Whispers

So I was perusing valuable links and ran across this gem of a post called "14 Ways to Handle a Christian Introvert." Note: I am a Christian and an introvert. I rolled with laughter. This is me. You read my mind.

An excerpt:

2) We just don’t sing like the front row.

It’s great that extroverts can freely express themselves during worship time.  But introverts sometimes just read the lyrics, connect inwardly, and keep their hands inside the vehicle.  If you see us raising even one hand and singing a few words, we are seriously pushing the gas pedal all the way to the floor.

3) Do not ever rebuke us in public.

Or you and I are done.  Forever. You should never do this anyway.

7) We get super-tired around a lot of people.

My limit is about four hours, and then I actually get a headache from just hanging around human beings.  My Sabbath rest is leave-me-alone-time with my non-judgmental dog.  Give us that time without trying to counsel us about it.

8) Don’t be offended if we don’t reply right away.

Sometimes when we see a Facebook invite to that next big church event, we just let it sit there and think about it periodically throughout the week and then come back to it before committing.  We do the same thing with text messages, emails, phone calls, and you showing up at the door.

10) Please do NOT bring a lot of attention to us.

Not in the church bulletin, not the church site, not for my birthdays, not for that nice thing I did for the homeless — just please, no spotlight.

11) Sometimes we’re just moody.  It’s not depression or a “spiritual attack” or “unconfessed sin.”

One word: space.  Lots of it.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Comment to this post saying “FIVE!” and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself, hopefully for the rest of eternity!

From arliddian: Current Goals and Resolutions

The difference between where I am now and where I want to be can be measured in concrete, physical things: earn a decent weekly income at writing, get x stories published as ebooks, get x stories into print, post this many articles weekly, blog about things that matter, finish writing City of Glass, etc. But that isn’t how I measure this journey.

See, there’s another challenge arliddian gave me, the challenge to write 100 things about creativity. I took that challenge, held it in my mental palm, side-eyed it, set it down, then turned it over until finally I did the inevitable and took it completely apart to reassemble it into something better, something me. The result was I saw a journey I wanted to make, and it had nothing to do with outside goals.

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Oops! I said it out loud. Ah, well. These are from arliddian. Comment if you want your own.

1. What is your favourite sweet treat?

Cheesecake. Bar none. With kiwis on top.

2. There’s a fire in your house! What are the first five things you try to rescue?

My family. My writings. My PDA and backup hard drive. Oh, and underwear/change of clothes.

3. A time machine is malfunctioning and is going to deposit you in the past, with no way to return to your own time! You have just enough seconds to set the time period of your choice. Which would you choose and why?

Five years ago. I’d get back to where I am a whole lot faster and be able to finally have two of me. Answer to prayers, y’all.

4. What is your favourite thing to do in summer?

Write. What else?

5. What kind of music do you listen to when you need inspiration?

Celtic. Christian contemporary, mostly pop and acoustic, none of this rock and roll stuff they’re calling CCM anymore. More celtic.

6. What are your top five tips about writing original fiction?

Focus on stories. Forget the writing; the writing will take care of itself. Focus on what inspires you. Read. Live through your character’s eyes. Know what makes people tick. Know the stories you love and how to get from point a to point b with as many complications as you can throw on there. It’s about stories, people.

Fuel selectively. If you fall in love with something (I’m looking at you angsty ships!), it will come out in your stories. Pay attention to the things that unleash your inner fangirl. Fangirl your own fiction. Make it yours. Explain it. Juggle it around until you’re satisfied. Love AU (hereby go to original) but make their lousy, crazy canon nonlogic into real logic without changing anything from canon at all—if you can. Learn how to feed your own muse.

Never assume anything. Know your characters, the rules of your world, and a handful of outside factors to fling at them. The rest will be unpredictable—even to you, but inevitable.

Know the difference between voice and tone. Your voice is your writing. Your tone is your story. And for goodness sake, don’t read out of tone when you’re working. Keep the reading and the writing separate if you’re tone-hopping.

No matter what you do in writing, what choice you make, it’s fine. As long as you do it consistently.

7. How much do you think you have changed in the past two years?

Goodness. Much. And nothing. Some days, I know. Some days, I don’t. I try to stay in the present, know what I want to change and where I’m heading. I’m not a journey person. It’s about the destination, and that’s where my eyes are fixed.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

It’s something almost every writer does, simply because if we’re really doing it for a living, it’s generally the thing at the top of our mind. But that made me think about what really makes me who I am online.

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Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

I’ve been feeling lousy lately (sick and sciatic nerve problem) and down on time and have decided to try something different.

First, I started trying Written? Kitten! I’ll be the first to admit it’s too simple to work well for me. I write better when italicizing, bolding, and centering are easy as CTRL + shortcut. But it’s a handy tool when I want to just start pushing. Better than Notepad at least.

Second, today I read this article by Rachel Aaron. It’s genius and I recognize my own best processes in there. By analyzing and studying her own work, she boosted her average daily word count from 2000 words per day to 10,000 words, using knowledge, time, and enthusiasm. (I could use that kind of boost.)

I went through one six-month period in my life where I wrote almost 50,000 words of fanfiction in about 2-3 hours a day, 2-3 days a week. Needless to say, I haven’t been there in a long time. But what was I doing differently?

1. I was passionate about what I was writing. I loved the stories and the characters and always wanted to find out what happened next. I could wring out 1200 – 2300 words in an hour on my lunch break just off of the inspiration of reading my previous chapters. (This got harder once it took too long to read the previous chapters.)
2. I knew enough but not too much. If I pre-write the whole story, I will stop writing the story. I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is. If I prewrite the chapter, we’re good to go.
3. I constantly wrote down snippets of what I wanted to include in the next chapter or even later.
4. I read works that inspired me for my own fic.
5. I never felt limited. I just wrote whatever inspired me at the moment and knew I’d eventually get back to that other fic on the burner. (This gets harder once the burners exceed 20, but it’s hard to keep wanting to write if I shut down too many of my ideas either.)
6. I had to work hard to earn praise (I didn’t have fans yet who liked even the work I didn’t), so when I did earn it, it mattered.
7. I almost always wrote in Microsoft Word or occasionally directly on the Document Manager. I have since analyzed my own writing enough to discover I write best and fastest and most in Word—for whatever reason.

Is there anything that helps you write and stay motivated? Please share any tips, links, ideas, or experiences. And happy writing!

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.