On Obsessions

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Thirst Aid Kit with Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins is my new favorite podcast. I literally giggle like a school girl when I see a new episode is available. The latest episode is the Great British Bae Off. I'd never heard of a 'road man'. It might be worth a trip to the UK. Again.

They end each episode with their own fanfic, which has been, without exception, amazing. I really hope these women decide to write romance. I would buy it in a heartbeat. And dear god don't miss their Tumblr.

Knitpicks. They keep sending me e-mails. I keep obsessing on what I could make with what they have in their e-mails. It's give and take. Mostly me giving them my money and them taking it.

Which leads me to Ravelry. Because once you have yarn you have to figure out what you're going to do with it. My next project is the GAP-tasic Cowl with Billow from Knitpicks. This is how they get you. 

Rachael Herron - How Do You Write?, Petal to the Metal (with J. Thorn, a podcast of "short conversations dedicated to leaving the day job for your dream job"), the Business of Writing in Romance - All of her interviewees and conversations inspiring me for NaNoWriMo, and beyond.

I'm less than 1500 words from 30k. I've never written more than 25k for NaNo. Keep going...

On Being a Pro

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For years I’ve gotten up at 5:30am to write before going to work. For years, this has worked for me. But not anymore. We moved into a new building at work almost a year ago and holy hell -the traffic and the commute.

I have flexible hours so I get in later and leave later, at 6:00pm. I don’t get home until 7ish which means by the time I eat dinner it's often 8 or 8:30. This is not working and for almost a year I’ve been fighting it, bitter and angry that I have to do it. Not taking time to workout or really take care of myself physically.

On The Petal to the Metal Episode 46: What’s the difference between being amateur and going pro? Rachael tells a story about when she realized she needed to be a 'pro' (yeah, I'm going on about another Racheal Herron podcast. Do not judge me! and there's even another one too).

Listening to her story I thought, "Yeah, stop fighting it." Get up at 4:45am and write. Get to work at 8:00am. Get home at 6:00ish in time to go for a walk or work out and have dinner at 7 instead of almost 9:00pm. I’ve been waking up at 4:30am anyway. So I might as well get up. 

Also, I’m moving as soon as this freaking lease is up. 

Find My Darlings

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As I mentioned in my last post, I'm currently obsessed with Rachael Herron's podcast How Do You Right?

  • "Breaking the seal" in Ep. 060: Rachael Herron with 3 Writing Tips You’ve Never Heard Before. There's a "holding your pee all day" analogy that makes the argument for writing first thing in the morning. It's genius. 
  • I've listened to Ep. 061: Olivia Dunn on What it Means to Do Two More Drafts multiple times now
    • Breaking the seal is again discussed. You can do a lot with a good peeing analogy
    • Also Dunn shared how she started a blog when she was "in her 20s at a boring office job." She wrote only a paragraph a day, which seems really insignificant, but with time she had a significant amount of writing. Even if the writing wasn't significant. (I've used some form of the word "significant" a lot in this bullet point. Its use is not significant.)

I go through periods of blogging but my perfectionism gets in the way and the whole process takes away too much time from my fiction writing. Or knitting. Or watching TV. Or Napping. 

So Thank you Olivia Dunn. This - one paragraph a day - I can do. I am not a wordy person. I never have to cut my fiction writing - kill my darlings. I always have to add words, scenes, characters. I have to... find my darlings.