tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76447967968060297692024-03-04T23:22:55.932-05:00The Wandering QuilleMaggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-62297274894810492302018-07-11T14:01:00.001-04:002018-07-11T14:01:23.894-04:00Love Letters From Robots - Published!It is my most distinct pleasure to announce that my flash piece, <a href="http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/robots-and-computers/maggie-maxwell/love-letters-from-robots">Love Letters From Robots</a> is now available to read at Daily Science Fiction!<br />
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And with this, I can finally say I am a published author.<br />
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Feels good, y'all.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-15398735563328149162018-03-27T13:39:00.004-04:002018-03-27T13:39:58.954-04:00Dear New Novelist: Push Down, Lift Up<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepqdBMM7jMNfbqnxwR8O6dI2MaFaK8YJkpco_fLsrnAfpo4lDhF8TuxhePUoNnfnhgD6BScORmRaT_ooEKvAaOJffwPQBbriLtM8uaIDTczvoL9WnPV4BH1oGwwmQcfZN3E-z2eCGpnhf/s1600/Dear+New+Novelist+Scales.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepqdBMM7jMNfbqnxwR8O6dI2MaFaK8YJkpco_fLsrnAfpo4lDhF8TuxhePUoNnfnhgD6BScORmRaT_ooEKvAaOJffwPQBbriLtM8uaIDTczvoL9WnPV4BH1oGwwmQcfZN3E-z2eCGpnhf/s400/Dear+New+Novelist+Scales.png" width="266" /></a>I had someone recently ask my thoughts on what to do about a villain. They said it's more believable and socially acceptable for the devious, calculating villain to be a white male, but more progressive to have the racial and gender identity fit the character instead of shoving them into the white male block, even if they're the one facing the fall at the end. Should they be true to their story and character, they asked me, or should they make it fit the easiest hole to fill. This is what I told them.<br />
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Dear New Novelist, it's about balancing the scales. If you're going to push down on a type of person that exists in real life, you need to raise up someone of the same type. If you've got a bad orc, you don't need a good orc to counter it. Orcs aren't real. But if you've got a black villain, you sure as hell better have a black hero on an equal level. By equal level, I mean you can't balance out your black Big Bad with the black bartender who overheard an important tip. The villain has considerably more weight to the story. It doesn't balance out equally. You need someone on the level of the hero, the #1 companion, and/or the mentor to balance out how much you're pushing down on the villain.<br />
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For example, consider the absolutely amazing Black Panther movie (minor spoilers ahead). There are only two important white characters: Ulysses Klaue and Everett Ross. Imagine, for a moment, if there was only Klaue. A whole movie, and the only white character is a villain. Not <i>THE</i> villain, but <i>A</i> villain. How would that feel? Some white people might not bat an eye, while others would wonder, "Is this a statement about my race as invaders and villains? Do the makers of this think I'm a bad guy just because of my skin?" Probably wouldn't have been, but it would FEEL like it, because that's the only representative of our race in the movie. But he wasn't. There was also Ross. Not the most important character, wasn't much of a good guy in the last movie he was in, but this is his redemption arc. He gets to be a hero. Not <i>THE</i> hero, but <i>A</i> hero. Exactly equal to the other white man. One was pushed down, one was raised up. Perfectly balanced, and it made the movie stronger for it.<br />
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Your novel is the exact same. People of many races and genders are going to be reading your book, new novelist, and they'll be looking for themselves in it. If they only see themselves being pushed down, some will wonder, "Is this what the author thinks of me?" Your intent doesn't matter. You can't go to every single person and tell them, "No, I don't think that way, I swear." You have to show it in action in your story. If you're going to push down, balance the scales.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-6234185711326339912018-01-09T13:58:00.002-05:002018-01-09T13:59:56.364-05:00Fear is the Right DirectionThe other day, Neil Gaiman made a tweet that I've actually thought for a long time, but it's Neil Gaiman so of course he said it a thousand times better than I could:<br />
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It's true. That fear you feel when you're taking the first new step of something, anything, is paralyzing. "What if I'm not good?" "What if I fail?" "What if I can't?" In your mind, you know the answer is, "Then keep going." If you just try, you'll learn that you can, even if it's hard. It may not be good, you may fail a lot, but you'll learn. Keep trying, keep learning, and eventually, you'll stop falling flat. But first, it's gonna scare the crap out of you.<br />
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It's like walking through the middle of an endless barfight. You know if you step in there, you're gonna get hit, by fists if you're lucky, bottles and mugs if you're not. You know it's gonna hurt either way. You know in the worst case, you might not even make it through to the drink waiting on the other side. You can stand on the edges and study, watching for patterns to try and stop yourself getting hit, watching other people run the gauntlet, study the experts as they dance through the blows untouched, but study can never be as good a teacher as action.<br />
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You have to step in and start taking the punches. Maybe it won't be as bad as you expect, or maybe it'll be worse, but you're in it now. The first step is the hardest. Now you can run. Once you're on the other side, maybe you'll realize it wasn't so bad. You can do it again. You do. At the end, you'll realize you've become the dancer that others are studying. So go on. Write that book. Submit that query you've been starting and restarting. Take that trip. Ask that special someone out. Do that thing that's scaring you.<br />
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On a related note, I'll be starting up that video game streaming I discussed way back in <a href="http://thewanderingquille.blogspot.com/2016/09/wherein-i-decide-to-make-fool-of-myself.html">Sept 2016</a>. If you want to watch me make a complete idiot of myself playing classic games, I'll be live Wednesdays at 7 starting tomorrow at <a href="http://twitch.tv/MaxNChachi">twitch.tv/MaxNChachi</a>. And I am scared shitless, so I know I'm heading in the right direction. Come with me?Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-90486994014828104742017-11-15T10:00:00.000-05:002017-11-15T10:30:00.722-05:00Guest Post: Donna Migliaccio on WRITER, KNOW THYSELF<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you've been around the comments section here, you may have seen the lovely Donna Migliaccio commenting. Maybe you've seen her on the various writing forums she participates in, from Absolute Write to NaNoWriMo. Or maybe you've seen her on Broadway, because Donna makes art and talent into an art form. Or maybe you haven't have to opportunity to see her at all, in which case buckle up, because today we have a guest post from the most multitalented writer I know. Please give Donna a warm welcome!</div>
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There’s a game that writers play on occasion that I’ve never been able to work up any enthusiasm for, and that’s the “Cast the Movie of Your Book” game. The game bugs me for two reasons: 1) I’m superstitious and it feels like a jinx, and 2) I don’t strongly identify any of my characters with any actual person, living or dead. <br />
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And I don’t want readers of The Gemeta Stone series to be force-fed any particular “look” for the characters, either, especially the photo-shopped models that appear (often simply as bare torsos) on so many book covers. I want my readers to have the experience of reading the characters’ descriptions and imagining those characters for themselves. <br />
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That said, there are certainly elements of family and friends that I’ve incorporated – sometimes deliberately, sometimes unwittingly – in my characters. (A fair number of them have physical characteristics in common with certain of my nieces and nephews, along with similar names.) I think it’s also safe to say that most of my characters have quirks that resemble my own, or traits I wish I had. <br />
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For example, my main character, Kristan Gemeta, values kindness above all and has tried his whole life to do what is right. It’s a theme that has always fascinated me, which may be why I find the endings of Babe and Sense & Sensibility to be so moving and satisfying. Both Babe the Pig and Elinor Dashwood struggle to do what’s right, even though “what’s right” may not be easy and actually stands in the way of their own happiness. Kristan’s innate decency is what I like best about him. His female counterpart, Heather Demitt, has a brave, impulsive nature that I envy, and it’s the thing I like best about her. Even my bad guy Daazna has a trait I admire: a ferocious desire to learn and to master new skills. <br />
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If I was to pick one character from the series who is most like me, it would probably be Ariphele, Daazna’s mother. She’s a middle-aged magic user of limited skill, a little on the lazy side, but very observant. She’s also sarcastic and has no qualms about goading her son, sometimes to incite him to greater achievements but more often just for the sheer pleasure of getting under his skin. Ariphele not only serves as a stimulus for Daazna, but she also humanizes him. She allows the reader to see him, not simply as the “bad guy” (although he can be very, very bad) but as someone with frustrations, doubts and desires just like the more heroic characters. <br />
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And that’s my main job as a writer: to create characters that are not just stock “good guys” and “bad guys,” but who are as fully-fleshed, as contradictory and as intriguing as the people who inhabit our real lives.<br />
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<b>Fiskur by Donna Migliaccio<br />November 7, 2017<br />Fantasy<br />The Gemeta Stone Book 2<br />Fiery Seas Publishing, LLC </b><br />
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With his family's talisman in his possession, Kristan Gemeta is ready to face the Wichelord Daazna – but he has no inkling of the scope of Daazna's power, nor the depths of his hatred. <br />
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With the recovery of his family's protective talisman, Kristan Gemeta has found hope, courage – and perhaps even the first stirrings of love. With the aid of Heather Demitt, her band of rebels, a shipload of Northern brigands and the legendary Kentavron, he readies himself to face the Wichelord Daazna. But neither he nor his comrades realize the strength of Daazna's power and hatred. The Wichelord's first blow comes from a direction Kristan least expects, with horrific, lasting consequences.<br />
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #2c2a25; font-size: 12.0pt; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://youtu.be/55Z1c0Sj56k"><b>Check out the trailer on Youtube!</b></a></span></div>
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<b><b>Buy Links:</b></b></div>
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #2c2a25; font-size: 12.0pt; padding: 0in;"> </span></b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fiskur-Gemeta-Stone-Donna-Migliaccio-ebook/dp/B076HD1VTB"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Amazon </span></b></a><b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #2c2a25; font-size: 12.0pt; padding: 0in;"> ~
</span></b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fiskur-donna-migliaccio/1127238348?ean=9781946143358"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Barnes & Noble</span></b><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></a><span style="color: #2c2a25; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> ~ </span><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fiskur"><b><span style="border: 1pt none; color: #ce5028; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0in;">Kobo</span></b></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #2c2a25; font-size: 12.0pt; padding: 0in;"> </span></b></span><b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #2c2a25; font-size: 12.0pt; padding: 0in;"> ~
</span></b><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/fiskur/id1297166984?mt=11"><b><span style="border: 1pt none; color: #ce5028; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0in;">iBooks</span></b></a><span style="color: #2c2a25; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>About the Author:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4hXrjrTirts2HIXta3iFjlVTWLha5-lIP-NNTGJxD8I9i6lNxD0n5HTcYdl0YfWNaRH2nViBI-Q8Fj_R1tG-Z46KvjnbG07LkdsoWvkB7_kQH4WjL3GqaYBbefHVV_7ciguugOS9VEw2k/s1600/Donna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1065" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4hXrjrTirts2HIXta3iFjlVTWLha5-lIP-NNTGJxD8I9i6lNxD0n5HTcYdl0YfWNaRH2nViBI-Q8Fj_R1tG-Z46KvjnbG07LkdsoWvkB7_kQH4WjL3GqaYBbefHVV_7ciguugOS9VEw2k/s320/Donna.jpg" width="213" /></a>Donna Migliaccio is a professional stage actress with credits that include Broadway, National Tours and prominent regional theatres. She is based in the Washington, DC Metro area, where she co-founded Tony award-winning Signature Theatre and is in demand as an entertainer, teacher and public speaker. Her award-winning short story, "Yaa & The Coffins," was featured in Thinkerbeat's 2015 anthology The Art of Losing. <span style="color: #2c2a25; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none; color: #2c2a25; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://donnamigliaccio.com/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #ce5028; font-family: "times" , serif;">Website</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #2c2a25; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-71609876075199755202017-10-18T12:50:00.001-04:002018-03-27T14:18:31.870-04:00Dear New Novelist: How to be a Better Beta Writer<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCXDOpcXkVvbHNf6bN2YWHVgUTfahVqBt8A_QW2sXfBqK4XZUz34BhvM-mgGrLCdpkspTQhlGRdAEXeERBnmsR5mVbKpBwreE-EU42VSd764EXaeFAvbvHizjN9YEsRxT_6ujBAI5Hv9qw/s1600/Dear+New+Novelist+Beta+Writer.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCXDOpcXkVvbHNf6bN2YWHVgUTfahVqBt8A_QW2sXfBqK4XZUz34BhvM-mgGrLCdpkspTQhlGRdAEXeERBnmsR5mVbKpBwreE-EU42VSd764EXaeFAvbvHizjN9YEsRxT_6ujBAI5Hv9qw/s400/Dear+New+Novelist+Beta+Writer.png" width="266" /></a>This is, unfortunately, a topic that many eager new writers need to be sat down and told. Settle in, newbies, cause this is a long one.<br />
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Just to get some definitions out there before we start:<br />
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<b>Beta reader </b>- A person who has agreed to read and give detailed commentary on a draft that is as clean as the writer can get it. Often solo.<br />
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<b>Alpha reader</b> - A person who has agreed to read and give detailed commentary on a rough draft. Often solo.<br />
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<b>Critic/critter</b> - A person who volunteers their time to comment, as detailed or vague as they like, on an excerpt. Often a member of a group.<br />
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Dear New Novelist, a good beta reader and trove of critics is something to treasure. They're people you can trust to be honest with you about what needs fixing in your novel, people who are willing to dedicate their time to helping you improve it. A good critter can become a good beta. A good beta can become a good friend. The thing is, a beta reader is a business relationship. A good one will not be gentle. They will be honest, and honest can hurt. And just as they can hurt you, you can hurt them. The thing is, you asked for the pain. They didn't, and if you keep it up, you risk losing their good will, their experience, and worst, their friendship.<br />
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So, how do you avoid this?<br />
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<b>1. Don't send more than one draft without prior agreement</b><br />
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This one's more for beta readers than critics and critique groups. Critique groups have an understanding that you bring what you bring and you crit what there is to crit. Beta readers, though, are different than a critique group and shouldn't be treated like one.<br />
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When people volunteer to be your beta readers, unless discussed otherwise in advance, they're only expecting to do one draft. Even if you're best friends, there is no assumed "I will beta every version" or "I'll read the next draft." There's not even an "I'll reread chapter 1." It is "I will read and help with this draft." Once they've done that, the metaphorical beta contract is done. If you want them to have another go, you have to ask first. If you don't ask...<br />
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Let's flip places. You're going about your day. You have work to do for, well, life. Your job, homework, cleaning the house, whatever. You know what's on your to-do list and you know what to expect coming down the line: an essay for English class, that project your boss talked about, the kitchen needs a good scrub and laundry needs attention, you have edits for your own novel, and you finally received that novel you offered to beta to Writer B. You finished Writer A's beta last week and are glad to have it off your ever-growing plate. You got the wonderful feeling from marking something off your to-do list. And then your email chimes. It's from Writer A.<br />
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<i>Thanks for your help!</i> it says. <i>Here's the next draft!</i><br />
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This was not on your plate. You DID this already. You put your work in, whether it was hours or minutes, and it was done. But now, Writer A has dropped it back on top of your plate without asking if you would take it. They just assumed you would. Maybe they say what they want from you in more detail late in the email ("Can you get it back to me within a month?") or maybe there's nothing more, no explanation of what they expect from you. Whatever the case, you suddenly have more work that you never agreed to on top of everything else you did. That thing you felt so good getting off your plate is back on it. How do you feel?<br />
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Used?<br />
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Frustrated?<br />
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Taken advantage of?<br />
<br />
Yeah, probably all of those. They're not asking if you'll volunteer your time; they're expecting it, and putting it on your shoulders to either accept it and do it or say "no" and come off like a jerk. You know they don't mean to be rude. They're just eager. They trust you. But all the same, they've done it, and there's no taking it back now.<br />
<br />
For this reason, some beta readers outright say, "I will only do one draft," but that's not everybody. Some of us enjoy seeing stories progress and improve with our input. The ONLY thing you have to do first is say one little sentence before dropping the manuscript in our inbox.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Would you mind taking another look? </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
A please helps too. Just show us that you remember your beta has limited disposable time, just like you. Asking first is just a sign of respect.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>2. Don't send rough drafts</b><br />
<br />
Let's trade places again, now as a critter. Someone posted a chapter on a forum that's attracted your attention. It has a good title and it's your favorite genre. Let's give it a look.<br />
<br />
First paragraph: they used their instead of they're. As you go, there are too many commas, the dialogue tags are off, a lot of saidisms, a few more homophones, a character changes names halfway through, and there's a plothole at the end of the excerpt.<br />
<br />
Okay, you go ahead and point out all the issues. It takes you time to write it all up. Fifteen minutes to half an hour for one excerpt's line-by-line.<br />
<br />
You go back a little later to see a response from the author.<br />
<br />
"Yeah, I knew about the homophones and the grammar. I didn't read it over yet so thanks for catching the name change, and thank you pointing out the plot hole!"<br />
<br />
They posted it without looking it over themselves, without trying to find basic issues. They gave you a rough draft that they couldn't even read first because they were so eager for feedback. And what does that mean?<br />
<br />
It means you just wasted your time telling them things they already knew and could have fixed themselves.<br />
<br />
It means that deeper problems with the manuscript were missed because your focus was on the obvious ones that should have been fixed already.<br />
<br />
You wasted your time, and the author didn't get as good feedback as they could have because they didn't fix the problems they were capable of fixing.<br />
<br />
Now imagine if it had been the entire manuscript and a beta reader.<br />
<br />
"Well, they're just an alpha reader then, right?" Except being an alpha reader, like betaing more than one draft, is something that needs to be agreed upon beforehand. Unless stated otherwise, the expectation is that the reader is going to be a beta, reading something you've done your best on. That's hours and hours of work telling the author to fix things they already know how to fix. When a beta reader receives a manuscript, the unspoken expectation is, "This is as good as the author is capable of doing on their own and now they need the beta reader's help." As the author, you're doing yourself a disservice by not sending your best, making a bad impression regarding your own abilities, and you're doing your beta reader a disservice by making them spend those hours fixing basic problems. If you're using beta readers, you need to have cleaned every issue you can find yourself. Then and only then should it be up to the beta to help you the rest of the way. Otherwise, arrange for an alpha.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Don't make too many changes too fast</b><br />
<br />
As a beta writer, it is not your job to make the changes your betas and critters tell you to.<br />
<br />
"But Maxwell, isn't that what we're supposed to do?"<br />
<br />
Nah. Even when you get a publishing deal and an editor tears into your novel, it's not your job to make all the changes they say. Your job, beta writer, is to assess the RECOMMENDED changes, understand WHY the changes are recommended, decide which to apply and which to ignore, and apply changes as needed. Not every beta is a good match for your work. Everyone who's been betaed or edited has received comments that don't work for their image of their novel.<br />
<br />
"You need to make your MC a man. Women don't act like that," someone will say of your MC who acts very much like your female best friend.<br />
<br />
"No one knows what a five-and-dime is. Change it," someone will say of your 40s historical.<br />
<br />
"You'll never sell this with a POC MC," is a sadly common complaint from editors, evidently.<br />
<br />
All of those comments? They are not good comments. Your 1940s black woman does not need to be a 2017 white man, and you do not need to change her because a few people said so, no matter how much you trust them. If you just take every comment at face value and rush through, you're going to make changes your manuscript doesn't need.<br />
<br />
You're also going to miss making the changes it does need because you're rushing. Say someone recommends you remove a week where nothing happens. It's a good idea. You apply it. But do you realize that the part you cut will affect the timeline after? You need to go through and remove references to "last week," changing them to "yesterday." If all you do is make the changes the beta tells you to, you won't catch these sort of things. You need to take time after a beta comes back to think about the beta's comments, apply them, and reread the entire thing, making sure the changes flow smoothly and are applied through the entire manuscript.<br />
<br />
How does this apply to beta readers? Well, beta fatigue is a thing. The reason you as a writer need a beta reader is because you get too close to your story. It gets hard to find the problems because something you may not have explained to the reader is obvious to you the writer. The stuff in your head doesn't always make its way to the page. If your beta reader has agreed to look at multiple drafts and you send them two or three in a week's time, they're going to get worn on your story and start to become too familiar to see the problems.<br />
<br />
A common issue we see in the critique section of Absolute Write, especially for query letters, is people popping up edits after an hour or two and only one or two critiques, to the tune of three to four versions in 24 hours. Usually, these don't actually fix the issues because the writer isn't taking the time to slow down and consider what's actually being explained by the critters. The same core issues will be in the query or excerpt from draft to draft, just with slightly different words. This isn't a race and you're not on a time limit (well, unless you have a deadline that you've put off until the last minute. Don't do that.) Slow down, absorb what betas and critters have to tell you, and don't overload them with drafts until you're certain you've fixed the real problems.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
And finally, this one may feel obvious, but you'd be surprised how many beta readers have reported encountering this:<br />
<br />
<b>4. Don't be ungrateful.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
So many beta readers and critters have the same story. "I did all the work, gave so much advice, and they never even said thank you." Yes, as a beta writer, your beta reader has probably hurt you, but like I said earlier, that's something to be expected when you ask for a beta. You've put a full-time job's worth of effort into your novel, a final exam's worth into your query or synopsis, and now people are telling you, "Not good enough yet. Fix it." Ouch. But you know it was coming. You know it needed work. You don't get beta readers or critics expecting them to tell you, "This is perfect." Or you shouldn't. That's not their job. If that's what you want, tell them at the start and save everyone involved the time.<br />
<br />
It doesn't matter if they've put in five minutes or five weeks of work. It doesn't matter if they've read a page or a thousand pages. It doesn't matter if every single word of the commentary is golden or useless. You say, "Thank you so much." It's okay to wait a few days while the sting goes down. It's okay to do it immediately, before even opening the file. It's okay to do it in private for every individual critter or publicly as a group. Just say it. Because I guarantee, if you don't, that person will never read for you again, and they'll make sure all their beta friends know not to help you either. This is the fastest, easiest way to sever a beta relationship... well, next to complaining about their comments online. If they go to your blog or a thread and find you shittalking their hard work behind their back, no matter how bad or good it really was, well, that's over and done. If you have to complain to someone, do it in text messages or a private chat or even face-to-face. If you go public with it, just know that if they find it, whatever relationship you had with them is over. The only thing your beta should see from you is gratitude, even if you don't feel it.<br />
<br />
-----------------------<br />
<br />
These are the stories that every beta reader and critic has. These are the stories that set their boundaries and wear them down. These are the war stories they tell their friends who are in the beta trenches with them. I have them. All my beta friends have them. All my own betas probably have them. Don't become someone else's war story. Be a good beta writer.<br />
<br />
And readers, if you have any of your own beta war stories, feel free to share them in the comments!Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-56446077402181906722017-09-05T11:13:00.001-04:002017-09-05T14:32:23.655-04:00Dear New Novelist: Do Your Research<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKtOFcoLDW5F72HaK_vkGwO98hG_eR994YCK23ZYMRptCaipmC3VQ6B9ymGKf8qysrXvrXcLSNAprM4zPHWmzbbVrqKeH6JhHEywWln3CeSl3tAxYT1iGT170tsbPPIviT4_8ywXSyNEva/s1600/Dear+New+Novelist+Research.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKtOFcoLDW5F72HaK_vkGwO98hG_eR994YCK23ZYMRptCaipmC3VQ6B9ymGKf8qysrXvrXcLSNAprM4zPHWmzbbVrqKeH6JhHEywWln3CeSl3tAxYT1iGT170tsbPPIviT4_8ywXSyNEva/s400/Dear+New+Novelist+Research.png" width="266" /></a></div>
It's a big publishing world out there. When you have your finished novel edited and ready to go, the question becomes "What do I do with it?" We live in an age where the options are more and more every week. You could self publish, and you'll have a dozen choices for platforms and formats: Amazon-exclusive, wide-net (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc), Lulu.com... ebook only, Print-on-Demand (POD), both? You could submit to one of hundreds of small indie publishers who have open submissions. Or you could aim high for one of the big publishers who can get you into physical bookstores, but then you usually have to start with an agent, and there are hundreds more to choose from there.<br />
<br />
It's a daunting, overwhelming selection no matter which path you take, and that's why today's lesson is important.<br />
<br />
Dear new novelist,<br />
<br />
DO YOUR RESEARCH.<br />
<br />
It's a big publishing world out there, and in any big world, you're going to find people taking advantage of the newbies. Anyone can hang out an agent or publisher sign and tell a newcomer anything they want, and without doing research, who's to tell them otherwise? It can be so exciting to get that first "yes" that you'll miss or ignore all the red flags, and the worst scammers will tell you "this is how it is." Vanity publishers, places that take your money to print your book for upwards of ten thousand dollars, will tell you that paying to publish is totally normal (it's not. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Macdonald#Educational_work" target="_blank">There's a writing law about it</a>.) Lazy publishers will tell you, "Even the Big Five expect you to do all your own advertising and marketing" (they don't.) Scam agents will tell you that you need to have your book edited first (probably true), and they know this editor who will edit your book to perfection for a few thousand from your own pocket (probably their spouse,sibling, or shady business partner. Expect your money to be pocketed and your book never sold.) Even honest publishers with good intentions but little experience can fail, taking your novel and your money to bankruptcy with them.<br />
<br />
What I'm trying to say is, not all agents, publishers, and publishing options are equal, even on the same level. Some small presses are more stable than others. Some larger companies can have issues behind the scenes that are leading then on a quick ride to closure. Even some vanity presses are more legitimate and better values (because there are cases where vanity publishing is acceptable or beneficial, often things like coffee table books with lots of pictures or books by public speakers who sell at their speaking engagements). The only way to learn all this is to do your research: before, during, and after.<br />
<br />
Before submitting anywhere, look them up. The <a href="http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?22-Bewares-Recommendations-amp-Background-Check" target="_blank">Absolute Write Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Check forum</a> has hundreds of publishers and agents, along with peoples' input on them based on personal experience or website evaluation. Sometimes the company or agent being evaluated will give their own input, which can also be eye-opening to their public behavior (and door-closing if they're behaving badly.) The <a href="http://accrispin.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Writer Beware blog</a> (supported by the SFWA) also keeps up with the publishing world and reports on trouble brewing. Other things to look up at this stage:<br />
<ul>
<li>How publishing works on all levels, from start to finish</li>
<li>What agents and publishers do for you to earn their share of the cover price, and how much their share typically is</li>
<li>The pros and cons of a big publisher, a small publisher, a new publisher, an old publisher, an old agent, a new agent, and self-publishing. </li>
<li>The difference between net and gross in contracts and how not knowing this can screw you over</li>
<li>The difference between being able to order a book in bookstores and finding it on the shelves</li>
<li>The difference between an agent and a contract lawyer or literary attorney</li>
<li>The difference between a new publisher/agent with previous publishing/agenting experience and a new publisher/agent with no previous experience or only experience being published</li>
<li>The difference between Print-on-Demand and print runs </li>
<li>The red flags to look for while vetting agents and publishers</li>
<li>Anything and everything that anyone tells you is normal or typical in the publishing business</li>
</ul>
During submission, it's easy to miss some of those aforementioned red flags and submit to someone who may not be as on the up-and-up as they seemed. When you get that "we'd like to publish you" email or "I want to represent you" call, it's not too late to do some in-depth research. Dig around the internet, or at least Google "[Publisher] scam." If you find out that this isn't who you want, you can always say "no." You should also be allowed to reach out to the people who will be your fellows with the company or agent and ask some questions. Do so. You may find out some things going on behind the scenes that aren't public yet, like withheld payments, illness causing delays (a major issue with small, one-man companies), or just slow response rates. There have been people who've signed contracts with companies in the middle of collapsing who hadn't paid their writers in months just because that failing company said, "Yes". Don't let that happen to you.<br />
<br />
After you've signed the contract, it's still good to keep an eye out for what's going on and act appropriately to preserve your stories and ask questions. Publishers going under can be quick, or a slow crawl, and if you don't act in a timely manner, you might lose any books with that publisher for years. Agents can get sick, retire, quit, or move agencies with little notice, and you want to know what will happen to you under those circumstances so you can plan accordingly.<br />
<br />
Basically, the more you know, the safer you, your novel, and your wallet will be. And trust me, in this business, you want to be safe. How many potential shining stars have died out unnoticed because they went with a bad publisher? Answer: lots. Don't let yourself be one of them. Do your research. It's for your own good.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-27752128670207571332017-07-31T10:20:00.000-04:002019-01-09T08:19:44.984-05:00Good News, Everyone! The Dream Is RealGood morning, dear readers, and a happy Monday to you! How was your weekend? Good, I hope. Relaxing. Fun. Full of adventure and happiness and good news.<br />
<br />
Speaking of good news, I'm getting published.<br />
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That's pretty much been my life the past two days. The high is real, y'all. Call me the Wicked Witch because I am defying gravity, and nothing's gonna bring me down.</div>
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My short story "Like I Need a Hole in the Head" has been picked for the <i>Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good</i> anthology for release in early 2019. I am unbelievably honored and thrilled to be a part of this anthology, and I can't wait to be able to share more information as the table of contents and release dates come out.</div>
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My OTHER short story, "Tuna for Bast", is coming out in the <i>STRAEON 2</i> anthology edited by my friend and critique group leader M. David Blake. Currently there is no set release date, but I can say I am sharing the anthology with several other great talents I've had the pleasure to hear on a regular basis at the group.</div>
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So, yeah, this is happening. This is my life now. Sometimes I kinda forget how to breathe when I think about it. The best thing, though, the greatest feeling ever, is the every-so-often pop-up thought of, "I'm good enough. I'm actually good enough." Y'all, it feels really, really good.</div>
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Now that I actually have things to announce, I've set up a mailing list for anyone who might be interested in keeping up with occasional updates as I get them and as they pertain to you getting access to what's coming from me. If that sounds good to you, then all you have to do is enter your email in the box on the upper right and click Subscribe. And of course, thank you to those of you who have already signed up. Whether you're signed up, not yet, or never will, I'm grateful to all of you readers for sticking with me and giving me the encouragement to keep trying. I hope this is just the first of many announcements to come, and I hope you'll all come along with me for the ride. </div>
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Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-13305213827925809162017-06-29T10:24:00.002-04:002017-07-14T13:07:31.379-04:00What Are You Afraid Of?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgim_EyjSiMgsvMnWHlgmZ88tgD-ilIxUCDpCykrkHGCTYgngZXS6vg_XuzWqSLj5xJ4bhy1hkyK46aalGX5DZ5V1dnWldU-tBjD3TPcMLXhha9P7mbBawtsmgUsacuwNwhslDUCXigP_/s1600/Irrational+Fears.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgim_EyjSiMgsvMnWHlgmZ88tgD-ilIxUCDpCykrkHGCTYgngZXS6vg_XuzWqSLj5xJ4bhy1hkyK46aalGX5DZ5V1dnWldU-tBjD3TPcMLXhha9P7mbBawtsmgUsacuwNwhslDUCXigP_/s400/Irrational+Fears.png" width="266" /></a>When I came up with the concept for this post, I started up a list of fears, went to see if I could find more, and discovered that someone has done years more work than me, and there are many more fears than I initially imagined. I mean, I know some of them. Trypophobia, for example, the fear of clusters, which, by the way, if you HAVE it, don't Google it.<br />
<br />
"Hey, guys, what kind of pictures should show up in Google Images for people who have a fear of clusters?'<br />
<br />
"How about a bunch of clusters?"<br />
<br />
"Brilliant!"<br />
<br />
Anyway, if you're looking for a fear for your character, take a look at <a href="http://phobialist.com/">The Phobia List</a>, which is exactly as described on the tin. While it actually doesn't have trypophobia on it for some reason, it does have things like:<br />
<br />
- Alliumphobia - Fear of garlic.<br />
- Chronomentrophobia - Fear of clocks.<br />
- Euphobia - Fear of hearing good news.<br />
- Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - Fear of long words. Yes, the person who named it is an asshole.<br />
- Omphalophobia - Fear of belly buttons.<br />
- Soceraphobia- Fear of parents-in-law.<br />
- Zemmiphobia - Fear of the great mole rat<br />
<br />
But those are, at their core, "common" fears, fears that have been written about and named in reference books. It doesn't quite look at irrational fears. Those can get very specific. For example, aichmophobia is the fear of needles or pointed objects, including knives. For a time, on top of a fear of needles, I was outright terrified of being accidentally impaled by someone using a knife in the kitchen. Absolutely irrational, but I spent the better part of a decade excusing myself whenever someone else was cutting anything because I could just SEE the knife slipping out of their hand and flying at my skull like a ninja star.<br />
<br />
So, since general fears have been done well beyond my means, let's have some fun with irrational ones, or ones that aren't on the list.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="336"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Irrational Fears"}" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Irrational Fears</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of a children's TV show"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of a children's TV show</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of a specific song"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of a specific song</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of accidental impalement"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of accidental impalement</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of being late or early"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of being late or early</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of being murdered in a hotel room"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of being murdered in a hotel room</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of being stalked by internet trolls"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of being stalked by internet trolls</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of celebrities"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of celebrities</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of chihuahuas (or any other small dog breed)"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of chihuahuas (or any other small dog breed)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of closed cupboards"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of closed cupboards</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of clowns in unlikely places"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of clowns in unlikely places</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of conspiracy theories"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of conspiracy theories</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of cracked doors"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of cracked doors</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of crossing train tracks or standing on platforms"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of crossing train tracks or standing on platforms</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of desserts"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of desserts</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of emergency or construction vehicles"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of emergency or construction vehicles</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of escaped zoo animals"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of escaped zoo animals</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of falling in public"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of falling in public</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of finding unnatural things in food"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of finding unnatural things in food</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of flickering lightbulbs"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of flickering lightbulbs</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of getting kicked in the face"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of getting kicked in the face</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of getting locked out"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of getting locked out</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of getting lost in a big city"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of getting lost in a big city</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of hotel rooms or any room that's not their own"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of hotel rooms or any room that's not their own</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of knitting needles"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of knitting needles</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of knowing other peoples' secrets"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of knowing other peoples' secrets</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of manual labor"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of manual labor</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of mythical creatures"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of mythical creatures</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of ocean debris (seashells, seaweed or flotsam)"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of ocean debris (seashells, seaweed or flotsam)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of open windows"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of open windows</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of other people being paranoid"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of other people being paranoid</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of oversized bags (purses, trash, etc) "}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of oversized bags (purses, trash, etc) </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of rain puddles"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of rain puddles</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of rainbows"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of rainbows</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of reflected light spots"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of reflected light spots</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of shaved or hairless cats"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of shaved or hairless cats</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of the internet"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of the internet</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of the naked mole rat"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of the naked mole rat</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of uneven terrian"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of uneven terrian</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear of unpaved roads"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear of unpaved roads</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fear that everyone is talking about you behind your back"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Fear that everyone is talking about you behind your back</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Thanks to my dear friend Kat for coming up with several of the ideas on this list. Check her out on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/_Almost_">@_Almost_</a><br />
<br />
So, dear readers, tell me, what are YOU afraid of?Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-40683701077298394022017-05-08T09:23:00.003-04:002017-05-08T09:32:20.220-04:00The Rubber Duck Method of Plot Fixing<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcr7hC4K9O0BORQF3ltjFuGfQKDCKKA9VDcLwcunv0cy5KO3I6z3MF8bmJi6vaC6X01Hlq1H6PZLe2Icb8qa3CCCZDeGc2xj4WVaxMr1GYJUklFSCkaPM3YKhE0N_L_G92lK8V2-HvJjOs/s1600/RubberDuck.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcr7hC4K9O0BORQF3ltjFuGfQKDCKKA9VDcLwcunv0cy5KO3I6z3MF8bmJi6vaC6X01Hlq1H6PZLe2Icb8qa3CCCZDeGc2xj4WVaxMr1GYJUklFSCkaPM3YKhE0N_L_G92lK8V2-HvJjOs/s400/RubberDuck.png" width="266" /></a>Have you ever heard of the Rubber Duck Method of Coding?<br />
<br />
There are offices where computer programmers, on their first day, are given, among other supplies, a rubber duck. It is to sit on their desk until its needed.<br />
<br />
In the words of Arthur Weasley, "What exactly is the function of a rubber duck?" Why would programmers keep a bath toy on their desk, and why would they ever need it?<br />
<br />
Let me ask a different question: How often have you gotten stuck on a problem and been unable to progress because you just can't figure it out?<br />
<br />
Feeling stuck? Talk to the duck.<br />
<br />
What? Maxwell, have you gone mental? No, I'm quite sane, as are the many computer programmers with rubber ducks on their desks. Because when you run into a problem, you can spend hours, days, weeks running it around in your head and get nowhere. Come on, writers, hands up if you have. If there were an audience here, I'd probably be seeing every hand up.<br />
<br />
Now think about this: of all those problems, how many times have you solved it ten seconds after you started talking to someone about it?<br />
<br />
Uh-huh.<br />
<br />
And I'm willing to bet, many times, the other person in the conversation didn't even need to say anything. You could have practically replaced them with... a rubber duck.<br />
<br />
Some programmers have used this technique to solve coding issues for years: talk to the duck, explain what you're trying to do, and you'll figure out your logic error. In extreme cases, they'll bring in other programmers and THEIR ducks until three, four, five people and their ducks solve the problem.<br />
<br />
In the same vein, tell a duck your plothole, and maybe, while explaining why it doesn't work, you'll figure out what can fix it. Or, if you feel silly talking to yourself aloud, you can type it out like you're chatting with the duck. Compose an email to the duck on why your main character is being frustrating and dismissive with the love interest (epiphany: she's actually in love with her best friend) or how this secret door's mechanic is stupid and doesn't make sense (realization: Why not use a remote control instead of the classic 'pull a book' method?) If you've got writing buddies, they make fantastic ducks, because they understand, and they've brought their duck, too. I have never once encountered a plot hole that couldn't be fixed by talking to the duck. Sometimes the ducks are named Kat and Bobo, and they've got a duck named Maggie. But whatever the name and whatever the technique, it works. It always works.<br />
<br />
And that, Mr. Weasley, is the function of a rubber duck.<br />
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Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-79754854532548975522017-03-14T10:09:00.000-04:002017-09-05T13:38:04.451-04:00Dear New Novelist: About That Bad Review...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUUF9KkmkOWFWZvODkiP1Px_uyVpI31fSzBPWvirEbnG4dJvltVyds6bGmqzO3iOeEJ8SU6ivDb13TsKrkz7ardfftSQJHVchwN6bhnjFc5OlLXZP6XTi7uTH0NS_xEgjfWl1lCZYXsvY/s1600/Dear+New+Novelist+Authors+Big+Mistake.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUUF9KkmkOWFWZvODkiP1Px_uyVpI31fSzBPWvirEbnG4dJvltVyds6bGmqzO3iOeEJ8SU6ivDb13TsKrkz7ardfftSQJHVchwN6bhnjFc5OlLXZP6XTi7uTH0NS_xEgjfWl1lCZYXsvY/s400/Dear+New+Novelist+Authors+Big+Mistake.png" width="266" /></a></div>
It's a difficult pill to swallow, but when you're done with your short story, your novel, your poem, anything, and you get it out in front of the world, not everyone is going to love it. Go take a look at your favorite book on Amazon or Goodreads. It's got 2 and 1-star reviews. My own husband can't stand Harry Potter (I married a hater? I know, right? But he introduced me to Terry Pratchett, so I can get past it.) There is no single book or story that's universally loved, and there never will be. Some people won't like the genre, others will hate the writing style or plot, and some will just be around to troll because they think it's fun to rile up fans. Inevitably, when you put your hard work out for public consumption, the day will come where you'll get... a bad review.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It's going to stab you in the heart, and how that makes you feel depends on you.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maybe you'll feel like a failure, even if you have a hundred other reviews that are 4 and 5 stars. You'll pour yourself a glass of liquid comfort (wine, hot chocolate, one of those <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristinharris/new-york-city-is-going-crazy-over-these-insane-next-level-mi?utm_term=.dbbpewoAMA&sub=4127194_7790842" target="_blank">huge-ass milkshakes that's got a whole slice of cake on it</a>), have a cry, and enjoy a good pity party.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maybe you'll get mad. How dare they? Haven't they ever heard "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" How could they have never watched Bambi?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Or maybe you'll laugh it off, shrug, and go about your day. But no matter what you do, the words will still be there, circling around in your head, popping up unbidden like a Jack-in-the-Box and slowly eating away at you. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You'll go back and read it again, and you'll notice something. Maybe they misunderstood what you meant in a scene they say they hated. Maybe they're talking about something that never happened, like they reviewed the wrong book. Maybe they're mad<a href="http://stephenkingmoney.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"> they bought the wrong book entirely</a>. Whatever the reason, you'll read it through, and then, when you're done, your eyes will linger on the little option below it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Reply</i>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Brake <i>brake <b>BRAKE</b></i>. Slam those pedals to the ground and pray to God you're not hitting the accelerator, because this is where you need to <b>STOP</b>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It's time to talk about the <u>Author's Big Mistake</u>. That is, replying to comments. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How are you supposed to handle bad reviews? Well, you've got three options:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
1) Ignore it. After all, a handful of bad reviews don't cancel out the good ones. One person saying, "I didn't like it" is one person's opinion. Eventually, it'll be just one review among many, and if it's factually wrong or trolling, it'll probably be downvoted by other reviewers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
2) Kill them with politeness. "Thank you for commenting! I appreciate your honesty and will take your thoughts into consideration in the future." It at least makes you look like the bigger person, but it also opens you to conversation with them, which can lead to #3.<br />
<br />
3) Try to argue your perspective. Or just argue. After all, writing is your business. Bad reviews will cost you sales, right? Probably. So it only makes sense to respond and tell them "No, see, here's where you're wrong. Please correct your review." Right?<br />
<br />
Note: I'm being sarcastic. Have you ever seen what happens when a business responds to a bad review with negativity? <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/05/hotel-apologizes-after-3000-bad-reviews.html" target="_blank">It ain't pretty</a>. And this <a href="http://imgur.com/a/F2wBF" target="_blank">applies to authors too</a>. When a person leaves a bad review, if the recipient ignores it, then its just one review among reviews. Some people will read a bad review and not buy it. Others will read the same review and be convinced they need to try it themselves. In the end, it'll probably balance out.<br />
<br />
But when the recipient responds with criticism of the reviewer, it gets out. The reviewer <a href="http://www.pixel-stained-wretch.com/wordpress/2014/07/16/the-authors-big-mistake-a-case-study/" target="_blank">mentions it on their blog</a> or posts about it on Facebook or on a forum, and then it's like a high school fight: everyone's gotta see it and get in. Then the reviewed has to defend themselves from the flood of negativity and voices going "Dude, stop" because they're wrong too, right? You have to save your business! Everyone has to see that you're not the bad guy! And then you're too far gone.<br />
<br />
Even if you manage to avoid the flood of negative PR from responding defensively, you've still put evidence out there that you have thin skin, or that if someone doesn't like your work, they'll get spoken down to or yelled at. Your own bad behavior will cost you more sales, reads, or reviews than any negative review ever could.<br />
<br />
So stop and look at that reply button. Sip your wine, tea, hot chocolate, or crazy-ass milkshake. If you absolutely must write a response, write it in a separate document, not the reply box. And then, when you're done, delete it.<br />
<br />
Because no bad review could ever do as much damage to your career as you can do yourself with a reply.</div>
Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-13374313843189984192017-01-20T11:05:00.001-05:002017-01-20T11:05:37.570-05:00Dear New Novelist: The Paycheck Isn't Always Worth It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwORVNgJesFoW173Bx2lkbiq5CAeNZPDtXMVY-JZnrkhayKApngBW9eNnK-hqtrf5cbJ6UPc_iL4GpAEszOyyy61hsErbj2b6_Mhlqz6gk1ZLbbcGQi4NlSMimqj8jzl9reB3qBr-cCnU9/s1600/Dear+New+Novelist+2+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwORVNgJesFoW173Bx2lkbiq5CAeNZPDtXMVY-JZnrkhayKApngBW9eNnK-hqtrf5cbJ6UPc_iL4GpAEszOyyy61hsErbj2b6_Mhlqz6gk1ZLbbcGQi4NlSMimqj8jzl9reB3qBr-cCnU9/s400/Dear+New+Novelist+2+%25281%2529.png" width="266" /></a></div>
Dear New Novelist,<br />
<br />
Getting paid to write sounds amazing, doesn't it? That's a lot of our goals. Whether it's enough to live and work full-time as a writer or just enough to buy a pizza and maybe a celebratory milkshake, the fact is that we want to get paid to do something we love. So if someone came to you with an offer to write for them, for pay, why would you ever say no?<br />
<br />
I got an email this morning. Right to my inbox. In summation, it said, "Write a blog post for us, and we'll pay you."<br />
<br />
I should be excited! I've never been paid to write.<br />
<br />
And I will continue to not be. Because while the idea of money for words is lovely, sometimes the cost isn't worth it.<br />
<br />
To expand on that email's summation, the sender is a foreign wedding and prom dress website. They want me to write them a blog post, in German, advertising them, and if I make the post, share their banner, and advertise the blog post on all my social medias, they'll pay me $30.<br />
<br />
I could be living out of a paper bag and I still would not take that offer. Because, new novelist, pay is not always worth it.<br />
<br />
It's not worth surrendering your integrity or going against what you stand for if they want to pay you to write something you would normally never say yourself but must portray it as your own thoughts.<br />
<br />
It's not worth loss of reputation and dependability if they want to pay you to become a walking spam advertisement.<br />
<br />
It's DEFINITELY not worth the risk of malware to your readers or you.<br />
<br />
Honestly, not worth learning another language either, in this case. I know, like, three phrases in German: Ich bin ein Berliner, schmetterling, and schadenfreude. And you know, some random stuff about Heil and Fuhrers and a few insults I picked up in <i>The Book Thief.</i><br />
<br />
I am not even going to trouble myself with writing them a response, unless they're actually reading this blog, in which case, my answer is "No." No, I will not be your shill. No, I will not destroy my reputation across all my social media platforms for you. No, I will not waste my time with you more than sharing a few laughs with my friends at your audacity.<br />
<br />
But thanks for the inspiration for the blog post.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-32619120970729236262017-01-11T12:55:00.000-05:002017-01-11T12:55:01.440-05:00Reading for Research: Suddenly, I Understand Omni<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390053681l/19063.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390053681l/19063.jpg" width="211" /></a>In the latter quarter of 2016, I was slowly working my way through <i>The Book Thief </i>by Markus Zusak, sneaking a chapter here and there until a road trip encouraged me to finish. The chapters are short, so they were easy to sneak, and by the time the road trip started for me, the book was too engaging to put down like I had before.<br />
<br />
If you don't know about <i>The Book Thief</i> (I know, you probably do, but I keep running into people who don't, so just in case. Bear with me. I'll be brief), it's a story about a young German girl living in Nazi Germany at the start of WWII. As the title implies, she steals books. The interesting this is, the story's told from the perspective of Death. It's used as a framing device, a character who has seen many stories, met many people, and is pretty much the world's greatest neutral force, becoming fascinated with this one girl he keeps encountering.<br />
<br />
While I was trying to think of how to explain this choice of framing device to someone to whom I recommended the book, I realized it: this is how you write omniscient POV.<br />
<br />
You don't know <i>how long</i> I've been trying to understand omni POV. I've tried studying it and failed. I've grasped the idea of it, but the overall puzzle eluded me. I had the pieces, but I couldn't put them together in a way that made sense. "There's a narrator and they know everything" just didn't work for me, especially as someone who generally writes in close perspective. But it finally clicked here, because there's literally a narrator instead of just some unnamed force telling a story. Imagine Death as a storyteller. If you sat down in front of them and asked for a story, what you will be told is Omni. Someone who knows everyone, who knows their stories and what happened, but maybe not necessarily their feelings. I actually get it now. I just needed that skeletal face to put that damn puzzle together. Thank you, Mr. Zusak.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-74043490392761258022016-11-22T16:04:00.002-05:002017-01-20T10:42:46.919-05:00Dear New Novelist: No One's Going to Steal Your WIP<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_TSr4pMyaIFhzPT3FyNNeWfOBYnKPEIZaBCrkgfen1nqCZfoWSCpi2ECG7rzq4jk_jyrBIcKW1kSUZFrGGBX2ZkWy0suT4a6G7HcHR6HYamrNVO3sbhWSWmr5kGzIpE54HclvmegYJjav/s1600/Dear+New+Novelist+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_TSr4pMyaIFhzPT3FyNNeWfOBYnKPEIZaBCrkgfen1nqCZfoWSCpi2ECG7rzq4jk_jyrBIcKW1kSUZFrGGBX2ZkWy0suT4a6G7HcHR6HYamrNVO3sbhWSWmr5kGzIpE54HclvmegYJjav/s400/Dear+New+Novelist+1.png" width="266" /></a>Dear New Novelist,<br />
<br />
Congratulations! You've hit your 50k on NaNoWriMo, or maybe you've put THE END on your novel. Either way, you've got a lot of words. You've worked hard on them, through easy bursts and head-bangingly difficult blocks. They're all yours. Now what? Well, you have a few options: if you're doing NaNoWriMo or Camp, it's time to validate; you can send it to some beta readers; or if you've done your editing already, time to submit it to publishers or agents.<br />
<br />
"But wait!" you say, clutching your novel to your chest. "How can I possibly do that? What if someone tries to steal it?!"<br />
<br />
Dear New Novelist, no one is going to steal your unedited, unpublished work.<br />
<br />
Every year during NaNo, numerous newbies panic over validation or using the official word counter. "Who's doing the counting? Where is my novel stored so that it can be counted? What's stopping anyone from stealing my hard work?"<br />
<br />
Answers: Absolutely no one, absolutely no where, and so many reasons.<br />
<br />
The counting is done by a word counter not unlike your own word processing program's. It doesn't need to save anything anywhere. It just counts the words and dumps it, as if it never existed. Imagine if it saved a copy of every novel submitted every year. In 2015, there were 40,423 winners of NaNoWriMo according to <a href="http://www.wikiwrimo.org/wiki/NaNoWriMo_statistics">WikiWriMo</a>. Since 2010, there have been 254,342 winning novels. The site slows down enough on November 30th just trying to count everyone's requests without storage. If it were trying to pop it into a server somewhere and save it, the whole site would likely be rendered nonfunctional. <br />
<br />
And not a single one of those novels was edited when it was submitted for validation. That's 254,000 messy chunks of coal with the potential to become diamonds, mixed in with people who submitted Lorem Ipsum because they handwrote their novels or used a typewriter, or people who scrambled their text out of the concerns listed above. Even if they saved a copy of everyone's novel, if someone at the NaNoWriMo Office wanted to steal your validated work for publication, they would have to read completely through <i>every single submission</i> to find the ones that are not fanfiction, that are complete (because 50k doesn't mean done), and that aren't filled with "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" 5000 times. Then, once they've isolated those that qualify, they'd have to edit it, because who has time for a deep cleaning edit during NaNo?<br />
<br />
Plagiarists steal because they don't want to do the work, and editing is, to most writers, the least fun work of all in writing. What plagiarists would rather do, what they do, in fact, do, is take someone's published work and change a few words to pass it off as their own.<br />
<br />
This is the same reason a beta reader isn't going to steal your novel, or an editor or agent. Because most likely, they all need work that a plagiarist is not going to want to do. Even if they did, there's no guarantee whatever the end result is will sell. Working with something already published, they know it's something that someone will buy.<br />
<br />
Now, this isn't a reason not to thoroughly vet your beta readers, agents, editors, and publishers. Do your homework. For beta readers, use people you trust, not just the first stranger who offers. For editors, publishers, and agents, get reviews from other people, check <a href="http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?22-Bewares-Recommendations-amp-Background-Check">Absolute Write's Bewares, Recommendations, and Background Check forum</a> and scour the internet for them. Be sure you're not sending your novel off to a vanity publisher who will publish your unedited book for thousands of dollars, or to an agent that will "absolutely get you published but first you have to pay this editor who just happens to be [their] husband." There are lots of scams and scary things to be concerned about out there in the publishing world. Someone stealing your incomplete or unedited novel shouldn't even be in the top 10.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-54964001562430059502016-10-27T12:54:00.003-04:002016-10-27T12:54:47.082-04:00The Perfectionist's Guide to NaNoWriMo (Or How to Survive The First Draft Without Going Bald)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQtfpGLpaKCaZePUhNQwuUaMJE-puTRY2Qd8e9pDblCxadYt-nlxBH5sfXydu2HsdDaJDgA-IWEdt09M5fOSykvUZp29yEMJ-TBZGntd7Yl-RhJ0VuvPaHdAhshyphenhyphen9pyb7UWWHGxP4pwOo/s1600/NaNo+Perfectionist.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQtfpGLpaKCaZePUhNQwuUaMJE-puTRY2Qd8e9pDblCxadYt-nlxBH5sfXydu2HsdDaJDgA-IWEdt09M5fOSykvUZp29yEMJ-TBZGntd7Yl-RhJ0VuvPaHdAhshyphenhyphen9pyb7UWWHGxP4pwOo/s400/NaNo+Perfectionist.png" width="266" /></a></div>
It's hard being a perfectionist writer. No joke. You all who fit the qualifications know what I mean. The urge to edit everything. The desire to make it right the first time. The need for every chapter, every scene, every word to be perfect.<br />
<br />
That doesn't fly come NaNo time.<br />
<br />
It's easy to read the rules and learn the guidelines. Easy to tell yourself "just write." And way, way easier said than done. After six years of NaNo and seven attempted novels, I've learned a few things about NaNo, first drafts, and not pulling your hair out when all you want to do is Make. It. Perfect.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Redefine Perfect on a Draft-by-Draft Basis</b><br />
<br />
I think we can all come to a near-consensus on when our first draft perfection streak started: the first time a teacher, probably in middle or high school said, "This is a big project, so I want you guys to turn your first draft into me by next Friday." First draft? What's that nonsense? We'd been writing essays start to finish since our very first one. We'd perfected the last-minute, overnighter A+. Our first drafts are our only drafts. So we'd write up our turn-in-ready essay and make a few changes to dumb it down, give the teacher something to review. It really shouldn't have worked, but it did, and it ingrained in us the confidence that we don't really need to worry about drafts. We'll get it right the first time.<br />
<br />
HahahahahHahahHAAHAHaaaaa<br />
<br />
Thing is, though, a novel isn't an essay. There's a lot more room for error in 50,000 words than there is in 5,000. And when you realize 30k in that you have to completely redo everything because of a plothole you left in the third chapter, it's easy to give up. It's a failure, and we don't want to fail. Nothing less than an A, right?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo242chjRnUEYPQMShQiRF3g8N7AdKE_fV6e4RUucToPpQkLsDeHKnFs8Z4Mzm0U_dwCQQVNkuHJnWieq62f7NNHgObXHDf2Sp-lznD_94F6TCPbHQlkNDfjPJ896FLwyocjs2UrP7gXIH/s1600/Every+first+draft+is+perfect%252C+because+all+a+first+draft+has+to+do+is+exist.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo242chjRnUEYPQMShQiRF3g8N7AdKE_fV6e4RUucToPpQkLsDeHKnFs8Z4Mzm0U_dwCQQVNkuHJnWieq62f7NNHgObXHDf2Sp-lznD_94F6TCPbHQlkNDfjPJ896FLwyocjs2UrP7gXIH/s320/Every+first+draft+is+perfect%252C+because+all+a+first+draft+has+to+do+is+exist.png" width="320" /></a></div>
The trick is to redefine "perfect" to the individual draft, to move the goalposts of perfection one draft at a time. Author Jane Smiley said, "Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist." Accept this as the gospel truth. The first draft's goalpost isn't "ready to publish," it's just "written." It doesn't matter if there's giant gaping plot holes. "No plot holes" is the goalpost for draft two. Or "no typos" or "no atrocious grammar" or whatever you want that second draft goalpost to be. Not "perfect perfect" though. That's at LEAST third draft, if not fourth or fifth. <br />
<br />
<b>2. Just Because You Wrote It Doesn't Mean You Have To See It</b><br />
<br />
So you just wrote a 2,000 word scene and realize "this isn't working." You have to scrap it all. A whole day's writing, down the recycle bin. But before you hit that delete key, stop! You wrote that. And maybe part of it is salvageable or belongs in a different scene. Don't shortchange your wordcount or do something you may regret. Just hide it. You've got a number of options to make the bad text go away without actually going away forever.<br />
<ul>
<li>Make the text white or use black highlight on black text.</li>
<li>Change the font to an unreadable one, like Wingdings.</li>
<li>Move the text to the bottom of the document, several pages down, or if you're using a program like Scrivner, to a separate file.</li>
</ul>
You may be able to think of other tricks to make your mistakes disappear. Whatever you choose to do, implement it, from single sentences to whole chapters. During the first draft, and especially during NaNo, don't just delete haphazardly. That's part of draft two. Write that on your goalpost.<br />
<br />
<b>3. It's Okay To Skip Around or Come Back Later</b><br />
<br />
If you're anything like me, you like your perfect drafts to be written in one long swoop, start to finish, Chapter 1 to The End. You write a book just like you read a book. Maybe the thought of breaking it up gives you cold sweats. After all, how can you accurately write the scene where the hero finally meets the villain if you don't know if the love interest is there or not, or if there's a mentor figure the villain's supposed to kill that you haven't introduced yet so you don't even know his personality!<br />
<br />
This is me telling you, it's okay. It's okay to skip that awkward conversation if you don't know how to write it yet. It's okay to jump forward to the end when you too happy to write the death scene. It's okay to come back later, whether it's a huge event or a name for a minor character. Leave yourself a note, highlighted yellow and surrounded by attention-grabbing symbols (I like to do [ADD ____]). You don't need the paragraph or scene or chapter to be perfect now, only complete later. And I'll tell you why. You don't complete puzzles by doing one row at a time, in
order, right? You get the pieces and parts you can figure out first (the
outer frame, the obvious, odd colored pieces, etc) and then use those
to fill in the rest. You can do that with your novel. It's just a puzzle
where you decide what the picture is.<br />
<br />
<b>4. You're Always A Winner</b><br />
<br />
It can feel like if you don't get that purple verified bar, you've failed. You'll want to pretend you never even tried, to make November and NaNo have just not happened for us. We're perfectionists because we don't like failure. But sometimes, despite our best efforts, even if we do everything right, we just can't win. Maybe life got in the way, or maybe you lost your drive. Whatever the reason, you lost.<br />
<b> </b><b></b><br />
But you've also won.<br />
<br />
Whether you finish November with 100 words or 49,999, those are words you didn't have before. You WROTE. You created something that didn't exist before, and you have the road paved to keep going. There is nothing stopping you from keeping going beyond November. You don't have to put down the story and never look at it again just because you didn't finish it in the course of one month. The "victory" goal of NaNo is 50,000 words, but the real goal of NaNo is to just write. Did you write? Congrats. You've won. What did you win? The right to call yourself a writer. Heck yeah, that's awesome. And what are a few colored pixels compared to that?<br />
<br />
********<br />
<br />
So, perfectionists, let go of your hair. November is coming, and you're going to write, and it's going to be just fine. Self-inflicted bald spots only lead to more stress. Scientific fact.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-55065309901343763872016-09-23T13:56:00.003-04:002016-09-23T13:56:57.106-04:00Hello Tumblr!I've noticed that I suddenly got a large bump of views coming from Tumblr and the Tumblr app, so I can only assume that one or more of my pages migrated its way over there. Welcome to everyone stumbling their way here from there! Please feel welcome to leave comments just to say hi. I should have an exciting update coming soon, so I hope you'll stick around. Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-91992064405796010232016-09-07T09:22:00.000-04:002016-09-07T09:34:57.360-04:00Wherein I Decide To Make A Fool of Myself<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're buds now.</td></tr>
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So I'm gonna blame Pokemon Go on the lack of updates the past month. Really, it was just me waffling on a lot of stuff, but still gonna blame Pokemon Go. I just caught a Scyther!<br />
<br />
I've been thinking a lot about hobbies and things we say we ought to do "someday." For a lot of people, that's write a book. Been there, still doing that. Most of the time, when I say it, it's about a video game. I was a somewhat late bloomer in the console gaming realm. My first foray into it was the Super Nintendo, and even then, I wasn't the most adventurous. Sure, I had the Marios and the Donkey Kongs and Kirby, but mostly, I had tie-in games like Aladdin and Lion King and Tiny Toon Adventures. If I didn't know the name, I wasn't interested. Meaning I missed A LOT. And I still haven't played a lot.<br />
<br />
We're really into watching Lets Players. It's fun to watch these online personalities coast or struggle through games. You get really into it, not unlike sports. Just ask me how many times we've ended up yelling at one of them when they miss power-ups or forget that a baddie pops out right there or any multitude of other gaming errors. And then ask how many times I've said, "I've never even played that, and I could probably do better than them." The answer is "way too much."<br />
<br />
Only recently, I've thought, "I should put my money where my mouth is." Try that game. Fail spectacularly. And if I'm going to embarrass myself, well, why not put it online where I could at least entertain people?<br />
<br />
So I'm thinking about starting an LP channel. Because I'm so good about keeping up a schedule with anything, right, so let's add one more thing I can neglect? Yeah, I know. It's a supremely bad idea. But I want to try it. I've got friends who would join me as fellow commentators and a supportive husband to beg for aid. I do NOT have a very good internet connection (Hold on, it's time for my daily "Check on the local Google Fiber Status" update... Still under construction with no completion estimate. Sigh.) So I may not be able to livestream, but I could record for Youtube upload. It'll require some testing and trial and LOTS of error, but darn it, I want to try.<br />
<br />
If I do progress with this, I'll post links here. I hope you all will come along with me. Well, at least I hope you will if you like watching people make fools of themselves playing video games. Me. Me making a fool of myself playing video games. At least you guys will have a good time. Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-71252133672355644622016-07-22T13:22:00.004-04:002016-10-06T13:44:32.135-04:00Get a Job, Hippie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtV2VoP4Jx6BcgZIqc7myAGbnkLhhaNIQ6CG0pZFY42Jw_DYUmrlrhR-4YDxW6LRzPr1xKOUPY3X6lM1ALZJuIiuGFjaUrm9ZnnaMG846sn7CH3YGpySMKaUb4_CQN1MmqoGDWG9dS6XQ5/s1600/Jobs%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtV2VoP4Jx6BcgZIqc7myAGbnkLhhaNIQ6CG0pZFY42Jw_DYUmrlrhR-4YDxW6LRzPr1xKOUPY3X6lM1ALZJuIiuGFjaUrm9ZnnaMG846sn7CH3YGpySMKaUb4_CQN1MmqoGDWG9dS6XQ5/s400/Jobs%25281%2529.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuwiNkh3WTh1Snj2A-haTP9u0KLys9Lus9Rc5nk_6O96OzopY1TtfD0leZrFhv-_i1qTZ8WimKIcJzKbRhxgQ9hUNEcKphMRZq0y_QiiLhFIl3e0fhvnpF0G0gaPz7TQFGnwsMwvdQiJ_e/s1600/Jobs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
Another hard thing to come up with for your characters are jobs. The written world is full of doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Janitors, plumbers, and builders are always the one to offer words of wisdom. Authors tend to enjoy writing about authors. And don't even mention retail work or food service. It's all been seen and done a million times, but there've got to be more options.<br />
<br />
Problem is, it's hard to find them. But don't worry, I've gone ahead and done that for you. Below are 45 jobs you might not think of or may have never heard of, but I assure you, they're real. Whether they pay well or not, well, that's a question for another day.<br />
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Do you know of a weird, unusual, or wacky job? Leave it in the comments!<br />
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<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Job"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;"><b>Job</b></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Job Description"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"><b>Job Description</b></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Acupuncturist"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Acupuncturist</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Inserts needles into everything but veins"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Inserts needles into everything but veins</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Airline Gate Agent"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Airline Gate Agent</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Last call for boarding [your flight and you're halfway across the airport sucks to be you, pal]"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Last call for boarding [your flight and you're halfway across the airport sucks to be you, pal]</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Arcade Machine Repair"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Arcade Machine Repair</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Plus side, you get to play it when you're done fixing it. To \"Test it.\""}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Plus side, you get to play it when you're done fixing it. To "Test it."</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Art Selector"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Art Selector</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Picks out art for walls at places like hospitals."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Picks out art for walls at places like hospitals.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Auction Buyer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Auction Buyer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Goes to auctions in the name of big-name buyers so others won't be tipped off to items of value"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Goes to auctions in the name of big-name buyers so others won't be tipped off to items of value</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Backstage Support"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Backstage Support</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Helps stage actors with quick costume changes, prepares props, etc"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Helps stage actors with quick costume changes, prepares props, etc</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Bailiff"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Bailiff</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"All rise"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">All rise</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Bird of prey trainer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Bird of Prey Trainer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Falcons, owls, hawks, eagles: these are your coworkers"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Falcons, owls, hawks, eagles: these are your coworkers</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"City Councilman"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">City Councilman</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Like a congressman, but at city level"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Like a congressman, but at city level</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Clinical Research Coordinator"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Clinical Research Coordinator</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Coordinates, organizes for, and recruits for medical research"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Coordinates, organizes for, and recruits for medical research</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Coffin handle installer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Coffin Handle Installer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"There's a job just for installing coffin handles. Who knew?"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">There's a job just for installing coffin handles. Who knew?</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Convention/Concert Organizer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Convention/Concert Organizer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Someone has to arrange the shows, schedules, panels, etc. This is them."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Someone has to arrange the shows, schedules, panels, etc. This is them.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Court Reporter"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Court Reporter</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Records all statements during court"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Records all statements during court</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Cover Artist"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Cover Artist</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Designs book covers"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Designs book covers</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Docent"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Docent</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Guides at museums, zoos, etc"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Guides at museums, zoos, etc</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Dog food taster"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Dog Food Taster</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Yes, this is a job for humans."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Yes, this is a job for humans.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Ethical hacker"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Ethical Hacker</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Try to hack into systems that shouldn't be hacked or broken"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Try to hack into systems that shouldn't be hacked or broken</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Fortune cookie writer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Fortune Cookie Writer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"You will be paid to write one-sentence blurbs."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">You will be paid to write one-sentence blurbs.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Golf ball diver"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Golf Ball Diver</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Someone has to go into the water traps. Those balls cost money."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Someone has to go into the water traps. Those balls cost money.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Google Streetview driver"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Google Streetview Driver</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"We see 'em rollin', we hatin' try to do something stupid to immortalize ourselves"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">We see 'em rollin', we <strike>hatin' </strike>try to do something stupid to immortalize ourselves</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Herbalist"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Herbalist</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Why use Advil when you could have St John's Wart?"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Why use Advil when you could have St John's Wart?</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Hospice Caregiver"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Hospice Caregiver</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Whether at thier home or a facility, these people make their patients' last days comfortable. "}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Whether at thier home or a facility, these people make their patients' last days comfortable. </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Jelly bean flavor maker"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Jelly Bean Flavor Maker</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Someone had to figure out how to make those grass jellybeans taste that way."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Someone had to figure out how to make those grass jellybeans taste that way.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Jingle writer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Jingle Writer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"That song during that commercial you hate? Someone wrote that."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">That song during that commercial you hate? Someone wrote that.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Karaoke Cab driver"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Karaoke Cab Driver</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"It's a cab, with karaoke, and you're behind the wheel."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">It's a cab, with karaoke, and you're behind the wheel.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Landscape Architect"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Landscape Architect</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Makes your yard worthy of a magazine, if you can afford it."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Makes your yard worthy of a magazine, if you can afford it.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Museum Curator"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Museum Curator</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Manages and oversees the collections of a museum"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Manages and oversees the collections of a museum</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Mystery Shopper"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Mystery Shopper</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Determine how well a business's employees are performing, secretly."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Determine how well a business's employees are performing, secretly.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Celebrity Obituary Writer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Celebrity Obituary Writer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Newspapers have obituaries ready for more people than you'd suspect."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Newspapers have obituaries ready for more people than you'd suspect.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Orthoepist"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Orthoepist</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Studies the correct pronunciation of words"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Studies the correct pronunciation of words</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Party Costumer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Party Costumer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Dresses up like cartoon characters or movie characters for children's birthdays"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Dresses up like cartoon characters or movie characters for children's birthdays</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Patent Lawyer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Patent Lawyer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Determines legality of patents"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Determines legality of patents</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Pet psychologist"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Pet Psychologist</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"What's eating Fluffy? "}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">What's eating Fluffy? </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Phlebotomist"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Phlebotomist</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Inserts needles into veins"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Inserts needles into what the Acupuncturist doesn't</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Physical Penetration Tester"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Physical Penetration Tester</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Try to steal things from places that shouldn't have things stolen from (hospitals, labs, etc)"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Try to steal things from places that shouldn't have things stolen from (hospitals, labs, etc)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Political Cartoonist"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Political Cartoonist</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Making fun of the news, one politician at a time."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Making fun of the news, one politician at a time.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Professional [Thing] Tester"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Professional [Thing] Tester</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Think of an object. There's someone to test it. Mattresses, toys, water slides, anything."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Think of an object. There's someone to test it. Mattresses, toys, water slides, anything.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Professional Cosplayer / Booth Babe"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Professional Cosplayer / Booth Babe</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Cosplays for a living, either personally or for a specific company"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Cosplays for a living, either personally or for a specific company</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Professional queuer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Professional Queuer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Don't want to wait in line for the new big thing? Pay someone else to do it."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Don't want to wait in line for the new big thing? Pay someone else to do it.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Prop Purchaser/Builder"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Prop Purchaser/Builder</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Buys/Builds props for TV shows & movies"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Buys/Builds props for TV shows & movies</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Radio Phone Operator"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Radio Phone Operator</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"\"101.5 ROCK. You're caller 7. Try again.\" (also handles guest callers during downtime)"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">"101.5 ROCK. You're caller 7. Try again." (also handles guest callers during downtime)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Search Engine Optimizer"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Search Engine Optimizer</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Determines how accurate search engine results are"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Determines how accurate search engine results are</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Snake milker"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Snake Milker</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Collect venom for the creation of antivenom"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Collect venom for the creation of antivenom</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Social Media Manager"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Social Media Manager</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Handles famous person's social media accounts or presense"}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Handles famous person's social media accounts or presense</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Stunt Actor"}" style="padding: 2px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: center;">Stunt Actor</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Taking the hits so the pretty faces don't have to."}" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Taking the hits so the pretty faces don't have to.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-16522581270206923562016-06-20T15:54:00.001-04:002016-10-06T13:44:42.116-04:00Pick Up A Bad Habit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiihkVc10QKq8bJ00FJU5SnEjv2CpPhRWWW-TdyjYBzvmq9TB3V0vu2xdfDOiAajvGZtO-2s_2mMEIcenOLKAZveuR0CJ0G7nsJ1WboXo1J-UFHQzHcwnOZbLOz95QxaBro0j_Zt2wzUn_/s1600/Bad+Habits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiihkVc10QKq8bJ00FJU5SnEjv2CpPhRWWW-TdyjYBzvmq9TB3V0vu2xdfDOiAajvGZtO-2s_2mMEIcenOLKAZveuR0CJ0G7nsJ1WboXo1J-UFHQzHcwnOZbLOz95QxaBro0j_Zt2wzUn_/s400/Bad+Habits.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
Since I started this blog, I've been trying to figure out something that I could do that hasn't been done a thousand times before. All the advice I know has been given by far better bloggers than I and far better than I'm capable of. The Moments of the Week slowed to a boring crawl. I don't want to be the jerk who just talks about me.<br />
<br />
But you know what I've realized? I am really good at making lists. And between writing and years of playing tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, I've come to enjoy making characters and helping others make them. So why not continue making lists like the hobbies one to help other people with their character creation? Most likely, this won't be a long-running thing, as there are only so many lists needed for character and world building, but I guarantee, you'll be able to find it here.<br />
<br />
Today, we're looking at bad habits. No character is perfect. Everyone's got these little quirks that they know they should work on fixing. Pick one or two (or more!) for your characters to make them more well-rounded and maybe give them something to improve about themselves.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 225px;"><colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 10093; mso-width-source: userset; width: 207pt;" width="225"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; width: 207pt;" width="276"><b>Bad Habits</b></td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Apologizing</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Arguing</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Biting pens/pencils</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Blaming others</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Bottling emotions</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Bragging</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Buying things and not using
them</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Cheating</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Cheek or Lip biting/tearing</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Chewing</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Chewing tobacco</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Coveting others' things</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Cracking knuckles/joints</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Cutting corners/skimping</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Drinking / Getting drunk</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Eating junk food</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Eating late</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Eating out daily</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Eating with mouth open</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Fidgeting</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Forgetfulness </td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Gambling</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Grinding teeth</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Hair chewing/sucking</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Hangnail pulling</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Hard drugs</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Holding grudges</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Impatience</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Impulse purchasing</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Inability to sit still</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Internet overuse</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Interrupting</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Jaywalking</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Judging others</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Kleptomania</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Leaving dirty clothes/dishes
out</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Littering</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Losing temper</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Losing things</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Lying</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Making puns</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Nail biting/picking</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">No self-control</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not backing up data</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not bathing</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not brushing teeth</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not caring for health when
sick</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not involving others in
decisions that affect them</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not knowing limits</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not listening/ignoring others</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not responding to messages</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Not trying new things</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Overeating</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Oversleeping</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Overspending</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Picking at skin/scabs</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Picking nose</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Playing with hair</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Pornography addiction</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Procrastinating</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Selfishness</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Sitting still for long periods</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Smoking</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Snooze button overuse</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Speaking in 3rd person</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Staring</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Starting projects without
finishing</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Staying up late</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Stress/emotional eating</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Stubbornness</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Sucking thumbs</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Tapping fingers/feet</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Too much TV</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Tugging ears</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Unprotected sex</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Using cell phone/tablet in
social situations</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Using other people's stuff</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt;">Verbal tics
("like")</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-24924185356827955012016-06-14T11:27:00.001-04:002016-06-14T11:35:20.690-04:00The Sunshine Thingy!<a href="https://afhumphrey.wordpress.com/">Anna Humphrey</a> is an evil, evil woman. She continues to like me enough to tag me for blog challenges and awards. This time, she's hit me up for the Sunshine Thingy, a silly ten-question interview where the questions are all made up by the previous poster. Our friend Elaine at <a href="http://elainewitt.com/2016/06/the-real-elaine-witt-sunshine-blog/">Tears of Ink</a> has already finished hers (and sniped my usual JR tag!), so I suppose I should stop procrastinating and get on this.<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><b>You are stranded on a desert island. You are allowed one book, one CD, and one movie. What do you take?</b><br />One? Starting with such a cruel question. My "evil, evil woman" analysis holds up. My first book choice would be <i>Ready Player One</i> by Ernest Cline, but the nostalgia and inability to act on it would be unbearable. So I'd probably pick <i>Jingo </i>by Terry Pratchett.<br />CD: the Greatest Hits album of Huey Lewis and the News. <br />Movie: The Avengers.<br /> <br /> </li>
<li><b>Favourite season? Why?</b><br />Right now. That late spring/early summer where the sun and wind are warm, there's no need for the jackets to come back out for months, and fireflies are lighting up the night, making dancing stars on Earth.<br /><br /> </li>
<li><b>Coffee fanatic or tea fiend? With milk/cream and sugar or without?</b><br />Tea. Sweet tea, southern style, cold and sugary.<br /> <br /> </li>
<li><b>What one place would you visit with that magical plane ticket? Why?</b><br />Assuming by magical we mean "anywhere at all" then by golly I'm on my way to Ankh-Morpork and don't even try to stop me. I'm going straight Two-Flower here.<br /><br />If we were meant to pick a real world location, then probably the Galapagos Islands. I've always wanted to go there, mingle with the wildlife.<br /><br /> </li>
<li><b>Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or Harry Potter? ::evil laugh::</b><br />Potter. While I love them all, Star Wars and Harry Potter were my childhoods. I was a late-comers to Lord of the Rings. Then Star Wars failed me on the prequels. So Potter takes the metaphorical gold.<br /><br /> </li>
<li><b>Black Widow or Catwoman? Explain.</b><br />Black Widow 4 lyfe. Marvel 4 lyfe.<br /> <br /> </li>
<li><b>Milk chocolate or sinfully dark?</b><br />Dark. Not long ago I would have said milk, but I've learned to love dark recently. <br /> <br /></li>
<li><b>Smaug: justified in defending his hoard against thieving dwarves or homicidal maniac?</b><br />Wasn't his horde in the first place, now was it? He, in fact, was the original thief. <br /> <br /></li>
<li><b>Dragons or krakens?</b><br />Oh man, this is a legitimately tough question. I love them both. Krakens are awesome, rarer and have the best catchphrase, plus I just love the mystery of the oceans, but man, dragons are DRAGONS. Uuuuugh krakens. I pick krakens. Krakens aren't gonna take my shiny stuff.<br /><br /></li>
<li><b>You find a gold ring buried in your backyard. What do you do?</b><br />Hey y'all, a genuine Noprize for anyone who guesses what Anna's favorite series is. <br /><br />Legit answer: have my neighbors contact the former homeowner and arrange to return it. His mother was the only person to own our house, so it would be highly likely that the ring was hers.<br /><br />Honest answer: I've always wanted to take a trip to Hawaii to climb a volcano.</li>
</ol>
So there's a little bit more you probably never wanted to know about me. Congratulations! Now, <br />
<a href="https://greendragonartist.net/">Christy Nicholas</a>, <a href="http://agcarpenter.blogspot.com/">A. G. Carpenter</a>, <a href="http://www.jjlitke.com/blog/">JJ Litke</a>, and anyone else who wishes to take this challenge (just leave a comment and I'll add you to this link list), here are your questions!<br />
<br />
1. Hot dog or hamburger? (Veggie options are allowed for vegetarian or vegan followers.)<br />
2. Time travel has been invented! When are you going?<br />
3. What is your favorite kind of weather, and why?<br />
4. In a race between the Flash, Quicksilver, Superman, and a tortoise, who's your money on?<br />
5. What was the first story you ever wrote?<br />
6. You have to go explore either deep space or the deep sea. Which do you pick?<br />
7. What's your favorite musical?<br />
8. Marvel or DC?<br />
9. Following that, who's your favorite supervillain?<br />
10. You get to have a dinner with five people of your choice, living or dead, but you have to cook. Who do you invite and what do you make?Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-1448861075994473242016-06-09T09:31:00.000-04:002016-06-09T09:31:16.902-04:00Guest Post: Stacey E Bryan on Being That Weird ChickIt's been a while since we had my friend Abner as a guest post, hasn't it? Yeah, almost two years. I think it's about time for another. A few days ago, my friend Stacey released DAY FOR NIGHT, and she asked if I'd be willing to host her on her blog tour. Me, hosting a tour about an urban paranormal comedy? *looks at own urban paranormal comedy in progress* Absurd, right? Yeah, nuts. So let's get this absurdity out of the way and say hi to Stacey E Bryan!<br />
<br />
~~~~~~~~~<br />
<br />
My thanks to Maggie for hosting me on her blog today for my first virtual book tour ever!<br />
<br />
I want to say this journey has been fun and exciting, the process of publishing my first novel, an urban paranormal comedy, but I’m not sure those are the most accurate words I could use. Confusing is a better one. Stressful is definitely up there. Scary can be shoved in there between those two. My experience, ironically, could almost be called paranormal. Why? Well, maybe it has something to do with being weird like Maggie. Maggie describes herself as “that weird chick” and that’s how I’d probably describe myself. I’m not sure what ingredients go into Maggie’s makeup to make her weird, exactly, but mine include a wariness of technology bordering on paranoia; something that is not helpful to me in today’s world. Especially after writing a book and getting it published online.<br />
<br />
I’m that weird chick too, though. I preferred being alone. I had a black cat called Mr. Smith who followed me everywhere like a dog. I wasn’t interested in going to the prom. And, yes, I did have a date! I learned to drive when I was 18. Grudgingly. Why? you ask. Sometimes I even ask myself why? It probably had something to do with being adopted and being mixed race. Ultimately, I found solace in reading (who doesn’t?) and later in writing. Books actually explained a lot of things. They made me think. They helped me stop thinking. And then the catharsis of writing started. And that was even better sometimes.<br />
<br />
My main protagonist, Rae, survives a terrifying event in her late teens that shapes the rest of her life, sending her into a kind of directionless floating that leaves her with slowly escalating regret. And although Rae and I may share some regrets, all of the dramatic stuff that never happened to me happens to Rae, including discovering that other beings inhabit reality: aliens and vampires. And she begins to suspect there are others, to boot. <br />
<br />
She handles each escalating situation the way I probably would handle it if I was in her shoes. In other words, badly. Lots of drinking and denial. I made Rae mixed race so that I could touch on those issues a little bit. But humorously, since the novel is a comedy. I felt like race and age couldn’t be ignored, though, especially since the setting is Los Angeles, a place where people “seem” to get along and more or less “like” each other, but a choppy sea of misunderstanding, discontent, and, ultimately, bigotry is constantly churning right beneath that David Lynchonian surface. <br />
<br />
I think it’s sort of amazing that I made it this far. I mean, if I do say so myself. For someone who owned a flip phone just a year and a half ago, I think I’ve made strides and come far, dragging Rae and her aliens and vampires kicking and screaming behind me. So my advice to other authors, to those who dabble, to those who do more than dabble: stick with it! I know it’s sort of clichéd, but stick with it. And there’s so much help online. For those like me, starting from less than scratch in social media, there’s lots of instruction available. I’m sure one day soon I’ll be able to give advice of my own. It’ll feel good to give back. <br />
<br />
Ultimately, for weird chicks like me, weird chicks like Maggie, un-weird chicks and guys and everyone in between, if you’re a writer, the “stick with it” advice probably counts more for querying once you’re done, online marketing, the endless blogging and promotion. But probably a writer doesn’t need to be told to “stick with it” to keep writing. After all, I don’t know about you, but even when I wasn’t writing, for many years, all I thought about, night and day, was writing. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. It’s what I do. And what I long to do. And what I hope to do. And what I love to do. And sharing the love is just the best, the most supreme, the absolute cherry on top.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here’s an excerpt from Day for Night:<br />
<br />
<i>The world came to an end on a balmy Tuesday evening while I was doing laundry in my Glendale apartment building. Not on a Monday so I could start off the week fresh with the apocalypse, knowing just where I stood. Or a Friday so I could say, “Thank God, it’s the weekend. I need to de-stress from the End of Days.” It was a Tuesday. Four weeks to the day that I had been voted off one of the most popular reality shows running: Muscle Beach Midlife: Sand in your Face. I guess it didn’t matter that Muscle Midlife had no voting. Details, schmetails. They did it anyway, and it made for good TV. If ratings were sharks, I was the bloody, mashed-up chum.<br /><br />I was multitasking. For me, this involved doing laundry while I mused about regret. What better time to muse on the nature of regret than when the world was about to end? Of course, I had no idea such was the case as I made my way deeper into Single White Female territory—my building’s dank basement—gripping my basket tight and my rage tighter. I shouldn’t even be here. <br /><br />Forced out of escrow on my dream condo in Hermosa Beach, bad timing left me scrambling, and I’d ended up here, surrounded by elderly Armenian gentlemen who seemed to disapprove of women wearing pants. Parents? They lived out of state. Sister Margarite? Not an option in this life or the next. You found out fast who your real friends were when you got kicked off a TV show. When anything went wrong in this town, Los Angeles, especially if even remotely connected to The Biz, you’d blink twice and find yourself in the middle of a boiling, empty desert with nothing but the cacti and a lizard doing pushups on a rock. Two handfuls of “friends” condensed overnight down to just Hama and Rex.<br /><br />So, back to regret, back to the end of the world. An overall discontent, kick-started by Sand in your Face, had bogarted its way past the borders, routed the castle walls. The castle being the state of denial I lived in, discontent being reality. <br /><br />It was funny that I was thinking of reality as I neared the laundry room, basket on my hip, because I was expecting a certain series of circumstances ahead of me. I was expecting the machines to all be occupied, except for one, which wouldn’t be enough to accommodate my load. I was expecting the light bulb to be stuttering in its usual migraine-inducing pattern. Even before I arrived, I could hear them all busily humming. All the machines, all being used. The one poster on the wall would be there, Truffaut’s Day for Night, dusty, the plastic cover cracked in one corner. I even expected my right shoulder to jackknife with pain when I hitched the basket up on my hip. It was injured almost a year ago after a failed Pap smear attempt. <br /><br />What I wasn’t expecting was to turn the corner and find my thirty-something neighbor Annie, eyes open, silent, encased by a cone of light and suspended in midair just inside the doorway. Nope. Wasn’t expecting that at all. Floating beside her was the small, big-headed creature I’d seen a million times on TV and in the movies, so hilariously clichéd that I laughed out loud. There were some young filmmakers in the building. It must be an experiment, a joke. But then the creature turned, and it just wasn’t funny anymore.</i><br />
<br />
<b>AUTHOR BIO</b><br />
Stacey was raised in the San Fernando Valley but born in San Francisco, where she left part of her heart. She has worked on a dude ranch, coached gymnastics, and captions for the hearing impaired. Her work has appeared in several literary magazines in New York and L.A., including Ginosko and The Rag. She is currently working on the sequel to her novel Day for Night. She lives in “beautiful downtown Burbank,” as Johnny Carson used to say, with her husband who is also a writer. <br />
<br />
WEBSITE: <a href="https://staceyebryan.wordpress.com/">http://staceyebryan.wordpress.com</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy3FZGLPWyY6CABQKDEbm0GvgWGegjtk95d8j-tgoqLQNz7Oldi3EHkpdFl_AOKw2deqiEd4aHcYB5ZF-j_LzJWrIDLR6JVtnipcs-HiKLTPA-d1xtEOPbNbLr1XXyeVZu6KxputLuNIDR/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy3FZGLPWyY6CABQKDEbm0GvgWGegjtk95d8j-tgoqLQNz7Oldi3EHkpdFl_AOKw2deqiEd4aHcYB5ZF-j_LzJWrIDLR6JVtnipcs-HiKLTPA-d1xtEOPbNbLr1XXyeVZu6KxputLuNIDR/s320/cover.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<i> <b> </b></i><br />
<i><b>DAY FOR NIGHT</b></i><br />
When reality TV star Rae Miller is kicked unceremoniously to the curb by her back-stabbing cast mates, she quickly realizes that revenge fantasies and unemployment are the least of her problems after she witnesses an alien abduction in broad daylight. Worse, after escaping a terrifying almost-abduction herself, Rae succumbs to a sexy Nosferatu’s silky assurances, becoming undead in order to up her alien Ultimate Fighting skills. Life is hard as a 38-to-40-something aspiring actress in L.A. Thank God for Jack Daniel’s and denial. <i><b></b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<a href="http://www.vagabondagepress.com/">www.vagabondagepress.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/day-for-night-stacey-e-bryan/1123844322?ean=2940153034478">Barnes&Noble</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30259680-day-for-night">Goodreads</a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Day-Night-Stacey-Bryan-ebook/dp/B01FZUD4LQ?ie=UTF8&keywords=day%20for%20night%20stacey%20e.%20bryan&qid=1464325078&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1"><br />Amazon</a>Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-41541203746422036222016-06-07T10:31:00.001-04:002016-10-06T13:44:51.919-04:00Get a Hobby!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QHzsBbNIQHWJwq0UAsib6LXTge2PJcPf7FowTOwzvsuNy6WXZ3WHQnJyiP4JymX3ojnaeasaAbW8vNx9W3tjgduNxI0_g7P7dPL9vRMjDHdZCkdXxyNfFkEEg_lyjwgmnwhjO87csCej/s1600/101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QHzsBbNIQHWJwq0UAsib6LXTge2PJcPf7FowTOwzvsuNy6WXZ3WHQnJyiP4JymX3ojnaeasaAbW8vNx9W3tjgduNxI0_g7P7dPL9vRMjDHdZCkdXxyNfFkEEg_lyjwgmnwhjO87csCej/s400/101.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
Character development is HARD, especially when it comes to making up what they enjoy doing. The easiest route is to just make them like what you like, but the more characters you have, the harder it gets. I've been racking my brain the past few days trying to figure out what one of my MCs does for fun, and she's not telling. So, for a brute force method, I compiled a list of as many hobbies as I could possibly think of. This list is ever-growing as more hobbies turn up. Yes, I know the image says 101. That's how many there were when I made it, and 101+ doesn't look nearly as nice. In any event, I'm not going to let the fruits of my brain-labor go to waste, meaning you all get to reap the benefits! Below are all the hobbies, neatly categorized into type of hobby. And if you think of something that's not on the list, please leave it in the comments!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 290px;"><colgroup><col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 8265; mso-width-source: userset; width: 170pt;" width="226"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl69" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center; width: 48pt;" width="64"><b>Topic</b></td>
<td class="xl70" style="text-align: center; width: 170pt;" width="226"><b>Hobby</b></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Archaeology</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Architecture</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Babysitting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Car Repair</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Chemistry</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Computer Programming</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Interior Design</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Party Planning</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Robotics</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Career</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Video Game Development</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Animation</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Building Dollhouses / Making Accessories</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Building Furniture</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Clothesmaking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Computer Art / Graphic Design</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Cosplay</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Crafting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Crochet</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Dioramas</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Doodling</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Drawing / Cartooning</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Jewelrymaking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Journaling / Blogging</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Knitting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Metalworking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Painting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Perler Beads</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Photography</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Playing Music</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Pottery</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Scrapbooking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Sculpture</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Sewing / Quilting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Theater / Acting / Improv</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Woodburning</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Woodcarving</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Writing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Creative</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Writing Music</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Baking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Cake Decorating</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Candy Making</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Canning / Preserving</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Cooking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Drinking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Eating</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Mixology</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Food</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Mushroom Hunting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Board Games</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Building Models</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Card Games</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Chess</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Collecting (Any)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Dancing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Dollhouses</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Driving</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Fandom</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Fantasy Football</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Gambling</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Guns / Shooting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Hacky-sack</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Listening to Music</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Playing Pool</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Reading</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Shopping</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Singing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Sleeping</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Surfing the Internet</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Tabletop Games (D&D, Warhammer)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Video Games</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Leisure</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Watching TV</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Birdwatching</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Camping</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Exploring</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Fishing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Flower Arranging</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Gardening</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Geocaching</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Hiking / Backpacking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Insect Collecting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Nature</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Stargazing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Base-jumping</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Cleaning</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Community Service</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Genealogy</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Group Activity (4-H, Scouts, etc)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Hacking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Kleptomania / Theft</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Other</td>
<td class="xl68" style="text-align: center;">Studying / Learning</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Archery</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Baseball / Softball</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Basketball</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Bowling</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Canoeing / Kayaking</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Car Racing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Cheerleading</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Cross-country / Track & Field</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Dodgeball</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Exercise / Crossfit</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Frisbee / Ultimate Frisbee / Frisbee Golf</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Golf</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Horseback Riding</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Hunting</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Jogging</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Kickball</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Lacrosse</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Obstacle Courses/Tough Mudders</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Paintball</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Parkour</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Rock Climbing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Running / Marathons</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Skating (Board or Roller)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Skiing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Snowboarding</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Soccer</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Surfing</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Swimming</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Tennis</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Volleyball</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="20" style="height: 15pt; text-align: center;">Sports</td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center;">Yoga</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-76390653422732090372016-05-03T12:43:00.003-04:002016-05-03T12:43:53.471-04:00Commiserating with Julie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp7d7bpG9RP8JxytdDQJk32Cex-Gy0UGWpdJZL8CNbr6fXpubvmacROZzCkaWU-KVr6rNeDWI4bA8prfVs1jVNx3dAQya3FJoosRFBRxlkwimEN2sU3b5BKqLjTfSCbN16-k95mDgcjdmJ/s1600/jj365.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp7d7bpG9RP8JxytdDQJk32Cex-Gy0UGWpdJZL8CNbr6fXpubvmacROZzCkaWU-KVr6rNeDWI4bA8prfVs1jVNx3dAQya3FJoosRFBRxlkwimEN2sU3b5BKqLjTfSCbN16-k95mDgcjdmJ/s320/jj365.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
I am woefully behind on my Goodreads challenge for this year, while still being nearly 20 books ahead. Long story short, I read way too many comic books. Realizing I'm six ACTUAL books behind where I should be, I picked up my Kindle and scanned through my collection of to-reads (due to home renovations and room moving, most of my physical books are packed up and lord knows where in the house.) I couldn't remember which one came next in the Percy Jackson series, so I went with the next book to grab my eye: Julie Powell's<i> Julie & Julia</i>, the tale of a blogger's one-year journey through 524 Julia Child recipes. All right, I liked the movie, I like food, let's do this.<br />
<br />
First off, let me say, Julie Powell, if you ever happen to stumble across this, you are a better woman than me. I would have chickened out the moment I saw kidneys or brains on the to-do menu while she powered through. Heck, I can't bring myself to eat lamb. They're too tiny and cute. At least with bacon, I don't know if the meat came from an adorable tiny piglet or a giant hog. Plus, Julie actually, you know, (spoiler alert) finished her challenge. I tend to be a "stop halfway" kind of person, to my shame. So as I read, I quickly came to admire this blogger (who, as another point, is also a better blogger than me, Miss "oh it's been a month, hasn't it?") I also greatly understood where she was.<br />
<br />
When Julie decided to take on this project, she was on the edge of thirty, in a standard desk job, just living and wondering what she was doing, where she was going. She was feeling all the same things I have been while my 30th birthday crawled up and past, and she did something about it. She started this project and changed her life.<br />
<br />
And where am I? It feels like now, I'm in her shoes. I know that's not entirely right. I've had my own projects. I've made and hit goals. I've finished novels, and I'm damn proud of that. And yet I still feel unsatisfied. I'm not published yet. My husband and I haven't taken a vacation for ourselves since our honeymoon six years ago. We don't have a dog and don't feel we're in a place to adopt one. I have... hold on. *counts* 11856 recipes on Pinterest I haven't made, on top of who knows how many in the copious cookbooks currently dwelling in boxes in our spare bedroom. I'm out of shape, I'm utterly TERRIBLE at keeping a clean house... I could keep going. Anyway, my point is, I'm following a road that's not leading me towards most of my goals as quickly as possible, and I'm not satisfied with that.<br />
<br />
So, what am I going to do? Right now, I don't know. There are a few idea running through my head: Come up with a bunch of 1 month challenges like NaNo and the A-Z challenge, which I know I'm good at; another go at the <a href="http://www.dayzeroproject.com/about/">Day Zero project</a>, which I attempted from 2010 to 2013 and, though I ultimately failed, accomplished a whole lot; a bunch of small schedules and rewards; a challenge project like Julie's? I don't know. I'm gonna need some time to sit and think about this, talk over some things with Mister, make some long-term plans. I've already added a few small workout routines to my work calendar. I'll update when I make up my mind on what else to do.<br />
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So thank you, Julie Powell who will probably never read this, for the little nudge I needed, and for being so very relatable right when I needed it.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-80259343475958027612016-04-30T09:30:00.000-04:002016-04-30T09:30:21.257-04:00Z is for ZE END!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9oDpwaCzBnzEgnAMQL93GVufY4jPQ3mUcPhEcyh2dHVeJ-_R6aNKuOJwLQE3sEnmD2JfTM9z6rWVEGdGc58glLR1rhcE5bLgjqm1NwWMRGb1LQjfIUKBEgH0Z5131yWsvvaROict2dtj/s1600/Z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9oDpwaCzBnzEgnAMQL93GVufY4jPQ3mUcPhEcyh2dHVeJ-_R6aNKuOJwLQE3sEnmD2JfTM9z6rWVEGdGc58glLR1rhcE5bLgjqm1NwWMRGb1LQjfIUKBEgH0Z5131yWsvvaROict2dtj/s1600/Z.jpg" /></a></div>
Holy crap, is this it? Yes, this is it! April 30th! Congratulations to everyone who succeeded at posting every day in the month of April and completed an alphabet worth of posts. This has been a long, wild ride, but I'm satisfied that I did it. Will I do it again next year? I don't know. Probably not. If the month is less hectic than this one has been, I'll most likely be head-down in Camp NaNo again. But I'm glad I finally did this at least once.<br />
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Will I keep up this pace of posting next month?<br />
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Hahahahahahhahaha.<br />
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Yeah, no. But I'll try to at least show up once a week.<br />
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Thanks for coming along for the ride, and I hope to see many of you around!Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-72076894836214197262016-04-29T11:00:00.000-04:002016-04-29T11:00:22.362-04:00Y is for Y'all<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKkM8C73HHf-xiAt1AWWAS_FIe1PrT2GiJf4J3vfrK7aiYgnAQRuA8uVKiOSGL9X7GoctvVxIGvawkUEyMZKhyphenhyphen7u6LD8-9kSclBQZGTF_SmFmc5ItRw5QYyNQVVqVKI1QghyphenhyphenbvWzv2neSq/s1600/Y.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKkM8C73HHf-xiAt1AWWAS_FIe1PrT2GiJf4J3vfrK7aiYgnAQRuA8uVKiOSGL9X7GoctvVxIGvawkUEyMZKhyphenhyphen7u6LD8-9kSclBQZGTF_SmFmc5ItRw5QYyNQVVqVKI1QghyphenhyphenbvWzv2neSq/s1600/Y.jpg" /></a></div>
A short post today, but one that needs to be said.<br />
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It's 'y'all', not 'Ya'll'. The word is a contraction of 'you all'. There is no a in you. That's not how contractions work. Unless the contraction is won't, which I still don't understand.<br />
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Just a random debate I see come up now and there. Also I couldn't think of a better "Y" word for the day. Sorry y'all.Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7644796796806029769.post-62646906082874378202016-04-28T10:30:00.000-04:002016-04-28T11:24:04.512-04:00X is for X Names<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2od4_T7vslwLXm6b_fk6JXHJwJuGUdjT81gAkooHwmnKee0ZE_1AVvQs33pX9j6BtOuIGcwpWxZYFl68J1GfLTzJ8Vz8J4lVP4QAPxrzSlSvy1Ef5SNdc2i9Ai-XJX0QTe9MxRs7ywoc6/s1600/X.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2od4_T7vslwLXm6b_fk6JXHJwJuGUdjT81gAkooHwmnKee0ZE_1AVvQs33pX9j6BtOuIGcwpWxZYFl68J1GfLTzJ8Vz8J4lVP4QAPxrzSlSvy1Ef5SNdc2i9Ai-XJX0QTe9MxRs7ywoc6/s1600/X.jpg" /></a></div>
I have a problem with character names. Aside from wanting to name, like, every male character Dave (I don't even know why), I tend to lean towards certain letters of the alphabet. When you've got one book, it's not hard to keep track of your characters' names. Once you have a few books and stories under your belt, though, the characters can get confusing.<br />
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So, with 20+ stories to keep track of, I finally made a spreadsheet to organize it. And, 'cause I like making spreadsheets, I went detailed. A page for first names, a page for last names (to see what names have been used at a glance and if I've been favoring a letter above others), a page for minor characters who may only be mentioned once or twice by name or who get a scene and then are never heard of again, a page for locations, and a page to keep track of all the stories, color-coding them so I can tell at a glance which characters go together.<br />
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What does this have to do with the letter X? Well, if there's one thing I've noticed while working on this spreadsheet, there are some letters of the alphabet that just plain get ignored. A's, M's, J's, I use them plenty. N's, P's, even V's get some good name love. But X? Z? Q? U? Blanks, or almost blank, both for first and last names. They're uncommon and not exactly the first letters to spring to mind when you're trying to name someone (or drag a name out of them, as the case may be). So I'm looking for suggestions to make a sort of waiting list for names. If you have any suggestions for X, Q, U, and Z, I'm all ears.<br />
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And for anyone who's interested, I made a sample copy of the spreadsheet to share. Please take a copy for yourself!<br /><br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oe07D_OCzF9IUDGOHmC3W0ikk2P-ZZoYORxbkN84UQc/edit?usp=sharing">Click here for the spreadsheet</a><br />
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I put in a few samples for each page so you can see how it all works. Feel free to delete them (but leave the color coding text. Believe me, it helps!)Maggie Maxwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09323518786257452997noreply@blogger.com4