Story Time

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

Wait . . .. what . . . it’s Friday?   Next thing you’ll tell me is that the kids have all gone back to school and football season is in full swing.

*checks calendar*

Huh, will you look at that.  Okay then, hold on a second while I go out and take the patriotic decorations off the porch and haul out the autumn wreath and pumpkins.

Great, now that that’s taken care of, it’s time to focus on all those unfinished things on the schedule to accomplish this year; specifically, the thousands of words, still needed on the current manuscript.  Far fewer words would be needed if I hadn’t spent so much time recently reading my way through my TBR list, exacerbated by just how easy it is to check out an eBook from the local library.

Today I’m determined to put down the book and make a serious attempt . . . oh look, squirrel! . . . just kidding.

Playing with the writing prompts on the last few Fridays has been such fun, not to mention reading the creative results that others have posted, that I think I’ll start my writing session with today’s story prompt.  Who knows, it may trigger an idea for my own story.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

Happy Friday all!  We appear to have reached the time of the year that confirms living on the west coast of the US, with the potential for earthquakes, has definite benefits over living on the east coast, with the potential for hurricanes.  News coverage here for the past few days has been all about Hurricane Florence and its path of potential destruction.  Although the firefighters on the west coast – which seems to have been on fire for ages – would no doubt appreciate a drenching of water, I’m glad Florence is far, far away from here.  Hopefully all of those in the path of the storm remain safe and Florence won’t have a lot of troublesome siblings following in her wake throughout the season.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . I mean back at the Day Job, it’s been a busy, busy week, as seems to be the norm lately, capped off with an early morning wake-up call at 3:45am to make a flight for a quick one-day meeting out of state.  Ugh!  Not at all my traditional wake-up time.

Fortunately, there is now a nice relaxing weekend on the horizon and I plan to make the best of it.  With September already halfway gone (how did that happen!), there will definitely be some writing involved, since I have goals to be met.  To get my mind away from current disasters and into a happy writing state, I think I’ll start by giving today’s writing prompt and random words a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

I was cleaning out my email inbox earlier today and saw a notice about the Mid-Michigan RWA Best Banter Contest.  The contest, which closes in a few days (September 10th), is for published and unpublished authors.   The requirements are simple:  enter a scene (up to 1,500) words, along with an optional non-judged lead-in for the scene (up to 250 words), with your best banter.

“Do you have a scene with witty, fun dialogue between your characters?  Show off your best story banter . . . enter the Best Banter Contest.”

The contest sounds like fun and I have just the scene in my mystery manuscript that I think will fit the bill.  Now to get it spruced up and submitted before I forget.   Again!

Meanwhile, this has been a short work-week but there is still one more day (or less, depending when you read this) to go.  I have lots of things on my ToDo list, including a few walks in the park with the four-legged friend who is currently visiting.  After the work is done and we’re back from our walks . . .I’ll probably stare into space for a while . . .but once that’s done, it will be time to pull out the old pen and paper and get some words on the page.  I think I’ll start by giving today’s writing prompt and random words a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

There are currently six raccoons on my front porch – it looks like a mom and her kids – so fluffy!  That explains all of the thumping I heard in the backyard a few minutes ago.  I’m afraid they are destined to be disappointed, however, if they are looking for something to eat.  I’m pretty sure the skunk and the opossums cleared everything out when they stopped by a while ago. Meanwhile, my cat is sitting here on the other side of the screen door looking baffled.

Once the “Wild Animal Kingdom” portion of my day comes to a close, I’ll be curling up with a book and relaxing for a bit.  After that, it’s on to the enjoyment of a four-day weekend.   I’ll be kicking it off by sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely breakfast.  Once I’ve gotten that taken care of, I’ll be flexing my creativity-muscles by playing with today’s writing prompt and random words.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

According to the sign at the local Starbucks today, Pumpkin Spice Lattes – the quintessential sign of fall – will be arriving in 5 days.

Really?

If you’re a fan of Pumpkin Spice Lattes perhaps you’ve been anxiously awaiting the announcement, but I’m not and am in no hurry for the seasons to change any more quickly than they already do.   It feels like this year has flown by, leaving my well-laid plans for all the things I was going to accomplish by the wayside.  I need all the time I can get to get back on track; no matter how tempting curling up with a festive warm beverage and a good book sounds.

The only book I should be curling up with, based on those aforementioned missed deadlines, is the manuscript I was supposed to have finished revising several weeks ago.  (I blame Georgette Heyer for the delay!)

After I get home from work today, but before I dig into those revisions, I think I’ll do a little creativity-warm-up using the writing prompt and random words below.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

Life has been full of ups and downs lately, not to mention fires, ants, and a rapidly disintegrating fence.  Naturally I’ve been comfort reading to balance things out.  Sure, I’ve been calling it research, but that’s only true in the slightest sense.

I’ve been reading my way through Georgette Heyer’s Georgian/Regency romances (I finished off her mysteries several months ago) both for enjoyment and to get a better feel for her wording, speech patterns, and conversational styles that do such a wonderful job evoking the period her stories are set in.

Since I’m in the process of revising my own Regency story, which feels a lot like a contemporary dressed up as a historical, I’m hoping all the reading I’ve been doing will be of help as I work to make the story sound more historically accurate.

I’ll be doing a little more reading, once I finish with this post, but then it will be time to get some my own words on the page.  I think I’ll get things started by trying my hand at writing something that sounds historically accurate – possibly incorporating some of today’s random words.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

I was at the store yesterday and they had a display of Halloween costumes out already. That’s just crazy. There’s still more than a month of summer left. I guess it’s lucky they didn’t have Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas trees out already too, though I’ll admit I wouldn’t have minded if they had decided it was time to bring out the pecan pies.

Yum!

This weekend I’ll be heading off to a festival where there will be delightful things like apple fritters, fresh pressed apples, and vendors selling all kinds of things that I absolutely don’t need, but may very likely still buy.

Before that, however, it’s time to make sure I still qualify as being a “writer” by actually sitting down and writing something (other than blog posts). I’ve been working on my contemporary mystery manuscript all week – I’m hoping to get a few more scenes finished on that before Monday. As a precursor to that, I think I’ll wake up my creativity with a session of writing sprints.

Care to join me? Continue reading →