I did get more of the scenes written leading up to the first fight scene in "The Shepherdess Princess" last weekend. I still have a little more to add leading up to it, but I feel I'm well-informed from my research to do a decent job at the bloodshed part. I also thought up of another couple scenes to add earlier into the story to give it more "meat."
I submitted my story to "Chicken Soup for the Soul" over the weekend as well. Here's the story for your viewing pleasure:
I'm not sure if it's good enough to add to the book coming up titled "Inspiration for Writers," but I covered all the questions they had for a person to answer. I'm not certain it's inspiring in any way, but I'll find out when the book is finally published.
I got word from the Literary Arts people that my application for the Oregon Literary Fellowship was received. They don't send notice of receipt unless the applicant encloses a self-addressed stamped enveloped with the application itself which I did. I learned working as a grant writer in the past to always get verification of some form when applying for anything because things can get lost in the mail, or disappear from someone's desk. It was just a precaution I decided to take because it was optional to do so.
I submitted my story to "Chicken Soup for the Soul" over the weekend as well. Here's the story for your viewing pleasure:
“What Do
You Want To Be When You Grow Up?”
When you’re growing up, adults in your life are
constantly asking the age-old question: “What do you want to be when you grow
up?” My answer to that question never
really changed, “I want to be a writer!”
Usually the follow-up question was “What if writing doesn’t work out for
you?” Stubborn child that I was, I
answered “I’m going to be a writer anyway.”
I have a couple early memories that stand out which
influenced the path I’ve chosen as a writer.
One of the reports cards that were sent home with me in 3rd
grade, my teacher wrote in the comments area “Amanda loves to write unless it’s
an assignment.” That is one of the few
report cards from my academia days that I have treasured into my adulthood. I still take it out of its hiding place once
in a while, and reread it. The words
make me chuckle every time because they are still true about me to this day.
The second memory I have is from 9th
grade. I had three classes that were
part of a freshman block group: English, Health, and Science back-to-back. One day I was given back a writing assignment
that I had written about the beach located a couple blocks away from my
home. I was perplexed because the story
came back ungraded with a post-it attached asking to see the teacher after
class. I instantly thought I was in
trouble. I sat at my desk dreading the
bell to signal the end of the period. I
went up to the teacher’s desk after the other students file out of the
classroom, and asked why he wanted to see me.
It turned out that he wanted to ask my permission to keep a copy of my
story in a notebook he made up of past student’s assignments that moved him in
some way. I was in shock and awe for
several minutes, but I agreed to his request.
The teacher died a couple years later from a blood clot, but I’ve never
forgotten this moment in time. Last I
heard, his wife still had the previously-mentioned notebook in her possession.
My stubbornness prevailed as an adult because I now
have three self-published books to my credit.
One is a fiction novel entitled “A Candlelit World” that I co-authored
with a friend, and two are my own personal volumes of poetry. Self-publishing works well for me because
it’s affordable and I don’t have to worry about a hard deadline. If I set my own deadline to have a book
finished by and am not quite finished with the manuscript when that date
arrives, I strive for another date. It’s
no biggie to me because I don’t have a traditional publisher breathing down my
neck for the finished product. Deadlines
tend to make me nervous, and bring on a lot of unwanted stress when I’m working
on a project and get hit with writer’s block.
It is difficult for me to market my poetry book in local venues because I’ve
come across several anti-poetry readers at a local book signing I attend
annually. I know there are some poetry
lover’s in my community, but they are few and far between.
Overcoming writer’s block can be quite a chore. At the moment, I’m not suffering from
it. Thank God! When I do, there are several different ways I
try to overcome it. If I’ve been writing
poetry non-stop and suddenly have the inspiration dry up, I try to take a walk,
read a book, take a shower, or take a nap.
Anything to distract me really until inspiration hits, but if doing any
of that still doesn’t work I try to move onto another writing project for a
while.
I have ten story ideas at the moment that I could
decide to work on at any given time.
Lately when I’m not writing poetry, I’m working on a romantic-type fairy
tale/Historical fiction book. My other
story ideas consist of fantasy, regular fiction, romance, an autobiography, and
a compilation of letters I wrote to Jesus thanking him for his love in the good
times and in the bad. A lot of my story
ideas have came to me as a results of dreams that I didn’t automatically forget
upon waking up.
I do like to challenge myself once
in a while by participating in WriMo’s (months during the year where a person’s
goal is to try to write a 50,000 word novel in the span of thirty days). NaNoWriMo in November has the biggest turnout
of aspiring writers because November is officially deemed National Novel
Writing Month in the United
States .
They have JulNoWriMo coming up in July, and a Camp NaNoWriMo Camp
NaNoWriMo
It’s not too hard for me to tell
when a book is done, and ready to be published.
There is a feeling I get of things “winding down” as the book
progresses. My friend and I wrote “A
Candlelit World” in nine-and-a-half years mainly because we couldn’t get
together everyday to write. We had a lot
of slumber parties on the weekends, though.
When we both felt that we contributed what we could to the story, we
discussed how we wanted to end it. Then
we had my friend’s mother proofread it, and did some editing as per her
suggestions, and found a way to self-publish it once we had her mother’s
approval. Neither of us really wanted
the story to end because our characters became like our children, and we were
both saddened a little bit when it was time to “send them out into the world”
on their own. When it came to writing my
two volumes of poetry, I set a certain amount of page numbers I wanted to
strive for before they were ready for publication. My first attempt lacked the amount of pages I
wanted, but I published it anyway because I was having a hard time with
writer’s block and finding inspiration for anything new. Once I published it and began working on a
separate writing project, the inspiration for new poems came back to me. That’s when I began my second volume of
poetry. I reached my page goal for the
second volume of poetry, but it was difficult near the end because my writer’s
block was rearing its ugly head again. I
struggled for a couple months to get the page count I wanted.
Writing is hard work, but can be
very rewarding.
I'm not sure if it's good enough to add to the book coming up titled "Inspiration for Writers," but I covered all the questions they had for a person to answer. I'm not certain it's inspiring in any way, but I'll find out when the book is finally published.
I got word from the Literary Arts people that my application for the Oregon Literary Fellowship was received. They don't send notice of receipt unless the applicant encloses a self-addressed stamped enveloped with the application itself which I did. I learned working as a grant writer in the past to always get verification of some form when applying for anything because things can get lost in the mail, or disappear from someone's desk. It was just a precaution I decided to take because it was optional to do so.
