Through life stuff ...

I'm still plugging along through the lovely pile of life stress. Doing well. But it is exhausting me. I've tried twice to work on the scene cards and just can't seem to 'find my place again' well enough to think them through. I've gone to laying back and visualizing the story - something I do every so often to give myself a mental boost and help my mind clear out the other clutter. I have the opening dialogue that the player receives in the game thought out. Allowing the reader to see that is the best way I can explain the object of the game without slipping into a narrative voice.

Reading Monk Goes to Germany. It's a hoot!

Also have two more books to read for reviews.

I think this weekend I'll finally get through those scene cards and I'll get a few miscellaneous scenes started, hopefully one actually written.

I've also decided to work a few things in TKQ before sending it out again. Make a few areas stronger, and make it a complete standalone instead of part one of two. Some wanted it to be a three part-er, but I'm still not willing to do that. I want to stay in the world of South Reach, but I want to go into other stories of South Reach, and other characters. Awhile back Taun showed me how she dies in a future book - I would like to work on that book before it slips from me.

Murial's Story Progress

I've posted a lot of information from today at the secure webpage dragynspice.com/sideways.php

Friends, remind me to send you a message if you didn't get the username and password to see it.

I reworked The Sentence according to the steps in How To Think Sideways course. Went through the process a few times after having a discussion with Murial. Ended up with a lot of pages of information, but I think I'm into the mode now. Cool thing is that a lot of the elements naturally fit my Sweet Spot Map.

The sentence elements that threw me were how to describe the internal struggle within her with so few words. I got The Sentence to 30 words, but wasn't sure I could. Finally, the themes settled themselves as Fear and Guilt versus Trust and Courage.

I know what I mean, but I'm not sure that's right. She fears trusting people and going out of her house, so its counterpart is Trust, but I also toyed with Faith. Finally figured that Faith can be part of Trust and thus Trust works. Her guilt holds her back from facing her fear, from thinking that she has a right to stand up to that fear, and thus Courage came into play. Courage to let go of her guilt and face the real world again.

From the Create A Character Clinic, I knew that Murial was a studious person, even though she had been homeschooled after the accident, and had actually gained enough knowledge to have a few degrees. They are online degrees, of course, and perhaps not even accredited, for she was seeking knowledge and avoiding recognition when she took the studies. But she had studied enough to earn the right to a title.

From looking at my Sweet Spot Map and her character, I figured out that she acquired the online degree of Anthropology and a certification in Naturalistic Studies. (or Holistic Healing...haven't quite settled on that yet). Thus, I was able to allow her to be "A partly paralyzed Anthropologist" for The Sentence.

This works well with justifying what made her choose the particular online game she did. It wasn't the community set up - it wasn't wanting to connect with people in that all meaning way - it was that the game is about discovering an ancient civilization, learning a new language and culture, being a true Anthropologistin a way that her real life didn't allow.

Well, that's about all that's settled at the moment. I've been connecting the dots and defining the project's needs for the rest of the day, and maybe tomorrow...after getting the car tire fixed. Sigh...darn real life intrusions! LOL

Family time and regrouping ...

Yesterday was a combination of spending the day with hubby and other planning. We went out to lunch together in Lincoln, bought each other a new book, and got Starbucks. Normally, the Starbucks is the highlight of my day, but they must have had someone new making the lattes. Someone who didn't like coffee. It tasted like they put the syrup in and forgot the coffee! LOL It was still cool enough that we drank our 'steamers' any ways. I'm sure hubby will hesitate before buying another. If he wasn't such a wuss and complaining about how cold it was (it wasn't THAT cold lol), we would have walked around the corner to Panera's instead. Need to use my punch card there.

I chatted with my character, Murial a bit last night, but the house was busy, so I put headphones on and did actual work instead for most of the time. Today, I hope to get the rest of the work with Murial's story going so I can actually start writing tomorrow.

At the magazine front, been talking to my partner-in-crime about the situation this year and about kicking in the new magazine this year also. We're still talking, but I think we've come up with a plan that will work. We're working towards the end goal of having about four online magazines/publications within three years. As soon as we work things out, I'll make an official announcement.

Life's been screwing with the magazines and my helpers have went through troubles that took them away. But they seem to be coming back, one by one, and my life is... well, it's not going, but I'm stable enough to handle the magazine workload again soon. Putting things on hold until summer seems to have done a lot of good for everyone involved.

Life is uncertain, lay offs are getting awfully close to us and scary. But I keep thinking of our friend and the crap's he's been through and how well he bounces back. He's handicapped, recently had his house burned down and his truck exploded on Friday - but he's happy and optimistic about life. Amazing. Oh and he's verified that the exploding vehicles and the percussion from them as you're being pulled from them that's portrayed in Hollywood is realistic. LOL He's a trip!

Side project - getting my nano novel's introduction written so I can get the free proof for it from createspace.com

Sweet Spot Map Work

I took a break last night to work on my sweet spot map. I cleaned off the dining room table and have claimed it all for the map, and the novel work - we have a small table, but it's still a large section - and we don't eat there anyway, so it's my desk. I'll be working on it as I can throughout the weekend. Life is so full, and I'm so busy right now that it's filling up slower. I'll post pictures as I get the six sections filled out.

Today, I'm going to work on my sentence a bit, and hopefully some freewriting. It's a day disrupted by weather. Storm is now just starting, with rain and sleet, and we're down to about 2 inches for our area now. I'm sure son and hubby will be in and out. For now, hubby went to work to try to make an impression and not be included in the upcoming lay offs, and my son went to play Warcraft at a friend's house.

My "I Fear" cluster has more financial security items in it this time. That lay-off scare is new as of yesterday. Even my muse worries. Guess I should make her reread week one. LOL

Murial's Story Webpage

Note: Previously I had my character's name mispelled. It's Murial with an 'a'.

I created a secret webpage. Thinking Sideways grads and friends I thought might be interested have the address, along with the username and password. If I missed you, let me know and I'll send the information to you. I'll post here when I make additions to the secure webpage.

Today, I posted the one sentence summary and the working synopsis I created from my notes of running Murial's character through Holly's Create A Character Clinic. They're marked as version one.

Now I must get back to work. Have to spend afternoon doing the payday running - you know, where they tell you that you got paid, but the money disappears before you even get to see it - and then we have a "vigorous storm system", as the national weather service calls it, on the way. Hopefully the snow doesn't get too heavy and knock out power.

Muriel's Story Begins...

I'm ready to get started working on Muriel's story at the graduate board for Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways students. I haven't set any time goals for this book, and I need to. I think this is going to be the next book I want to market, meaning the others will be pushed back into the background. I believe Muriel's story has the strongest storyline to compete in today's market.

Not sure what genre to put it in exactly. It's real life fiction that takes place in the rpg world of a game for much of the book. Guess I'll have to wait and see just how much that is before deciding. I'd like to see it under "urban fantasy"... we'll see if it qualifies or not. A question for the people in the know of such things reading my progress, I guess.

These posts are mirrored from The Tortured Quill journal at http://dianacacy.livejournal.com

This blog is set to public, as is the other one. Anything private on details will be posted on the secure graduate board, and I may or may not make notices of them here. This will be more for a progress report and general questions and answers.