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Meri's Corner

~ A Writer's Thoughts and Reviews

Tag Archives: original fiction

Frozen but Working

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, reading, Writing

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amreading, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time management, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

The Midwest had a couple days of nice weather. Just a couple. And then it plunged right back down into single digits and dumped a bunch of snow on us too. The above photo is not from after it snowed, but it is from this winter. I have an outdoor mall near me, and they have a fountain that runs all winter to keep the pipes from freezing over. So the top of this fountain, for the most part, is all frozen except for where the jets of water come out. It’s super cool to see.

With the snow has come the one thing I hate with weather shits. Migraines. Sunday I was knocked back for a good chunk of the day with a migraine and I couldn’t do much of anything.

One thing I managed to do was rewrite the beginning of a short I had started that caught my attention. I was proud of myself. I took this bit of story and the three pages I had flourished into six pages after expanding on the detail and reworking everything.

And then in the shower my brain went – but what if we do this, that, and the other.

Needless to say, I’m hoping to get it rewritten for a third time this week. and then hopefully that will be put to bed enough that I can flush it out and finish it. I’m only expecting a 10k short from it. But it’d be nice to get it finished. One more thing off my long list of open WIPs that I can cross off.

How is your WIP going? Do you have one you have as your sole focus? Do you have many with an idea book beside you to jot down any wayward plots that cross your brain? Let me know down in the comments!

Also! Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of Twisted Fate by Jessi Elliott! You’re going to love it!

Time – I know not how

29 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, reading, Writing

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amediting, amreading, amwriting, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, sea of thieves, thoughts, time, update, Urban Fantasy, video games, what do, WIP, word count, writing

Sometimes I really don’t know how time flies in my life. I look around and the day is gone, or the week is gone. Take last week as an example. I’m not sure how, but I completely phased through last week and I’m not sure how.

Or I guess to a point maybe I do. A good chunk of the first part was spent editing Chapter 1 of my drafted novel. I’ve been wanting to get to editing it, get to plotting book 2 for the series, and get everything moving along. And I sat down last week and I worked my way through Chapter 1.

Unfortunately I got tangled up enough in my words that I missed getting a blog post out last week. But fear not! I have not forgotten you, my dear readers! This week I’ll have two posts up. Today’s update of how things are going – great, I got Chapter 1 edited! I’ll also be doing a January Wrap-Up/February TBR post on the 1st! So thankfully I’ll make up for missing the post last week.

Aside from editing, I have been video gaming, not going to lie. Microsoft and Rare have a new game coming out called Sea of Thieves (March 20 – not sponsored). It’s a pirate game where you sail the seas, hunt for treasure and glory, and defend or attack other pirates as they too hunt for treasure and glory. The Closed Beta is currently in full swing for another couple of days and my friends and I got in so we’ve all been taking advantage of being able to spend some time together on the high seas.

To make it even more enticing, the game really is stunningly beautiful. You have to really, truly learn how to sail your ships from a one/two man boat to the beautiful galleon you can see behind my friend and I in a screenshot our third friend took.

It’s been an incredible time playing it, and I will truly be sad when the Beta closes in the next few days. This is completely and totally how I spent my weekend. Not going to lie.

I also stopped long enough to read a book, and while I have certain books on my January TBR list, I think I’m going to slip past them briefly because the one I read left off in a cliffhanger and I’m dying to know what happens next so I may skip to that book instead and slide my waiting TBR list forward to Feb. We’ll see how fast I can devour the second book. I do have a few more days left in January, after all.

Also, We’re a few days out before we finish with the first month of the new year. Can you believe it’s almost February yet? Can you believe we’ve had a whole 31 days of 2018 yet? Is the year treating you well so far? I’d say it’s treating me pretty well currently. No real complaints here.

Craziness = Life

18 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time management, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

So, life has been a wee bit crazy this week. And apologies for this being posted a few days behind schedule.

I can’t remember if I mentioned I ended up joining a friend in a knit-along for a scarf that’s done very DnD fashion, in that you create a character and deck him or her out in awesome adventure gear, and every week a new installment of the adventure is released and you actually roll to see which chart you’ll end up doing for the different sections of the chapters. It’s been a small process for me to get everything all set up for it. Namely, I bought some nice yarn, didn’t have anything to make my life easy for winding it into a usable ball, and did it by hand. My first attempt took me two days to un-knot. -_-  Thankfully my second attempt in a different color went incredibly smoothly because I had learned. But needless to say, it’s week three of the knit-along and I have one row of the first chart of chapter one done. I’m a wee bit behind.

I will say, with great confidence, that I’ve finished two of the books on my January TBR list. So Reading wise, I have been doing well.

Writing wise, I’ve been trying to plot out a small series of novellas. That part has been slow going, but it’s getting done. I’m hoping to spend a good chunk of my weekend on it in order to hopefully start writing the first one in Feb.

I’m also getting settled in to work on the edits for the first draft of my finished novel. If all goes well, my hope is to get the first two chapters edited by the end of the month. Part of me though, feels like it’s crazy that we’re already more than halfway into our first month of 2018.

As well, I’m trying to follow along on my friend’s 2018 writing challenge. She just posted the third week of this challenge over on her blog this morning, so you should definitely check her out: Follow the clicky Link to Writing Fun! 

How is your first month of 2018 going? Let me know down in the comments!

New Year, New Adventures

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amreading, amwriting, balancing, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, new year, online presence, original fiction, original work, plans, possible wip, ramblings, real life, resolutions, review, reviews, thoughts, time, time management, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

So the above phone is from my phone. That’s the weather right now when I get up. It wasn’t terrible to get up at that coldness when I could roll over, burrow into my blankets and do planning from bed or catch up on some of my shows. But now that it’s back to work in the am, it’s really hard to want to leave my bed.

I had hoped to get this post up on Monday, but, well. Family came first. My family always gets together New Years Day to be together, and kind of ring in the new year together. So that’s where I was most of yesterday. It was a good day over all too. I enjoy spending the time together. Unfortunately, it meant that I didn’t get much of anything else done yesterday.

I’ve been keeping a fairly decent momentum here on this blog, which I’m looking to keep going with for 2018. I want to keep posting once a week, on Mondays. (Holidays may cause posting day to be set back a day like this post) But I’m also hoping to potentially draft and schedule my posts for Monday in the future so even Holidays will have the post. =) Goals, ya’ll.

A lot of people make New Year Resolutions at the beginning of the year. I did too. Posting every Monday is one of them. What are the rest? Well.

  • Finish Editing Into the Faerietale
  • Finish Summer Starlight Festival
  • Write/plot 3 times a week
  • Read more
  • Post a Book Review on blog twice a month

Over all, I think it’s a doable list. It’s just planning out time, and making sure I sit down at work. Something that too is doable.

Do you have any resolutions? What is the one you’re planning to work really hard at? Leave it below in the comments!

Happy Holidays!

26 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amreading, amwriting, as a buyer, balancing, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, possible wip, ramblings, real life, thoughts, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

I hope that you’re having a happy and wonderful Holiday! No matter what you celebrate, this season is a time for family. Make sure to stop for a while and spend the time to enjoy some time with those you love, be they family by blood or family by marriage or chosen family.

This week’s blog is a little light, due to the Holidays. I’ve been celebrating with friends and family since Saturday. Yule, my annual Holiday lunch with my Aunt and Cousin, and Christmas with the family in town.

This week I do have off work, but I’m also taking some time to reflect on how this year went, and what goals I want to have for 2018. Which, honestly, will probably be next week’s blog post, at least some of it. (There’s also massive cleaning that needs to be done when not reflecting and planning)

Keep posted for my plans for 2018! They’re bound to be exciting!

Nearly 2018. Nearly

18 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts

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amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, OwlCrate, possible wip, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, time management, update, what do, WIP, writing

This picture above? That’s pretty much been my life the last week. Me trying to do something, and some obstacle making it harder. The obstacle in this picture is my cat, PT, trying to chew on my pen while I write a letter to my friend – because we are keeping communication old school by writing letters to each other and snail mailing them back and forth. It’s actually been really fun.

Work has been increasingly hectic for me, but it always is during the Holiday season. I’m actually excited for it to be Thursday because all the interviews, visiting interviewees, and parties will be over. Most of the students and faculty will be gone, the halls will be quiet, and my brain can actually settle back down while I get started on the PhD applications for my department – something that’s not too demanding when I have actual time to organize it. And all next week, beautiful vacation. I mean, the house needs to be cleaned, and Christmas is a week from today. A WEEK! And a week after that? WE START A NEW YEAR!

Can you believe that 2018 is almost upon us?

It was two years ago that I said I was going to kick myself in the pants and get this blog back in shape. Due to… well life, it’s taken a little bit to get there, but I think I’m finally on my way to. I’ve been doing good at updating regularly and I’m planning to continue to do so. I’m looking to get a WIP page going so it lists all my current WIP. Keeps me accountable, and hopefully moving on them. And I’ve been reading and because I’m reading I’ve been able to post reviews of the books I finish. All and all this last half of the year has been incredibly productive for this side of my life.

I’m looking to also set up a schedule to work on my Etsy shop and get that profitable this coming year. A little extra income is always a good thing, I think.

As well, I’ve signed up for OwlCrate. My first one should be arriving today, actually, and I’m pretty excited to get it. I’ve been watching my friend get them for a bit now and they’re always amazing. So I figured, why not! I’m thinking of dedicating a post to unboxing it after it arrives too, which I think will be fun.

Anything you’re trying to get finished in the last two weeks of 2017? Do you already know what your new year resolutions will be for 2018? Let me know down in the comments!

Words, Books, Life

11 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amreading, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, reviews, thoughts, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

So, I still haven’t done much writing since NaNo ended. I’d say not for lack of wanting, because I do want to write it and I want to get words on paper. But truthfully if I wanted it THAT much, I’d carve out some time for it, right?

The truth of the matter is, life this time of year gets super busy. Working picks up this time of year because of application season for next Fall, and we have people that are coming in to interview and that requires travel prep that I take care of, and I am the one that plans, orders, sets up, and cleans up all of my Department’s Holiday party stuff. Personal has finalizing Christmas presents, getting all the stuff done for family, cleaning so family can visit, etc.

It’s pretty much a whirlwind until I get my Holiday break, a.k.a. the week of Christmas/New Years.

My goal this week is to try and get words on paper, before my actual break. Because if I’m writing before my break I can hopefully write through my break. That’s the goal. *crosses fingers*

Last week was absolutely amazing, despite no words written. I read two books. TWO! (Watch for the coming book reviews to a blog near you soon ^_~ )

I treated Mom to Wicked for her Christmas present. It was her first time seeing it, and she loved it. It was my second time seeing it, and I still loved it. It’s an amazing show.

Thursday I also had my writers group. =) First time I submitted a piece for feedback. I gave them a horror short. General consensus was, super creepy, would read something like this from me again. Which, makes me feel good. I’m glad it did its job.

I was considering writing something Holiday-ish if I completed NaNo, but I never worked out what, and I still need to finish NaNo. So that is the goal for the time being! Finish my NaNo WIP. My completion goal is Dec. 31st. So I start the new year with it complete, and I can dig into editing one of the novels I have drafted. I’d love to fully get it finished.

How was your week? Do you have a hectic schedule for the Holiday season? Let me know in the comments below!

NaNo – Closed

04 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 17, NaNoWriMo 2017, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

 

NaNo has closed. Did you win? Did you win by succesfully writing 50,000 words, the traditional sense? Did you win because even though you didn’t get to 50,000, you broke through and were able to write down your novel? Did you win because you were able to get the best word count you could?

Did you write this last November? Then you won! You got out those words! You didn’t let fear or work or life stop you, at least not completely. You showed that novel who was boss and at the very least started the process of getting it out of your brain.

I wasn’t able to reach 50,000 words this year. I tried. But I paused due to health and family, and that small pause was all it took to crash my motivation and kill my word count.

Total NaNo Count, like last Monday, is 24,227. Just a hair under half way.

I do plan to continue this novel and get it drafted. It’s just going to take a little longer than I originally was hoping. But that’s okay. I’ll get there. I did better than last year, at least.

December is going to be a whirlwind though. I have Wicked this week with mom, but I also had a close family friend pass away Saturday. So this week is already starting emotionally heavy. Three weeks of work before my work closes for a week and I get some vacation. I also have a Writer’s Group meeting this Thursday. A lunch with my cousin and my Aunt, it’s our annual Christmas tradition. Lots of events.

I’m also working on doing paintings to give away as Christmas gifts. The picture on this post is my favorite from the ones I did this weekend.  Hopefully I can finish the painting soon, so that’s done.

I also want to try and get back into reading. I want to get to the point where I can post book reviews on the regular here.

Any Holiday/Christmas suggestions for reading? Leave them in the comments below. (I predominantly read fantasy, sci fi, cozy)

NaNo – Week 4 Recap

27 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amreading, amwriting, balancing, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 17, NaNoWriMo 2017, online presence, original fiction, original work, possible wip, ramblings, real life, self publishing, thoughts, time, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

Hey Everyone! I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

And for those that don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you just had a wonderful week. =)

For those of us in the States, Thanksgiving is a time when we gather with family, enjoy people we may not see all the time, cook some delicious food, and be thankful for the time we have together.

My family also celebrates my Uncle’s birthday, and one of my cousin’s birthdays, at the same time, so it just adds to the joy of the day. Over all it’s a good day for my family. We all gather at my Aunt’s house and she cooks the turkey (wrapped and cooked in bacon). My Mom makes a mushroom pie that is just divine. And my uncle gets enough beer as birthday presents to last him until the new year – a gift that my mom and I started when I was little and everyone and their brother decided in the last few years to jump on the bandwagon and do for him.

While it’s a good day, it’s also a long day. The mushroom pie has to be baked so that it comes out of the oven just prior to us leaving the house, so the morning is spent eating a quick breakfast and then baking. We’re out the door and to my Aunt’s for a serve time of 1pm, and then we’re there until 5/6pm. Leaves little time to really get much else done.

Not that I’m using that as an excuse. Not completely anyway. I mean, I didn’t have family obligations for the rest of the weekend. A dentist appointment and getting together with one of mom’s friends to talk about writing, yes, but nothing that ate up the whole of my day either.

Truthfully, I just needed a weekend off I think. I didn’t get a single word written from Thanksgiving through the weekend. I focused on what I felt was important to me this weekend: Family, Friends, and my Health. I also took this weekend to read, something I’m still sorely lacking a majority of the time. But it felt REALLY good to be able to just pick up a book (or well download it to my phone through kindle) and read. I started it Friday while sitting in my dentist’s office waiting to be called back and finished it Sunday morning. I pretty much did nothing but read Saturday night. And I took a little time to enjoy some video games Sunday afternoon when Mom decided to crash for a little bit because she wasn’t feeling well.

You guessed it though. It means that my NaNo word count did suffer greatly. So let’s get into the numbers, shall we.

Day 20 – 964

Day 21 – 0

Day 22 – 1562

Day 23 – 0

Day 24 – 0

Day 25 – 0

Day 26 – 0

Total: 24,227 (Goal: 43,333)

So. I’m roughly 20,000 words behind. I didn’t even bother to look at what day NaNo’s site suggested I would complete my 50,000 words, or look at how many words I would have to complete per day to catch up.

We only have four more days left of NaNo, counting today. I can safely say that because I took the weekend off, I’m not going to.

This isn’t to say I won’t continue to work on the story I started, I totally will. I want to see it to completion. And NaNo helped me to get a good portion of the way through the first draft. For that, I’m always grateful.

I will say, I have had the habit of bringing a novel back for a round two of sorts the following year if I don’t finish it or NaNo, but my goal for this novel is to have it finished before NaNo is even a blimp on my radar for 2018.

Ideally, and I’m not sure just how feasable it is yet, my goal will be to have my second Faerie novel planned out and ready to start for NaNo 2018. It’s a year off, which gives me a year to finish this year’s Fantasy novel and finish editing my Faerie book 1 novel, polishing it up before I start to save and potentially look for an editor to take a wack at it. Even, pending how long the first two goals take me, potentially have it back from said editor. We’ll see.

I’m still back and forth on if I want to try and quarry my novel or just ship it off into the world myself. There are a lot of pros and cons in both categories for what I should do. I’m still trying to feel my way through what I think might be the best route for me though.

I still have time before I get there, though. A couple rounds of edits at least.

Until next time, dear readers!

NaNo – Week 3 Recap

20 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 17, NaNoWriMo 2017, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

 

So we have completed Week 3 of NaNo! Do you feel good about yourself? Do you feel good about your word count? Do you feel good about your words? Even if you’re behind, if you’re writing, you should feel good! Because even if you’re not writing as fast as everyone else, or as fast as you’d hoped, at least you’re getting those words out!

Without further dilly dallying, lets get into my word count!

Day 13 – 1,692

Day 14 – 640

Day 15 – 0

Day 16 – 1,787

Day 17 – 129

Day 18 – 0

Day 19 – 1,700

Total: 21,701 words (Goal: 31,666 words)

It’s not looking good, is it. Every week, because of those low days or those 0 word days, I grow further and further behind. I’m roughly 10,000 words behind to finish on time. And part of me wants to be the eternal optimist and pump my fist in the air with a “I can do it!” attitude.

The greater part of me, the serious part of me that knows reality, knows how I work, and knows what’s going on in my life knows that it’s going to be a real struggle for me to catch up and, MAYBE, finish on time.

BUT!

Yes, there’s a BUT!

I’m not going to stop either. Even though I’m behind, and even though there’s a seriously good chance of me not finishing at 50,000 by the end of November, I WILL keep writing. I want this novel out, and I do want to try and catch up if I can. Life and my brain may surprise me and give me the solidly good days I need to do so, and I won’t know unless I keep going.

I will admit, this week doesn’t look greatly in my favor. My sewer line is busted and the guy is coming to repair it tonight. My tooth is cracked and I’m seeing my dentist to get it crowned tomorrow. Thanksgiving is Thursday and it means a long day of being with family who, yes I love but let’s be honest I’d rather be home writing in bed with some chips and chocolate. (I’m not a terribly big fan of turkey or some of my extended family that will be at this gathering too.)

I’m hoping, crossing fingers and toes, that I can push through my toothache related migraine to get a kick ass word count today, and even tomorrow before my appointment. And I’m hoping that either Thursday morning, or Thursday night the muses will be kind enough to me to get at least my daily word count so I don’t fall any further behind than I already am.

Currently, without adding words today, NaNo is telling me I’ll hit 50,000 on December 17th. That’s not a terrible extension, but I’d definitely like to try and reign that date closer to November 30th if possible.

It’s too bad these weekly blog posts don’t count toward NaNo, huh. I’d be about 1500 words closer to my goal. That’s almost a full day of writing right there! But, I want all the words I count toward NaNo to revolve around my novel, not talking to you, my lovely readers. So these words will just be here, written in and for November, but not counting toward November in the way that words tend to this time of year.

Keep on writing, everyone! Don’t fret about the deadline. Don’t worry about the goals. The real victory is getting those words on paper however you can.

Until next time! Stay productive! =)

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