writing

Rambling (Pictures)

/ dork, lol, pictures, Uncategorized, writing

I picked up two interesting books at the library today. One, the title I will not disclose to protect the um… not so innocent. The other is The Twinkies Cookbook by Hostess. Among some of the recipes I’d like to try:

Twinkie Easter Egg Hunt – uses Twinkies, maraschino cherries, marshmallow creme, chocolate chips, and jelly beans, and chocolate pudding mix. Probably 9,000 calories, but fun.
Twinkie Burrito – tortillas, chocolate sauce, Twinkies, and strawberries.
Twinkie Kebabals – Twinkies, fruit, marshmallows, and wooden skewers.
Twinkie Fantasy – Twinkies, strawbery Jell-O, strawberries, vanilla pudding mix, whipped topping.

There is even a gorgeous Twinkie wedding cake.

I think I need to buy this book.

But I will NOT be trying the “Twinkies with Meat” recipes in the back. Ewwww.

I want gift cards to Barnes & Noble or Borders! Guess what’s on my list this Christmas. It’s a small one. Heh.

Speaking of bookstores, I found this in the window of Cover to Cover today:

Yay for adamselzer!

Boo to the downstairs neighbor and his loud-ass media equipment.

You know, I don’t get it. Why is HE allowed to play his stereo/TV/video games as loud as he wants, but let Aidan run down the hall once every three weeks and the neighbor lady screams her head off like he’s making constant noise all the time? I swear, the reasons against living here in Columbus are stacking up so quickly it’s almost knocking me over. Only about 400 or so days ’til I move to Chicago.

In other words, I feel incredibly pathetic. A great number of my friends have dumped me. In a way that’s good, because I guess it weeds out those who shouldn’t really matter anyway, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt sometimes. The good thing about it is that when I move, I won’t be leaving a whole lot behind. The bad things is that I have well over a year to feel pathetic.

The thing is, my closest friends I talk to mainly on the Internet. There are a few local people I could call, but I have this whole ‘fear of rejection’ thing going on because just about everytime I’ve asked someone to do something in the past few months, I’ve gotten NOs. So I figure I won’t call anymore. It’s just easier that way.

Oh well. Whatever. As I said to swankivy yesterday: Ronni = loses at friendship. Even though I have 104 Facebook friends now.

Aidan was extra cute today. We had a date at McDonalds. I ordered Happy Meals for us both, and the lady gave him two toys! He got a “Gingy” and a “Donkey.” Donkey actually smelled like a donkey…

I can’t figure out why McGraw-Hill sent me an employee benefits handbook. Or how Victoria’s Secret found me and why they decided to send me a catalog.

Been rereading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I realize I’m early, but I’ve been in the mood. Maybe this is why:

THAT’S RIGHT, FOLKS. THE HARRY POTTER ACTION FIGURE HAS BEEN TERRORIZING ME WITH UNFORGIVEABLE CURSES. I mean, erm:

Yes, Harry, I do *ahem* love *cough* you and *blink* adore you.

*runs and hides*

In other news, I’ve officially given up on writing for now. I just can’t focus, not with all the bullshit that keeps happening. Today was supposed to be my day to start back. But I can’t do it. I’m not finding joy in it anymore. I’m not finding joy in too much of anything these days, but oh well. I’ll get back to it when I am in a better headspace, not to mention life space.

Uh oh.

What’s that Harry?

He says to stop whining and get off here. So I’m off.

Later.

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Back On A Break

/ writing

Not sure when I’ll be posting here again (as if I wasn’t posting sparadically enough!). I just don’t have the mental capacity/energy/mojo to bother with the writing world for now. I was stressing too much about getting it back. Feeling guilty because I wasn’t sitting around cranking out thousands of words of manuscript every month.

Now I just don’t care. There’s no joy in it for me anymore. Not right now, at least.

Maybe things will change. I don’t know. But for now, I have to let go.

So that’s what I’m doing.

Later.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Lauren Myracle

/ authors, writing

Lauren Myracle, best-selling author of the Internet Girls series (ttyl, ttfn, etc.) says this about her incredible first novel Kissing Kate (recently re-issued):

“It came neither quickly nor easily. When I pick up books at the bookstore, they always seem so glossy and enticing, so polished, and sometimes, I have the despairing thought that words leapt cleanly from the author’s mind to the page—snap, just like that. This was certainly not the case for me. I mention this because some of you are writers, too. Keep plugging away, and keep the faith!”

Did she not read my mind or what? I mean, those are my exact thoughts. I expect my first drafts to come out perfect, ready to sell, already saleable and marketable. I put all kinds of pressure on myself when I write stuff I KNOW is crap, but needs to get out anyway.

When I hear of a best-selling author’s struggles, I feel so much more faith that I’m not so much different than she or he is. So I have to try to forget about their degrees from Columbia and NYU and their MFAs and concentrate on writing well. Write well. Famous words from the newly retired Miss Snark.

I can do this. I WILL do this. :)

As James Thurber said: Don’t get it right, get it written. Time for me to stop obsessing over perfection and sales, and time to focus on telling an amazing, captivating story.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Thinking About My Writing Career

/ writing

Quite honestly, I feel intimidated. So many authors I look up to have either been professors, or they’ve gone to Ivy League schools such as Columbia or Yale. And then there’s me, working an entry-level job at age 32 and with eight years of work experience, with a BA in Psychology from Ohio State University. I don’t really have an impressive CV, so I start to wonder if I have the smarts to make it as an author.

And the lack of discipline is really a challenge. It’s hard, though, after working all day, to come home and try to create. So I wonder, because I am whining so much about how much my brain is fried at the end of the day, if I really want this?

Good books. I want to write good books, but it’s so hard. It looks easy. It seems like it should be easy. The planning and the ideas is fun. The researching is amazing. The actual writing? OH MY GOD. Let’s just say… um, yeah. It sucks ass.

Ass, I say.

But I know I can do it. I KNOW it. I just need to sit my bootie down and focus.

halseanderson said she has different sizes of jeans. Big jeans for when she’s writing, because she has to bribe herself with snacks. Smaller jeans for revising, because revising is fun. I know that writergrl has her days of wanting to crawl under the desk and whimper. I know firsthand the things adamselzer goes through to make a good book. If those authors go through that, then I shouldn’t be feeling so alone, right?

But I do feel alone. I feel like my turn won’t ever come, mostly due to my fault of not either producing stuff that’s good enough, or producing nothing at all. Both of which is my own fault, both things I can fix with hard work and DISCIPLINE.

Discipline, because getting halfway to my goal and having the almost irresistable urge to bail is BAD. I’ve got to push through, be willing to write thousands of words that may be thrown out someday just so I can get to know my characters, develop them, and mold them into something readable and saleable.

Because quite honestly? I have no intention of working in anybody’s office (except my own) for the rest of my life. This is a decision I just recently made. What this means is that I have GOT to focus, I have got to work my ass off, because writing is the only way I’m going to be able to do that. I want the whole package. I love copy editing, I do. But I don’t want to have to answer to the rigid rules of an office atmosphere. Ideally, I’d be able to survive off of writing novels and freelance editing, but I know that I have to really hunker down to be at that point.

I miss having a writing friend who I can dish about all this stuff with. :( And I don’t mean just the technical stuff, but all the crazy, emotional stuff too.

Just as an FYI, I made a MySpace for writing: http://myspace.com/ronnithewriter When it asks for the last name, put in Davis. Security measure, you know. To avoid the spammers and scammers.

Anyway, I’m off for now. ‘Til next time.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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181

/ ronni, writing

From http://www.marilynsachs.com:

“One final word of encouragement to those of you who are cowardly, cry babies, and liars, as I was. These are extremely promising qualities for future writers. If you are a coward, you will probably spend more time at the library than you would ordinarily, and if you tell lies, it just shows that you have an imagination even if others don’t always appreciate it. Cry babies tend to be sensitive, which is also a plus for writers.”

The bolded ones are surely me. Two out of three ain’t bad, huh?

I still spend at hours at the library (I go at least once a week), and I was such a cry baby in fifth grade that I thought it was an accomplishment to go through one day without bursting into tears over something or another. I’m still pretty leaky, if you want to know the truth.

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