OMG! (and, Why You Should De-Lurk)

Interrupting my series on vision to say: OMG I WON A BLOG GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

Ok maybe you think it's not a big deal. But it's NATALIE WHIPPLE'S contest! :D And this is the first time I've ever won a blog contest in my life, so I'm super excited because I never thought I would win one. YAY!

I could not believe my eyes when I saw my name in that post. I stared at it for a long time to make sure it said what I thought it said. And then I scrolled through all 300+ comments on the contest post to make sure there wasn't any one else with the same name. And then I stared at the post some more, while thinking lots of calm and sensible thoughts such as "OMG OMG OMG" and "is this really happening? to me??" and "OMG I get to email Natalie!"

Seriously, the part I was most excited about was emailing Natalie. I know I probably could have emailed her at any time in the past two years I've been reading her blog to let her know how much she inspires me, but I've only started commenting on blogs recently... and I'm still a bit nervous when it comes to talking to someone as popular and amazing as she is. It just feels so different being invited to email her with a legit reason, you know?

So I wrote her an email. And honestly the first half of it was pure fangirling about how much I admire her. (I wonder if she gets that a lot?) 

And you know what awesome thing happened after that? SHE WROTE BACK. *squeee* :D

Ok, I know I'm starting to sound crazy because, duh, of course she'd write back. But still! I hadn't thought that far. It definitely put a huge grin on my face. And of course I wrote her back and gushed about her some more.

Which brings me to the part about de-lurking. You should seriously consider it, if you are currently a lurker. (No, I'm not just saying that to get more comments on my blog. But I certainly wouldn't mind if you want to comment! Hehe.) 

First of all, if you never de-lurk, you will never know the joy of winning a blog contest with a comment. That should be obvious. The second thing is, if you lurk for a really long time and finally start talking to awesome bloggers you've been cyber-stalking for years, you will not be able to stop yourself from behaving like a fangirl/doing something dumb because you're nervous/generally making a fool out of yourself. Because all those comments you wanted to make but never did? Yeah, no way they're going to organize themselves all nice-and-quietly so you can express them in a sane and thoughtful manner. Not after all those years of repression. No, my friend, they will burst out of the breaking dam, pour out in a waterfall, and rush happily away — to freedom! — and it will look so fun your dignity will decide to tag along, too. Whereas, if you'd been commenting all along, you wouldn't have that problem, see?

So yeah. Important things to consider, there. Of course there are also other reasons for de-lurking, like building relationships with people, supporting your favorite bloggers, getting your name out there, etc., but this post is mainly a Public Service Announcement concerning the specific hazard of excessive gushing.

Now excuse me while I go refresh my email. :D

Inky Linky Love 05.28.2011

So I'm just going to pretend that this post isn't awfully, horribly late by backdating this post. Ooh, magic! Now it looks like I posted this last week when I should have. Except I'm telling you the truth and ruining it because I don't want you to question your sanity in case you stopped by before and didn't see the post (why yes, I am the epitome of kindness and selflessness).

Anyway, I've been busy and distracted lately, which accounts for my recent MIA-ness. Oops. But I'm glad I don't feel overly guilty for taking a break. Back when I first started blogging I would beat myself up if I didn't post every weekday. I still feel a slight twinge of uneasiness for not posting as regularly as I'd like, but I figure it's better not to guilt-trip myself over it. I'm still working on the game plan post — the outline is there, but I wanted to flesh it out a bit more before posting it (soon, hopefully).

I half considered just skipping the linky post for last week but I read some awesome posts that I want to share and don't want to overwhelm you by combining two weeks' worth in the next post. (I have a hard enough time narrowing them down as it is — I read hundreds of blogs and of course they're all amazing!) So here are a few of my favorite blog posts from last week (or thereabouts):

CRAFT

• I was so excited to discover that Patricia C. Wrede blogs! Dealing with Dragons and Searching for Dragons are among my favorite books ever. I absolutely adore Cimorene and Mendanbar — they're so awesome! Her blog is wonderful as well; here's a great post on nurturing story ideas. 

PLOTTING

• Kristen Lamb uses Pixar film Finding Nemo as a case study for story structure. I love children's movies too, and she presents her points about action and conflict by using concrete examples. Very helpful, and I'll be sure to keep the lessons in mind during outlining and drafting.

SETTING

• The ever brilliant Juliette Wade blogged about the significance of architecture in setting and putting your worldbuilding onto the page. I love hearing about the thoughtful details she works into her own WIP, and her posts always inspire tons of cool ideas.

REVISION

• Charlotte Jane Ivory at Steam&Ink wrote a hilarious post about notes she makes to herself while reading her manuscript. I seriously cannot wait to make snarky comments about my own writing. That will be motivation to finish!

WRITING LIFE

• Natalie Whipple is incredible. Between Fact and Fiction is one of the first writing blogs I subscribed to (I think it might be the first), but though I've been reading it regularly for a few years, I didn't start commenting until recently (what can I say, I'm shy!). I appreciate how open she is about her journey as a writer. One thing that always impresses me is how she can come up with one awesome idea after another and draft them so quickly. I love her post about her writing process now; it's interesting to see how it changed over the years.
• Vanessa di Gregorio at Let the Words Flow totally failed to make me think she's not cool. I can so relate to her struggles to write instead of procrastinating and am glad I'm not alone. 
• Anna Staniszewski gives 9 tips for finishing a novel, and wow, those are great tips. Since this blog is all about getting myself to finish a novel for once, I'll be doing my best to take those tips to heart.

PUBLISHING

• I'm ages away from even considering querying or publishing, but I love reading author success stories. Lori Roy guested on Jenny Bent's blog about how she landed her agent and got a book deal.

FUN VOCABULARY LESSON

• Mark Nichol at Daily Writing Tips compiled a list of 50+ animal adjectives. I don't know if you'd want to write in your WIP that your hero possesses an acciptrine fierceness or that your villain cries eusuchian tears, but imagine how fun it would be to wow your friends with your superior vocabulary the next time you describe a passerine appetite or complain about someone's testudine pace! (Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks it'd be fun? :P)

If you have any tips on how not to fall behind in blogging, please share!

Inky Linky Love 05.21.2011

Until recently, I was a die-hard lurker. There are blogs I've read for years and never commented on. But since I started blogging, I've come to appreciate the value of comments a lot more — so I'm learning to come out of my shell by leaving comments and interacting with people on Twitter more often. Turns out, it's not as scary as I thought it'd be. People are so nice! And they actually reply! :D (Yeah, that was kind of shocking. In a good way, of course.)

As I'm slowly getting more involved in the online writing community, I want to give back by highlighting a few of my favorite writing-related posts in the blogosphere each week. I was so excited I even came up with a super cheesy name for the feature, hehe. :P

I've followed some of these blogs for months or years, while I stumbled upon others just this week. I'm constantly amazed by the great stuff out there. I wish I could rave about all the posts I liked, but I made myself choose just a handful:

CRAFT

• THE INTERN is no longer interning at a publishing house but continues to share her insights on the writing and publishing process, such as her post on how to find theme by thinking about universals.
• I love Juliette Wade's posts — she applies her linguistic anthropology background to novel-writing, resulting in mind-blowing, thought-provoking, perspective-shifting essays. My favorites this week are her posts on the scope of conflicts and how to blend personal experience into your fiction.
• I'm new to Susan Dennard's blog, but her series on revision is amazing. I adore how organized she is and can't wait to try out her tips myself (great motivation to finish, eh? :P). There are six posts in the series: one | two | three | four | five | six

PLOT AND CHARACTER

• Janice Hardy's blog is an amazing resource for writers. This week she guested on Elizabeth S. Craig's blog about her approach to worldbuilding. She also blogged about plotting backwards.
• I came across two great posts on antagonists this week: The Antagonist by Bob Mayer at Genreality and Creating Antagonizing Antagonists by Sara Furlong Burr at Starving Novelist. Reading their different takes was really helpful since I tend to have a hard time with antagonists.

WRITING LIFE

• Sara also provided some great tips for beating writer's block. I don't have a lot of experience with writer's block (because I don't write nearly enough) but I'll be keeping the tips in mind for future reference.
• Kristen Lamb blogged about what Ju-Jitsu taught her about writing, and I think it's a lesson I need to learn, too.
• Justine Musk wrote an amazing post on embracing ambition and training your subconscious. I love this post — I'm learning to discover and pursue what I want, and this post addresses that powerfully.

PUBLISHING

• Mandy Hubbard provides a peek into current publishing trends in MG/YA. I'm not thinking that far ahead right now, but it's interesting to see what editors are seeking.

FUN

• Oh, Tawna Fenske's blog is just hilarious! I particularly enjoyed her post on how to scare a new housemate.

I hope you find these posts fun and helpful. Be sure to let these bloggers know if you like their posts!

And tell me, were you ever a lurker? Or did you get involved right away? What kinds of posts make you more likely to de-lurk?

I'm a Wimp (Plus I Procrastinate)

I totally meant to write something awesome for my second writing blog post ever. I had this idea for a blog post all thought out in my brain. But I kept thinking I would have time to write it later and before I know it, another week has gone by. And that post is still in my head instead of captured in actual words.

I need to get over the idea that everything I write has to be amazing. Yes, quality is important. But I'm so terrified of failing that I end up paralyzed by fear. I tell myself I do want to write, that I'm a writer, but all I do is procrastinate and not write. This is probably why I hardly have anything written fiction-wise despite the years of story-idea-collecting.

Well, that's going to change. I'm going to start with this blog, because even if no one actually reads it, it's visible, and that's enough to give me a sense of accountability. I'm going to blog a minimum of once every week, even if my blog post is crappy. Because at least I'll have written something.

Penelope Trunk wrote a great post about how to have more self-discipline, and I definitely need to remember to stop being a perfectionist all the time. I'm also counting on the snowballing effect and hope that blogging once a week will turn into twice and three times and more, and that my progress on my novel-to-be will grow as well. So that's why I'm forcing myself to write this post even though I had no idea how it would turn out.

It seems like I'm putting too much work into excusing how lame this blog post is, right? I know eventually I'll need to write blog posts that are actually interesting and informative and entertaining (darn, that last one broke my alliterative streak. Misspelling it as "intertaining" was more tempting than I'd like to admit). But for now, it's enough for me if I learn to write regularly, since I have such a hard time with it.

Here's to starting small and working toward awesomeness!

A New Beginning

Hello there! Welcome to my new blog. This is the strictly-writing-related spin-off of my personal blog, A Glimpse of Wistfulness. (Name trivia: I named this blog after my Twitter handle, which I chose because "aglimpseofwistfulness" was over the character count. You can see how I named my personal blog in the first post there.)

I've decided that, as much as I love blogging about whatever comes to mind, it's important to blog with a focus if I want my writing to reach more than just family and friends. And as I'd like to become more serious about writing, starting a writing blog sounds like a great way to keep myself accountable, chronicle my journey, document lessons learned, and (hopefully) connect with other writers.

Since I'm essentially a newbie at both writing and blogging, I still have a lot of room for growth. I'm not entirely sure about how this blog will turn out, but I'm determined to make the most of it and learn as much as I can in the process.

Can't wait to see how this blog will evolve! :)