May
12
Blogging 101
Filed Under Nothing, Writing | Leave a Comment
Yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday was my 100th blog post (for this blog anyway). But since it was, well… wordless I didn’t mention it. For post 101 I’ll share a few things I have learned about blogging since my first post.
1. Posting anything controversial will get a eleventy billion hits and comments… and most of them aren’t nice. But it will also get your blog the #1 spot on google for those search terms.
2. Creating a tutorial that seems to be missing from the intertubes also earns eleventy billion hits and a #1 spot. Even if the pictures do suck.
3. Posting any pictures of your kids will results in pervy search terms leading to your blog.
4. Putting google ads on your blog will make you a jillionaire… in about 40 million years.
5. Eye candy + sarcasm = a winning combo.
6. Almost any topic you can think of can lead to side stories about your childhood.
7. Ranting blog posts are therapeutic, but you better know your audience… and hope your boss doesn’t read your blog.
8. Ironically, writing about failure to write has resulted in some really long posts.
9. Re-reading old posts can make you cringe, but it might also make you smile.
Oct
16
For some reason, I’ve decided to subject myself to the torture that is NaNoWriMo again this year.
This year, I swore I’d be ready. So I’ve been reading books about how to write (does anyone else see the irony in that? I mean, what kind of loser reads books about how to write?) and thinking thinking thinking for the last 4 months of a good plot. Yeah. Um. I got nothing. Well, ok, that’s not entirely true, I have about 25 “scenes” in a plot that is going nowhere fast. It’s the “journey” of a nine-year-old girl in a post-apocalyptic world. Here’s the trouble. I have no idea where she is going. I need some sort of major conflict to lead up to — as if the apocalypse isn’t conflict enough. I’ve got virtually no subplots either.
I want to write something with a hint of the supernatural. I’ve read so many books with ghosts and magic and whatnot lately that it’s just nagging at me. But what? I keep considering just picking a setting and starting, but last year that’s what did me in I think. I need a little bit more of a road map than just where to start.
Oddly, I’m not the only one who views the thought of banging out 50,000 words in 30 days as torture. (Actually, it’s not the word count that seems so daunting to me, but more the complete lack of direction.) There are so many posts in the forums dedicated to how much NaNo sucks. There is a forum named “NaNoWriMo ate my soul” that contains threads with titles like “101 ways to epic fail october”, “Adopt a Pessimist”, and my personal favorite “IHMAWTD Lounge” (that’s “I Hate Myself And Want To Die”).
Anyway, I’ve been hanging out in the aforementioned forums and I keep waffling back and forth between “I can make this work”, and “I suck so bad it’s not even worth thinking about”. I know reading posts in IHMAWTD is not really constructive, so I keep trying to plant myself in the plot doctoring forum. Problem with that is, either the other people’s plots sound sooo much more interesting than mine, or they are about zombies and vampires (retch).
A friend suggests I find my audience. So here’s where I implore you, is there anyone out there that even cares? Throw me a bone if you do.
Nov
21
Boy have I been on a mood roller coaster lately. I keep going from pleased as punch – with an actual smile! – to moody and restless. At the beginning of the month I started writing that book I keep talking about. You know, the one I’ll probably never finish? Well it is NaNoWriMo after all! I’m happy to say I kept up with it for about 2 weeks before work became so absolutely overwhelming that the very last thing in the world I wanted to do was to sit in front of the computer again when I got home. No, I wanted to retreat to my comfy chair upstairs with a glass of wine and a big ball of yarn. So finally… even though I KNOW I’ll hate myself, I just gave up on NaNoWriMo. I know that it’s not going to be an easy thing to finish a novel. But trying to finish one while your employer has you working weekends too… well let’s just say impossible. And depressing.
So giving up the writing made me feel a little lighter, though, if I could have just given up work I think then everything would be better… well, until the bill collectors showed up. And I had to go knock off a yarn store to feed my addiction. Seriously, what in the hell do I need with these?
No freaking clue. But I just *HAD* to have them. They look so squooshy and yummy and fun. And warm. Have I mentioned the weather in Austin lately? I mean COME ON! It’s still supposed to be 70 degrees outside. This is central Texas for Pete’s sake. This cold sweater weather should not be here until late January! Though, to be fair, cold sweater weather to me is about 50 degrees. Which is why I will never move further north than Austin. Ever. Um, yeah so now back to the yarn. Yeah, I only brought it up so that I could insert eye candy into an otherwise completely rambling boring post. Click on the pictures to get to the etsy shops where I bought them.
And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I did finish the Butterfly dress… I even wore it on the cruise. But guess what? We didn’t take even one single picture. Which is actually ok with me, because I wasn’t thrilled with the way the underneath dress came out. (So on a side note, why is it that whenever I make a pattern using my actual measurements it comes out about 4 sizes too big and then I end up altering the crap out of the finished product and throwing away about half of the fabric I spent a small fortune on?)
I do, however, have pictures of my hair from that night. Seriously $35 to have someone else tease my hair into next week is completely worth it. I don’t do hair. You can ask Alexis who likely had burn marks on her neck from my attempt at curling her hair that night. Poor kid has hair just like mine. Sure it’s all soft and shiny until you come near it with a hair brush, then, forget it because it’s just flyaway city. I don’t think I’ve ever had a decent updo that I did myself. Even ponytails come out looking like I stuck my finger in an outlet.
Well, for all that rambling, maybe in the next few weeks there will actually be something interesting for me to share. It is getting dangerously close to Christmas, and there are now far too many babies to sew for -Anyone else noticing an explosion of baby girls? There should be lots of good material to pick from, if not just good eye candy. Until then…
Jun
4
My cow-orker* and friend always says “Twice nothing is still nothing.” And that’s what I’ve got for you still. No new FOs.
So in lieu of pretty finished projects, I give you the tulips my mother gave me as a “hostess” gift on memorial day. Aren’t they pretty? Tulips are my favorite flower. I’ve loved them since college, when there used to be great big beds packed with tulips in the spring. They’re just fresh and simple and perfect.
The baby quilt is ALMOST done. 4.5 more 4 inch squares and I’m done with the quilting! I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. I really regret the quilting pattern I picked as it was EXTREMELY boring to implement. I do actually LIKE doing quilt binding. (I may be the only one in the world who does.) There is just something about stitching the binding to the front and watching the quilt edges becoming encapsulated by fabric; seeing it come to completion one stitch at a time. It’s a bit like watching a flower unfold.
Or maybe it’s just the light at the end of the tunnel.
In other news, I actually started writing about a particular episode of my life. I’ve only got the middle of the story so far, with no idea how I’m going to write the ending, and only an inkling of how to start the whole mess. All in all, I like what I have so far, even though I know it’ll have to have a few tweaks on names, etc. I’m also debating whether it should be written in first person, or third. Of course, I haven’t touched it in a week. I have got to get past this block. I don’t understand how I can have so many ideas, but procrastinate and procrastinate and procrastinate.
I’m also putting off working on the Diamond Fantasy Shawl. I’ve only got one pattern repeat left, but I keep coming up short on stitches, and it’s irritating me. It doesn’t matter that when the whole thing is stretched out, that there is no visible mistake, coming up short is just frustrating. So every time I pick the dumb thing up, I only get two rows done, because at the end of the next right side row, I want to throw it across the room and scream. Frogging is not an option. I tried doing that way back at the begining, and I couldn’t find the stitches and ended up ripping it all back and starting over.
I’ve got at least 3 more knitting projects on my plate. I ordered the yarn and pattern for the Rowan butterfly dress from KnitPicks and because I’m boring (and because it’s my favorite color lately) I got the same turquoise yarn their sample is made from. Then there is the silver merino/lace shawl/stole thing that I haven’t picked a pattern for yet. And finally, that stuffed toy that Susan said I should do. I found the perfect pattern, but that’s a see-crud (did anyone else read Trixie Belden? Her brother always said “see-crud”).
So, yeah, all that stuff, and nothing to share. Whatever!
*Yes, I meant to put the hyphen there…
May
22
I’ve got nothin’.
Zilch.
Zero.
Zip.
Nothing new to share. I tried to take pictures of the shawl I’m knitting, and of the now 3/4 quilted baby quilt, but the pictures are terrible. I’ve also been ignoring my Etsy shop. I haven’t made anything or listed anything in days weeks. I have a couple of Elefelts in pieces in the sewing room, but I think they might just stay there for a while.
I suppose a lot of it has to do with how draining work has been lately. I’m not even sure why, it’s just trying to meet deadlines, and I’m not really behind, but blah. I’m not upset about it or anything, just completely apathetic about everything lately.
On the other hand, I’ve had a horrible headache for several days. I’ve tried everything. Even exercise — see? you know I’m desperate. I swam 50 laps (about 5oo m) in our pool yesterday for the first time this season, and all I got were sore arms. I mean really painfully sore arms. Usually when I get sore it’s about 2 days before it sets in. Last night, laying on the floor watching TV, I thought my arms might just fall off. And my head hurt more. Go figure. I suppose I’ll have to swim again tonight, just to loosen up the arms.
I also downloaded some software that is supposed to help make writing stories/novels easier. I actually picked something to write about, too. But damn if I haven’t been stalling on writing it. I even organized the desktop on my computer this morning to avoid writing it. Sigh.
Maybe this weekend I’ll find some motivation to write or finish a project or something. But for now, has anyone seen my blankie? I wanna go back to bed.