Writing Free

My Writing Life Today

   I repurposed this blog from way back in 2016—with tweaks!

   It’s always fun to see photos of other writers’ creative places and read about their routines, so I thought I’d share mine today. No, it’s not all me-me-me-- bear with me though the first paragraph if you must. I promise you’ll find the ideas which may/may not be useful to the reader.

   I’m a morning person, so once I’m up and dressed, bed made, any household chores done, and morning prayers/devotions attended to, I’m ready to boot up Penelope the Lappy and start my writing day. I have a system--sort of--which is flexible as circumstances dictate. But first I set the stage so to speak:

• Blinds open

• Aromatherapy on (favorite is peppermint or lavender)

• CD player on--anything from classical to easy listening

• Check daily calendar--do I have to get out today? What have I sworn to get done “in office”

   Nine years later, the routine has changed somewhat, but morning prayer is always at the top of the list. Now, living in my hometown in a wonderful patio home community, I have found my way to the perfect writing place, the Bearded Barista, two or three mornings a week. (See a previous blog about this creative spot for old lady writers!) In the afternoons, especially in hot weather, I come home to my lunch and recliner and write more. Still use the CD player and just turned up the cord for my second aromatherapy device—so now I can have one in the study or living room as well as my bedroom.

   I still keep my emails cleaned out and try to back up documents at least once every two weeks. Here I don’t have the regular power outages I had in the isolated “village” where I lived for 16 years, but it’s still a good idea to have at least two-four copies of everything on various external hard drives and thumb drives.

   These days, my schedule is mine, and I plan a day ahead—always with the caveat that nothing is set in stone. These days, having achieved a modicum of writing success, it’s all strictly for fun. No marketing, no “This has to be finished by…”, no contracts to include editing deadlines. Just find a story idea and get busy having fun with it!

   One of my grown sons is under the impression that “Mom’s retired. She doesn’t have anything to do.” I heard this too often when we lived too close and shook my head thinking, “Mom’s just getting started, buddy!”

   Addendum: It wasn’t easy balancing a fledgling “writing career” with childcare for granddaughters, school pickups, and Mimi School in the summers, but I enjoyed every moment. Now, with a truly empty nest, I can take a deep breath and say, after 80 years, “It’s all for me now” and not feel a single stirring of guilt! I’ve paid my dues, earned my freedom, and it’s all good.

 Nothing Stays the Same

     ...including schedules! A few years ago, I balanced child care for the granddaughters with taking care of my house, personal business, and writing. All that kept me busy because I had no social life in the elitist place I had the misfortune to live, but since I moved home two years (plus) ago, I have no child care—and it’s not easy to work everything else into my now busy busy busy schedule!

     I keep telling myself to prioritize, but when everything is a priority, what is one to do? For example, this week I skipped Monday at Bearded Barista to do my office day and write at home. I also had some piddle-paddling to do around the house. (My adopted mom was always piddle-paddling and got more done than any two people!)

     Tuesday, I had to haul out early for labs, followed by the regular weekly chiropractor appointment mid-morning. Then it was home to write, more piddle-paddling (including some laundry), and then I found myself crossing the street to the recreation center for our monthly craft session. I’m spectacularly non-crafty, but I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to laugh with others in this friendly community!

     The week is officially half over on Wednesdays, and today is Wednesday. I planned to get back to BB for a writing session; instead I’m taking it at home. I have an appointment at three which won’t take too long, so I can fit in more writing time.

     Now tomorrow and Friday, things get interesting! The old Roosevelt Hotel, once a nice place to stay as well as reside before it fell into disrepair, ultimately became a flop house, and inevitably closed, will be hosting an open house tomorrow afternoon, and I will be there! Someone invested big bucks, turned the place into senior lofts, and even used the refurbished original sign. It’s great to see old landmarks come back to life!

     And Friday—ah, Friday is the grand opening of Hippie Hysteria in what I think was the old Woolworth building where I spent an inordinate amount of time (though less money) as a teen. I know, I know, the name conjures up many things...but it has space for forty local vendors and should garner another inordinate amount of my time to browse them all in the coming days. I understand food and drink will be offered eventually. I can see myself making a day of it in the future!

     The empty buildings in what was a once-thriving downtown make me sad. Many are coming back, but bars outweigh businesses, and I’d like to see a better balance. Once parking was at a premium (vertical curbside with meters) and making a block (or two or three until a space opened up) was part of one’s shopping time. Businesses like Hippie Hysteria will give downtown a real boost.

     Writing time needs to figure in, too, hopefully two productive hours tomorrow and Friday at BB, but who knows?

     Next week is looking better for prioritizing, but office day Monday will be half-over by the time I make the yearly optometrist appointment, and then, of course, the afternoon is highlighted by the monthly massage which I consider as important as any medical appointment and maybe more beneficial.

     Writers pen brilliant articles about prioritizing and scheduling and being productive—and taking care of oneself—and I make sincere efforts to implement their suggestions. However...my personal schedule has a life of its own, and I can’t seem to do anything about it!

Around Town

  It’s Friday in my favorite spot downtown—the Bearded Barista, a charming coffee shop with yummy (too yummy) food and drink. I try to get in three days a week for a couple hours of uninterrupted writing in a chill yet in-and-out active environment with comfy armchairs to die for and staff who now knows me by name! (Just broke all the rules for long sentences there, didn’t I?)

  San Angelo, Texas, my hometown to which I finally returned, was an old West Texas country town when I was growing up here in the post-WWII era. Being one of the last of the war babies, I watched it evolve out of its charm into the big city some outsiders wanted it to be. Eventually “they” tore down the lovely old homes, and downtown became a ghost town.

  Now it’s coming back, at least the downtown. There is an historic district with some charming shops, and the other main streets are popping up with restored buildings and businesses. At first, it was mostly bars, but businesses are coming back, too. The big box stores are permanently located along the highway that used to lead to nowhere, and I do visit them occasionally if I absolutely have to. But now I live in a patio home retirement community along the river, just a few blocks from downtown, and I mostly stay within the confines of what I knew and loved best as a child.

  This lovely coffee shop opened within a long-closed department store where I once visited Santa and yearned over the toys at Christmas, so in a way, I’ve come full circle. I’m learning to live with the unpleasant changes while embracing the new stirrings of life in town and concentrating on the old that is left.

  One of the old is along Concho Street, the first street of this once wild and woolly place (we’re talking 1800s) is a hotel built on the sight of at least two previous ones, both of which burned—once accidentally, the second time to cover up a murder.

  The replacement hotel was a thriving place, four stories plus a ground floor of businesses, which finally took its place as a residential hotel as the new hotels and motels popped up, and, of course, closed and fell into disrepair. But it’s still standing, waiting for someone to breathe new life into it.

  In the devastating flood of 1936, the Concho river overflowed its banks to almost reach the second story where my father had an office. He told me some tales, which I’ll relate in another blog—maybe two—and relate the plans I have to restore that old hotel in novel form.

  But for now, I’m just plugging where I spin my tales—the Bearded Barista. There are two in town, a larger one on College Hills Avenue and this newer, smaller one on Twohig between Oakes and Chadbourne Street, just down from the landmark Cactus Hotel. It’s the first real writing spot I’ve ever really had and I cherish it the atmosphere, the cuisine, and most especially, the friendly staff.

  If you live I San Angelo or are just passing through, visit the Bearded Barista—and I vote for the downtown location just for the atmosphere!

AI: To Be or Not to Be

  Years ago I subscribed to three writing magazines because I found them useful as I began writing in earnest. One of them, my favorite, went out of publication. The remaining two suddenly became, at least IMO, “woke”—and I wasn’t learning anything I wanted to know. So I didn’t renew my subscriptions, but every month I went to Books-a-Million and scanned the table of contents for both, purchasing if I thought one or both would be beneficial.

     Now I’m back in my hometown with two wonderful small bookstores, neither of which sell magazines, so every month I spend some time in the library browsing their copy of Writers Digest and taking relevant notes to share in blogs. Even though I share themes and ideas, I still recommend reading the magazine for the full picture.

     Yesterday, the July-August issue was on the shelf, so names of articles and authors will be shared While I don’t take their text, subheadings, etc., I do write about my take-away from the article and expand from there. All of the writers have excellent credentials, and I urge my readers to follow up with the magazine itself.

     Today I’m quoting USA best-selling author Rob Hart in “No, You Can’t Use AI”. He says, “Writiing is not data. Writing is art. When you treat art like data, you devalue it.” He goes on to compare AI to fast food—it’s easy to procure, relatively inexpensive (I’d question that!) and, in some cases, works in at least getting the words on paper—but it’s definitely not fine cuisine! I like his analogy.

     The rest of this blog is my take on AI—which I have so far studiously avoided. I keep getting pop-ups in MS 365 asking if I want “Co-Pilot” to rewrite words, phrases, etc., and I quickly click no. In fact, I’ve taken MS 365 off my main computer and will not renew it for the trusty laptop simply because I don’t want any part of AI. I know some people believe it’s the wave of the future, and I may have to accept it at some point in the future, but for now I prefer to slog through on my own.

     I’ve noticed that when I upload a book to Amazon, I am asked if it contains AI written material—or something like that. It doesn’t, so I can honestly reply in the negative, but I have to wonder what would happen if I said yes!

     As I understand it, AI creates content, but it is not in and of itself creative. Writing is a creative endeavor, and just because AI may make it easier in some respects does not make it better. Minds are made to be changed—in some instances—but right now I’m pretty set in my ways. My writing will continue to be mine and mine alone. 

The First Draft  Always Stinks!

     You can guess, from the title, that I’m talking about revision. “Revision is your friend,” according to Sharon Short in an article called “Level Up Your Writing” in the May-June issue of Writer’s Digest. Truer words were never spoken. (Title is hers; the following thoughts are mine.)

     New writers often pour their hearts and souls into a manuscript, type “The End”, and ship it off to a publisher. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Re-read it, my fellow author. Re-read and cringe.

     Revision is NOT editing or proofreading. It is making a bad story good, then revising again to make a good story better, and yet again and again and again to make that story sparkle. It takes time. It’s hard work. But it has to be done. Otherwise, you just have a bunch of disconnected ideas instead of a plot; a plodding scenario instead of a scintillating story; in short, a dud.

     So, how do you revise? Some people just go back through the computer document. Others print it out, put it into a three-ring binder, and hole up in a coffee shop with a vicious red pen. Of the two, I think the latter is best for me. Then comes transferring the revisions back to the computer document—and you’ll make even more changes as you go.

     But are you finished? You shouldn’t be. You should be re-reading the revisions and shaking your head while muttering, “What was I thinking?”

     For me, writing is a hobby these days—but I’m still not putting anything out there until it’s as near- perfect as I can get. Writing as a hobby or as a profession “ain’t” easy—and if you take the easy way out, you’ll regret it.

Been There Done That

     Amy Jones, editor of Writer’s Digest, suggested more writing prompts in her article “A Questionable Choice”. (Her prompts are in italics; the comments are mine.)

    (1)A tough conversation: Today we’re always hearing about “tough conversations” with aging parents (of which I’m one) about where to live safely, when to stop driving, ad nauseum. And yes, I had to have those conversations with my parents. In literature, we hear the same conversations over and over—a “Dear John” letter or talk in which one characters bids goodbye forever to another. Writers are always looking for unique ways in which to present same! A good imagination can come up with dozens of other conversations we wish we didn’t have to have in real life—but we don’t mind reading about them

(2)You go into the library. Which section do you visit first? I have to laugh when I remember the wonderful library in which I practically grew up. There were two sections: children and adult—and in the middle stood the checkout desk behind which reigned a stern librarian. She knew you—and woe be unto you if, as an under-twelve, you went to the left instead of the right! We need more like her to keep children away from unsuitable material until they’re old enough to handle it—or, hopefully, reject it all together!

(3)What is your worst fear—and how do you respond to it? I grew up afraid of everything. Now, in the last chapter of my life, I am only afraid of regressing to that point again. I’ve lived life, and nothing life can throw at me now will ever let me be fearful again. And again, this prompt has millions of possibilities!

(4) What is your favorite meal—who makes it—and where? I’m back in my grandmother’s kitchen while she rolls out dough, slathers it with butter, sprinkles cinnamon and sugar with a generous hand, and fries it up in her big cast iron skillet! And I’m there watching her roll out dumplings and drop them in the pot where a fat hen simmers in its broth. Fast forward, and I’m watching my mother-in-law line her cake pans with brown paper and bring all the ingredients to room temperature before she begins baking. Again, everyone could write a different piece with this prompt.

(5)Finally, there is something called character description. Will it be your favorite? Your most hated? The one you’d like to emulate? Who and why? I had fun blogging on this the other day!

     We read writing prompts and think, “Been there done that.” But—have we really? Give one of these tried and true prompts a new twist and watch it spring to life.

Who Is Your Favorite Character (with a Twist)?

     Sounds like an overworked prompt, huh? I wouldn’t choose it from a list of same, but an article in the March-April issue of Writer’s Digest, “A Questionable Choice” by editor Amy Jones, caught my interest.

     How about, “Who is your favorite character, not necessarily likable, but they stay with you?” Get any wheels turning?

     I love characters who are believable, real people who think and act the way people do, whether they lived in the fifteenth or the twenty-first century. The character who has stuck with me over the years is Scarlet O’Hara from Gone with the Wind.

Ever since I discovered an old hardback of the book inscribed to my mother by her older brother in 1939, Scarlet has haunted me. As far as I’m concerned, she’s a thoroughly despicable character who lives on today not just in the pages of a book but in the souls of others whom we meet along the way.

     She is selfish, self-centered, determined to have her own way no matter who it hurts, and someone who took the entire Civil War as a personal affront. Don’t we know people like that? Especially the people who take issue with almost anything going on these days and join “protests” aka “riots” and take what they can get.

     On the other hand, Scarlet was a survivor. She picked herself up by her bootstraps after the war and the destructive era known as Reconstruction and went on. She didn’t really go on with her life to benefit anyone except herself, but she didn’t cower in the corner sucking her thumb either.

     I didn’t like Scarlet then, and I don’t like her now, but it just goes to show: There’s nothing new (and no one new) under the sun. The kinds of people who lived hundreds of years ago still live among us today. Personally, I steer clear of them!

      I'm throwing open the forum if anyone would like to write a blog about why they LIKED Scarlet. All opinions welcome! Simply leave your IMO in the comments section or email it to me, judynickles@gmail.com, and I'll put it up. (Make nice with the language, if you please! I'm old, and my ears are sensitive.)

The Forensic Genealogy Series

     All my good intentions to “blog regularly” usually go by the wayside, but I’ve sketched out five which should take me though next week (posting 2X/week). I want to post us useful information related to writing/reading. This is NOT a “buy-my-book blog/website”!

     Recently, I stumbled on a new series called The Forensic Genealogy Series: Hiding the Past, by Nathan Dylan Goodwin. He is a writer, genealogist, and educator, but he writes the character of Morton Forner, a forensic genealogist.

     Being interested in both forensics as a voyeur as it were and in genealogy as someone who began researching long before all the information (misinformation!) on the internet, the subject matter and titles caught my eye.

     The first in the series is a short prequel, The Asylum, a 115-page read. The others are listed in order:

The Wicked Trade

The Suffragette’s Secret

The Deserter’s Tale

The Lost Ancestor

The Foundling

The America Ground

The Spyglass File

The Sterling Affair

The Orange Lilies

The Missing Man

     Unfortunately, my local library doesn’t have these books, but they are available on Amazon. I’d recommend following the link to read the tag lines and more to gauge your interest in the series. I know I plan to!