I'll keep the Memorial Day comments short: Memorial Day was enacted by Congress originally as 'Decoration Day' to commemorate U.S. service members who died during the Civil War. Over the years it was expanded to include later wars and conflicts. Traditionally, the remembrance is tied to 30 May, but in later decades the observance was shifted to facilitate a Federal holiday and expanded weekend. Traditionalist insist on adhering to the thirtieth of May, while I'm certain there's a good chunk of us who appreciate a couple of days off at the end of the month.
Enough eulogizing.
May was rough on the Deep Strike Battalion. We lost a Soldier and made our way through a field exercise, albeit the latter more by sheer force and willpower than style and finesse. I, for one, am glad to put May in the rear view mirror.
In the three weeks I separated myself from my writing, a new idea struck. Within a couple of weeks, a plot outline appeared. As of yesterday, the first couple chapters stretched across my Macbook.
Already knee-deep in two other projects, a WIP and a rewrite, the last thing I needed was a third novel. But there it is. I've decided to keep fleshing it out as long as the ideas keep coming. Like my second project, it's markedly different than its predecessor. This particular inspiration is another UFYA, but with a third-person narrative and multiple POVs.
I'm comfortable sticking with the first-person narrative, but at this point in my development, I refuse to shoehorn myself into any particular style or format.
By: Twitter Buttons
Last: I discovered Twitter (much to the chagrin of several of my fellow OWG members). After battling a dizzying array or malfunctioning widgets and a stubborn government firewall, what you see in the column on the right is my new Twitter feed, appropriately named 'Bulletwisdom.'
Unfortunately, all variations of my name were already taken.
Aspiring authors and fellow bloggers take note: Within a couple of hours, the traffic to this site jumped. This lends to the lessons that if you plan to utilize an online marketing strategy, including blogs and social networking, you need a holistic approach that includes all of the above. Links are important. You might have an great blog and a thousand followers, but if the two somehow don't meet in the middle, it counts as a missed opportunity.
That's it. Nothing profound. Remember, it's Memorial Day. While you're with your family and friends, take a moment to commemorate the service members who fell while defending our country.
8 comments:
Best of luck with the new idea. It is possible to work on more than one thing at once. Though, I've never been able to work on three things at once:) I'm still considering whether to Tweet, or not to Tweet.
I hope Americans take time for some remembering on the weekend, before they take to the highways.
(Our first long-weekend of the summer was last week and there won't be another one until July.)
I think you're taking your life in your hands in suggesting your wife needs to find something "productive" to do. As if she's not productive ALL THE EFFING TIME! Men.
And good luck with the new story idea!
"This particular inspiration is another UFYA, but with a third-person narrative and multiple POVs.
I'm comfortable sticking with the first-person narrative, but at this point in my development, I refuse to shoehorn myself into any particular style or format."
Yay for not shoehorning yourself. I get annoyed each time I see someone declare that they're a 'first person writer.' Really? You're, like, allergic to all other pronouns? Is there a pill for that? What if it spreads beyond point of view and your narrators can never use words like "he" or "you"?
Did I mention that bugs me? I'm going to back away from the keyboard before I babble more.
First, our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the men and women who have fallen in service to this country.
Second, good luck with the new project. I'm still sad about your WIP because I liked where that was going, but sometimes a story takes over and you have to do what you have to do.
Third, Twitter has been huge for me. My blog is only in it's 8th week and (not counting my own replies) I averaged 7.6 comments in the first 6 weeks - mostly family, friends, and OWG members. After advertising my flash fiction on Twitter two weeks ago, my comments jumped to 14 and last week I had 21. It's important that we take advantage of every online resource available to us. You never know who is watching.
Ah, 3rd person UFYA with multiple narrators. One of my favourites!
And I've been planning to join Twitter for a while. Just haven't got there yet. Though I know my name (and all combos) are taken, but I'm planning to add a "1". . . maybe.
Word Verification "mings": mini-wings.
Sounds like the ideas are flowing well for you, congrats...my biggest fear is that the ideas will stop flowing for me!
I love it when a story pops into my head and keeps flowing through an outline and into the writing...I hope it keeps up for you!
Best of luck with the SNI (Shiny New Idea). I love SNIs.
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