When in ROWme Do as the ROWmans Do
23 May 2012 9 Comments
in goals, music, ROW80 Tags: #Row80, accountability, Chamber music, goals, Online Writing, success, Troy, troy savings bank, writing
Well, this is getting to be a very bad habit here… the missing of Sunday check-ins that is. I seem to remember having a similar problem right around this time last ROWnd (perhaps even a bit earlier even). It would be nice to say that I’m getting better at organizing my time, but if one makes a point to bring up the whole “A Writing Challenge That Knows You Have A Life” part about the ROW80, it means I’m doing something definitely wrong here.
Or, it means, I’ve been sick. which I have… Sunday became Catch Up Day, laundry and the sink full of dishes and conflict. So much conflict… I’m counting down the hours till this school year finishes, and the less said about that, the better.
Sunday was GOOD!
I did have a wonderful time with Elizabeth Anne Mitchell at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Sunday evening. The very last of the Albany Symphony performances this season, this was more an eclectic mix of chamber music and soloists from the orchestra than not. A wonderful performance that surprisingly also included the band and chorus from the Doyle Middle School in Troy as part of the Symphony’s Music In the Classroom program. The students composed and researched their own concert pieces. It was quite impressive.
I’m sorry their parents brought them home after their part was over instead of letting them experience the last four numbers. I suspect, given the energy and enthusiasm that these kids had approached their project with, they would have enjoyed seeing the other young composers’ creations. There is something empowering about seeing what can be done, or even what some people have tried, just so they might be willing to test new limits.
Goals were NOT…
As psyched as I was after last Wednesday (and oddly enough, I was psyched, about writing, NOT about being on the computer), everything fell apart on Thursday. Between having the weirdest “ick’ (still not sure what it was since it seemed to incorporate food poisoning, a migraine and throwing my back out) and my father “helping” me buy a car at the NY State Auction… Basically I crawled into my bed at 1:30 in the afternoon on Thursday and only dug myself out on Friday morning because I’d promised my son that I would go to see him at school for the last “Morning Meeting” of the year.
This means two things… I ended up NOT getting anything done for Story A Day or my sponsor posts until Saturday. I also ended a 230 streak at 750words. No Pegasus badge for me…not this year. 
It also means I have another POS car in the driveway to rant about in future posts. 
So my challenge for this month Story A Day is technically a bust. I was hoping to use the weekend to catch up on writing in the stories I’ve handwritten. I’m probably going to have to save that for later, perhaps in July, since I do intend to do the JuNoWriMo (really happy about the “not new story concept part” about the June Novel Challenge). I’m still handwriting my stories… these last few have not been very good, ihmo. When I do type them in, we’ll see if any are salvageable. So far they all seem to be something from a larger work.
Failure shouldn’t be an option
Clearly I need to spend some time developing my technique for the short form.
And until then,….
I will do as other ROWmans do–put my butt in the chair and make words flow. There really is no other way to go. The Writing Challenge that knows we have lives exists because we want to live as writers. So I missed a bit this week. It’s not the day-to-day, or even the month by month… It’s the long haul. And in that, I can still say I’m Rockin’ the ROW80. I’m still writing, I’m still posting and commenting and learning… and I’m still ROWing.
(Hopefully I will remember to edit this post when the Linky goes live. Keep an eye to A Round of Words in 80 Days for it so you can support other ROWers just in case. These wonderful people deserve your support.)
Related articles
- ASO helps students make music (troyrecord.com)
- After 140 years, downtown Troy landmark no longer a bank (timesunion.com)
- Despite poor economy, wealth of artistic activity exists (troyrecord.com)
- It’s All About Heart by Jayrod Garrett (rainingink.wordpress.com)
Photo Credit
- Violinist Joseph Joachim and pianist Clara Schumann. Reproduction of pastel drawing (now lost) by Adolph von Menzel, 1853. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Unknown, found here (a very good post that fits where I am perfectly)
My Day? Mabee not…
14 May 2012 10 Comments
in goals, ROW80, stories, Writing samples Tags: counting my blessings, Divination, goals, mother, stream of consciousness, success, Tarot, Thoth, writing
Oh, today….
Yeah, it was Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day would have been a lot nicer if it hadn’t involved most of the things I didn’t want to happen, happening. It also would have been better with steak. Instead it came with Chinese-American buffet food and an still unsatisfied craving for a Dunkin Donut’s Coffee Coolata (two days running…if I still want one tomorrow, I am getting a large).
The car worked though. Counting my blessings. The car worked, and I got a lot of hugs from the awesome people. LOTS of hugs!
Oh… pooh! I guess it’s not that bad. I just am frustrated with myself because I’m sunburned, migrainy and behind now on my stories for Story A Day. I hate being behind on stories…
Yesterday we held the Boodle’s Birthday Party at Hoffman’s Playland. I got no writing done. My 750 words came out more a stream of consciousness garble that said nothing. It certainly wasn’t a story. The party was a huge success though. Exhausting, but a lot of fun too.
Does anyone want any birthday cake?
And I’m still behind. I hate being behind. Only by one story now, as I managed something in my 750words tonight. So as you can see, all my goals for the ROW80 are moving along fairly well. I am close to all caught up on all the check-ins. I’ve got another fifteen minutes to finish the other story idea I have floating in my head. I can be done by minute if I sign off now.
But allow me to share the story I did finish today. I haven’t been doing much composing on the computer lately. It’s nice to share something without “writing it twice”. Handwriting stories does feel more natural, but typing things in all the time gets tired.
Card Play
Charlie knew… He knew as soon as the card turned over what its image would be. He knew all about the big losses he faced. He’d been right the last three times. He knew how much his wife would complain if Tina knew he was wasting money like this. Spending money for an extra pack of cigarettes, a six-pack of store-brand soda or a new set of press-on nails… Oh, she could see that. Even when Tina was fretting over the lack of cash in the checking account, she had no problem spending cash on those.
“I work too, you know,” she’d say. Her head would tip just that little way that he was so fond of. “I know I don’t make nearly as much as you, but I need this things to keep me going each day. You know how it is.”
Charlie did know how it was. That’s why he was here, sitting across this large felt-covered table, a small stack of money–his money–now sitting at the elbow of the woman across from him. She had been looking grimly at him, as if waiting for his approval to turn over the next card. Not that she needed to hesitate… Here she was in charge. She held all the cards.
She held all the money too at the moment.
Charlie nibbled at his lip a little. He wasn’t really that sure he wanted to see that card really. How could so much depend on a little piece of paper, he wondered, not for the first time. A little piece of paper… He’d spent most of a day’s pay to watch and see the cards that turned up. Was it his number? Was hers? How much would he have to apologize to his wife for this time?
The woman across the table flicked the corner of the card closest to her up so she could see the result. Her lips pursed. She’d done that the last time too.
He felt the blood drain from his face. “Let’s see it,” Charlie croaked before he lost his nerve.
Dutifully, the woman eased the card over, revealing it’s face, and the crumbling Tower that filled it.
For those who know anything about tarot, the Tower Card is self-explanatory. For those who do not, here is a nice, simple explanation of the meaning: http://www.tarotteachings.com/tower-tarot-card-meanings.html This little story came out of a day dream I started having about my son and a small three card “reading” I did on him (yes, I had him do the cutting of the deck for this “Past Present Future” mini). My son’s reading, fit him frighteningly well (all descriptions are made for the Thoth Deck since that is my main deck of use):
- Past — Hanged Man
- Present — Prince of Swords
- Future — Prince of Cups
As any who know the Boodle in person can vouch, I don’t think I could have chosen better cards for him if I’d looked into the deck and picked the cards out by hand. I’m reminded of why I’d stopped doing readings about 15 years ago.
Photo credit:
- Traditional Devil’s Food Birthday Cake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Related articles
- When Hobbies Creep Into Your Writing Life (writersinthestorm.wordpress.com)
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Green Tea and Five Sentences For Me
11 May 2012 4 Comments
in goals, Reading, ROW80 Tags: #Row80, accountability, Carmilla, depression, Drink, Fiction, Green tea, literature, memories, odd description, relationships, Sheridan Le Fanu
Green Tea
Not only is Green Tea an awesome beverage, one that makes me think of times with my grandmother; it’s a presumed health drink. Certainly my memory holds a healthy glow–sitting at one of Nanny’s kitchen tables and watching as she measured out the rolled dried leaves into a tea-pot. She would have a pan of water heating on the stove and just before the water reached a boil, she would pour some over the dried leave, rinsing them. This acrid water she disposed of after swishing the pot once or twice to warm it a touch. Then she would pour in the rest of the heated water, go get cups for us while it steeped, rinse them with other warmed water she had waiting . Finally, she would bring the tea over to sit between us. She never actually sat down. My grandmother’s maiden name is Sparrow, and it suits the way she flutters about her kitchen even now almost into her 90th year.
The resulting drink would be a pale, crisp golden green, a touch sweet. I remember not liking it at first, but wanting so much to be a “big girl”, I drank it readily. I did not appreciate tea for years, even well after my grandmother could no longer enjoy the drink she prepared with such love. A few small strokes and a prescription for Coumadin limited her chance to enjoy many of her favorite foods including green tea.
But this isn’t about my childhood memories or even the limitations of medication and diet. It’s about a short story by the Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu–or rather about my rediscovering Le Fanu’s writing.
“Green Tea” by Le Fanu turned up in the book (Dover Editions Great Irish Short Stories) I picked up for my #readsprint on Wednesday. It had been quite literally over 30 years since I’d ever read anything by Le Fanu. But, even so, I sensed something in “Green Tea”… The name of the Dr.Hesselius. It was warm and familiar.
Yes… “Warm and familiar” is an odd description for a story involving ghosts and paranormal destruction.
Turns out, Le Fanu also wrote my favorite vampire story “Carmilla”. That story, that I’d read sometime around 4th grade, made enough of a mark on me that I drew upon it when I was in college. Using amber-screen vt220 terminals in the various basements of SUNY Albany, I hung out on early social networks such as MUDs and MUCKs, usually in FurryMUCK. I had two characters. One named after my cat Ishkabibel who was, quite accurately, a ball of white fluff with eyes that bounced around excitedly and left strands of hair wherever she went. The other was a shape-changer: a sleek black cat/frail girl/lycanthrope based on Le Fanu’s Carmilla; my own character’s third anagram named was Lalmirca.
“Carmilla” also introduced me to the joy of word play in a sense I’d never known before. And while “Green Tea” was a pleasing story in its own, I find myself more delighted by the memories that looking up details for this post inspired.
The joy didn’t end there. In doing a Google search to get the link , I found other stories of that name. Short stories are a bit of a passion this month, since this is Story A Day month here at Chez Mabee. And so I also found this little gem: Green Tea by Nasir It is rough. There are mistakes. Pronouns shift for characters; there are clearly places where the author was thinking in one direction then wrote another. But it was sweet. Sad, but sweet.
Now skipping away from Green Tea to savor a cup, I have an idea…
Five Sentences
Similar to Kait Nolan’s wonderful Test Mile, I find myself committing to getting at least five sentences of new story written every day. It wasn’t so much an intention of mine but something I began suggesting to other ROWers after I realized I’d been doing it automatically every day even on those days I felt I too busy or (worse imho) “blocked”.
The idea came from trying to write more in my WiPs. This unnamed, unspoken goal stated “write five more new sentences in the story. Just five…“ These sentences had to be part of the story I was working on(not a new story), and they had to try to break the block. If I couldn’t manage more than five, that was fine. I went on to new things. If I could write more than five, I would keep going until I found myself blocked again.
Sometimes I wrote paragraphs of complete and utter nonsense or character sketching, scene sketching, minor character creation or even just ranting into my blank page before I came up with those five sentences. Sometimes five sentences resulted in pages of backstory, new secondary and tertiary characters, new story ideas…
The “Unnamed Story” I have posted in my Tuesday Snippets developed out of many of these sessions. Now it is a story in its own right; it is not the WiP I want to work on. And in the manner of exploring the unknown, it has a multitude of flaws. I overindulge myself in describing scenes. The story splits and goes in different directions as I reconsidered the effects of a character’s actions and followed those possibilities further…. It was/is an exercise–I’m still writing pieces in it. It and the Was Long Variation are my scratch pads for those five sentences, places where I can explore a character and effuse details that I need to know, but perhaps the reader does not.
But for every paragraph there–indeed for every several paragraphs there, I draw a sentence that I can use in my Writing In Progress. Maybe not as a sentence itself, maybe as just an idea… I still have that sentence to write. But it is there.
And when I have five sentences, my day can be done…or not.
But I know I’ve written.
The ROW80 check-in however…
Well, since my goals for the rest of May are fairly limited in scope: a story a day and maintain my regular comments and sponsor duties, I can say with delight that I am meeting those goals with almost no problem. Even days without internet have not really interfered much, since I am rediscovering my joy of writing with pen and paper (I am not as eagerly looking forward to typing everything in before the 30th).
So everything is going well. Sort of… As some people may have noticed, my update on Sunday (made via a short post on Facebook) was not the happiest thing. Most everything is better now, but it reminded me of something… The ROW80 is a challenge that is more that writing; it’s about living as a writer.
And the ROW80 is about supporting each other as writers. My ROW80 teammates were there for me this past week. Please, never hesitate to ask when you need support in your ROW. It’s what makes this such a wonderful challenge.
And speaking of support…. here’s the linky! Why not stop in and meet a few of these wonderful people?
Photo Credits:
- This time it’s green tea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Illustration by Michael Fitzgerald for Le Fanu’s story Carmilla in The Dark Blue (January 1872), electrotype after wood-engraving, reproduced in Best Ghost Stories, ed. Bleiler. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Related articles
- Recent Reading – Camilla – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (itsonlyerica.wordpress.com)
- ‘Best Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu’ (patospapa.wordpress.com)
- Carmilla, Mircalla, Millarca, whatever (lifesahaiku.wordpress.com)
- Five Beautiful Uses For Green Tea (bellasugar.com)
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