On Writing (and possibly some other stuff)

I'm not talking about Stephen King's writing book, though it is a good one. I just want to talk about my own writing...cause it's my blog and I can do that.

(Note: This is where I would begin a sentence with the word "anyway", but I am trying not to use that particular crutch any more.)

This past weekend, I attended a writing conference, at the encouragement of my grandmother and her friend. I am so glad I went! I have never gone to any writing-related events because I always felt that because I am not published, or even close to finishing a first draft of anything, I wasn't good enough. But I was bluntly honest with everyone I met about the fact that I haven't written anything for several years, and--surprise!--no one judged me or excluded me! Everyone was willing to talk to me and gush over Nicholas. And I even won a door prize for the first time I can remember.

The speakers at the conference were Kathleen Gibson, author of West Nile Diary, and Bonnie Grove, author of Talking to the Dead. I needed to hear what they spoke about, particularly about writing as a Christian.

I also took two fiction workshops led by Bonnie Grove. In the first, I learned something that none of my college writing/editing/critical reading courses have been able to teach me. I have always worried that my characters are shallow, and now I think I understand how to fix it. It's all about "subtext." the afternoon workshop was about word choice, and while I was already familiar with the concepts, I now find myself hesitating every time I start to type an adverb. It was after this class that I decided to eliminate the word-crutch "anyway" from my spoken and written vocabulary. I realised that I use the word as a lazy substitute for transitions and original thought.

I haven't actually written much since I decided to try it again, but I am slowly getting my brain used to thinking creatively again. During the conference, I jotted down the solutions to some plotting problems in my current work-in-progress that have been stumping me for the past 5 years. Before I continue on that, I absolutely need to come up with an outline so that doesn't happen again. I can't write a story if I don't know where it is going!

***

In family news, Nicholas is growing like a weed. He's nearly 12 pounds now, and he even slept 6 straight hours on Friday night! I suspect Juliana is having a growth spurt too. She has been enormously clumsy for the past week or so. Yesterday she fell out of her booster seat onto the floor. Today alone, she:

1. tripped while running, and fell flat on her tummy
2. tripped while walking, and fell into a puddle
3. bumped her head by standing up under a table
4. ran full-speed into a wall (forgot to stop turning, I think), ending up with two slightly black eyes and a green bruise across the bridge of her nose.

Now, I am rather clumsy myself, but Juli's antics today were rather excessive! Come to think of it, maybe I should get her eyesight checked, just in case. Boy, I hope she doesn't need glasses! KD and I both want to get laser eye surgery.

PS: Why does blogger remove my extra lines between paragraphs? They don't think I'm smart enough to know how I want my post to look?

PPS: OK, now my formatting is totally messed up! I give up! I do apologise for the mess! Next post I'll try to figure out what the problem is. But now it's time for bed.