blogging more and figuring out podcasting. We'll see how it goes. What are your quarter goals and what do you think of the rename? Feel free to leave comments down below as well as poking me on Twitter at CrescentLizzy. Until next time, keep on doing you. 

Blogging A to Z: I (aka First Person PoV)

I, or, if you're talking about writing like we should be, the first person point of view. It's not something that I really write in - third person is my default - but I have tried it out. I realized that Sky Pirates, in the version I wrote for NaNo, works better as first instead of third. Not every book needs it - there are some where they would have been better in third - but there are some that are amazing in first person.

The book I'm currently reading - Thirteen Reasons Why - is one of the rare books that can carry first person. It is hair raising on the back of your neck creepy and you wouldn't get the same connection in the third person with the main character. First person makes it so that you are Cory instead of just looking through a glass window at what Cory is doing. Mystery novels are sometimes, but not always, written in first person. Again, it helps to pull you into the mystery and solving the crime. It helps to set tone as well because you're going to spend the entire novel with the main character, either solving the crime or hiding the evidence of the crime, so you want to have a deeper connection than most.

Are there some first person novels that could have done better as third? Yep. The Twilight series comes to mind as one of the best examples that could have done better as third. If you've been here for a while or you've read in the archives, yes, I always bring up Twilight when this comes up. Sorry / not sorry. You can see it when you go to the movie adaptation and what is happening is made better by seeing everyone else clearly. When we just get Bella's perspective, it's too narrow and... well, she comes across as whiny. I didn't start liking her until the movies and, if I had to only have one vs the other for the rest of eternity, I'd go for the movie version. Now, this is not to say that all vampire novels have to be in third or that none can survive as first person. Thanks Anne Rice.

I guess I'd close this out by giving you some questions for you to think on when you're considering first person. Will you be able to pull in the reader closer? Will it be too narrow to draw in the reader? Will you want to go back and forth between the two, either in an interview format / flashbacks / letters? Just a few questions to think about. It is best to have someone you trust to give honest feedback about what you're doing for point of view too as you might think it's awesome but someone else will go "nope, too narrow". Well, until next time, keep on writing and thinking about your point of view.

Blogging A to Z: Home

Guess what! The move is over. I am in my new home, which means I should go update which suburb I live in exactly, but yay. It's done. It took two trips on the original day, them coming back because they forgot stuff (ugh), but it's over. Now we go through the unpacking and putting everything in it's place. At least, that's what we're supposed to do. If that actually happens or not will be a good question (it will) but, eh, this is life. It could be worse so I dunno why I'm complaining.

However, it does feel like home, even with all the boxes around. It feels right, like everything is in place even with chaos, and a peace comes with it. A peace that says "yes, you did the right thing" and waking up feeling completely rested. Maybe there was a ghost at my old house, in the form of a lot of memories, that weighed the place down. Maybe just a change of scenery is all that anybody needs in the end. I think, when it's all done, I'm going to love working down in my very cold basement (I need a space heater, damnit) writing, editing, and everything in between like blog posts.

So, yeah, it might be messy and it might not be at it's best right now. But it's home, in that way home should be, and I'm good with that.

P.S. - Yes, I'm behind on the blogging challenge. Y'all are shocked, I can tell. Anywho, I'm picking up from H and will go on until I get to Z. I just didn't prepare well enough with the entire moving thing but oh well. You will get all posts, just not all in April. Until then, keep on writing!

Blogging A to Z: Grammar and I Suck At It

Yes, I am a writer and I suck at proper grammar. If you look at this blog, along with my twitter feed (@CrescentLizzy), then you'd understand this. Probably a lot better than I do but I break a lot of rules. Hell, I think I probably break all of the rules without even knowing what they are. I dunno why I'm proud of this fact, as I am taking steps to be better at grammar (oh stop laughing), but I am. I think it comes from the fact that my feedback comes through like this: 

"I love the characters and the plot but your sentence structure is atrocious." - a true friend.

I'm not going to say which friend said that, but it has been said. I'm okay with that. You can fix your grammar and relearn the rules to polish your novel. It's a lot harder to learn how to make characters likable (I got that lesson a while ago) and make sure that you describe what the hell is going on (still learning this one). Sentence structure and word choice, while something that you should focus on, is kind of low on my priority list when I'm writing. When I'm editing? It's high up on the list of making sure that it's all nicely polished. When I need to get words on the page? Someone call the grammar police and give me a ticket like you would for speeding.

I feel like this is where I'm supposed to give you some pearls of wisdom about how to edit your grammar but I don't have them. I'm learning as I go and cursing myself when I find things while editing that make no sense as a sentence. One of these days, I'll be a perfect writer who can be a grammar wiz. Until then, I'm going to keep on bumping like a ball in a pinball machine while getting the story down. I recommend you do the same - get the story on the page - and go from there.

Blogging A to Z: Fears (also Friday Five!)

I have some fears. Okay, a lot of them, but I feel they're rational. We're going to list them and then you can feel free to do so as well. You can either put it in the comments or hit me up on twitter at CrescentLizzy. So, here we go.

1. Falling. This used to be because I didn't want to hurt myself when I was heavier than I am now. I fall over the stupidest things too. The highest on the stupid things I've tripped and fallen over is a crack in the sidewalk. Me vs the sidewalk resulted in a hairline fracture in my nose (second broken bone ever!) and my hand feeling like it was broken. This was... a month, maybe less? before NaNoWriMo so, yeah, there was minor freak out about not being able to write because I'm a drama queen. First broken bone? Also a fall, at the Borders I worked at, and it was... two weeks / 10 days before Christmas? Big ass line too. That was lovely. The least stupid / most out of my control fall was when the stairs to the basement gave way and I fell with them to the basement. I got out of that with just a tweaked shoulder. However, now I hate falling / almost falling because people feel like they have to reach out and stop me from falling. It's sometimes worse than letting me fall because people have hurt me more than the fall would! I swear it's because of the cane, so, honestly people, let the blind person fall. It's going to be okay, you won't go to hell, but keep your hands to yourself. Thank you.

2. Death. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain this. But, yeah, it's second on my list because, honestly, there are sometimes when I've fallen and I should have died. See the stairs to the basement and the time at Beloit where I fell down the spiral stone staircase. I swear I was a stunt double in my former life.

3. Bees / Wasps. Now, this is irrational. I hate the sound they make and how they look. I know they're helpful and all but just... no. Nope. No. Double fingers waving in the air no. It's one of the reasons I dislike summer too.

4. Bugs in general - however, I'm getting better at this one. I've been able to kill a couple of them without screaming too. I'm getting better on this one.

5. Last but not least - failure. Yep. I am so human in this and I know it. I have a big ass fear of failure, of not being able to get anyone to buy or be interested in my book (which is BS - I've got friends and family who love me enough to humor me to a point), so, yeah, I've got that going for me. I also know that it's coming because my series isn't all that original and it's drawing on vampires (I feel like they're cycling out?), so I will probably be rejected a lot of times. Yet I don't see that as failure (see the reject letters of a ton of famous authors) but as a badge of honor. Maybe failure in that would be no rejection letters but... yeah, I don't know guys. Just that, like falling, I really don't want to go through failure but it's going to happen. It just won't kill me.

Blogging A to Z: Elizabeth (An Acrostic Poem)

Emotions flow through me
Like the wind blowing through trees
Is that metaphor too stupid?
Zigzagging through
A minefield of thoughts
Because I thought a poem would be fun
Eliminating a day of this challenge because
Thoughts of words that being with E for a post were emotions and elements
However, at least this post was short.

And that, my friends, is an acrostic poem. I really couldn't think of anything else to do and my name begins with the letter E. Also, we needed a bit of lightness after D.