Several years ago, I wrote a blogpost for Writer Unboxed where I described using a personal wiki to organize my novel writing process.
I currently use a separate wiki for each novel I write and use it primarily as a story bible and repository of research information. Based on Jeremy Reston's TiddlyWiki, I've tweaked the basic version to something I call TiddlyWikiWrite (TWW).
What I like about using a wiki as opposed to using a notebook or just files on my computer is that the wiki is searchable. Think a cross between a relational database and index cards.
If you want to check it out in action, I've just updated the how-to manual and the version of TWW on my website is the most current. It's free to use/alter/tweak.
The TW team is working on a complete overhaul of the core code, but it's not out of beta yet. When it is released, I'll update and let folks know.
The how-to manual is embedded below:
Monday, May 20, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Making time for doing what you love
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| waiting to be fired |
Today I immersed myself in clay. Yes, this is both a figurative and a (quasi) literal statement--when I throw on the wheel, it becomes a full body sport. I know have dried clay on my cheek, in my hair, on my glasses, and spattered along my sleeves and on my leggings. This is with using a large apron and trying to be careful.
At least it's off-white clay. When the studio used to use terracotta, I would emerge looking like I was covered in dried blood.
Ahh, fun times. . .
Actually, it is fun times. I take classes once a week and sneak into the open studio hours whenever I can steal away another day. This is my therapy and my social support. It allows me to quiet the inner chatter that often has the power to take over and block my creativity. Ceramics allows me to create beautiful (and sometimes quirky) things with my hands and give those things to the people in my life. To know that a friend enjoys her morning tea in a mug I created brings me great joy.
It's also a process that I dive into without crippling expectation. I can't count the number of times I start out to throw a bowl or a cup and end up with a cow plop of formless clay that I need to scrape off the wheel and recycle. Sometimes I'll have a piece to trim (when it is shy of leather hard from air drying and I can shape a foot ring) and I cut through the bottom or fail to attach the piece well enough to the wheel and it flies off and smooshes on the floor. Other times, I'll glaze a finished piece and the colors are completely different from what I had planned. Ceramics is the one place I can let go of the outcome. There is something ultimately freeing about that.
Today I spent a day I might have devoted to writing and got messy in the studio instead. It was what I needed to do to feed the creativity. My husband comes home from his very stressful job and immediately goes out to the raised beds in the garden to tend his seedlings. It's what he needs to decompress from the noise and the pressures. When he's spent some time in the silence of growing things, he's ready to transition to being with the family.
Whatever your daily life, I think it's vital to make time for the things you love. Even if that time is brief. This is a lesson I am learning over and over again.
What is it that you do to find your balance?
Friday, May 10, 2013
What's the Happy Haps?
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| Playing with clay when I'm not playing with words |
I don't know why, but I love the expression "happy haps". It's fun to say and it has a nice little rhythm to it. It's something I heard my teenagers say and have stolen, much to their chagrin. If Mom uses it, it can no longer be cool/hip/boss or whatever the current slang is for something interesting.
So what's going on in my writing life right now?
Actually, not a lot.
I finished the revision of DERELICT and sent it off to my agent 2 weeks ago. If she signs off on it, the manuscript will be on its way to a wonderful editor I had the pleasure of meeting at Boskone a few months ago. (And hopefully several other editors as well!)
While that's in process, I've been serializing a 'renovation' of an older novel called OATHBREAKER'S PRICE, an alternate-world fantasy story. (Links to the serialization on the right hand sidebar.)
I feel like I've spent the past 3 months in revision/edit mode. Shifting gears to new writing feels awkward. Partly that's because we've just been through a very stressful time in the life of our family, partly it's because I don't do change very gracefully, partly because I am not sure what I'll be writing next, novel-wise.
And you know what? That's okay. The creative mind needs fallow time to recharge. While I'm waiting for my next story to claim me, I'll be working in the ceramics studio and watching the garden grow.
Today’s post was inspired by the topic “Current projects”– May’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Guest Post: Happy Release Day to Lynn Viehl!
ETA: The random number generator did its work and chose EMILY to win the giveaway! Emily's winning comment:
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Lynn Viehl, AKA Paperback Writer is one of the most hard working, gracious, and generous writers I know. Not only does she write entertaining and engaging fiction (Her Stardoc books remain favorites of mine), but she is open about sharing her process, encouraging other writers, offering dialogue with her readers, and just being an all around wonderful human.
I am proud to be her 'net friend and was thrilled to have her talk about the debut of NIGHTBOUND, her latest Darkyn novel. I hope you will help her celebrated her book birthday.
(Oh, and there's a giveaway, too!!)
Welcome Lynn!
Today is the official release date for Nightbound, my latest Darkyn novel, and that means I have a lot to do. You might think that once a book goes on sale the author's work is done, but in reality a release day is one of the busiest in a writer's life. To give you a behind-the-scenes look at what I'll be doing today, here's my morning schedule:
6:00 am: Wake up, walk the dogs, make a pot of tea, turn on the computer and look for my good-luck green socks with the little leprechauns on them.
6:30 am: Find only one lucky sock. Decide the washer has eaten the other one and kick it a few times.
7:00 am: Log on to the Internet in anticipation of answering dozens of congratulatory e-mails from the agent, the editor, colleagues, friends and family.
7:30 am: Delete dozens of e-mails from online pharmacies, Amazon.com, porn site traffickers and desperate widows of deposed African royalty wishing to exchange nine million dollars for my bank account information. Answer one e-mail from Mom asking for ten copies of the signed book for her friends at church, as long as the guy on the cover isn't naked again and there isn't too much sex in the story.
7:45 am: Take aspirin.
8:00 am: Greet the family as they wake up. Go back to bed and wait for breakfast to be served on tray with rose.
8:30 am: Get out of bed and make breakfast for everyone else. Drop a few a hints about what day it is. Wash dishes, feed dogs, and start the laundry while waiting for the celebrations to begin.
8:45 am: Say good-bye to family as they leave for the day without saying a word about the new release. Remember I forgot to tell them today is release day. Kick washing machine a few more times.
9:00 am: Take second aspirin for stubbed toe.
9:30 am: Dress in artful disguise of old T-shirt, ripped jeans, faded baseball cap and cheap sunglasses. Put on second-best pair of lucky socks with little frogs on them. Drive to the only book store in town to see the new release on the shelves.
10:00 am: After not finding new release anywhere, look for book store clerk to ask why. Get into brief conversation with another customer, who mentions books are much cheaper at Goodwill, there's a job fair down the street and her church feeds the homeless every Saturday in the park. Realize artful disguise might be a little too good.
10:30 am: Find book store clerk on the phone with customer who wants a book but doesn't know the title or the name of the author.
11:00 am: Help the clerk with the title and author of the book the customer on the phone wants. Ask about the new release, which clerk can't find on the computer but thinks she saw back in stock room last week. Ask for clerk to retrieve one copy from stock room (to buy for good luck.) Clerk promises to look after answering phone call from second customer who doesn't know the title or author of the book they want.
11:30 am: Go home without book.
12:00 pm: Make supersize hot fudge sundae with extra sprinkles and have private release day celebration with dogs, one of whom brings over the missing and now-shredded lucky leprechaun sock to play tug-of-war.
On second thought maybe I'll hang out here for the day. I brought with me a giveaway for one of you, which includes this handmade quilted tote, a signed set of all three Lords of the Darkyn novels, Levenger's Scheherazade Storytelling Game, a Treetops blank journal from Chronicle books, a cool combination pen and touchpad stylus and a pretty bookmark.
If you'd like to win all of it, in comments to this post name a fun way you like to celebrate special days in your life by Friday, May 10th, midnight EST. Lisa will draw one name at random from everyone who participates and I'll send the winner the tote and books with all the goodies. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, so please join in.
Emily--please email me with your contact info, so I can pass it along to the lovely and generous Lynn.Emily5/07/2013 10:47 PMThis post was hilarious! I used to celebrate a lot with food, but as part of getting healthy and stuff now I buy books. Or yarn. Or books about yarn. Or fabric. Or books about....well you get the idea! For really big stuff like our 10th anniversary my husband and I love to travel. Hawaii is our favorite so far.
-----
Lynn Viehl, AKA Paperback Writer is one of the most hard working, gracious, and generous writers I know. Not only does she write entertaining and engaging fiction (Her Stardoc books remain favorites of mine), but she is open about sharing her process, encouraging other writers, offering dialogue with her readers, and just being an all around wonderful human.
I am proud to be her 'net friend and was thrilled to have her talk about the debut of NIGHTBOUND, her latest Darkyn novel. I hope you will help her celebrated her book birthday.
(Oh, and there's a giveaway, too!!)
Welcome Lynn!
6:00 am: Wake up, walk the dogs, make a pot of tea, turn on the computer and look for my good-luck green socks with the little leprechauns on them.
6:30 am: Find only one lucky sock. Decide the washer has eaten the other one and kick it a few times.
7:00 am: Log on to the Internet in anticipation of answering dozens of congratulatory e-mails from the agent, the editor, colleagues, friends and family.
7:30 am: Delete dozens of e-mails from online pharmacies, Amazon.com, porn site traffickers and desperate widows of deposed African royalty wishing to exchange nine million dollars for my bank account information. Answer one e-mail from Mom asking for ten copies of the signed book for her friends at church, as long as the guy on the cover isn't naked again and there isn't too much sex in the story.
7:45 am: Take aspirin.
8:00 am: Greet the family as they wake up. Go back to bed and wait for breakfast to be served on tray with rose.
8:30 am: Get out of bed and make breakfast for everyone else. Drop a few a hints about what day it is. Wash dishes, feed dogs, and start the laundry while waiting for the celebrations to begin.
8:45 am: Say good-bye to family as they leave for the day without saying a word about the new release. Remember I forgot to tell them today is release day. Kick washing machine a few more times.
9:00 am: Take second aspirin for stubbed toe.
9:30 am: Dress in artful disguise of old T-shirt, ripped jeans, faded baseball cap and cheap sunglasses. Put on second-best pair of lucky socks with little frogs on them. Drive to the only book store in town to see the new release on the shelves.
10:00 am: After not finding new release anywhere, look for book store clerk to ask why. Get into brief conversation with another customer, who mentions books are much cheaper at Goodwill, there's a job fair down the street and her church feeds the homeless every Saturday in the park. Realize artful disguise might be a little too good.
10:30 am: Find book store clerk on the phone with customer who wants a book but doesn't know the title or the name of the author.
11:00 am: Help the clerk with the title and author of the book the customer on the phone wants. Ask about the new release, which clerk can't find on the computer but thinks she saw back in stock room last week. Ask for clerk to retrieve one copy from stock room (to buy for good luck.) Clerk promises to look after answering phone call from second customer who doesn't know the title or author of the book they want.
11:30 am: Go home without book.
12:00 pm: Make supersize hot fudge sundae with extra sprinkles and have private release day celebration with dogs, one of whom brings over the missing and now-shredded lucky leprechaun sock to play tug-of-war.
On second thought maybe I'll hang out here for the day. I brought with me a giveaway for one of you, which includes this handmade quilted tote, a signed set of all three Lords of the Darkyn novels, Levenger's Scheherazade Storytelling Game, a Treetops blank journal from Chronicle books, a cool combination pen and touchpad stylus and a pretty bookmark.
If you'd like to win all of it, in comments to this post name a fun way you like to celebrate special days in your life by Friday, May 10th, midnight EST. Lisa will draw one name at random from everyone who participates and I'll send the winner the tote and books with all the goodies. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, so please join in.
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