(Disclaimer: Slowly improv is going to join writing in becoming a big part of my life. The whole point of me having a journal is to chronicle my life, so that is going to be part of this chronicle. Besides, if I don't get this all down I am going to explode)

Saturday was day two. I didn't think I was going to make it. I had to put the car in the shop that morning. I realized at the last moment that the garage was close to class, and if I rode in with the tow truck guy I could walk to class. (Yes, I was more distraught about missing class than I was about the car. I will have time to freak out about that tomorrow)

At this class we focused on listening, and doing it well. Two people would go up and do a scene and then switch places to see if they could remember the other person's lines. Or two other people would have to go up and do the same scene to see how much they remembered. I had trouble with a bit of it, but still remembered a few lines.
My favorite part of class by far was the object work we did. This was great! We got in a line and the first person had to enter the room, and pick up an object and do something with it. The next person had to come in, find the first person's object, and then find another one, and so on. All in silence. It was awesome fun! It ended with a secret passage, and the place on fire.

We ended with running scenes, two people starting with a suggestion and then in pairs taking something from the scene before and using it. I am starting to get more comfortable with the people in my class, and I am starting to get more comfortable with jumping out onto the stage and starting a scene. Apparently I did pretty good at that. I got to hold up a dog named Snuggles at gun point, and juggle in a circus.

The improv bug is snacking on my brain and I think the infection has set in.

My writing has been slightly off, sporadic, but still exsisting. Limping along on some sprained and broken bones. That much makes me happy, at least it hasn't stopped all together right?

I found a new writing toy that has become very addictive to play with. Did you know that cellular storytelling is big in Japan? People are writing books on their cellphones! Published books even. Talk about advancement.

The folks at Quill Pill have realized just how cool this concept is. When you sign up, you can start a book, and write it. 140 characters at a time. Just think of it as Twitter with substance. There has been some really good stuff floating around on the site, I already have five or six different projects I am reading. This is a new place, so somethings might be wonky here and there, but they are very nice folks, and appreciate people letting them know when they find a kink in the works. I love the way you can bookmark what you are reading, subscribe to feeds, and even get emails when it is updated.

(and yes I have something started there )


If any of my writer friends here would like to try it out, I have TWO invites left. Speak up!

I decided that I shouldn't totally rely on other people to get me and keep me motivated with my writing. (that doesn't mean I am allowing anyone to stop. *ahem*) So I am going to try something, and see how it works out. I am going back to the school days, and the gold star method. Today at work I printed out some blank calendar pages, and put them in a blue folder. There is plenty of space in the day square to write down my word count. If my word count for the day goes over my goal (which is currently 1000) I get a sticker. I am going to buy some fun stickers tomorrow. And if I get two straight weeks with stickers on everyday, then I will reward myself somehow. I thought it wouldn't be a bad thing to be able to look back at my progress either, that might help with the motivation.

And today is for the record a sticker day. I broke 1000, and the day is not yet over.

I got this weird feeling that I should back up everything that I have been writing, or have written recently. So I made a folder, and put everything on Harkness (one of my 2gb flash drives). And once my mom mails me the two drives I left at the house, I will be putting copies on there as well.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, a really cool community called Food and Drink in Fiction made the LJ spotlight. What a great resource!

When I started working on The Ballad of Enid Cooper, I got the urge to get to know my characters better. This is something I really should have done from the start, maybe before I even started writing the story. It is something that people talk about doing all the time, as a good thing to do, as an important tool in your writing. I am ashamed to admit this is the first time I have tried this technique. I asked my friend for some help finding a character questionare. I was given a few choices, and finally decided on this one
Without a doubt, this was the best thing I could have ever done.

I decided to start with Enid first, since she was fresh in mind, and there were little pieces of her I wanted to get to. This was the perfect way to do it, and the best part about this exercise is, as I was filling in the questions, I got some more things written. The answers were inspiring me to write more of her story. So now I am going to do it with all of my characters.

I am now to the point in my life where I am comfortable saying I am a writer. A lot of things have changed in this aspect of my life. Good, great and bad. The wall of self doubt I have been banging my head against is starting to crumble. The words are not coming at the volume I want them to, but the fact they are coming at all is a blessing. I have two major projects going right now, and a few ideas and muses brewing around in the background.

So what is going in here? Well, there is a lot on my mind about my writing. How I feel when it is going well, how I feel when it is not going so well. I might want to share bits and pieces of what I am working on. (disclaimer: all bits and pieces shared are totally off the brain rough drafts) There might be some resources, articles or other things I want to talk about.

Basically if it is about writing, I am putting it here. I think it will be good for my overall feelings/thoughts on the whole process to get my ideas down. Besides, somethings are good to share.