How do you gauge success in your writing? For me, it’s knowing that people read it. And I often don’t know if people are reading it or not, unless they respond to it in some way and give me direct or indirect feedback.

Along with keeping up with my own personal blogs and trying to work on my novel(s), I also do some tech blogging. I blog for a disability services-related website, and also for a general tech blog. On the tech blog I have gravitated toward writing articles about green technology: solar, mileage-efficient cars, things of that nature. My last post, from two days ago, has had several comments. Five to be exact. In my mind, this is success!

It doesn’t really matter whether the feedback/comments are positive or negative, agreeing with me or disagreeing with me. The fact is, five people out of the several hundred or even thousand people that read it thought it was worthwhile to comment on it. It makes me think I must be doing something right.

GREAT video on copyrights, patents, and intellectual copyrights, presented by attorney Stephan Kinsella. He is funny, straightforward, and understandable. Worth the 56 minute video…I encourage you to watch the whole thing!

I was listening to a new podcast tonight while I was sewing the blouse for my RenFaire costume.  I get a lot of podcasts listened to that way.  Anyway, Lillers recommended this podcast to me, and I downloaded the last few episodes to catch up.  I Should Be Writing by Mur Lafferty is mostly her interviewing other authors.  But all of them have interesting things to say.

I should have been paying closer attention when I was listening to this, but what I heard was, if you don’t write, who would care?  In other words, no one will care if you don’t ever write, but plenty of people might care if you DO bother to write.  So what do you have to lose?

By not writing, the only person you’re disappointing is yourself.  Kinda gives me a new perspective on things.

And I anticipate putting this to good use tomorrow, as I expect to get a ton of writing time in, as it is Mother’s Day and I get to do what I want all day long!! (Yes, I want to write…)

I spent yesterday ill and in bed.  I wish I could say it was productive time, but it wasn’t, as I was sleeping.  But last night I sat in the living room and tried to read through some of the articles in one of the magazines I picked up at Barnes and Noble the other night.  Writer’s Journal is full of some great stuff, most of it appropriate for me.  I wish I’d felt better, I might have finally gotten through the two-page article on best designs for a writer’s web space.  I think I could use the help.

My kids and I occupied ourselves with going through a trunk full of pictures that my mother gave me.  Many of the photos were her “practice” pictures taken of scenery, flowers, statues, flowers, people, and flowers.  She had (and still has) a thing about flowers.  There were literally thousands of photos.  We kept ones we wanted, I made some stacks for each of my brothers, and for myself.  Some of the photos brought back memories, like pictures of my brothers in Navy uniforms, and me with my favorite car, and my mom and dad on their trip to Europe.

It made me think about writing a small story about the memories that photographs can bring back.  And some of the photographs were “sample works” that contained images of people I did not know.  They were simply models.  It would be so easy to take one of those and build a story around what I observed in the picture.

Inspiration has to come from everywhere, or you will always be stuck in the same old ideas.

My friend Lillers and I attended a writer’s workshop today put on by the St. Louis Writer’s Guild.  There was some great information about websites  for writers, and how to and why to blog.  One of the speakers talked for a few minutes about whether or not you are a right-brained or left-brained thinker.  I found this interesting.  Click the picture to go to a related article.

Why the heck am I having such trouble adding this scene??

It should be easy.  It should be done  by now.  I actually had some decent writing time last night and it STILL is not done.

I’m starting to get pretty annoyed with myself.

I’m at a point in editing my novel where I’m adding a scene.  Originally it was going to be a tiny little scene but it has blossomed a bit into something a bit bigger.  And I think that’s why I’m having such trouble getting it written.  I don’t want to add something that big.  Or rather, I’m too lazy to add something that big.

But it needs to be added.  It will be a fairly large turning point for my MMC.  I just didn’t want to invest that much effort into the process.  Especially when I can’t seem to get much time to write these days.  Grrr.

I just bought a book at a campus book sale today.  It cost me a dollar.  I only bought it because it had the word “Colorado” in the title.  It is a bodice-ripper romance.  And I just HAD to share the back cover copy with you.  Here it is:

“Her Irish beauty hidden by a disguise, eighteen-year-old Emily Burnham came to the rough-and-tumble mountain town of Cripple Creek determined to catch the murderous scoundrel who’d shot her father.  Then devastatingly handsome Matt McClanahan breezed into town — and she knew she’d found her man.  Masquerading as a maid in a high class tavern,  Emily vowed to make him pay for what he’d done…until she stumbled upon him in his private bath - naked as the day he was born!  Never had she beheld such rippling, rockhard muscles, such arousing male magificence!  As she began scrubbing his back, her pent-up passions exploded within her, and she burned to feel Matt’s caresses all over her own enraptured body!”

Hrm.  Actually, kinda funny.  She’s 18.  She has “pent-up passions?”  When I was 18 I had pent-up insecurity.  LOL

I wonder if the author wrote the back copy?  Or if an editor did it for her.  I’ll have to figure that out when I read the book!

As I’m editing Fairest of the Faire, I realize that I’m using the same phrase over and over.  It’s not really a phrase even, just a few words.  “The truth was/is” is one of them.  the other is “In reality.”

I don’t even talk like that, why the heck am I writing like that?  I’ve so far found “the truth was” or something like it in about 1 out of every ten paragraphs.  That’s not good.  I’m going to have to be more careful.

My friend Lillers and I are going to be attending the St. Louis Writer’s Guild workshop on May 3.  For a measly five dollars, we will get to hear two lectures, one titled The Art of Blogging for the Writer, the other The Top Ten Internet Resources for Writers.  You can never have too much help in either of these areas.

It makes me curious — how should writers  blog as compared to non-writers.  If you’re blogging, aren’t you writing, then?  Curious.  Anyway, I’m sure I’ll learn something good.

If you’re in the St. Louis area, you might consider joining us!

I write a lot.  Multiple times a day, really.  It isn’t all on my novel, but it is writing just the same.  I keep up with my regular daily blog, write emails to colleagues, participate in discussions on bulletin boards and forums, and talk to my friends and my kids on instant messenger. I believe I communicate more through writing than I do through talking.

And sometimes, that gets me in trouble.  Today the boss wanted to talk to me.  It happens so rarely that it usually means I’m going to get scolded for something.  Today was no different.  I get into his office and he hands me a text printout of a blog entry I made yesterday on my daily blog.  I’d link to it but I’ve had to make it private (for friends only).  Apparently, one of the two people I’d referred to in my blog entry, while not named, took some umbrage at what I’d written. They felt that it was inappropriate for me to take sides, or to express my thoughts about the behavior of one of the parties.

And I take umbrage at that.  The title of the blog entry was “I am Switzerland” and referred to an encounter I’d had with these two people.  One is a tech, the other is the supervisor of the tech.  I took them both to task, the tech for being a screwup and the supervisor for seeming to have it in for this particular technician.  My understanding after talking to my boss was that the supervisor was the one upset about the blog post.

Now, I know that some of my coworkers read my blog.  I don’t worry about them reading my blog, and I’ve not hidden my blog from anyone.  I have not ever mentioned the name of my workplace or the names of my coworkers.  In fact, I’m deliberately obtuse when I talk about them, as I don’t think it’s appropriate to put that in there without permission.  And I learned a hard lesson a long time ago from a coworker who’s name I mentioned in a forum post I’d made one time.  He had been wholly upset by that and I realized that it wasn’t my place to name names, whether in a positive way or a negative way.

So, back to the boss.  He said that he doesn’t care if we have blogs or what we talk about.  He said that I just have to be clear when I post that this is my opinion only, and nothing more than my opinion.  Something about legal stuff and going to court, which I can only assume involves this technician and his supervisor.  I honestly don’t know the details (and don’t want to know).

*SIGH*

I write to vent, or to share information, or just to have fun.  That is why I blog.  Who knew my words, and my blog, were so dangerous?   Who knew that I was so dangerous?

I mean, really.  They are just words, aren’t they?  Just words…

Today I took a huge step.  I published my first blog post on Geek News Central, a tech website I visit often.  Their bi-weekly podcasts are some of the best out there for techies, and I had been prodded by several people to begin posting there as a blogger.

Well, today I did it.  I wrote an introductory post, then a post about virus protection on computers.   It posted this afternoon.  I’m all excited about doing this; I just hope I can come up with enough topics to do two posts a week, which is my goal.  One post a week would be okay, but I’d rather do two, so that’s what I’m going to aim for.

We’ll see.

I’m not going to make a fortune with the gig, but it does give me a foot in the door, and I could, in the future, expand my coverage to other places.  This is a great start in that direction!

Is there anything more annoying than sitting at home waiting for the mechanic to call you and tell you your car is ready to pickup?  You sit hung between worry (is he going to call and tell me it needs more work than I thought) and forced patience.  I’m not good at either thing, to tell the truth.

But, it is giving me good time to write, and I’m taking advantage of it.  I have some major scenes to get down  and they are progressing.  I have about three weeks before I have to have this novel ready to be read by Lillers, who has agreed to critique it.  I hope to have it published by September, if not sooner.

So I’d better get back to it, eh?

Wednesday this week is Creative Night.  I love these five-hour stints of hanging at the bookstore with my laptop.  It means I get to write without the distractions of home!

I will have to be frugal about my beverage choices, however, as I have to get the brakes fixed on my car tomorrow.  They are making a dreadful noise. I knew this was coming, I’ve just been putting it off, that’s all.  Bleh.

I am only a few pages into Sol Stein’s How to Grow a Novel, but I already have a few comments.

First, his “forward” is pretentious and annoying.  Or maybe it’s him.  I’m not sure.  I stopped reading it after the fifth paragraph and instead buzzed right to the first chapter.

In the very first chapter he says:

“A novel that has done its job will not be discarded because it has been used.”

I’ve read a lot of amazing novels.  Novels that still stick in my mind and shaped my opinions and feelings about things.  But I don’t keep what I’ve read.  I do not have unlimited library space to keep everything I’ve read.  Half or more of what I’ve read were purchased used and sold or given away when I was done with them, so I could pass on something good to someone else.  Keeping a book is a grave injustice, in my opinion.  If it was good,  then it should be passed on to someone else who can appreciate and share in that goodness.  This, of course, does not apply to reference or how-to books, that might still be needed for their instructions.  But novels?  Pass them on!!

I just received Sol Stein’s How to Grow a Novel.  I ordered it a couple weeks ago based on the Writing Tips Daily website.  I’ve not read it yet but should start it tonight.  I hope to have a review by the end of the week.

I hope it’s as good as they say it is.

I’ve been putting some serious time in on Fairest of the Faire, and I have to say the story is finally getting some meat on its bones.  I’ve added a few characters which should create some additional conflicts and action, and added several scenes that will add plenty of complexity to the story.  It needed it.

I managed to put in about 2K words yesterday on and off.  I intend to get another 2K on tonight, with any luck.

…you probably shouldn’t use it.  I should explain.

I hang out in a few writing forums, and there are the inevitable questions from writers, especially newer or younger writers, about how they can incorporate a particular story line into their novels.  Most of these are romance novels, so I’m speaking from that perspective (since that is what I write as well).

The most recent example was a writer looking for a title for her book.  It is about a 25 year old teacher and his 17 year old student having a relationship that they must keep a secret from the 17 year old’s ex-boyfriend because he’s a bad sort.

Gack.  I can’t believe any writer would even use this scenario, considering how many stories of these types of relationships actually ARE discovered in our world, and how illegal and completely unethical they are.  It is wrong wrong wrong for a teacher to have a relationship with a student, period.  It doesn’t matter if the student is of age or not, the teacher is in a position of authority.  This isn’t romance, it’s control.  And there’s nothing romantic about control.  And if the student is underage, you also have the fact that it’s illegal to boot!

The same would apply in any authority-subordinate relationship.  Therapist/patient, doctor/patient, boss/employee, president/page, congressman/page, you name it.  If one of the people is in a position of direct authority over the other, then a romantic relationship of any kind is at the very least unethical.  Not a story I’d like to be reading in the context of “romance.

Another recent example was a writer trying to figure out how to make a captive fall in love with her captor.  This runs along the same lines, an authority figure in control of the underling, then it cannot be love.  It can be Stockholm Syndrome, but it can never be love.

I had to rewrite a major portion of Colorado Dreaming because I had written it originally as a doctor and a pseudo-patient. As in, he was a doctor and she had dated him once, but then found herself accidentally in his office with a serious illness, and he takes care of her.  Love can’t work that way.  It will always be suspect.  So I changed it, without a backward thought.  There are so many other scenarios that can be used, there is no reason to pretend “romance” exists in control relationships.

Today I was wandering around campus pressing palms (or at least sharing smiles) with some of my clients.  I stopped in the Writing Center, which is usually terribly busy, but all of the faculty were grouped around a table having coffee and there was nary a student anywhere around.

I asked them if they were goofing off.  Of course they were goofing off!  They said I could bring them a paper to edit if I wanted, and I told them I’m a published author and thanks but no thanks.  That got us all talking about writing.  Then I threw Nano under the bus, and they all jumped on board.

Looks like the staff in the writing center will be taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge in November, competing against each other.  I told them they should all read Chris Baty’s book, and that I’d ask the library to order it. I  also offered to loan my copy to one of them if they wanted it.

It would be really cool if we had a whole NaNo writing group right here on campus.  Way cool!

I did get some good writing done on Monday.  It was very quiet in my lab, and I managed to rework a few scenes into something I like.  I am still wanting to add a major scene that inserts another male character that might be either competition or a foil for my main male character.

I’m more likely to make him competition.  Just have to figure out how to add it in there.  Logistics and all that.  But I need more conflict.  And having several men interested in my main female character would really bring the story along. I’ve got to pull her more out of her comfort zone.

So onward and upward.  I really want to have this readable by my friend Lillers by first of May.  That’s not much time, in the editing scheme.