Sunday, June 7, 2009

I'm Bad at Titles

It's no secret I'm bad at titles. My first novel got it's title because I finally decided to just steal the MC's name. Blog posts aren't any better.

Excitement! I got a job! It's a good thing, I've been trying since January. It will be nice having a set schedule. It's a part-time job, with an awesome schedule. 8am till noon. How hard is that? I may start the waking up early routine to write before going to work.

Other excitement. I'm procrastinating. That's also a good thing. When I'm actively procrastinating from writing, I get more writing done then when I just ignore my computer all together.

All the other news in my life isn't so pleasant, most of it private and thankfully not directly involving me. Just indirectly involving me. I am an optimist. I see the best in people and hope till I can't hope anymore that they will be the best they can be. Just like I try to be. Doesn't happen very often I'm learning.

I go off on random tangents, but I finally finished Stephen King's On Writing. I rather liked it. I will admit it took me several reading sessions to get through it. I did better with the memoir parts over the technical parts. I will be keeping it as a reference though. Even if I just read a little random bit of it to remind myself we all have to start somewhere.

I just will not let work ruin my writing time. I love that I feel that way so intensely. I'm looking at my schedule, seeing it getting crunched for time and I am making damn well sure there is time for writing. And I love it.

It's funny. When faced with plenty of time to do whatever I wish, I get nothing done. But being faced with too many things to do, I get everything done. I guess I work better under pressure...

Back to writing reference books. I have...a few. First one I ever bought was Shrunk and White's. Love it. Sadly, I lost it so I get to buy it again. Then the order gets fuzzy, but I have Stephen King's which to me is more of a 'hey, this didn't happen over night' kind of smack on the head, I have one for editing. Writer's guide to self-editing or something like that. It's the one with text all over the cover with blue pencil marks. I have a couple more random ones that I think are for nonfiction.

What do you have in your writing closet?

9 comments:

  1. I looked for "On Writing" last week but they were out of stock. My writing closet will include it soon. Most of what I have is older. The only name I can recall offhand is John Gardner.

    It's tough dealing with the unpleasant things that go on. Focus on the good, like your new job. What kind of job did ya get?

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  2. I got a job at the local Ross. I'm working in the stock room. I chose that over cashier first because it has set hours, second because I'm rather dyslexic and tend to switch numbers even more when feeling stressed or rushed. This Ross, is insanely busy.

    John Gardner...I think I have one by him. On Becoming on Novelist? Something like that. Don't think I've read through that one yet though.

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  3. Good luck at your new job. Sounds like wonderful hours. Wish I could afford to do that.

    Also, sounds like you'll get good exercise and they'll be paying you for it. Can't beat that.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://www.morganmandel.com
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  4. Congrats on the job.

    I have a ton of writing books on my shelf. Have you checked out Dixon's GMC book yet? It's a good one.

    Lynnette Labelle

    http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com

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  5. I have a lot of writing books, but my current favorite is Grammar Girl's.

    I remember reading On Writing years ago. I was reading it on a plane and kept laughing out loud. Got a few strange looks.

    Helen
    Straight From Hel

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  6. Morgan - I am extremely grateful I can afford to only work part-time. Thank you hubby!

    Lynnette - I haven't checked that one out yet, it's going on my list. It looks good.

    Helen - If I had been on a plane, I be I would have gotten strange looks too. It's got good funny parts.

    Thank you all for stopping by!

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  7. Noah Lukemna's "The First Five Pages" is awesome and so is his "The Plot Thickens".
    Deb Dixon's GMC is definitely a MUST though. But you can only order it through http://www.gryphonbooksforwriters.com/home/gmc.htm otherwise, it'll cost you an arm and a leg...and then some. :)

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  8. Congrats on the job! That sounds like it will work out great for you!

    I've been a big fan of King's On Writing for quite a while. I've read a number of others but they haven't stuck with me like that one.

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  9. Totally making a list of all these books.I wonder if there's any chance my library might have some of them...

    The job is working out well. I'm still getting used to it though. They just sort of threw us into it the first day, no real training beyond watching a video. It gets crazy, but hey, it's work!

    :D

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