These First Tuesday posts are here to help keep me honest with a couple of my goals, but I may include some other achievements as well. Because, you have to celebrate the small stuff sometimes too, you know? (not the really small stuff, like actually getting up on time, or managing to get the laundry folded right away, although some days those can feel like pretty big accomplishments.)
Writing:
Two main projects going (goal, total word count)
No-see-ums: 55/60K goal, 7276 total word count
Seasonals: 40K goal, 1239 total word count
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Weight Loss:
My husband and I are both trying to get in shape, eat healthier, more exercise, you know the drill. We started a little friendly competition to help motivate ourselves with a race toward losing 20 pounds.
Weight lost: 11/20 (slowly but surely, and still in the lead.)
Wish me luck! I’d love any words of encouragement!
The internet has been a great help to me when it comes to improving my writing. There are so many great resources available. At a recent session with my writing buddy, she commented about how many tabs I had open across the top of my browser window, and why didn’t I just bookmark them?Those are all things I want to go back and check out, but I don’t know if they are bookmark worthy until I check them out! The links I’m sharing this week are ones that made it into the bookmarks:
I love watching TED talks. I think they are a fantastic way to share ideas, get inspiration, or just learn some really cool stuff. One of the things the folks over there have done is to group up the various lessons into neat little bundles of information. The Writer’s Workshop being one of these bundles. You can sit down and have a full day of information, or just take a little peek when you need a refresher.
DIY MFA is the brainchild of Gabriela Pereira. She put together this program with the aim to allow any writer to continuing on their path, with out the commitment to a fulltime MFA program. She focuses on writing, reading, and building community. (And when I say she, I mean the whole team over there..) Be sure to check it out – there are tons of resources available for you!
One of my favorite movies is Elf. I find Buddy to be so endearing in his flawed innocence. His character is demonstrated not only through his actions, but also in his language, something all writers need to consider when crafting their characters. This includes their insults. Buddy’s self criticism has been one of my best loved lines since seeing the movie. (Along with the recitation of the sugar based food groups.)
I have come across a couple of insult related items that are great for adding flavor to characters.
The first lists colloquial insults from around the globe, lots of fun stuff here.
The second is a profanity generator from the mind of Chuck Wendig over on his TerribleMinds blog. (Note: this one contains foul language. Much, much foul language. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
What about you? Any favorite insults?
If you are out there on the Twitterverse you may already be aware of these writing hashtags. Both are Friday related, so I figured they would be a good fit for this week’s favorites.
The first is Friday Phrases. The associated website describes it best:
“#FP is a Twitter microfiction party held on Fridays. It stands for #FridayPhrases, but in order to have the maximum number of characters (out of 140) at our disposal, we’ve shortened #FridayPhrases to #FP.
We tweet out our best 140-character (or less!) microfiction with the #FP hashtag. We also retweet and comment on the #FP tweets we appreciate or enjoy. #FP is all about having imaginative fun and making connections with other creative tweeps!”
Even if you are not a writer, this can be a fun follow for readers.
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The second favorite for this week is WriteClub, which holds writing sprints on Friday nights on Twitter (and some offshoots on other nights too). Again – they explain best on their website:
“#WriteClub is a Twitter hashtag where writers from all over the world come every Friday night (and randomly throughout the week) to join in support and encouragement of each other. We do thirty-minute writing sprints, with 10-15 minute breaks between. Start and stop times are tweeted from the host account, @FriNightWrites. “
I find these sprints very inspiring if I am getting in a slump as the group is very encouraging. It is also great to watch the word count totals go up for the entire group as the evening progresses. While writing is a pretty solitary activity, this helps to bring a sense of community to the process.
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Any other Twitter activity you’d recommend to keep an eye on?
These First Tuesday posts are here to help keep me honest with a couple of my goals, but I may include some other achievements as well. Because, you have to celebrate the small stuff sometimes too, you know? (not the really small stuff, like actually getting up on time, or managing to get the laundry folded right away, although some days those can feel like pretty big accomplishments.)
Writing:
Two main projects going (goal, total word count, and progress)
No-see-ums: 55/60K goal, 6929 total word count, targeting 500 words each week
Seasonals: 40K goal, 1001 total word count, targeting 500 words each week
~
Weight Loss:
My husband and I are both trying to get in shape, eat healthier, more exercise, you know the drill. We started a little friendly competition to help motivate ourselves with a race toward losing 20 pounds.
Weight lost: 9.8/20 (slowly but surely, and still in the lead.)
Wish me luck! I’d love any words of encouragement!