dragonjournal: (Reaper)
Don't care. I'm putting things here anyway.

So, 2014 is coming. COOOOMIIIIING.

So, I have a few things that I want to learn how to do. Yep. New knowledge. Cannot hurt.

THINGS I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO DO:

- Make French bread for French bread pizzas. FRENCH BREAD.
- Make lamps I wanna learn to make lamps out of found things, and make something that can maybe be sold? Just... something neat.
- Crochet I know how to knit. I will be doing more of this as the year goes on, but I want to actually crochet something.
- Sew clothing Okay, I have poked at this at times, but I want to learn how to make one article of clothing well, and again, maybe sell it? IDK.
- Grow a couple of plants Tomato, basil, aaaand.... maybe strawberries? Yes, strawberries. Daughter wants a white Rose. Okay.
- Finish a story, edit and sell Yeah, yeah, I fail. Like, a lot.
- Color work/knitting in the round I do not know how to do these things. I want to learn.
- Fix the screen on my laptop Just because I need it.


This will get added/subtracted from as the year goes on and I actually finish something.


*I am on kinda a lot of ativan (bad day) and a pain med, because BAD DAY but this makes me happy
dragonjournal: (Rules)
This post, actually, started out in my head as a 'Why I do NaNoWriMo' post. However, I was talking with a friend over IMs, and realized I don't, really, need to get into why I do NaNoWriMo. Mostly, because it boiled down to just a few words:

Because I want to.

Perhaps not the most adult answer, but the most honest one.

However, I thought that I'd answer a question that my friend asked me:

"Why do challenges all year long? Isn't NaNo enough?"

Well, I'm going to answer the latter question first: No, NaNo isn't enough. See; although the franticness of November includes NaNo and Thanksgiving, it isn't enough to keep me going all year long.

So, this past year, I experimented with giving myself guidelines and a schedule to keep. Some of that schedule got skewed along the way (this past summer I didn't have nearly as much writing time as I thought) but all in all, I worked a lot better with the schedule, than I did without.

It's also why my personal journal ends up being more of a 'what needs to be done today' list than an actual journal. Although today I tl;dr-ed all over the place.

Yes, I make lists. If I don't, nothing gets done. No, seriously, nothing gets done. I look down and it's 10am. I look up and it's 3.30 and all I've managed to get done is lose horribly at spider solitaire a lot.

Frankly, that's not a skill that I should flaunt.

The lists keep me on track. But, here's the thing: Even lists aren't enough to keep me motivated. So, I look around for things to keep my brain moving and keep me from getting bored with what I have to do to improve my writing.

That is where my competitive streak comes in. See, I cannot let other people 'beat' me. I cannot roll over and let them 'win' at anything, even if it's something so silly as creating something that I neither have the skill nor the patience to create.

I join challenges to keep me going. I join challenges so that I can point to something and say "I beat that!" I'm sure this points to something psychological or something, but I just use it as a motivational tool.

There are some other pretty hefty reasons, but those are personal and this is a writing blog. Back to the writing:

Challenges keep me from stagnating and playing so much spider solitaire that I explode my computer out of sheer frustration. That means that at the end of the week/month/day/whatever, I have something to point to and say... "I did that."

Now, to give updates on my various challenges: Challenges )

So, this entry has become very long and pretty much a big ego stroke for me. However, I believe creators - be it in writing, cooking, fabric crafts or anything else - have the need to stroke their own egos every once in a while.

I know several writers who do it. They do it unashamedly. I'm trying to follow their good examples. Now, if I could just get something published? Then, you'd really see some ego stroking!
dragonjournal: (Rules)
I've decided I'm doing writing/creative challenges for 2011. So, this is going to be my master list of just what I've signed up for:

1:



Creative Every Day (thanks to [personal profile] finch for pointing it out!)

Now the rules state it doesn't have to be writing, but that's usually my outlet of choice. I'm going to try knitting this year, so, it's time to see about getting that done. Plus, part of my resolutions this year is to finish some cross stitch. Meaning, that I'm going to have to work on things. Plus, with a challenge, I tend to do better. I need to have something to work for. And people to beat. IDEK.

2: 750 words! I actually like this one. It's a small, reasonable goal that pretty much everyone can do. It's only 750 words a day, and that's less than an hour's work, unless I'm really struggling and I'm generally not. It's something to work for, and I have to keep going to get the badges that are offered as accomplishment, you see.

3: Get Your Words Out is a challenge where you sign up for a number (I signed up for 250k) to write over the course of the year. I have a lot of writing ahead of me, but it's possible. There's stories to be written and I need to be writing them. (thanks to [personal profile] kay_brooke!) The info post is here

4: I'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this November. Just like I do every year, because I'm a big old bunch of fail.

5: [community profile] origfic_bingo. Seriously, this helps with backstory and fleshing things out a bit and working around and through things. It's great for cleaning the brain pan out a little. And for getting the creative juices flowing.

I think that's all I'm doing. But gods only know. I might end up signing up for more. I know I'm going to be doing NaNoEdMo in March too. But that's not a challenge so much as a "dear god EDIT that thing!" for me.

Anyone have any others to suggest? I do better with challenges and reasons to be prodded in the Word Processor direction.
dragonjournal: (Rules)
Why? Because I need one, and I wrote out an awesome one for next year.

So, this is just to get me to November:

- Do fifth bingo card
- Do Inner Sanctuaries map
- not doing the map so whatever
- Look at Knights of Orion 2: Electric Boogaloo*
- Moon!Fic Characters**
- Write Index card of Plot Points for DB.
- Look at Ory'lin Legend short
- World Domination via Dragon Age Origins, or Neverwinter Nights 2. I need violence to get me through the next 17 days or so.

I'm gonna start on this tomorrow. Hopefully all my emo is gone by then. (Ugh, why must I be a tortured artist? Huh? Why?)

* I would totally call it this if I thought for a minute any publisher would let me get away with it. Just because it would amuse me, and really, does anything else matter?

** The Moon folks are sitting up and going OHAI at me a lot. It helps that they're getting face time with all the bingo stuff. And possibly will be getting more. Because that's the way I roll.


WHO WANTS TO WAVE POMPOMS?
dragonjournal: (Orion)
So, I'm still on a roll. I got three more scenes done today. Three on a Sunday.

Tonight is all about the Dragon Age.

To keep everyone up to date:



Almost 60%! Another scene and life might be golden. Tonight, though, I'm just playing my game. Now, to fix dinner.

\o/

May. 8th, 2010 08:29 pm
dragonjournal: (Orion)
Awww yeah. another two scenes done! See, this whole denying myself Dragon Age: Origins so that I can edit is working. Tonight, I'll probably finish a quest on it, and then edit for an hour, and then read until sleep. Because that seems to work the best, since I'm done editing early and can go straight into Dragon Age tonight.



That's thirteen pages done over the last two days. Not bad at all!

I'm rather excited, especially with my new schedule. It's really kinda fast and loose, but it might just be what I need.

Especially with July being dedicated to outlining and research.

So. Tonight is Dragon Age and then more editing. w00t!

Edit: Went ahead and did another scene, just because - it was a short one anyway!

dragonjournal: (Rules)
Okay... so...

May: Finish the edit on KoO
June: Write something (Possibly Mira, or Ari)
July: RESEARCH MONTH
August: Rewrite KoO
September: Research/writing
October: Outline Dragon Voices
November: THE DREADED NANO - Dragon Voices
December: Send out second set of "PLEASE EDIT THIS" of KoO.

... That actually looks doable. Pondering this as I go along.

I'm hoping that nothing too much comes along to screw this up. Like, ya know, LIFE. But I'm going to attempt it.
dragonjournal: (Orion)
I need lists in my life.

this is my writing journal. Now for writing lists:

THIS WEEK:

- Edit Changes Scene
- Edit Changes Scene

- Edit Changes Scene
- Look at Mira and/or Ari. Finish a scene on ONE of them.

TODAY:

- Start editing scene
- LOOK at Mira/Ari


NOW TO WORK!

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