#inktober Day 2: Divided. I like the feel of opposing curves and edges. 😊 #inktober2017 #zentangle

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#inktober Day 1: Swift. The Tangle on the wings is Anee. #inktober2017 #zentangle

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We cute. Congrats to @sarafildes on her wedding day!!

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Lunch today! Chips, ham and cheese sandwich, mozzarella bites, and a few cookies. 😊

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Finally finished this blanket! Vintage yarn and a pattern started by someone else. But it's done!! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it...

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Fresh blueberries are my life. Picked by me at a family farm in Michigan. And oh, so good. 😀😊

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Ready for another good day! 😊😀

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#WriteAStoryChallenge - March Day 1!

Unfortunately, I fell off the horse in February. I started a new job and kind of fell out of writing as a whole, including the Write a Story Challenge. I was pretty excited about that one - maybe I'll have to go back and do those prompts again anyway?

But despite all that, I want to try to get back into this fun challenge in March. Starting with these words:

As per usual, I have no idea where this is going. I'm sure it'll be great! Haha

What are your goals this month? Anything good? Let me know down below.

Made myself a bagel sandwich for breakfast. Hoping that today is a better day. 😊

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Having adorable mini cupcakes at the Night at the Races!! #tallmadgerelayforlife

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I wanted to share this #Zentangle that I finished the other day. Aura knot + Paradox + Dance Diva. I love the look!

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#WriteAStoryChallenge - February Day 1!

It occurred to me that all my post titles would be nearly impossible to keep track of if I didn't put the month!! That's handled now, though. Here's my bit for the day!

Obviously, I've decided to start another story, and this time with a new character. I suppose it would be best if I could find a reference image for my dear Daniel, but we'll see. Perhaps, perhaps not.

Here's this month's blog post on April's site!

I've updated my Word Count page - I finished writing my short story for January, and I'll do some editing on it before I call it done. I'm excited to create a portfolio of characters that I can pull into novels or stories as I continue writing these challenges. 

I'm trying to use Instagram as a platform now, to write out my story and all of that. I think it'll look much better this way. Not sure if I'll keep using the InstaQuotes app (I don't really intend to pay for it, and if I make them on my computer I can make them look similar at the least), but it'll do for today!

Let me know what you think about the images! What do you use when you want to put words on your Instagram?

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 31!

I can't believe it's the end already! Here's my final sentences, be as they may:

Wow. It's been a whole month since I started writing this story. I've been itching to fill it out and edit it, and now I can! It doesn't have a good conclusion yet - I lost track of the days and was totally unprepared for the final day! I'm not sure whether I'll write again next month, or take a month off to edit this one. I loved writing it, and I suppose it doesn't take very long to write something up each day. 

Perhaps I'll try the February challenge! I like the challenge of fitting in the words in creative ways, though sometimes they didn't quite seem to fit.

Until tomorrow, and next month, dear readers!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 25!

On the Bright side, I've stayed pretty consistent with the writing on this one. It's becoming more interesting by the day. Here's today's sentences:

I get the feeling that I'll have some editing to do on this one when the month is up, but I'm excited about the work that I've been doing on it. Each day is a new adventure, and I'm learning lots of new words. It's really exciting for me to do this, and I plan to keep up with it - so long as April keeps posting the monthly prompts. And even if she doesn't, I could use previous years, since I haven't done them before. 

How do you feel about challenges like this? Are they worth it? Do they accomplish their goal - to keep us writing effectively?

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 17!

Here's today's little bit of writing!!

This one was kind of tough. The word was "X-Ray", and honestly I had no idea how it was going to fit in. So I just let it happen. The toughest part was getting it in 3 sentences.

Once this is written, I'll be excited to go back through and kind of fluff up passages like this. I wanted it to be a few sentences, but I could only have three. Then again, I've always been a fan of using run-on sentences with little to no punctuation to indicate frantic speaking without having to say "he was frantic" or the like.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

I created a page for word counts. I'm going to get graphics for the progress/stage bars instead of words. I might regret saying that later, but I am going to try!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 16!

This was the only way I could think of to include the word!

I've been keeping up with the challenge pretty well. What I haven't been keeping up with is the blog posts about it. Instead of posting a few every day to catch up, I decided to leave you with a piece of the story missing and continue from today.

As of now, Word Count Wednesday probably isn't going to happen. I may post periodic updates, but I'm not sure they'll be their own blog post. Perhaps I'll leave it on a separate page. We'll see.

I've felt off lately, but writing is keeping me sane. So I'll do it until I can't do it anymore.

Thanks for reading.

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 10!

Good evening, everyone! It feels good to be keeping to the routine of things.

I only wrote two sentences today, but it felt like the right place to stop. I haven't really been looking ahead at the prompts, so I can't be sure adding that one more sentence wouldn't ruin everything.

Of course, the true mark of a writer on the fly is being able to run with sentences that seem to "ruin everything" and turn it around into something perfect.

I'm working on the editing stage of The Ringmaster's Dilemma. I have a lot - and I do mean A LOT - of work to do. I started a spelling & grammar check in Word last night, and didn't even finish it. But I guess that's pretty normal when you have over 80,000 words and you wrote them all off the cuff.

Do you have any editing tips? Let me know below.

Fortune Cookie Musings

I appreciate the rhyme and rhythm of this fortune. You see, the rhyme gives it a kind of fun feeling, whereas the rhythm gives it memorability. But that's just words on paper. Let's talk more about the meaning of the words.

Obviously, a garden full of weeds is not desirable. We weed our gardens to remove the invasive plants, and usually they aren't as pretty or as nice as the plants that they could potentially choke out.

So a person who speaks of greatness, but does not act out that same greatness is like a garden full of weeds, not anything much to look at and not worth much anything, either.

It's easy to look at a problem and talk about how to fix it, what steps need to be taken, and how much time or money it might cost to do those things. But it is another thing entirely to raise the money, to make the time, to go out and do and fix and learn. And sometimes, you learn something new and exciting on the way. 

It takes a special kind of person to rise above and do things. Most days, I am not one of those people. But I would like to think that there are days when we've all weeded our lives a bit and flowers can start to grow again.

Lucky Numbers: 12, 19, 38, 10, 25

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 9!

Today's word was "determine". Very versatile!

It's becoming easier to fill in the story, now that it seems to have a direction. Almost. I'm still excited to see where this little story goes. I hope it's wonderful and the best story ever. But something makes me doubt that.

And the success of this story will help me determine whether I want to do February's Write A Story Challenge. Perhaps if I write 12 stories, I could edit them and put them together in a book?

But that's a long way away. In the present, I think I'm going to start something along the lines of Word Count Wednesdays. Just to keep myself liable to post and to keep my word counts updated.

It will be the word count of all current projects, and perhaps a chart to watch them grow. Or shrink, as I'm sure my NaNoWriMo project will be doing in the next month or so as I edit.

Do you have any word count goals that you're getting close to? Let me know in the comments below!

#WriteAStoryChallenge Day 7 & 8~!

Weekends are always so busy for me! This weekend more so than usual, but that's okay! Today is going to be another two-for-one. Hopefully not the first in a habit!

Day 7: Inhale

Day 8: Fester

These words sure don't seem to lend themselves to a fun and happy story, do they? We shall see how this goes.

I continued that other small project, but I don't know whether I'll keep working on it. If I do, I'll post periodic updates here.

I finally finished the initial writing for my NaNoWriMo project. Its working title is still the same. I haven't moved all the words into Scrivner yet, so I don't have a final count yet, but, again, I'll be sure to keep everyone updated when I do!

What are you working on right now? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 6!

Today's sentences actually came pretty easily.

I was honestly surprised to find myself easily writing these words. Day 5 was such an issue, and Day 6 was a breeze! I suppose that's how many challenges go, especially writing challenges.

I'm excited to see what's in the kitchen. I have no idea. But I'm sure it'll be great!

What do you think Katelyn will find? Let me know below!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 5!

I wrote this out yesterday and then had quite the busy schedule, so didn't post it. Here is it, though.

Again, and I'll probably say nearly constantly throughout this process, it's so difficult to write only a few sentences. But I did it, and have added a level of intrigue to the process.

If your curious, I have as little an idea as to where this is going as you do. But! I'm excited for it.

Yesterday, I started a battle on 4TheWords that was 1100 words long, when I intended to really only do 200 or 500. So I started a new short story. It was flow-of-consciousness, so I'm not really sure where THAT'S going, either.

Do you have any projects you're working on? Let me know by commenting below!

#WriteAStoryChallenge ~ Day4!

Today's was a bit more of a challenge.

When I started this, I though it would be really fun. But now I'm just... panicking a little. It's so hard to write just a few sentences and incorporate the new daily word.

Any readers out there also participating? Be sure to share your stories with me! I'd love to read them.

Today, I worked for the first day of 2017, so I didn't get a whole lot of writing done. I am rounding toward the final scene of my NaNoWriMo novel, and I'm so excited to move from this step to the editing process. I'm really just excited to be this far in the novel writing process.

#WriteAStory Challenge ~ Day 3!

Another day of writing done - Day 3 "Growl"

The hardest part of this challenge is only writing 1-3 sentences!! I find myself wanting to dive deep into this story, to just write it. There's something special about restraining oneself, however.

I think this is a wonderful challenge still, and I'm excited to keep going, and to discover more of this story each day.



Current Projects:

• NaNoWriMo: The Ringmaster's Dilemma (writing/editing)
• #WriteAStoryChallenge (writing)
• Character page for Mirage (research)
• I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting!

I'm always looking for critique and always looking to improve. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know in the comments below!

Thank you as always,

#WriteAStory -- January 2017 (Day 1 & 2)

I stumbled upon this challenge while on 4thewords. I had never heard of it before, so I did some google sleuthing and found their website!! Here's the blog for this month.

I'll be posting the final result of each day in a new post, so keep a lookout for it. Since I didn't find this until today - January 2nd - I will go ahead and write the first 6 sentences, using the first two prompts. One at a time, of course.

The trouble is what to write ABOUT. Perhaps it'll be a mystery until things develop?

I think I'll have a female main character. Let's see. Katelyn "Kate" Walters. And we'll go from there.



Day 1:

The sun was low in the sky as Katelyn Walters made her way into her apartment complex. her whole body ached, but she was glad to be home. Once inside her apartment, she changed from her work uniform and into more comfortable clothes - a pair of shorts and a tank top.


Day 2:

Her job was simple - making pizzas. But she was still sore, and still hated every moment of every shift. She made herself a meal of a salad topped with heirloom tomatoes and a grilled chicken breast, and sat at the table to read the newspaper and eat.



There's day 1 and 2. I'm not sure where this is going to go, but who knows!! I'll keep my 4thewords draft updated, but I'll be leaving it as a private draft. I'm so excited to see the end result of this!!

Sincerely,