Time

Hi all! I just want to remind those wanting to contribute to my blog to e-mail me at mishagericke@gmail.com (mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com). So far the first two Fridays of February and the first Friday of March are booked. So I still need two people for February. That's at least three weeks away, so book the date. You can send me the post later. :-)

More information on our first blogger will be posted next week.

Then, I have to announce that I have finally gone and signed up for twitter. You can follow me @MishaMFB and I will automatically follow you too.

And finally, I would like to say welcome and thanks to everyone who joined up recently. I hope that you enjoy the blog.

Now, back to the post. It's tiny today, for once. After all, it's Saturday. A lot of people have been posting about time in some way, so I decided to put my two cents in. But, me being as strange as I am, this is what I came up with. 



Time...

That elusive thing that every writer craves and none seem to have.

Ever.

It's strange really.

We try to put it into neat little compartments. Their time, my time, writing time...

We try to define ourselves by it. I write every day. I write weekends.
 
We pretend to suspend it for a little while. I'll do this later.

But it always catches up with us. Oh no! My time has run out.

Mine always seems to race ahead of me, leaving me breathless by the end of it.

We sacrifice things we love, trying to buy more of it.

But somehow we still get cheated.

But the fact is that no matter what, time marches to it's own drummer.

Sometimes it crawls and tortures.

Sometimes it slides by without us realizing it.

But it also does good things.

It changes us.

It teaches us.

It heals us.







What do you do for time? What does time do for you?

Well excuuuuuuse me Princess!

Just want to remind all of you interested in a GPF spot to mail me. Next week's slot has already been taken, but I need more people to fill in the rest of the month. I have decided to put the posts up at 06h00 my time on Friday mornings, so please remember to click over to show support to our first brave soul. My mail, for in case you don't want to go hunting for it, is mishagericke@gmail.com.

In the mean time, on my last Friday post for the foreseeable future, some of you might want to leave now. I'm going to be showing a bit of my dark side. 

Yesterday, I was making my way down a certain Mr. McLinky list, looking for some new blogs to read and stumbled onto one that had someone (who will remain unnamed) who seemed to be deeply upset by the fact that she didn't seem to be reaching anyone out there. Main theme of the blog as I read it being that she didn't have a big following.

So I commented as follows:

I clicked over here from Grab a Pen.
How long have you been writing?
How long have you been blogging?
It took me three months before I reached seven people.

It took me three and a half to realize that if I follow other blogs and commented as often as I can, people come back to me.
I don't say this to be mean, but rather because even though the post I just read isn't the happiest ever, you have great style.
Style = Potential
Style=Skill
So there must be some other reason why you have few followers.
I also found that asking a question at the end of each blog post is an easy way to get people to comment.

But anyway, I can give you a few tips. I'm not even remotely close to big, but I do have over 150 followers and quite a few regular visitors.
If you want them, or just want to talk, feel free to e-mail me.

Now, please, anyone. Did I seem rude? Did I seem to be ridiculing or insulting her in any way?

Because honestly I was just trying to help her out.

But this is word for word the e-mail I got back (except for the name that has been changed):


Nice to meet you.

I clicked over here from Grab a Pen.
How long have you been writing?
If you have a chance to take a look at the rest of the web page, you'll find I've been writing since I was 9.
How long have you been blogging?
Again, if you look at the beginning of my blog, you'll see how long.
It took me three months before I reached seven people.
It took me three and a half to realize that if I follow other blogs and commented as often as I can, people come back to me.
I don't say this to be mean, but rather because even though the post I just read isn't the happiest ever, you have great style.
Style = Potential
Style=Skill
So there must be some other reason why you have few followers.
Thank you. I think I have style too. It might be the reason why I've published a book already and have another one coming out in the fall as to why I have a few followers.
I also found that asking a question at the end of each blog post is an easy way to get people to comment.
But anyway, I can give you a few tips. I'm not even remotely close to big, but I do have over 150 followers and quite a few regular visitors.
I appreciate that, but I'm quite happy to have anyone who wants to stop by. I'm not terribly interested in advertising.
If you want them, or just want to talk, feel free to e-mail me.
Sincerely,


Little Princess with No Manners.
 
 
Now, feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong (as I will not send any snotty e-mails to those who dare to ask/say something not even vaguely impertinent) but that was so far out of line that I think the she didn't even know it existed.
 
This is how I feel about this.
 
So freaking what. If I didn't read the rest of the web page and I try to strike up a conversation, you either answer like a civilized human being or you shut the f*(k up. 
 
If you want to complain on your blog and want to suffer your pain in private: don't link up to one of the most read blogs out there.
 
Yes princess: Headdesk is now appropriate.
 
Secondly: If you are going to staunchly refuse to do anything about increasing your readership then why in the name of all that is holy do you complain about it?
 
Who knows? Maybe she just wanted to be a martyr and suffer for her art or something and my attempt to help her out really rubbed her wrong.
 
But then this is what you do, Princess, you ignore me. You could have kindly not have taken me up on my offer.
 
Or... You could have gnashed your teeth and sent me an upbeat mail about how you really just freaked out that day and felt down. Because, like OMG! You don't even really like followers.
 
Or something like that.
 
But bitching on someone - as far as I saw the first one to comment for at least five posts - for daring to comment after you complained about no one commenting...
 
Not. On.
 
In fact:
 
STUPID.
 
I have complained too. Hell knows I complained about few followers in the beginning too. It's very hard to blog to empty space.
 
But every time I complain, I take the risk that - GASP! - someone who I don't know from Adam or Eve is going to tell me to pick myself up by my shoe straps. And guess what? The normal reaction will be to thank that person and to ask them how to do it. Because if you post something on a public blog, someone might just answer and it might just not be what you would like to hear.
 
But that is not your commenter's problem.
 
EVER.
 
 
 
 
 
 
*Takes a deep breath.*
 
Thus endeth the rant.
 
If any of you read through this, and I suspect that some of you will...
 
I just want to thank all of you who have told me to pick myself up by my bootstraps when others only offer sympathy. And thank you for those that always cover me with love and sympathy when I'm down.
 
I need both sometimes and I love everyone of you for it.
 
And really, if I misconstrued anything she said, or you differ in opinion about how my comment seemed, please let me know. Because I honestly don't get what her problem was.

More on GPF

Hi all!

I am now super excited!

So far, everyone who commented was quite positive, so I am definitely going to do it.

Right now, I don't want to tie myself to a specific day, since there might be some admin involved. Still, if it is at all possible, I would like to start next week.

Since a lot of the commenters asked, I thought I would throw some topics out for consideration...

How do you build your world?
Your favorite character that you have written. How did he/she occur to you?
For the plotters: How do you decide what to write?
For the pantsers: How do you keep track of what happened?
Voice.
Agents and Publishing...

To name a few.

But really, anything as long as it falls within writing and the literary world. If it's interesting, even better. After all, you're representing your blog. :-) 

So... what do you do now?

Well...

Please please please contact me at mishagericke@gmail.com with the topic of your post and when you would prefer to do it. Please make sure that the re line says it's about GPF.

Right now I need people who are willing to post this coming week.

Then I also would love to hear about what you would like to read about. Maybe we can get someone to post about it. Feel free to e-mail these to me too. Just make sure that the re line says that its a suggestion for GPF.

So people leave your mark on the pages of this blog's history. Be the first one. I'll give you a cookie. ;-)

An interesting proposition

Hi all! I just want to say thank you to the people that took the time to give me advice yesterday. It was really invaluable to me today.

Then... *cough cough* if you look to the right side of your screen, you might noticed that I have hit 150 followers! Just wanted to say thank you to every one of you for pressing that follow button and making this blog just a bit more special.

I've been thinking lately. Yes, I know how scary this is. But I think it's time to add something new to the equation. So I went and updated the blog a little.

Still, it didn't feel like enough. Then it hit me. Wouldn't it be awesome if I could get some of you, the followers, to write for me on the blog?

What do you say? I give you cart blanche on the topics as long as they fall vaguely within the themes of writing, your WiP(s)/novel(s) or the writing life.

It could be an awesome opportunity for everyone to get to know everyone a bit better as well as to advertise your (and my) blog.

I was thinking once or twice a week sounded nice.

Would you ladies and gents be interested in something like this?

Can writing a lot be a bad thing?

Today, I managed three thousand words, which both makes me want to write more and to stop and take a deep long breath.

There are advantages to both, I guess. If I continue on my 5k per writing session trend, I will be past a quarter of my rewrite by tomorrow. If I continue on my 3k per two hours trend... I will cross that threshold by the time I go to sleep.

Which for me is an absolutely blistering pace. 

But. And this is a big one: if I continue rushing at my current pace, will I be able to maintain it? 

Doubtful.

Will I actually be able to improve the quality of my story  if I rush as if I'm doing NaNo on steroids? 

Even more so. 

But I want to see where this is all going... 

Sigh.

Heaven knows that I haven't have a burst of productivity like this in months. My record stands at 7000 words in an afternoon and a night. After that I crashed and took months to recover. It was incredibly frustrating. I couldn't even blog properly.

Now I've more or less tripled that count in less than a week.

What does that mean?

Is it due to the fact that my life is now virtually stress free?
Is it because my mind finds it a lot easier to work with a story that has already been written?
Or did it just turn out that I happen to have a writing threshold of 5800 words a day?

These questions become very important when I consider the end goal: Publishing.

This book will take about four rounds of rewrites and edits before I will start publishing.

At the rate I'm going now, I will finish the second draft in about a month - well ahead of my April 30 target.

By April, I could actually see the end of my edits already.

I can query by May.

If I don't kill myself by then. Of course, I'm not really talking about putting a gun to my head an pulling the trigger. I'm talking about looking into the barrel to see how a speeding bullet looks.

But I'm not complaining. I mean. After a month long dry spell, it is wonderful to actually be able to write as freely as breathing.

Still part of me is scared that some part is pushing me too hard.

Are my fears unfounded? Or can too much writing be a bad thing? What would you do if you got hit by a rush of words?

I await your advice. In the mean time, I'm going to get my bloggy fix before deciding what to do.

100 posts and an award

Wow!

It seems like I started this blog a very short time ago.

And then I think about it and realize. Oh yeah. It was a very short while ago. August, I think.

With November and December in between where I barely posted at all.

So... when I post, I post a lot. And often.

Daily almost.

But here I am, with my 100th post having crept up on me.

What to do what to do?

Well, there is that award I won...



Thank you very much, Amanda. I really felt special when read that I received it.

So here are the rules of the award:

1) Thank and link back to the person that gave the award. (That's me: always thinking ahead.)
2) Tell seven things about yourself.
3) Award ten recently discovered, great bloggers.
4) Let them  know that they won the award.

So, instead of boring you with more about me, I decided to bore you about my blogging experience. MUHAHAHAHA!!!

1) I never (ever) edited anything that I have posted on this blog. Sorry to those that cringe when they read nonsensical and half finished
2) I've only reread one of my posts after I have posted it. I cannot remember which one it was. See mom? Not a narcissist.
3) I get insanely envious when I read some of your compositions. And then I forget about it and feel honored to get to know those talented individuals. For those of you that are wondering who I refer to: If you've posted compositions...
4) I am absolutely amazed at the amount of you that do not enjoy chocolate. Freaks.
5) I am very proud of the fact that I posted a how-to list on blogging when I had (I think) seven people following. I am also proud to say that I'm pretty sure I broke any one of my own rules at least once.
6) One rule of the above stuck in my mind: keep under 300 words. I uhm cough... never... cough... managed it... cough... since... cough... post. Oh wait. My message to say that I was absent... See? I'm terrible.
7) One day, when I am ready for a wonderful cringe fest, I will start reading my own posts. But right now the plan is to write so many posts that the amount of reading will freak even me out.

Well... I must say that picking ten of my most recent great blog discoveries is pretty hard. My memory is long and my sense of perspective is (as I'm sure you all realized by now) is whacked.

But here are my latest stick-out blog favorites. (To my old favorites, you are classics to me.)

1) TalkToYoUniverse
2) Seton Hill Writers (Very Very New, but lots of potential)
3) Operation Awesome (I love Oliver)
4) Vanora's Thoughts
5) Rachna's Scriptorium
6) Samuel Park's Daily Prep for Writers
7) Musings of a Penniless Writer
8) Julie Cross: Author
9) Write Liz Write
10) Of Writerly Things

Well then folks, that's all I have to say for today. Oops: except to mention that I have been walking (as an exercise) every day since last reported.

So, what weird things can you tell me about your experiences as a blogger?

Heeeeeeeeeere's Misha!

I'm back!

Finally after weeks of drumming my nails to the quick with frustration.

You see, I nearly died of curiosity to see what was happening to all of my bloggy friends.

Sigh. And here I am.

There's so much to tell you!

So... I'll do it news-style.

1) As you are well aware, I now have a job. Sadly (?) it involves commerce, but it is exciting enough to keep me interested. The only thing that I have against commerce is the fact that most of the jobs involve sitting at your desk and doing accounts.

This one does too, but it's a high adrenaline kind of job. ^_^

When I have something to do.

When I don't... I get to write.

2) Speaking of which. Work settled down enough on Thursday for me to write between e-mail checks. Since then, I have written almost 20 k words! Ten thousand of which was on the Doorways rewrite.

3) I looove being in full swing with Doorways. I've moved some things around and hurried things along a little. For now, it writes like a dream. It's great to know where things are going.

The only thing that is a little tricky about the book is voice. I have two, and the story requires me to switch between them every now and then. And right now, Callan is drowning out anything and everything that James has to say.

4) In unrelated news, I know of a registrar's secretary who will have a very bad day on Monday. My registration is due on Tuesday, but they still haven't opened up my account. I hope for her sake that my account is open by 08h30 on Monday.

Right now, I'm not angry.

I'm storing it for later...

5) Good news again: I was given an award! I will blog about it on Monday when more people are online.

6) I'm pathetic at remembering news. Which probably doesn't count. I'm sure you all realized how scatterbrained I am.

So...

What's news there? You can't believe how much I missed you.

A short message

Hi all.

I just had to drop by to let you know that I haven't fallen off the blogosphere yet.

I am working at this time, which is keeping me busy all hours of the day.

As soon as things settle down a bit, I will be back and posting up a storm.

Love and miss you all,

Misha

XX

News?

In today's news: There is no news.

I spent every day of this weekend in the pool and did some exercises. So so far I have been able to stick to my one hour of exercise per day. I feel very happy with myself.

Otherwise, I haven't really been able to edit/rewrite or anything like that due to our guests. My mom's old friend and my other grandmother both came for a visit. And of course, to people not versed in the writing lifestyle, it is considered the utmost rudeness to do something like reading my own work...

Sigh. Otherwise, my life is also a bit busy at this stage, so my posts for the next few weeks will be a little irregular.

Oh wait! I lied. I have gone to my university to find out about my registration. After all that drama they caused, I will be able to register without any trouble this year. But at least I am no longer worried about that.

What's news on your end?

What I have been up to writing wise.

Hey all! Just want to mention that I did do my exercise hour in the pool. Didn't noticeably sweat, but my legs felt like jelly when I got out. ;-)


Anyway, I finally felt the call to return to Doorways about a week ago and started to rewrite the first scenes. Although these scenes are far from perfect, I know that they are a huge improvement on the hasty scribbles I had penned down as a rough draft.


There are, however, some hiccups.


For one thing, I had worked in an aspect to the story that wasn't there before. This change means that the relationship between Ward and Callan has changed. As well as the impression one gets of Ward as a person. On one hand, this change makes things simpler, but it also makes things complicated. Sigh. But I guess it will make for better reading.

Then, one of my characters has developed a crush on Callan and is still fighting with me because of the fact that I shipped her with someone else. Let's just say he's really vocal about it. I guess I will give him a shot (because I really like him), but I fear that this will lead to a disaster for all involved. Once again. Brilliant reading. Not nice to write, knowing what is going to happen as result of this guys choice. And he will not be dissuaded.

And finally, because of the fact that Quinlan arrived on the scene unplanned during NaNo, and because I think he's awesome, one of my other supporting characters has to be sent back to obscurity. Bad thing is that he might be needed later in the series. So things are a little complicated. I'm thinking that maybe his sister (who now also has a rather threatened existence due to the above guy's tendre) could mention him to Callan. But I'm still working on it, since he was introduced toward the middle of the story.

And no. I didn't create her just to keep that guy distracted. She was supposed to have been his match, where few people are able to match him. And they weren't supposed to like each other. At all. But I think things will remain that way, since she is very likely to play a bigger part later in the series...

Guardian still calls me, but I'm much more concerned with getting the Doorways rewrite done. After all. April isn't that far away...

What about you? Do your characters sometimes run amok with your plans for the story? What are you working on?

Finally, I can post.

Oh my word I was at the point of freaking out.
What?

I'm addicted to blogging and I waited ONE AND A HALF hours for the new post window to open up. *sniff sniff.*

I never felt so alone.

Anyway, pulling myself together now. All is well.

What I really wanted to blog about today is one of those guidelines I mentioned yesterday. I want a healthier lifestyle.

This implies eating better and including more exercise.

And as if it was my destiny, Kelly posted about her goal on her blog.

Fate, I tell you.

She wants to be active for one hour a day, every day for the next five months. And she wants to make it a group activity. So any blogger and/or follower can join in and spend some time being active (and building that hot bod.)

There are no rules on how you do the activities. You can do what you want, when you want as long as your activities add up to sixty minutes of mild to serious (my addition) sweat.

I'm in as of Saturday. I know I know, it sounds like I'm procrastinating. But I think I add more value by lying comfortably in my mom's air conditioned room than stroked out in hospital. We're having a heat wave this week. But maybe I'll make up my active time by swimming... Hmm... there's an idea.

Oh. I forgot to mention that there will be prizes. GO CHECK OUT KELLY'S BLOG!

So what about you? Are you in?

Resolutions?

Yes, I know it's a little late, but it feels a little wrong to be in the month of January without thinking about where I'd like to be by my birthday. I conveniently (or not so conveniently) have my birthday on 28 December, so if my goals aren't done by then...

On the other hand, I think I have made it clear hundreds of times that I don't really like goals... BUT, changing the wording in life (as in writing) can make all the difference. So these are my New Years GUIDELINES in absolutely no order...

I want to finish my first rewrite of Doorways by the end of April or the middle of May.

I want to do this while working.

I want to be back to fluency in French.

I want to revise and study Mandarin.

I want to speak Italian at at least a moderate level by next January.

I want to have written at least half of Guardian by December, but this is of lower Priority, since...

I want to start querying Doorways by next year.

I want to get back to stabbing people for fun. (For those of you that don't know. I'm not completely psycho. I fence.)

I want to be back on my healthy lifestyle by the beginning of February.

I want to stay on that lifestyle indefinitely. Or at least until December. ;-P

I want to finish my degree and get completely out of the previous phase of my life, since this year will pretty much be spent in limbo.

I want to make a stronger commitment to God.

I might or might not want to read the complete works of Shakespeare...

I would really really like to have about 1000 followers by December.

So... as you can see... lots and lots and lots... Think I can do it? What will you like to have a achieved by December?

Show me yours...

Oops. The whole day yesterday, I got the feeling I forgot something, but didn't know what. Only when I asked my mom what date it was today did I realize that I am taking part in a blog fest.


For those of you that don't know, the Show-Me-Yours blog fest requires people to post 500 words from their NaNo WiP. Click here to get to a list of other participants.


As some of you know, I cheated a little last year and decided to add to my Doorways word count rather than creating another story that might take years to finish.


So, I'm hoping that some of you are curious about my WiP and that this piece will make you even more so. ;-)

*   *   *

I chose this part because of the fact that it features four of my main characters and mentions the fifth one. Unfortunately, the piece is a bit too long, so I have to give you some background first, crash course style.

James has a rebellious streak and really does not like the fact that he has to submit himself to a mentorship. So he convinces his friend Ward to steal two keys for a night of fun. They slip into the corridor and decide to go to this little country that seems to belong to no-one. Once there, they go to James's favorite inn, where he has befriended the innkeeper's wife.

In the mean time, Darrion and Gawain desperately need to get into Caranth's dungeon. But first, they need to get into Caranth itself without arousing suspicion...

"Ah! I see my little key-keeper brought a friend tonight," the inn-keeper's wife boomed above the din of the filled tavern. "Is he your guard?"

Ward snapped his eyes back to James and stared daggers at him, but James just ignored it and shook his head.

"No, just a friend that really needs a drink." The woman's laughter boomed through the inn.

"Then you two need some of our finest Ale. Free of charge." She grinned and went to fill her order. James turned back to Ward, recognising by the look in his eyes that tonight was going to be a trial again.

"You showed her the keys?" James sighed. Yep. One hell of a trial. When Ward was like this, he wondered why he even bothered. He sighed and shook his head.

"I didn't know that you think that I'm an idiot."

"I don't. But if people know about the keys..."

"So what?"

"Don't you listen to what Phipps says?" James shot Ward his best blank stare.

"I might have had a headache." Ward shook his head with an air of exhaustion.

"Right. Headache. So the fact that wars have been fought for a possession of those keys doesn't ring a bell?"

"Look. No one is going to kill us for keys to a tavern and a boring little town with snobs in it."

One of the guys at the next table turned to them. His dancing green eyes gave James the impression that they were about to make a new friend.

"I agree with your friend," he said as he leaned back to put him into a better position to hear. "Keys are really dangerous if you don't recognize their importance."

That was all Ward needed to get up. "Thank you." He turned to James. "Let's just go."

"What for?" The jovial guy smiled and James realized with a shock that they were about the same age. "Join us for a drink. You cannot leave with parched throats. You know what they say..."

"Trust no one?" James stared at his rude friend, but the friendly stranger burst out laughing.

"So wise. But we pose no risk. How are we to know their value?" 

James got up and joined the stranger and his silent friend. Ward refused to budge.

"To see where they would take you," he challenged.

"They could take us straight to hell, for all we knew," the silent one spoke up, his attention fixed on the glass of whiskey turning slowly between his fingers. "No. We'd rather remain exactly where we are."

"And enjoy the company of our new friends," the green-eyed one finished and smiled a reassurance to Ward. He obviously saw something that Ward didn't: that they weren't going anywhere. "What is your name?"
"Ward." The green-eyed one's mouth dropped open and looked at James. "Then you must be James."





I could go on... But then, I spoil an interesting part of the book... so... 

Sorry... *laughs diabolically*.