For all the caffeine lovers out there.

 

A Writing Tip That Surprised Me.

 

Some of the best writing tips are the simplest. This one may be too simple with the potential to have a considerable impact on your writing. It would be nice to say that I crafted this tip, but that would be a lie. I came across another YouTube vlogger, Ben Hatfield, who posted about, “How to write a better first draft faster with one simple writing hack.” Most likely he did not come up with this writing tip either, but I am glad he shared it. YouTube algorithms must be getting better. There are aggregating better recommendations that I am interested in. I will share his video below, so you want to watch his full explanation and to put it into practice in your own work.

The essence of the video is to help you with the tougher sections of your writing projects. For example, you are writing a scene, and the descriptions are bogging down your progress of writing. He suggests writing TK where the areas need work that are slowing you down, then move on to what you want to write next. So, if you are having trouble describing the location of the scene, you should type descriptiontk.  When you are ready to go back and fill in the spots that you need to tackle. You simply search for TK and all the areas that you need to work on are easily found. I would like to make a small change to his tip. I would add a dash before the TK. This will make the section you need to work on easily seen.

What makes this powerful is that you can use it in so many ways. Let’s say that you have subplots, and you want to track them within your novel. You could use subplot1-tk wherever you sprinkle your subplot clues. As you write, it may be best to be proactive to create a list of all your TK place markers to remember them all. Like protagonist-tk, chapter2warscene-tk, betterdialog-tk and so on.

Now how simple is that. I would highly recommend watching Ben’s video. It is less than seven minutes long. Let me know if you think this will be helpful. As always, happy writing.

Posting something awesome.

Yesterday I saw this on a teacher's desk and wanted to know where I could find the coffee mug. Kudos to the teacher.

You gotta Laugh…

 

You may or may not have heard the old saying, “you gotta laugh, it’s better than the alternative.” It is not used much anymore, meaning it is better to laugh than to cry. We all have our trials where we have the option to wallow in the moments of pain or get back up and dust off our pants.

This has been an extraordinary year since my last birthday. The reason I say it like that is because I’ve just had my birthday. I turned fifty-six. For me, it is easier to capsulate what has or has not been accomplished each year, where you can compare year after year seeing the averaged results. This has been one of my better years in some time. It has also been the most painful. As I mentioned in a previous post, I passed a major examination so that I could continue working at my current job. To put it into context, a lot of my co-workers did not pass the test and had to leave. It took me four tries until I passed. The last one would have been my last chance if I had not passed.  Stress abounded and by the grace of God, I passed. That has been mostly the upside to this year other than helping raise my daughter.

On the other side of the proverbial coin, I have suffered a tremendous number of medical setbacks this year. Beginning with my blood pressure skyrocketing. My doctor was able to resolve it. From there I accidentally fractured several bones in my right foot. Although that was painful, it cannot compare to my recent accident where I subluxated my right collarbone from the sternum. To my amazement the doctor said that he could not do anything. I will leave out the gory details. So, another setback.

What am I trying to say here. For me, it is better to laugh than to cry. I have had a lot of turmoil in my life. Too much in a lifetime. You get to the point when you realize crying, which can be helpful sometime, doesn’t work for me much any longer. The reason that I laugh, morbid as it may seem, is a better coping mechanism to help me get back up and dust off my pants.

My apologies that this post is not about writing so much than my life experiences. To be fair, I would rather you know the reason why I have not been writing. This way you are not left in the dark. So, let’s leave it on a positive note. Although I am still recovering, plans are being made for a writing regimen. With the work test out of the way I can better concentrate on projects to come.

What projects do you ask? I need to complete the short story “The Stupid Plan”. From there I need to flesh out the mid-grade time travel storyline. At least creating the beats. I am thinking about using Milanote, as from the previous post in the planning stages of the novel. We will see how it goes, and I will keep you posted.

Laughing Photo by Stormy All on Unsplash

Writing Vloggers That Help You Get Inspired.

Last week's post is more of a PSA letting everyone know why I haven't been around since last February. If you haven't read it, it's short explaining why. This week's post is inspired from the void of not being creative during that time frame and how I tried to fill that hole. Thankfully, these content creators were there to inspire and give hope. The list below is in no particular order and can be viewed in any order of interest. Although these vloggers have a lot in common, they have their own eccentric value in what they offer. Regardless, I hope they inspire you as much as they have me.

Kate Cavanaugh Writes

Kate is a delight to watch and to learn from. Humor abounds as she vlogs about her writing process while experimenting with other authors’ writing routines and much, much more. 

Bethany Atazadeh

Bethany is known for her young adult fantasy series, The Stolen Kingdom. She has won awards for her writing and is passionate about stories and her dog, Penny. Bethany gives an honest take on her writing process and journey. The ups, downs and side-ways. She has a wealth of information if you are considering becoming an indie author. What I respect about her writing vlog is her full transparency with behind-the-scenes information.

Brandon Sanderson

I shouldn’t have to do an introduction for Brandon. He has become one of the most popular fantasy and science fiction writers of our time. What might be unknown to inspiring authors is that Brandon has taught a series of classes on creative writing at BYU. The lectures are from 2020 and are a minefield of golden nuggets. Even if you are not interested in his genre of writing, he provides practical advice to becoming an author.

Abbie Emmons

Abbie enjoys teaching writers how to make stories matter. She gives insights into her personal process of writing. Abbie encourages us as we try and transform our passion for telling stories and putting our ideas into our projects. She shares her tips, tricks and resources that she uses for her creations. One of my favorite tips Abbie shared is the use of Epidemic Sound. There you can find a vast variety of music you can listen to as you write. I absolutely love their cinematic section. When writing I like to listen to music that doesn’t have any vocals because they are a huge distraction for me. I might do a short blog about them in the future and possibly talk about Epidemic Sound on the channel. This site has become an integral part of my writing process.

Daniel Greene

Daniel is YouTube’s fantasy and sci-fi guy. He is one of the most well-read vloggers on this list. He delivers thought provoking commentary and up to date fantasy and sci-fi news. His first novel Breach of Peace in the Lawful Times series is on Amazon. You never know, you might find yourself in the goblin hoard in no time. Daniel will explain.

Christy Anne Jones

Every now and then YouTube’s algorithm presents you with recommendations that you can enjoy. I just recently started watching Christy’s take on her writing process. She has published and illustrated her book, A Year in Tokyo where she lived for a while. The first video that I watched she gave an excellent tip about an app, Milanote. My mind exploded. You know that I love using Scrivener to keep my projects organized in a coherent manor and it does an exceptional job. Although I have always felt it lacked a few features. For example, mind mapping. In defense of Literature and Latte, the developers of Scrivener have a separate application called Scapple which is a note/mind mapping app. Milanote takes that idea and expands on it exponentially. It uses visual boards to keep you organized. Within these boards you can do mind mapping, note taking, create to-do lists, create a mood board with images, save files of all sorts, add web links and it even has a tool that you can draw with. As I said, mind blowing. Another crazy thing is that they let you sign up for the use of the free subscription… Yes FREE! Of course, there are only so many notes you can create and files that you can upload with the free subscription, but it is very generous. It is a must to check out for you to kick the proverbial tires of Milanote. I will have to write a blog about it sometime after I have given it a good run through myself. Back to Christy. She vlogs about books, her daily life, writing, and all things creative. Here video editing skills are exceptional. I can see myself viewing more of her videos in the near future. 

K. M. Weiland

Here is another author that does not need much of an introduction. Katie likes to live in make-believe worlds, have imaginary friends and has an affection for chocolate truffles and espresso. Besides her published novels, she busy helping other writers to become authors with her series helping writers become authors. You can easily find her work on Amazon. How she finds the time to vlog I will never know. If that isn’t enough, Katie has an award-winning blog where she gives additional advice on writing. Make sure you check her out, you won’t regret it.

Film Courage

For something a little different. Film Courage gives practical advice from professionals in the industry who want to become script writers. They have over 5,000 videos that give honest opinions, in an interview format, of what it takes to be a professional. Even though Film Courage is targeted for script writers, their knowledge can easily be applied to novel writing. 

Well, this is the end of this week’s blog post. Don’t fret, as you can see there is a lot of advice here, tips and tricks to keep you busy for a very long time. Enjoy.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Oh, my word…I’m back!

 

As I have written before, life events can become obstacles to creative endeavors. That is the main reason why I have not written or drawn since last - February. Yikes! That is too long.

 What could possibly pull me away? There were a few examinations that needed to be passed to move forward at my workplace. Full disclosure, stress levels were high. Study schedules were grueling. One exam was the hardest test I have ever taken in my life. That is not an exaggerated statement. The good news is, by God’s grace, I passed them all. Ya!

Once over, in disbelief passing the last exam, I drove home thinking something needed to be studied. That feeling is slowly fading away. With all of that completed, inevitable burnout followed. This is where I am at now. It has been roughly three weeks since the last test and this is the first time I could muster putting my butt in a chair to write something. You may ask, why don’t you take a few vacation days. Well, I took a week vacation off before the monster study schedule to give myself ahead start. So that ship has sailed. I don’t regret it.

 The first thing I wanted to do is write to the people who follow my process as a writer/artis. While on hiatus, which is not a good word to describe what I went through. To my amazement people who followed me kept coming back to see when I might be back. Whether it was to my vlog locations or my blog, they kept checking in on me. I was blown away.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

That has given me so much encouragement to keep doing what I want to do. I also like to give a huge shoutout to people that live overseas where the largest group kept visiting.

 So how do we move forward from here. In all honest I am still exhausted from the pass schedule and stress that I have been going through since February.

 I am still figuring that out a creative schedule. The dream would be going back to writing three days a week and possibly an extra day on Saturday or Sunday. I need to also develop a schedule for posting blog posts and topics to be written for those posts. I like to redevelop how I multi-stream and the esthetic there within. Throw in life duties, ren fair is coming up quickly and raising a two-year-old daughter. She is an amazing little lady that melts my heart every day.

 So, as you can see, I am trying again to find life’s balance. How that will look is evolving. I look forward to what is to come, and I am glad to have you there along this crazy journey.

You don't relize it untill later.

 I just realized that my reMarkable abbreviated Bad Grammar Good Stories in the folder organization. Looks like bad grandmother writes odd stories. Too funny.

Found the correct Scrivener file for my short story.

I can stop sweeting bullets now. Wooooooooooo. I was about to covert the old Scrivener 1.0 to the new Scrivener 3.0 format. Now I can start writing again.