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Personal
Personal news, my interests, background, and life.
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Uncertainty, Trust, and Steadiness: March Status
Trust, steadiness, and uncertainty have been hallmarks of my life in the past month. But, then, uncertainty is always part of life.
The wolf is always just outside the door.
Sometimes we conveniently forget in our comfortable American lives that calamity can strike at any moment. Whether a pandemic or cancer, an economic depression or a terrible car accident, bad things happen.
Good things happen, too.
Whether good or bad, I’m resting on the rock of my faith, my faith in the salvation of Jesus Christ. How about you?
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God’s got this.
With my circumstances, I’ve always had quite a few responsibilities and issues that pull me away from writing. God has resolved two of the rocks and hard places in my life, for which I’m immeasurably grateful.
With a husband who works from home, with me home writing, homeschooling, and preparing to go back to work full-time remotely, our COVID impacts so far have not been extensive. But, surprisingly, for this introvert, I’m getting cabin fever.
Writing status?
I’m actually making progress — on the novel, on writing-as-a-business, and my writing ability. I still have a long way to go on honing my writing skills, but I can recognize that I’ve “leveled up” in my writing.
I’m drafting Salvage‘s final scenes. As I write the scenes I’ve planned, more aspects of the story come to light, and more is added to my when-I-revise list.
In this section our protagonist is (mostly) out of the action, so my secondary protagonist, Emmett, is full-front in the story. It’s through him the secondary plot thread of ship dangers is revealed. As his character will not be in the next two books of the series, and his part in book #1 isn’t predominant, I need to keep him a little more shallow than Kaylah.
It’s tricky enough to handle two protagonists, but I needed both. And there are good resources out there, like this one from Jerry Jenkins about Left Behind.
Uncertainty to Certainty
I’m not branching out to writing blogs or copywriting, although I toyed with the idea for awhile. I’m focusing on my novel and on refreshing my software skills to land that full-time remote job.
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February 2020 Review and Status
So, a review of February:
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Thankfully, I experienced productive writing time in February. I’m drafting part 4 of episode 1 of Salvage — nearing the end! I’ve also “leveled up” in writing craft, gaining a better sense of story development.
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In personal news, I’m ramping up to return to software development full-time over at Code Onward. I’m hoping circumstances will allow me to pursue both creative pursuits — writing and development — in full force.
The cold winter is easing; the tulips and daffodils and surprise lilies are poking up green shoots. Can’t wait until the first blooms!
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Random Personal Photo
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Random Favorite Photo
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Random Personal Photo
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A Personal Ramble: We All Struggle
We all struggle, including me. We have seasons of difficulty, or disappointment, or of destruction. Creation can rise from the embers, or even the ashes, like a phoenix on the wind.
Continue readingDichotomy
Continue reading…When we have conquered all
— Kim Wingerei
there is no life to live
The argument won
with questions unresolved
The clarity of night
the darkness of light…
Plotting vs. Pantsing: The Tension Between Overkill with Moving Forward
Certain writers fall securely into the plotter camp, while others write off-the-cuff. I jump back and forth between camps. And, at times, it’s wearying.
With Salvage, I’m really trying to plan my scenes more than before. I’m using a free airtable account to track my scene data, but it’s possible that it’s moving from useful planning to overkill.
So, just to dive in and write new scenes seems a little like wandering in a field of corn on a dark night (I come from a long line of Iowa corn farmers, and I live in Nebraska; the simile works for me).
Yet, after a certain level of planning and scene data, it’s like wandering through a very crowded cereal aisle, trying to figure out what take off the shelf.
So, I’m spending too much time trying to get the scene data just as I want it, and too little time moving Salvage forward.
What’s the right balance?
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