Tag Archives: writing

Hit Publish and Drive On

Posted on February 4, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sometimes it doesn’t work.

After yesterday’s blubbering about how I couldn’t write, I got a little stern with myself.  I left my puzzle book home and when it was break time, I sat down, took out my notebook, and started to write.

I had been thinking about what I was going to write before I sat down.  That usually helps.  Very often after I have been going through a dry spell or putting off a particular writing project, I sit down and I write it.  Just like that.  I spend some time after that wondering what my problem had been in the first place.  I make a mental note of the results, reminding myself that next time perhaps the operative thing to do is to, damn it, just sit down and write the thing!

Well, I’m rarely as prompt as I ought to be about any given chore, be it laundry or writing.  Still, after several episodes of finally sitting down and writing something, I do try the Dammit-Just-Sit-Down-And-Write method a little sooner than I used to.

Aaand (you saw this coming) sometimes it doesn’t work.  Maybe I don’t try it soon enough?  Maybe I tried it too soon?  Maybe I didn’t sit in the right place.  Or work on the right project.

Full disclosure:  I do have a mostly finished blog post about a cheesy movie we recently viewed.  It is just too long for me to type in right now, and I would like to edit and perhaps add a few things.  It was just too much trouble to do that tonight.  I have a baby afghan I am finishing for a co-worker (don’t say anything; it’s a surprise).  I need to sit and crochet.

So we’ll call this a Wuss-out Wednesday, hit publish and drive on.  I hope you’re having a lovely middle of the week.

 

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The Groundhog Day Connection

Posted on February 3, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am going through a MAJOR dry spell.  My brain just does not want to write.  Does this happen to other writers?  I would imagine it does, but I know for a fact that many writers and especially non-writers are quite impatient of such nonsense.

On the one hand, they have a point.  What am I doing right now but writing? (Technically I am typing, but let’s not be didactic, shall we?)  It’s been said before, even by me: sometimes you just have to sit down and WRITE, even when you don’t damn well feel like it.

Unfortunately, that does not mean one can progress on the project at hand (I say “one” instead of “you,” because I’m sure some of you are huffing, “I ALWAYS can!”) (fat liars).  What I forget is that I can always write SOMETHING.  Then I do things like read, watch television, work on cryptogram or anacrostic puzzles (my two favorites), anything but clean the house.  Or write.

Sometimes I remember that I can always write something, and I do.  Often a letter to a loved one.  Often a very foolish blog post (YES, like this one).  Today, you may have guessed, was not one of those days.  It was, if you are interested, a cryptogram puzzle day.  I did not write a foolish blog post till, um, yes, right now.

Would this have been a better post if I had managed to squeeze some words out of my brain and onto the page earlier?  Quite possibly.  Perhaps I can try that tomorrow, and we can compare/contrast.

In the meantime, I would point out that today is Groundhog Day.  In the movie of that name (which I never saw, sue me), Bill Murray lives the same day over and over again.  I can’t help feeling that this is kind of familiar:  I’m living the same blog post over and over:  “I can’t write, I didn’t write, this is a foolish blog post…”

And you, dear reader, are living it with me.  Once again, thank you for playing.

 

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Blame Edith Wharton!

Posted on January 28, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

My nice husband gave me a volume of novels by Edith Wharton for Christmas. I’ve been reading House of Mirth, and tonight I just could not put it down till I finished it.  So I have a very literary reason for this week’s Wuss-out Wednesday post.  Doesn’t that sound higher class than “I’m tired”  or “I’m drinking wine”?

In fact I am tired, and I have to admit that it is for no discernible reason.  I worked for a mere eight not very strenuous hours and did not go running after work.  I obviously did not write a blog post while at work.  Did I write? Oh my, yes, I did.  Just not a blog post.

I am working on the actual script for the murder mystery Ilion Little Theatre is putting on for a church’s fundraiser.  I started it yesterday, dragging one sentence at a time out of my brain. I knew how I wanted it to start, so I wrote that.  Then what?  Another line. What next?  Another line.  Then a line that gave me a few more lines after that.  Maybe this would work.

Today it was different.  I had ended yesterday not exactly sure where to go next, but thinking in a vague sort of way that I would figure it out.  While I worked I just sort of let the characters float around in my head.  Full disclosure:  I’m not even sure who the murder is yet.   Soon a few lines of dialogue magically appeared.  Then a few more.

When it was lunch time I wrote like a maniac, quickly getting down everything I had been composing in my head.  Then I came up with a few more things.  The only problem was, what I came up with does not follow consecutively with what I wrote yesterday.  This is a problem I shall easily solve in editing.

Ah, now I must get to editing, mustn’t I?  I came home and fired up the desktop to type in what I wrote.  Then I was overcome with fatigue. I called my mother for a pep talk.  I told her how tired I was, but when I got off the phone I said I would try to do something useful.  She said I should do something fun,  “like read a book.”  So I picked up Edith Wharton JUST FOR A MINUTE.

And that brings us to the present.   Ooh, and it’s 400 words.  That’s pretty good for a Wuss-out Wednesday.   Hmmm…. would that have made a better headline?  “Pretty Good for a Wuss-out Wednesday.”  Discuss amongst yourselves.

Or do you suppose I used it before?  I’m too tired to check.

 

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This Writer Thing

Posted on January 22, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

As the weekend approaches (VERY slowly), I begin to think about what sort of adventures (if any) I might have.  And before I go further, my apologies to anybody who does not have weekends off and is jealous of anybody who does. Don’t hate. I’ve been there. I may be there again.

To continue, I say “if any” regarding my potential adventures because I really might be best served by NOT going adventuring but by staying home, off the phone and the internet, and WRITING.  I have a murder mystery to finish.  I have a novel flapping in the breeze.  I have a million other ideas on hold.

On the other hand, I also have a blog and a standing commitment to submit articles to Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  For the blog, I can and do limp along publishing nonsense like yesterday’s post or lesser adventures such as what I fixed for dinner (as you see, I take a broad definition of the word “adventure”).  For a classy magazine like Mohawk Valley Living (and it is a wonderful publication; check it out if you haven’t already), I must be more selective.

Another consideration is that I cannot repeat myself for the magazine as I do in the blog.  For example, this Saturday (Jan. 23) is Coffee and Conversation with a Cop at the Baptist Church on the corner of Washington and Green streets in Herkimer, NY.  This monthly program promotes healthy relations between the community and the police force.  I mean to attend and write a blog post about it.  I wrote an article about the program for Mohawk Valley Living some time ago.

So I have one blogworthy but not magazine-worthy adventure planned.  The question is, can I have another adventure, worth writing about for the magazine, and still have time to progress on my other projects?  The answer has to be yes.  Now there are other questions such as What adventure?  How will I find time? Am I just kidding myself with this whole Writer thing?  Wait a minute, don’t answer that last question.

 

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Wrong Writing on Wuss-out Wednesday

Posted on January 21, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sometimes you don’t have a reason to feel the way you feel.  Sometimes you just feel a certain way and you just have to keep feeling that way until you don’t feel that way any more.

Yes, it is Wuss-out Wednesday, and this is Yet Another Post About How I Can’t Write A Post.  On the brighter side, I  do not intend to go on an on about how it makes me FEEL.  Don’t you just hate it when people go on and on about their feelings?  Oh yeah, like YOU never do it!

Where was I?

I spent all day trying to think about something to write for a blog post.  Sometimes, for a change of pace, I thought about that novel I started to write a couple of years ago that I VOWED I would finish.  Remember that novel?  Remember Finish That Novel May?  That was, of course, last May.  The novel still isn’t finished.  However, I remembered a trick I read about re-energizing a stalled novel.  You write a brief summary about the story as a whole, perhaps in the form of a rave review or a book flap blurb.  I tried it.  I’m not sure it worked, but I wrote a page anyways.

As I have stated on this blog before, any writing counts.  My problem now is to get to the RIGHT writing.  My novel.  The murder mystery script.  A better blog post.  We’ll see what I can come up with on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

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76% Remaining

Posted on January 15, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

The computer woes continue, and I sit here trying to think rapidly and type even faster to get this blog post done while the battery lasts.  It’s a race against time!  Actually, it’s a race against battery.  What does that even mean, anyways, “race against time.”  Isn’t any race where you’re being timed a race against time?  And does time ever go any faster? Now, let’s not get all philosophical about that!  Oh well, I guess you can if you want to.

Where was I?  Ah yes, Non-Sequitur Thursday.  I’m thinking this has been a rather lame week, and I’m pretty damn happy that tomorrow is Lame Post Friday.  I tried to write a real post while on breaks at work today.  I got over a page written about an old movie I watched last weekend.  I don’t know that I would call it a cheesy movie exactly, but I thought I was saying some pretty good stuff (or do I flatter myself?  Always a possibility).  However, it is not finished yet and I do not have the mental wherewithal to finish it now.  Sorry about that.

I have a couple of emails I have to send regarding theatre business.  I tried writing them earlier too, in hopes of saving time later.  Naturally I am second guessing what I wrote, wondering if I ought to edit further, and obsessing over who I ought to courtesy copy.  There’s a social land mine, if you like.  What if I cc the wrong people and they send me a nasty reply?  What if I don’t cc somebody who thinks they ought to have been cc’d and they yell at me?  I hate to be yelled at.  What if I cc somebody who doesn’t give a rat’s ass and they roll their eyes at me?  In the scheme of things, I suppose having eyes rolled at one is not the worst thing that could happen.  Still, I find it unpleasant.

Now I see I am over 300 words of this nonsense.  I hope I have at least been amusing.  I’ll try to finish that movie write-up so I can post it in lieu of Lame Post Friday (I really like that expression “in lieu of”).  Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

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Woe and Wuss

Posted on January 14, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today is Wuss-out Wednesday due to computer woes.  I must compose quickly and get off my device while I still have power.

My plan had been to write something BEFORE getting on the computer.  Did I? Of course not!  I had Blogger’s Blank.  Ooh, nice alliteration there.  Usually I have Writer’s Blank, but in fact I wrote a couple of pages on a letter, most of an article for Mohawk Valley Living, and a page and a half in the TV Journal.  I can write fine!  I just can’t seem to write a blog post.

Winter continues to pummel the Mohawk Valley, but unevenly.  Some places got lots of snow, some a little, but everybody at least some.  And it was COLD!   I know, I know, it’s January.  I wasn’t complaining about it, I was just reporting.

After work today I met with a lady who wants to do a dinner theatre as a fundraiser for her church.  She reached out to Ilion Little Theatre for help, which I say was a very good choice.  When the matter first came up at one of our dinner meetings, I said, “You know, you do have a member that used to write murder mystery dinner theatre and is dying to do another one!”

A few actors expressed an interest.  I started writing.  Today, as I said, I met with the lady from the church, and it looks as if this is going to happen.  That will definitely be worth a blog post or two!

For today, however, this is all I got.  At least it is over 250 words.  I’m going to go back and write some more in the TV Journal.  Happy Wednesday, everyone.

 

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Musings on Medium (or Medium Meanderings?)

Posted on January 12, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today is a real let myself off the hook day.  I did not run, I have not done anything remotely useful around the house, and I did not write a blog post earlier today.  It’s going to be a Monday Middle-age Musings or Monday Mental Meanderings (take your pick; I’m not even making myself choose one).

One thing I often notice in my writing is how what I’m writing on and writing with makes a difference.  At least, I have not done a real study on if it makes a difference in the writing itself.  But I definitely notice a difference in how I feel.  I’m thinking this is because I love the physical act of writing so much.  Putting words on paper (or screen, as the case may be) is fun.

I like writing by hand in a spiral notebook.  My handwriting is messy, and I sometimes get writer’s cramp, but in general I love the movement and I love watching the squiggly lines appear.  I write in pen these days.  I prefer a thin ballpoint.  I can live with a medium point, but anything over 1 mm is too bulky for me.  I used to write almost exclusively in pencil.  I liked the sound of the scratching.  I must try that again one day soon.

When I first started this blog (May 23, 2011, in case you were wondering), I would write my post on paper, then type it into the computer.  Sometimes I would write it the night before, sometimes just earlier in the day.  Of course, being me, I could not keep up that level of preparedness and was soon composing at the keyboard, as I am today.

Today I am on my desktop, which has a full-size keyboard.  For quite a while now I have been typing my posts on our Acer, which has a smaller keyboard.  Not one of those bitty, baby things you see on some people’s devices, but small enough that it took some getting used to.  Right now my hands are rather enjoying stretching out.  They feel bad-ass.

Of course, if I really want my hands to feel bad-ass, I must haul out my old manual typewriters.  I used to whale on a manual typewriter!  I have a minor collection now.  Sometimes I find them at garage sales or second-hand stores.  My parents recently gave me a fabulous old Remington.  I must clean it up and display it somewhere.  Maybe I’ll first roll a piece of paper into it and see what comes out.

For now, though, I see I am over 400 words.  That is more than respectable for a Monday!  I’ll try for something other than a Tired Tuesday post tomorrow.

 

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Hill after Headache

Posted on January 8, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I went running today so that I could do a Running Commentary blog post.  The other reasons were (1) it was warmer than it has been for the past two days and (2) I had almost no headache all day.

As I left work, I reminded myself not to go crazy.  It was a little warmer.  It was not a heat wave.  I would still need to wear leggings, long sleeves and probably a hat. Still, the sun was shining.  It was a lovely afternoon.  Could it be over 40?

According to my thermostat, the outdoor temperature was 36 degrees.  Although it was sunny, there were clouds in the sky.  It is, after all, winter.  I dressed accordingly and got going.

At least the sidewalks were fairly bare.  I dodged some snow and ice as I ran toward German Street.  I wanted to run up to Herkimer College.  I thought it would make a better blog post.  Could I make it up that hill?  Maybe I should run up the back way.  Longer but less steep.  Maybe I should just run up the hill by Valley Health.  After all, I worked all day, and I had a migraine yesterday.

I looked at all the traffic and thought maybe I would not be able to cross German Street at all.  Well, I could just run around streets on this side of German.  There was no rule I had to run up a hill.  All I had to do was run and write a blog post about it.  It didn’t matter where.  There was a break in traffic.  I sprinted!  I made it!  But would I run to the college?  Maybe a run into Brookfield Park?

Oh, who was I kidding?  I wanted to run up to the college the front way.  It is the impressive way.  It is the way that makes my friend Phyllis say I am her hero.  I like to be somebody’s hero.  As I turned up Lou Ambers Drive, I looked longingly at Salvatore’s.  It would be nice to go out to dinner later.  However, I am trying to lose weight.  Additionally, Steven works till 6:30.  I would be hungry before that.

Sometimes I have to spit when I run.  I don’t always follow advice, but in general I heed the song that tells me to don’t spi-it in the wind.  I also don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger and I don’t mess around with Slim, but those situations usually do not arise when I am running.  Full disclosure:  that bit occurs to me almost every time I run, and this is the first time I used it in a blog post.

Oh, it took a long time to get up the hill.  As I’ve said before, there was no suspense.  I knew I would make it to the top.  The knowledge was no comfort.  I reflected that the bright day would make the view from the top better than the misty view on New Year’s Day.  There was more traffic than I expected.  One car slowed down and moved over.  When I gave a thank-you wave, the girl driving waved back.  I like little connections like that.

The view was very nice.  Everything around me looked nice.  I always think that sunshine is nature’s cosmetic, because almost any scene looks better in the sunlight. Then again, maybe things just looked better to me because I was at the top of the hill and I could breathe almost normally again.

My run down was not too bad.  My cool-down walk was maybe a little too cool.  The temperature was dropping by then and the wind had picked up.  By the time I finished I was cold and TIRED.  Well, why not be tired at the end of the day?  And aren’t you all happy that I’ve made a blog post of over 600 words where I did not once mention what I couldn’t write about?  I certainly am.

 

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Should Have Used Vanilla

Posted on January 7, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today is Wuss-out Wednesday and you can just be mad at me about it.

I tried to write a post.  I had, in fact, over 200 words of a post typed in and some of them were pretty good words.  I think my readers would have enjoyed them.  But were they honest words?  They sounded good, but I think I lied.

I really REALLY do NOT want to start complaining about my aches and pains again.  Oops, I guess I just did.  The point is, I do not have the brain power to finish that post.  I am hoping to come up with something mildly amusing now.  Slightly entertaining?  Vaguely not boring?

Oh, this is ridiculous!  I should be able to write with a headache.  I’ve done it before.  When I was in college I aced a couple of essay tests with strep throat and that brought on some major head pain.  Of course I wasn’t trying to be funny.  I think it’s harder to be funny.

Let’s try this. Picture me hitting myself in the face with a cream pie.   An ice cream pie.  Aaahhh…. Ice on my headache.  But what a waste of chocolate.  And now the syrup is dripping down my neck and will stain my sweatshirt.  Dammit, why didn’t I use vanilla?

 

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