Insecure Writers Support Group: Episode the 12th

IWSG

Good day to one and all and a beefy boy howdy to those who need it the most on hump day, and welcome to the skewered literary world of G.B. Miller, where something old more often than not, put out to pasture long before before it's overdue.

Things are still seriously kablooie in my world (work and non-family related headaches specifically), but the need to continue participating in the IWSG blog hop has forced me to de-cloak for the present.

Radio silence is currently the norm as it applies to my writing these days. This even includes the two writing groups that I'm currently a member of on Facebook.

I originally was going to use the alternate question of the month for the topic of choice, but because that has the potential to reopen a scab that has pretty much healed at this point, another topic of choice is needed.

Enter "radio silence".

I always thought that the phrase "radio silence" was a cool group of words to use in any given situation you can come across. Desperately trying to get a grip on the octopus that's known as your job? Apply radio silence. Annoyed as all hell with someone and knowing that to open mouth would make things 10 times worse? Apply radio silence. Wanting to avoid people due to social anxiety? Apply radio silence.

You get the basic idea.

Well, this concept is now being applied to my writing. With so much going right now with work etc., something had to be put onto the back burner, and that something was my writing. I haven't talked about my writing beyond the current stuff that people asked me about. I haven't done any writing since early December due to the aforementioned issues (which includes this nifty thing). I can actually hear my current project rapping gently on my chamber doors, but no reply is given by me to it.

Nothing but radio silence. I don't dwell on my writing project beyond looking at the very old computer that it's currently being writing on and making sure that I still remember the plot lines and where I want to go with it. Once I remember, I turn my attention to other things.

When life is too much noisy shiny crap, sometimes you just have to go radio silent in order to get a grip on things again. Even if it means not attacking the keyboard in order to create the five basic grammar concepts of language and string sentences and paragraphs together for an extended of time. Personally, I'm not happy doing this, but until I can get that square peg back into that square hole again, my writing will be on the back burner, patiently waiting for me to get that square peg back into that square hole.

{c} 2020 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 48th: Hiatus

Boy howdy and howdy to the boy who takes no prisoner's and welcome to the skewered literary world of G.B Miller, where it's been a little busy on the homestead this month.

As I mentioned at the outset of my previous post, things in my personal life have taken a turn for for the normal, in that the twin themes of annoyance and motivation (or complete lack thereof)  have now come into play,

Annoyance: things at work are starting to blow up big time. Not so much due to the day-to-day trivialities that encompass my work wee, but more due to the state/office politics of the day.

As Sherlock Holmes has often stated, "The game's afoot!" (I'm probably misquoting here), so the working word of the month is "marginalization", and although I would love to elaborate on this, the blowback received so far with me ranting about this on other socialized media says I should be a bit more stealthier about it, so....I shall for the time being.

Motivation: as you can probably tell, with the almost two week gap between posts, the motivation to blog isn't quite there. I've been concentrating on doing the writing thing during my down time these days, and between that, the upcoming holiday and getting child situated for the 2nd half of the 1st semester of college, the call to blog hasn't been there.

To be perfectly frank, I'm not sure if it'll come back with any kind gusto. After about 10 1/2 years doing this blogging thing, I don't think that there's anything else left to blog about. But, I'm hoping that this blogging break will do the trick and motivate me just enough to get into the blogging ritual again, even it it's on a bi-weekly basis.

So my friends, I wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope to see you again in 2020.

{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 11th: IWSG

IWSG

Welcome to that time of the month, where the entire writing community, such as it is, comes together to commiserate in a raucous gabfest called the IWSG blog hop.

This particular post for me, kicks of an upcoming month of work-related nonsense that will a} culminate in a brand new roll-out of a seriously expensive payroll system in mid January 2020, and b} require a major reassessment of how I use my limited down time.

With that being said, let's get on with the post, which for a change of pace, will actually use an original writing related prompt instead of the killer optional questions presented in the monthly newsletter.

Some time in early November, I finally got my act together with my writing and began work on one of my partial slushies. I dutifully applied the editing notes and carefully made the point of view jive with the main narrative thrust of the story. Once I got that done, I actually got some original writing down.

Score!

One of the tangible results of jump-starting my writing is that now I'm giving serious thought on where I need to go with this story. I know exactly how I want to end it (this has been the one constant for the past 5 1/2 years with this story), so what I need to do in order to get there from here is starting to be the constant reminder/tickler when I write.

For those of you who haven't probably figured it out, 98% of the time, I'm a pantser when it comes to writing. I only plot stuff out 2% of the time, and that's only when I need a basic bullet point outline to get me back on track in a story. I normally print everything out when I write and stick it inside a three ring binder, and 98% of the time it works quite well as a breathable outline. But there are times when I need a little bit of help to get back on track.

I'll probably write out another bullet point outline sometime in the next month, so at the very least, I'll have a basic idea on what I have for characters (3-4 MC's and very peripherals), overall plot and where that particular plot is heading in a particular chapter.

So consider this to be a three cheers and a Tigger for me, in that I managed to find a tiny little writing groove to use as an oasis from the total chaos that is presently the real world.

{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 47th: Challenges

Howdy ho-ho-ho-ho! Merry Thanksgiving to one and all, and welcome to another episode of Veterinarian Hospital, where the quacks have gone to the dogs...ummm...Welcome to It's A Man's Life in the Blogland...ummm....ummm....Welcome to the skewered literary world of G.B. Miller, where sometimes he really wonders why.

Today's post is about challenges, specifically, those that you inflict on yourself in the course of writing journey. And how you meet and conquer them.

Using me as an example, I like challenging myself when it comes to writing. Small, medium or large, I have no problem tackling most of my self-inflicted challenges (although the large ones are currently on the back burner, so to speak).

For example, I write adult fiction of the saucy kind. I like it and it fits my writing persona like a glove. Most other types do not, simply because trying to censor myself to fit other genres (i.e. YA) I find particular loathsome. But every so often, I would find myself twiddling with the idea of writing something super clean. A few years ago, I decided to act on that particular idea, and about a month later, I had a very nice clean short story that became the first story that I had traditionally published.

Another way that I like challenging myself is to write in non-traditional (for me) point of views/narratives. I have been told by a few editors that my current trilogy has a good narrative voice that is reminiscent of Douglas Adams, so that's something I can use as inspiration when I return to it.

Non-traditional for me is to not write in a 3rd person point of view, which is what most books are written in these days. I've increasingly finding myself wanting to write my stories in the first person, which is second most challenging way to write a story (first is writing in the 2nd person, which I have attempted. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy). So fare I've had moderate success in doing so (self-pubbed one book that was done in a mixture of 1st and 3rd), but this one (working title Time To Go) will be my very first written entirely in the 1st person point of view.

So far, editing has been a beast. I've had to edit every single page of the story so that everything is in 1st person. I've had extensive passages where I had a jumping of two and from of 1st and 3rd person. Two weeks of applying my editing notes got me up-to-speed, as well as 5 less pages to worry about.

I'm still taking notes as I go along, mostly to reconcile a few inconsistent plot points, but realistically it's gonna be a heavy slog to get this done. I originally started/left off in it back in 2014, so it's been a real adventure on trying to remember the plot points. On the plus side, I actually do know how I want to end it, and what the ending will be. The real adventure will be getting there w/o getting disgusted again.

Adventures in writing: when you really want to shake things up to the point of going so far against the grain that you get splinters just from looking at it.

{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved