#writeblr updates

[yvesdot]

MARCH 2023 NEWSLETTER OUT NOW!

This month's free public newsletter is out, featuring some slightly off-kilter phrasing, several stream updates, and a special surprise at the end. Look out for a behind-the-scenes coming tomorrow, and tell me how your month has been!

(behind the scenes for this post)

[onomatopiya-main]

[Image ID: A picture of the ocean in the day, a seagull flying in the foreground. On the image are the words, “stormharbors’s april updates.” End ID]

STATS

projects: Revolution, Retribution

words written: 18656

achievements: *this* close to finishing act one rr!

THOUGHTS

wow it’s been a minute since i’ve done a proper camp nano! i fell a little short but i still got a lot done which is a win to me

i’m also doing detailing on the outline for acts ii and iii of rr so!! aaa exciting!!!!!

this month i’m hoping to get some short form writing done after i finish act one rr hehe >:)

the stronger my bestie. haven’t touched it in a hot minute and i’ve had to scrap. most of my outline and almost all of my worldbuilding. but there is a new direction i’m taking which i’m hoping will get me out of reoutlining hell. fingers crossed!

in terms of personal life stuff! i made a uni decision and i’m very excited about it. slay

[onomatopiya-main]

[Image ID: A picture of a dark blue night sky. Stars dot it, and trees are silhouetted against it. Text over the image reads, “stormharbors’s may updates.”]

STATS

projects: Revolution, Retribution

words written: 13538

achievements: finished act i rr and also a short story!

THOUGHTS

big thought: i’ve made the tough decision of shelving the stronger for now! i may come back to it or not (idk) but at current it hasn’t been fun to work on and i feel that im kicking a dead horse/outgrowing it so. onto bigger and better things!

act i rr is done! thats something i’m proud of! it is extremely messy & unedited but. its on paper. it may be mostly meh right now but having a first draft means i can write a better draft later on! so 💜

im outlining acts ii and iii of rr! its going pretty well so far i will say :)

if i reach my outlining goals well. perhaps i may intro the other projects i have brewing👁

[yvesdot]

I’ve just posted my March 2020 Newsletter on Patreon; it’s completely free to view and open to the public so you can read it right now if you’d like! It contains updates on writing, editing, and general life mid-lockdown here in California while the virus rages on. Thank you once again to everyone for your support.

[ghostcaterwaul-doesnt-write]

I’ve come up with a plan to get my writer brain working again where I’m building a routine and adding a task on every week. I’m using the app Habitica to track my tasks and have scheduled new tasks to be added to my routine every week in the app.

I started with reading and journaling. For reading, I am focusing on short stories. I just finished reading Wormwood, a collection of short stories by Poppy Z Brite. I had been in a reading slump for awhile and it took my brain some time to actually start comprehending what I was reading so I might reread some of the stories at some point. I just started reading Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Other Stories. I’ve read The Lottery a couple times. I just finished the story Intoxicated.

Then I added copywork which is when you take passages from books/stories by your favorite authors and write it down word for word and it’s supposed to get you thinking about sentence structure and word choice and stuff and help certain techniques cement into your brain. Jack London and Hunter S. Thomson did copywork and if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me!

Then I started using tarot cards as journal prompts. I use this post on Gem Blackthorn, questions from the journal prompt entries on Mysticryst, and the journal prompts on The Tarot Lady’s card meanings pages to find prompts related to the cards I pull. I mostly just pick one question from the Mysticryst prompts. I may start just using Mysticryst exclusively and doing all the questions on the journal prompt entries for each card at some point.

Then I started using tarot cards as prompts for fiction, using the book Tarot for Writers by Corrine Kenner. I was planning on basing stories or scenes off of each card I pulled, but I ended up just writing short summaries of scenes or stories.

And this week I was supposed to start editing the fiction I wrote based off of my tarot card pulls but I realized I don’t ever recall reading Tarot for Writers all the way through, so I’m reading a chapter of that a day now.

Next week, I’m supposed to start working on character profiles again. I’m using OneStopForWriters’ character builder and thesauruses for that.

The week after that, I’m going to start doing the Writing Practice exercises from Tarot for Writers, but just interpreting the spreads they give for the Writing Practice exercises, not writing out full stories based on them. I tried a few of these today but I was trying to get through all the Writing Practice exercises in the chapter I read today and I only got to 4 out of 5 before I felt really mentally fatigued, so I will start one a day on the week of April 20th.

Then I will start working on fleshing out my settings the next week.

Then I’ll start working on literary analysis which I’m a little intimidated by because I tried to apply literary analysis to some of the stories I’ve been reading and it’s like I forgot how to do this? I found some literary analysis questions for a couple of my favorite short stories so hopefully that will help jumpstart that part of my brain again.

Then I will work on fleshing out some of the story ideas I got from my tarot fiction prompts and the Writing Practice exercises from Tarot for Writers. I won’t flesh out every single one, just the ones that stick out to me.

I’m not sure what task I’ll add after that week but the last week I have scheduled into Habitica is May 11th, so I have time to figure it out.

It’s a slow process but I spent years just brainrotting and I’m thinking about this in terms of an exercise routine. If you haven’t exercised at all in years and you want to get back into it, you don’t start with 100 pushups a day, right? You’ve got to slowly work back up to where you were before you stopped, right? So that’s what I’m trying to do.

Anyways, I feel like I’m running low on steam for all this stuff so maybe send me some encouraging words or I’ll take a like on this post as encouragement even. I’m using online interaction to harness creative energy! (I’m kidding… Kind of.)

But yeah, that’s where I’m at with my writing which kinda feels like I’m in the middle of a dark forest where all the pathways are overgrown and I have no clue where I’m going but I’m trying to have fun with it!

[ghostcaterwaul-doesnt-write]

I don’t want anyone to get too excited but I have an outline and the first draft of an opening scene for a story done. 821 words so far.

I also did another setting description/atmosphere writing exercise today but it’s not as good as my other two so I don’t want to post it until I can get someone to look it over for me.