January’s meeting launched our first collaborative word list of the year with 35 words. This year I am upping the bar for our members. Once a month we will generate a collaborative word list and I am asking for final drafts of their stories in time for our next month’s meeting, in this case February 27th. Holding myself to task as well, I have been working on my story on and off, catching moments where I can.

Our meeting was on the 16th so, words fresh in my mind, I began writing the next day. I find, lately, that I am most prolific working in an inexpensive, spiral-bound quadrille notebook. My word list is on another piece of paper that I have tucked into the notebook for easy reference. Out of the 35 words, I have used all but 19 of the words so far and have hand-written about 28 lines on one page. Aside from that, for some reason, I started making dialogue notes on the back of the back of the word list itself.

Trying to use the word list is the most fun I think. It pushes me to expand my vocabulary; some months further than others as we are always trying to mess with each other and throw in a ringer or two. Using the words, finding creative ways to either change their meaning, or making myself find a way to use the word in the tense it was provided, knocks me out of my comfort zone which is good.

Writing, like life, is a constant learning process. Approaching things from new angles and forcing yourself to find new ideas is a real challenge but it keeps your writing fresh and entertaining.

Where are you at in your final draft? Leave a comment below and let us know how it is going!

Working a lot – I am freelance so it is a good thing – so I have been off stage left for a while now. As far as my personal endeavors, I have been writing on my main novel on and off; l have two going currently. I am up over 130,000 words and not hit the editorial phase yet. Thinking it may well turn into a trilogy or at least two books. Those that have read it, friend and stranger alike, have said it would make a great screenplay for a movie; which keeps me going, I love hearing that.

I run a writer’s group here locally and online, Word Whimsy, and we just launched our writer’s group zine, Three Dollar Squirrel. We are accepting submissions for Issue 2 if any of you would like to participate. I post one question each month on the writing process and it publishes on the 1st of the next month. We have several well-known authors including Patricia Telesco so I am thrilled with the response we have been getting. I’ve gotten several new participants just since the first issue came out last week.

My group is having meetings every two weeks now for the anthology we are putting together. It has been good motivation for me to finish some past stories and start new ones. We have been reading each other’s work aloud, making feedback notes, and discussing story flow and continuity. It has worked really well and we are all looking forward to our next meeting. The local group is holding closed meetings at my house but the online portion of the group is still open to anyone. The anthology is going to be fabulous by what I have seen so far of everyone’s work. I am really proud of them.

Speaking of which, time to hit the storyboarding…

Well, I am awake. I don’t want to be but I am. My pillow stills beckoning, the glow of the laptop casting ethereal blue shadows across the headboard, Val still mostly asleep, tolerant at my side. It is the morning of NaNoWriMo and the beginning of my decent down the rabbit hole.

This year for NaNo, I have set a hefty goal for myself: Complete two (2) books in one (1) month. Yes, you read that right. Yes, I know, I’m a lunatic.

I have two novels, one that has been eating my brain since last year, and one that is on backburner, rearing it’s horror/thriller genre head occasionally for the stray idea and notation.

Looking forward to our Thursday night Word Whimsy meetings.

For those doing the actual, official NaNo meetings from 9am-12noon on Saturdays we are not going to make it today. We have friends coming over, homework, and housework that got neglected this week due to prepping my new breast cancer cards for a charity function…yes, I will post them on Etsy this weekend. hehe I have several canvases to lay out for show entries and donations this weekend as well. We also have more pumpkins to carve, seeds to roast, and sites to design so I am percolating ideas in between and writing my 2,000+ words today…

I have had a few people ask if we were doing our 1pm meetings every Saturday vs once a month for NaNo-sake and I have no problem hooking up with people outside the schedule we set up. You can reach me at renmeleon@gmail.com anytime so let me know! I’ll also post when Laurel (Petalouda) and I get-together for anyone who would like to crash our meetings. hehe

No matter what you are doing today, I wish you all a very productive NaNo and great success in your personal goals, whether new projects or old as I know a lot of us are writing new content on current projects. I hope your days are full of wordy goodness and that your nights are full of dreamy novel-inducing slumber. May your pen never run dry, nor your laptop battery expire.

Pixelated words percolating in my head…

It is rare that I get to bed before 1am, but I have probably been that way most of my life. I am a complete night owl and when most people are deep in REM I am wide awake, sitting up in bed (if I am not still at the computer) and either reading, making notes, doing word puzzles, or working on my stories. There are nights when we have had a long day and I really am tired; those are the nights when I wake the next morning to read really bizarre notes in the middle of my pages, sentences that look like a monkey came in through the window and sprawled nonsensical phrases mid-sentence. It is those little things I cherish because they make me laugh and sometime spin off ideas like my brain was still trying to make sense of SOMETHING before it passed out altogether. It also means I need to go to bed earlier.

My writing this week consists of  working on the contract for Gumtree, writing guidelines for two charity “journal” projects and a Corvid Crow Call that I will be posting by the weekend, as well as completing two stories for my writer’s group.

The writer’s group is really blossoming and I look forward to each month’s meeting, we all do. It is nice to see old friends, make new ones, and play with the collaborative word list. We have found a happy medium with it and aren’t as bad about throwing in uber words to stump each other. O_o One of my favorites is still “geosynchronous”. :::shakes her head::: Logan is still paying for that one. I got that one out of the way first sentence! I actually thanked him for it though because it gave me a good story idea. The collaborative word lists have been great for pushing our vocabulary and comfort zones. Ysa has even been contributing words and we’ve made it a game. She always impresses me with it because the words are pretty big for a seven year old…splendid, repulsive, communication…think we’ve struck on a good homeschooling exercise. hehe

We have NaNoWriMo coming next so we are gearing up for that right now. Our Kickoff event is a costume party so it should be fun and it is an excuse to eat candy. :::Cheshire cat grin::: Laurel and I are going to be seeing a lot of each other in November since we will be adding NaNo support meetings to our week on top of our regular “write night”. She and I have been meeting once a week for a while now and we really look forward to it. We camp at the local Starbucks and plan, write, conspire. It keeps us motivated with our writing as well as my other projects.

Speaking of motivation to get things done…

We had our writer’s meeting on Saturday and it was like old home week. An old friend, someone Laurel and I used to LARP with, came to the meeting with her. We also had a couple of members who had not been able to make the last couple of meetings show up so it was nice to see them.

So what does this mean? We got absolutely nothing done but had a wonderful time.

The word lists seems to be taming out now, people aren’t as bent on messing with other people (read as bent meaning we still do it). The collaborative word list is a fabulous way to push your vocabulary though and is a good jumping off point for story building. For your story’s final draft you can throw the word list out the window completely if you want, it has done its job which was to shove you out of your comfort zone and make you think.

Next meeting is October 11th if you are local. We will be discussing our NaNoWriMo plan of attack for November for those who plan to participate!

Resurrecting this blog into a new form, hence the really cool theme by Roam2Rome. Thank you! Laurel, my partner in crime over at Word Whimsy, and I have been both working hard to clear our plates so we can focus on projects that are more dear to us. The writer’s group meets once a month but she and I sneak off from our regular happy lives once a week to have some “muse time”. Heavily caffeinated, our sweet tooth temporarily satiated, we camp at Starbucks for five to six hours pouring over current projects, completing stories, and brainstorming new ideas.

This past week has been about finding the name for her blog and setting it up. Laurel has recently made the decision to write full-time and I admire her for that. She has always been pretty clear about what she wants in life and she is a constant source of inspiration for me. One of the other things she wants to do is help me with my projects, like Art for Cures and the rubber stamp company, so I am REALLY looking forward to having my long-awaited, and much needed, assistant. Can I get a WOOT!

So the first visible sign of the new decade of getting things DONE is to come full circle here. Beyond Sleep & Dreams is of the BWO philosophy so there will be no apologies for not posting daily but I will be making subscribing worthwhile so stay tuned!

Most of you know my last two weeks has been pretty mind-numbing as I have been dealing with family issues. Well, word to the wise: Never try to upgrade your blog when you are in zombie mode.

Yup, it’s gone. Hopefully not lost, hoping to have a backup somewhere, but looking at it as it is gone with nothing left behind but (thankfully) copies of my writing and posts here (maybe not all) and a screen capture of what the blog looked like. Even my little bat, Brahm, is gone. :::sigh:::

Posted a tech question to WordPress support in the hopes that I may be able to retrieve something but, in the meantime, keep your eyes on RenLog as that is where I was going to export everything to anyway.

Updates soon!