Category: Weekly Posts

Muse Monday 0003

AM Devine

Hey lookie! It’s a little late, but it’s another Muse Monday post!

If you’re just joining the club here today, a quick review: Muse Mondays are days that I post things that inspire the muse and that I’d like to share with all of you!

Today’s Muse Monday is going to be a little different from the previous ones because I want to tell you something I’ve discovered triggers a desire to write. This isn’t something digital today, it’s actually something in the physical world.

It’s WRITING UTENSILS.

Pens, Pencils, Markers, you name it, I *love* them. Everything I comment about here today I’ll list at the end with Amazon links, because why not share the love? The reason I think these things inspire the muse is because it makes it so easy to storyboard and plot and even snowflake out my stories if I have multiple colors available to me. And having all the colors laid out on the desk is so pretty and

Onwards to the Writing Utensils:

I personally prefer Zebra F-301s for my day to day writing (including most work related tasks), and Zebra G-301s for journaling. The steel tubes make them easy to spot down in my dark and overcrowded purses, they’re durable and you can buy ink replacements for them as well. This makes them a very valuable tool for writing in my life.

Next up, we have Papermate Inkjoys. I love the variety of colors in these pens. When I was working as a server – this helped me to keep my tables straight. Each table had a single ticket, but each seat had a specific color that I’d use to make sure I remembered everything that a single person ordered or asked me about. I actually use three versions of this pen, being the normal ballpoints in both the capped and clicky variety as well as the gel pen clickers. These are also fantastic for keeping track of various characters on a storyboard as you’re plotting out your stories. Each character can have a color and trust me when I say that helps.

Onwards to the Sharpie. Those who know me in person know that I love love love sharpies, and almost always have three or four at hand. I use the sharpie pens in many colors to handle my planners. (I use both a bullet journal and a passion planner, and color code things in each.) I use normal sharpies in all the colors for various speed writings that I do to work on plots and storylines. I use the highlighters during editing phases, along with the pens. I also use the highlighters in my physical copies of Writer’s Market that I buy, it allows me to mark the publishers and agents that I think I might want to look into for the possibility of traditional publication.

 

————————————

Zebra F-301:  http://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Stainless-Retractable-Pen-27104/dp/B002VL8H5G

Zebra G-301: http://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Stainless-Retractable-Pen-41312/dp/B002JG7736

Papermate Inkjoy (clicker): http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Retractable-Ballpoint-Assorted/dp/B00PZ9IR24

Papermate Inkjoy (capped):  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0067Y5KWG

Papermate Inkjoy Gel: http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Assorted-14-Pack-1951636/dp/B019QBOG3U

Sharpie Pens: http://www.amazon.com/Sanford-Sharpie-Assorted-12-Pack-1802226/dp/B005LU2QAQ

Sharpie Markers: http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Fine-Tip-Permanent-24-Pack-Assorted/dp/B0003WN0DO

Sharpie Highlighters: http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Fine-Tip-Permanent-24-Pack-Assorted/dp/B0003WN0DO

Truthful Thursdays 0001

AM Devine

Okay, so, TRUTHFUL THURSDAYS.

This week’s Truthful Thursday is going to be about why I was silent for ages. If you’ve been around for a while, or read back in the archives, my TERRIBLE MUNDANE JOB as an old person caretaker was considerably short staffed. And I was expecting them to stay short staffed until at least mid-march. Well here it is, partway through May, and we’re finally staffed correctly. Well, mostly. I had put in a two weeks’ notice of resignation about two weeks ago.

I have been working two jobs nearly daily since the end of March, and am so glad that it’s over. While I will miss some of the people I took care of, I honestly won’t miss the job at all. Most importantly, I’m glad to have a Monday through Friday job where the schedule doesn’t change on a whim. It’s not as much money as I’ve been making, but I expect to be able to get some serious writing done from here on out. (Hopefully, I’ll be able to get my shit in gear and actually get a publishing schedule locked down and going.)

I now have this lovely mundane job that allows me a full 40 hours a week, I can pay my bills and it’s closer to home as it stands now. This awesome mundane job allows me a bit of down time, where I’ve got nothing actually going on during the shift but can’t leave the desk. I’ll be setting up a schedule of how I’m going to be doing things (writing, studying, research, etc) during each of my shifts once I’ve gotten the hang of how the actual shift is going to run. (I’m currently studying French on Duolingo and working through math on Khan Academy – and I’m planning on dedicating at least an hour a day to each once I’m settled.) I’m hoping to be fluent enough in French by the end of the summer to go ahead and purchase and read a couple of books that I’ve wanted for ages and ages.

Remember, for TRUTHFUL THURSDAYS, you can always ask me a question. Put questions in the comments below, send them to me on twitter, comment them on Instagram. I will answer as many questions as I can in 500 words. (This will probably be 2 or 3 questions at a time.)

 

Technical Tuesday 0001

AM Devine

Woo, looks like I’m on track now doesn’t it? (I’ll tell you a secret, I wrote at least two blog posts in a row on Monday.)

So, onwards to TECHNICAL TUESDAY!

Technical Tuesdays are for discussing the actual work of writing. And today, I’m going to tell you what I’m currently learning and finding quite useful.

STORY STRUCTURE.

So far, I’m learning a lot from K.M. Weiland over at https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com, and honestly, what I’ve learned from her is seriously helping me out with my steampunk story (Of Mage Lights and War Machines). In fact, she’s made me realize that it’s quite possible that in order to get everything done, it may need to be more than one book. This is quite seriously news to me, and quite possibly news to the person who’s been my go to person for exercising my brain.

You can find everything that K.M. Weiland says about story structure at this >LINK<. If you’re unsure about her methods, pick up her free podcast series about story structure, and download her free ebook on the subject. Free things don’t hurt your budget, and you never know, you might learn some things in the process.

–NOTE: I HIGHLY SUGGEST HER PODCAST, I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO IT LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW.–

Muse Monday 0002

AM Devine

Muse Monday!

Woohooo! Here’s to hoping that I manage to stay on track from here on out, yes?

Onwards to today’s MUSE MONDAY!

I know that when I’m writing, I absolutely love to listen to music. Sometimes it’s actual music soundtracks, sometimes it’s classical music, and sometimes it’s royalty free music.

Today, we’re discussing ROYALTY FREE MUSIC. My favorite source (of which I have some 27 active somethings on my current playlist) is this: >http://incompetech.com/music/<. I love the things I find here, and I love the system by which they sort things even more.

My current three favorite scores of the Incompetech creator’s are: Jellyfish in Space, Floating Cities, and Infinite Perspective. The songs aren’t too busy, and they’re not too heavy and make excellent background noise for me to work on my steampunk story (Of Mage Lights and War Machines) and my space saga (The Aurora Universe).

Check them out and enjoy all the lovely music that can keep your stories going!

Muse Monday 0001

AM Devine

So the inaugural Muse Monday here at ASW is all about SEVENTH SANCTUM.

The motherload of weird generators, Seventh Sanctum is one of the coolest places I’ve ever found on the internet.

Do you need a technology name? Seventh Sanctum has you covered.

Mechas? Seventh Sanctum has those too.

Magical Classes? Yep, you guessed it. Seventh Sanctum.

Government names? Corporation names? Realm need naming? How about that tavern? Seventh Sanctum has all of those.

Dark Rituals? Spell names, technomancy, magical items? They’ve got them all.

 

Since back in 1999, Steve Savage has been the creative genius getting people out of writer’s blocks and into crazy creative modes. Later this month, he’s releasing a book, and honestly, everyone should check it out. ( Keep up with it here)

 

 

*** This post is in no way sponsored by Seventh Sanctum, I get nothing from my love of the website and it’s generators besides a great deal of amusement. ***