WiP Wednesday: Writing

So, as I've mentioned, I am writing a book this summer.  It's my first, and I'm a little insecure about it.  I thought I'd do a post on my writing process to hopefully solidify a few things in my own mind and start thinking about ways I can improve.

Things I've learned since May 15th:

1.  I need to write first thing in the morning.  Of.  EVERY.  DAY.
2.  I need a space away from home, preferably outside, to write.
3.  On average, I can write between 600 and 800 words in two hours.

Things I've noticed about my writing:

1.  I don't do plot very well..... (more on this later)
2.  I have a tendancy to repeat patterns and formulas in the structures of my scenes
3.  I tend to get bogged down in the minutiae of movements; I'm not good at deciding when a movement/action can safely be cut out and when it needs to be there for clarity's sake.

YyyyyyNo.

Now, about plot.  I really didn't sit down and plot my book out.  At all.  I had a cast of characters and a series of epic events that I wanted to put them through, barely escaping with their lives.  How they got there?  The motivations and reasoning behind certain key actions that set the whole cluster-- in motion?  Nada.  See, I was supposed to start a lot earlier than May 15th.  But I thought I should sit down and plot everything out, but every time I tried, I ended up... not getting anything done.  And so I'd say to myself, "Oh, well, I can't start writing yet, I don't have my plot worked out!"  And that became an excuse not to write. 

I decided I should just jump right in and worry about plot later.  And while that means I have gotten a lot of writing done, I'm headed for a pretty hard edit at the end of the summer.  Hopefully, I'll be able to shape it into a coherent story. 

It doesn't help that I've got all sorts od ideas about the prequal I want to write next.  Not to mention the story of the first werewolf.  Who is actually a sheepdog. 

*sigh*

WiP Wednesday: (HOLIDAY!) Knitting

My brother doesn't always watch anime...........

 But when he does, he watches Natsume Yuujinchou.  I watch it, too. It is HILARIOUS.  So when I ran across this knitting pattern, saved to my hardrive years and years ago, before I ever started watching anime, well I just got my Grinch smile on, didn't I?

 Yes, I did.  I'll have to work out the intarsia stuff to cross between the white, brown and... mousse?  Anyway.
  I think this will actually be the first time I knit specifically for someone else.  It's kind of a mile marker, I suppose.  Hopefully I can get it done (in secret, sh!) in time for Christmas.  Updates as they come, I guess.

Seascape La Bohème Scarf

This is what I've been doing:

 it's completely made of yarn I spun myself. 

The lightest yarn is undyed corriedale that I received as a birthday present last month from a yarncrafting friend. 

The light blue is dyed BFL from FibroFibers. 

And the blue/green is from some BFL top dyed by Mountain Colors. 

 

 

 

I added semi-asymetrical wooden beads, which I think work quite well.  My knitting group say it looks very bohemian, and the colors reminded me of the ocean, so I shall christen it...

Seascape La Bohème Scarf

I Am

I Am

I am the cutting scent of cold water after

snowfall, falling with a silence so chill it

cracks mountain stones

I am the desolate cry of the unknown marsh

 bird, weeping my sorrow in the wild

wetlands marooned

I am the gnarled, twisty hands of bracken

that rise clutching at the edges of your

patchwork fields of wheat & corn & barley & rye

I am the little weed who cracks the

foundation of your very civilization and tells

of your coming destruction

For I will reclaim.

- Do you hear it? Do you hear the dust of all

your endeavor swirling in my wake?

But yes.

I am also the palette of the universe

contained in a single drop of dew with the

sunlight shining through it

I am the tumbling breeze that whistles

sweetly through the grasses & the leaves

I am the taste of frost-crisped apples,

splitting from streaked red skin to ivory

center with the teardrop seeds of future

forests

I am the summer-collected dandelion fluff

sticking to the warmth of your child's tiny

fist