Dribs & Drabs ...

So in my last Blog Entry ("Hello Visitors!") I had promised to not only be more regular with my Blog entries, that I would also start posting links on the Website to some more relevant material, starting with an older When Words Collide session notes, as well as a snippet from my novel Best Laid Plots, Book the First!, which is currently enduring a round of deep editing.

So, appropriately enough, I finally posted the link to a session I presented at the 2018 When Words Collide, titled "Manage Your Time, Not It Manage You". About a week after I said I would. So this one is a combination of my speaker's notes and the Power Point I used. If you check it out hopefully you will find it at best helpful in some way, and at worse mildly amusing! I enjoyed revisiting it so much, I am thinking about offering it at the 2021 WWC (which will be either online again or in person, depending on where we're at with the pandemic by mid August).

As for the snippet of BLP-BtF! - well. To be honest (and I usually am!) I have been dragging my heels on tackling this round of editing. I really don't like editing. But I'm quite the Wordy Wanda when Writing (but not usually so alliterative!) and even if I don't "change" much story-wise, I really need to wield the scalpel to trim things back. So, after posting the Time Management session I opened the story file up and dug in. And by the time I got to the end of the first chapter realized that I didn't like how LONG that first chapter was. Ugg. Well, that's all part of the editing process. Once I get that first one divided into two, I'll post the first part. It'll still be a draft - but it'll be a start on giving you a taste of what the book as a whole will be like. I hope.

One other bit of writing news - I've been working on putting together an anthology called Two Sides of the Coin, which will feature short stories and novellas in pairs, with one telling a story from one point of view, then the second telling the same story from a different point of view. I've got one story with its two halves ready to go, one other with one POV done (and thoughts on how which POV to use for its partner story), and another story still in development. Might also be able to talk Amanda Witow into providing a pair of stories set in her world of Legends Legacy! The two of us have also been trying to come up with a story where we would each take on one of the POVs, to round the whole thing out. So far no luck in working out what that story might be, but we'll keep at it!

It's going slowly, but it does feel good to be a bit more productive then I have been of late. Maybe not up to NaNoWriMo level of productivity, but a good start. Now if I could just put into practice the advice I give in "Manage Your Time", I will be a truly Happy Camper!

Till Next Time!