It's 11:33AM and I am currently at 1636. I need 8364 more words today. I've been posting like a fiend over at thewritingpen. Making a few paragaph long posts. Wow. I remember those days. I haven't written this prolifically in years. It feels good. You know something? I'm not even counting the words that I'm posting on the comm! I'm only counting the words that I am putting into my Open Office file for a story that I'm working on.

Getting something to eat and then going back to writing.

Some weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a former co-worker at Chaffey about a contest The Gotham Writers Workshop was running. You could submit your name for about a dozen different prizes. They had some great things, such as a membership to one of the workshops (either online or in NYC), a Writer clock, a Gotham sweatshirt, magazines, books, gift cards, even an e-reader. After not winning anything at the Night of Writing Dangerously in Nov, I won a prize this time! A year subscription to Poets & Writers! I've picked up their mag occasionally and it is a quality periodical. I also have a bag with their logo that I got at the LA Times Festival of Books and love dearly. Yay!

It's a small writing world because theemdash won, too! :D

So I am going to attempt the impossible today with no preparation and limited time: I'm going to see if I can make today a 10K Day. I have a new story I'm working on. And I have another one to rely on, too. And a third one also on the backburner. I'll get to those two soon enough. Need to flesh both out. Need to flesh out the one I'm working on right now, too. I have three characters, a location, and some backhistory already cropping up. I am learning about them as I write. It is very NaNoWriMoish, though. But 10K in one day...damn. If I can learn how to do that now and gain a quick speed at it, I'll be all set for November. I have a hope, though, to do a 10k day once a week. Every seventh day. As it happens, the next one that Milli Thornton, the organizer of the 10K day, is going to hold it on the 14th, a week from today. So maybe it will be an every Thursday thing for me. That's 52 weeks of 10ks. 52,000 words. That would be great for my 250,000 words that I need for the year, for getyourwordsout. I already have written quite a few pages this month, too. Have no idea, though. I'm not doing my first count of those pages until tomorrow. I'm curious to see how much I can write by using the three pages a day model. Sadly, I haven't opened The Artist's Way since the first. I did start a book called The Writer's Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules For Mastering Your Craft. The tips are one page, two pages at most, and are really colorful. I'm currently on rule 17: Stop reading this book. Write. So I closed my book and started writing.

Not only do I still not have internet at home, I now have no computer to have internet with. Desktop - wants a new graphics card. Laptop - dead hard drive.

And sis is still sucking all our spare cash....cripes. What I don't get is why mom still lets her get away with this shit. At least she's finally started putting her foot down...so far. We'll see if -that- continues.


Love and stuff to everyone who still keeps an eye on my journal. Maybe I'll be around more this year.


xoxo

cassi

So now that I wrote my epic of all posts on Livejouranl about teachers (not how I planned it, just how it turned out), my brain won't go back to rest. It is active, it is vivacious. It wants to get words out. My brain is plotting in my favor and wants to get as many words out as possible.

When I was in community college and university, I got all sorts of advice about writing and realized some things myself.

( Here are some of my favorite things I've been taught or have observed first hand: )

What are some of the lessons that you have learned or observed?

I wrote six pages: three pages for the morning pages written this morning and three pages in response to day 1's prompt--allegory. To be honest, I groaned when I read I had to write an allegory. I didn't want to do it. I found myself partly closing, but it was the prompt and I had to read it. So I did and I got three pages. I surprised myself by writing a story and being creative. Right now, I'm really heavily drawing from my life. That won't always be the case and I am really looking forward to that time.

I didn't want to have a day spent at home, as past Januarys have gone. Instead, I went out with my friend leadaisy. We hit the Waffle, in Hollywood, first and then went to Pasadena. I was so sure that Vroman's was going to be open, but alas they were not. What we did see was a bunch of trash lining Colorado Blvd on either side, outside closed stores. A few hours after the Rose Parade ended and it was already empty. I actually didn't see any of the parade today. That has to be a first for me. I'm not so inclined, either. I could take it or leave it. From Pasadena, we went to the mall. I made a Borders trip in Hollywood and at the mall and between those two bookstores, I came home with three books and three journals. One book I will start when I get up: The Writer's Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules For Mastering Your Craft. I liked the layout and I thought it had some handy points to be made. I look forward to breaking into that.

I surprised myself in my Morning Pages when I wrote down a few ideas for fiction stories I want to try; one story is a fanfic and the other is an original piece. I don't want to tackle those now, but at some point later. It doesn't seem to take a lot of effort to brainstorm for writing fiction. Did I really forget so easily? I also plan to go back to an original story idea I was playing with. I'll be brainstorming on that today, I think. The other two pieces are much shorter while this one is going to last a little while. But a piece is a piece. And if I complete one, more the better. It has been ages since I have ever completed any pieces. I don't make myself. And, sometimes, I don't even let myself start. But I know that you won't accomplish anything if you don't start. If you start something, finish it, then maybe it will work, or maybe it won't. But if you don't even start something, it won't work. It's that simple. I would like to give myself more of a chance. Heck, maybe I'll get something out of the very attempt of trying.

There was a book that I was looking at that I didn't pick up today that I might at a later point. I remember it is the companion book to Write. but other than that...I don't remember the author, even. I've checked Amazon.com. The writer is Karen E. Peterson and the companion book is The Write Type: Discover Your True Writer's Identity and Create a Customized Writing Plan. There is one exercise Peterson had where you write the answer to a question with your non-dominant hand. I imagine it is to see if your brain hemispheres think differently. I have read that they do think independently of one another. And if there is a disconnect, then you would have two distinct personalities vying for control of one body. I think I might get something from my right hand that I hadn't even thought I would think about. Maybe something like that one style of writing, like...it isn't ghost writing. But the idea is that your tapping into a presence that isn't your own. I've always been scared about trying that. Scared about what would turn out, so I haven't even tried that. I've seen a book somewhere on that too, but I didn't give it a great deal of thought. Maybe in the future I'll check that out, but I have enough on my plate right now than to get into that too. One change at a time.

And another book I want to check out is Fear of Writing. This writer seems quite accessible to readers. She also holds monthly 10K days. Her next two will be the 14th and 23rd. I will definitely be signing up for both of those. I am not going to turn down a shot at 20k words in just two days. I want to get as much writing done as possible in the least amount of time possible. I know I don't have to work that hard, but I have gone so long not asking very much of myself that I want to change that.
( Thoughts on teachers and teaching )

I will start the Artist's Way tomorrow. I'm going to figure out my word count at the end of the week. I'd like to have about 7,000 words. I'm not going to worry about word count, though. I'm just going to write.

I think I may do a photograph a day, too. For today's photograph then, here is the aftermath of the 2010 Rose Parade:

For the last couple of years, I have tried--sometimes more than other times-to read 100 books in a year. This year, I am more serious about it than I have been in a while. It's a valuable goal, I think. Without being in school, reading is the prime way I'm getting further education. I'm drawn to books that are written by writers about their craft and self help books, particularly ones that deal with unblocking and creative things. I really wish that bookstores had creative sections within self help sections. It would make my searching a whole lot easier. I want to be a mentor who helps to unblock others, or help people find their passion. I like helping people see aspects of themselves that they didn't even realize were there. Reading other people's approaches to this is going to be very helpful.

While my list is numbered, it is not the order I will be reading the books in. I wanted a numbered list so I could add more as I get them. I have a lot of other books that I haven't added, but I think for now the remaining 35 I will wait on. I am bound to buy more books throughout the year. It's kind of impulsive for me. I have an addiction to books and information. Even if I don't get to the book immediately, I am glad that it is still there. But I am going to give serious effort to reading what I have. I have so much love for the Amazon Marketplace. I am a fan of used books. I think I found a liking for them in college. Used always means cheaper. There's also that chance that your books will be marked, too. The history of individual books can be interesting. I also really like using Powells. I also recently picked up some books from Overstock.com. I'm not sure what compelled me to check them, but they had a good selection of what I was looking for too. Their prices also beat Amazon's. Another cool thing about Overstock: they take Paypal. That's always a great thing in my book.

This is just the start of my list. I'll be editing it with links and to be alphabetical later. All I did right now was gather up my books and start writing down titles and authors.

( Reading List for 2010 )

A few weeks ago, I picked up Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. It's a world-renowned program that Cameron devised from her years of teaching. She helps people who want to write and to be creative to unblock. I've read her introduction and I could relate with some of it. I have felt broken as a writer for some time, that I can't access my words. So in 2010, I'm beginning a regimen to get myself in optimum shape. I'm going to be completing Cameron's twelve-week program, write from The Daily Writer, and read books that will help my writing life and my mental and spiritual outlook. The first book I am going to be finishing is Cameron's other book The Writing Diet. After that, I'll work on finishing A New Earth and start on others, including Tolle's The Power of Now, Goldberg's Thunder and Lightning, and Linn's Soul Coaching. I am compiling a list of 100 books that I will be reading in 2010. To further encourage my writing, I'm taking part in getyourwordsout and completing 250k words.

Is there anybody out there who is making similar plans for 2010? I would love to have some working partners in this. :D