Category: Writing Life

Updates September 26-30

Hello,

Thanks for the likes and follows.

Last week went well. Life outside of writing has improved. My dad was in the hospital for about a week and a half.  He did have to go through a procedure. It was successful and he is home now.  Which is great. I am still sifting through my feelings about the whole situation.  It is very complicated and has too much information to share.  

When I wasn’t writing I watched some exciting vlog essays on characters from various fantasy series.  GRR Martin’s Game of Thrones/ A Song of Ice and Fire and JRR Tolkien’s Silmarillion/Lord of the Rings series were prominent because of the prequel streaming shows on HBOMax and Amazon Prime.  I watched these discussions on YouTube and according to the Content Creators there, House of the Dragon is a hit and Rings of Power is a miss.   I am still on the fence about these shows.  I understand their appeal to audiences who are not fantasy readers and I know the frustration of those who are.  A showrunner and writing teams interpretation of the same book that fans read, extrapolated, and developed settings, situations, and characters that are different from what was imagined.  It can feel like an insult or an attack. A way to deal with negative feelings that may arise is to step away from the “offensive material” and recognize that this fiction may not be for you.  Remember the original material is still there.  Also remember that especially with JRR Tolkien’s work, he wrote from his experiences and of his time.   I am writing this from a perspective of a Black Woman.  He may not have meant to write things that now sound and are offensive, but they are still there.  I don’t believe it was his intention to insult anyone.  So, in general, I ignore it.  I also consider that adapting anything for the large or small screen, needs to be inclusive.  I refuse to take offense to original works or adaptations.  Distancing oneself is better than a vitriolic rant.  There is a thin line between dissent and insult.    These methods may also be successful with GRR Martin’s work but since he is alive. He has the option to comment on live-action productions and the agency to establish the canon.  The audience has a chance to pick a side. 

This is the last week of September.  My original goal was to finish Connection Lost by this time.  Then I could leisurely prep for National Novel Writing Month in October. Nano fans call it Preptober. There is also an Inktober, but controversy kind of killed the event. Preptober is the time Nano writers prepare for the event.  It is also where Content Creators also share tips and suggestions for participants to win.  This is all voluntary and free.  I usually decided to participate in Nano, in the last week of October or the first week of November.  I wanted to use Preptober as the time to really develop the frame of the story.  I have been thinking about it for two years and I have written some notes on it and a few character profiles.  It is an experiment to see if this kind of planning can help me win. If it doesn’t help, I will still have the words and learned that this method did not work for this story.  A side goal is to get as many badges as possible. They are meaningless in the long run, but they are so much fun to acquire.  There is a sense of accomplishment when I see the 7-day or 10K badge light up.

I have been dividing the year into 3-month quarters, gleaning tips and suggestions from others with similar planning methods.  This last quarter I am challenging myself to do better.  I wrote this before, and I will continue to do so until it is so.  There is a lot of work, I would like to complete to improve this website and other social media spots.  It is true that I’ve been neglecting them, and the result is I don’t like the position it has put me in.  Every day is an opportunity to do better.  The mantra for the week. 

That is all for now.  I didn’t plan to write as much as I did but I am glad to get the thoughts out.  Now to focus on my own stories.  Enjoy the rest of the week.  Please remember to be kind. 

End. 

Updates September 19-23

Photo by Pawel Kalisinski on Pexels.com

Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows. 

Last week, I was good.  Outside of the writing, life went more left than was expected. I may elaborate on that later.  But the writing went well.  The current scene I am working on has not been completed yet, but I got clarity about it that I haven’t had in a long time.  What really helped was the read-aloud feature in Microsoft Word.  In previous entries, I was promoting the virtues of the Speechify app.  For the time being, I am still using it on other online articles.  But didn’t see how to attach it to Word.   No worries, Microsoft has done it for me.  It is not Speechify, but it is good enough.  The strange thing is that I have a Read Aloud app, already but I haven’t used it in a while.  It was used most of the time during NaNoWriMo.  There is no reason why I stopped using it except for getting tired of uploading files. Microsoft Word read-aloud feature has convenience built in.  If I need to make a correction, I can do it quickly and have the voice read the revised sentence again.

Also, the Medium app on the phone has a read-aloud feature.  I didn’t notice it before. I have been traveling a lot this week and that feature came in handy.  I get nauseous attempting to read on the bus or train.  It is odd because it didn’t start until I was 27 years old.  This was also the reason I started to invest so much in audiobooks.

In writing news, as stated above, there is a new sense of direction.  Along with that clearness, research was added.  My main character’s life is on the line and will be irrevocably changed afterward.  She is tasked with finding three artifacts lost to the supernatural world.  These McGuffins are the catalyst of the story, a cup, a dagger, and a pendant. Very small items are lost in a vault buried with other things for millennia.  Possession of one artifact can give a being near cosmic phenomenal power. Or at least that was the original plan.  The uses of these items are subject to change. The key thing is that they are wanted by the powerful. But difficult for them to find.  They need special eyes, hence my main character.  This scene is supposed to convey this and establish the relationship with the characters. Wish me luck. 

In reading news, there is not much to report. As stated before, catching up on Medium articles.  Many of the articles are about how people of color navigate their lives in hostile environments.  They were put on my reading list, and I am going through them.  Other articles are on how to make money, freelance writing, or writing on Medium and other platforms.  There is poetry, short stories in every genre, and reviews of everything.  There are even articles written in other languages.  I am listening to them because I am looking for my niche.  Once a month for the last two months I post an essay on Medium.  It is like this update, but with a monthly perspective at least that is the goal. At the end of the year, there will be an evaluation of this endeavor.  Medium offers notoriety and money and I can’t say no to those things.  It is time to put up or shut up. 

The live-action Little Mermaid trailer came out, featuring Halle Bailey as Ariel.  The haters came out in droves, I am annoyed to see some of them were Black People.  I was 14 years old when Little Mermaid debuted in 1989.  I was a child of Caribbean heritage; I was happy that Sebastian the crab had a West Indian accent.  It was a bad accent but at the time I didn’t care and none of the children in my family did either.  We sang under the sea and kiss the girl with relish.  The recent trailer was reminiscent of the animated trailer, and I am very good with that too.   Halle Bailey is a beautiful woman, and she has a great voice.  There should be no complaints.

It would be great if there was an original mermaid story featuring Black people. Quiet as it is kept, there are several stories in bookstores and on library shelves right now. Black creators have been writing fantasy for years.

I am writing this to state that Disney live-action movies don’t do as well as their animated counterparts.  The only one I think did exceptionally well was Alice in Wonderland.  It garnered a sequel.  If this movie does not perform well at the box office, is this going to give haters license to puff up their chests and blame the Black actress?  I refuse to use the ‘w’ word.  I have been that way my whole life.  I am tired of diluted words that have lost their meaning in my community.  But those are thoughts for another essay.  This paragraph ends with me standing with live-action Ariel. 

That is all for now.  I hope these words find you all doing well.  Remember to be kind to all, even when they don’t deserve it.

End