A to Z Challenge 2013 – B is for…

Posted on 2013/04/02 by Tonette dela Luna

~ (WRITING) BUG-OUT BAG ~

If I wait until the end of the month to talk about my Writing Toolkit or Survival Essentials, well, the writing trek would pretty much be over. So in the spirit of the great outdoors, today I’ll share with you some contents in my Writing “Bug-out Bag.”

1) MacBook Pro 13″. I’d prefer a Macbook Air 11” for true portability. Feel free to donate to the cause. 😉

2) iPad and iPhone. Quick on-the-run type of notes or a bit longer with the iPad and a bluetooth keyboard.

3) Storage. Back that *beep* up! Dropbox or any cloud-type storage. Folders on your laptop, computer, wherever. SD Cards. I have a case that holds up to 10 cards. It’s slim and I can use the cards for the laptop and my cameras. Thumb drives, external hard drives. You get the idea. Copy your WIPs to various folders in different locations and devices so your back ups have back ups of the back ups. You feel me?! Trust me, people, many a tear has been shed, many a hair has been pulled. Don’t let this happen to you. You’ll be left a saline-deprived, dehydrated, tear duct shriveling bald-spotted hot mess.

4) Software. Among the many I must highlight two that have served me well: a) Scrivener. I wrote my last three projects on it: two novels and a short story. Love the index card feature and the ability to move scenes around; and b ) Dragon Dictate. Back and wrist injuries make prolonged sitting painful. This way I can continue with the story while standing, lying down, exercising. (Don’t let your muscles atrophy, people. Writing might turn us to stone! haha)

5) Reference. Anything to do with craft and research in the form of physical books, ebooks, mp3s, podcasts, vlogs, and the like.

6) Music. I like classical music or OSTs from film and television. The track varies, depending on the scene I’m working on. I also have a playlist that serves a purpose similar to those used for running, driving, or an 80’s movie training montage. You know, anything to get you into the writing ‘zone’.

7) Believe it or not, mirrored closet doors. My apartment came with them. I figure, instant dry erase surface for mind mapping, checklists, etc.

8) Low-tech: Paper and writing implements. You do not have an excuse. Get those words out. When the tech dies–EGADS–you can and must keep going. Has JJ Abrams taught us nothing?

9) Sustenance. Is it sad that I put food so low on the list?

10) Sleep. Yes, I know that sleep and floor-to-ceiling mirrors don’t fit inside a Bug-out Bag. But in this case, the bag is a metaphor, much like the camp, itself. I’m not trying to be deep–too soon for that–but I should probably break it to ya. Camp NaNo is neither a camp nor a nano. Discuss.

This list is by no means exhaustive. What are your must-haves to get through writing challenges?

=8=

Today’s theme is brought to you by the letter

A to Z Challenge 2013 – A is for…

Posted on 2013/04/01 by Tonette dela Luna

The beginning of the alphabet. The first letter in April, a blogtastic month. What shall we discuss today, pray tell?

https://www.facebook.com/KidPresident

Originally, I wanted to post my favorite video courtesy of Kid President, but that can wait until we get to the letter “K”. 🙂

~ AWESOME ~

On this day, I will be more awesome.

From this day forward, I strive to be more awesome.

This month is a big writing month for me. As I posted previously, I started this blog to chronicle my journey towards two novel drafts in April. I’ll be tweeting word count updates daily, if possible, and of course, blogging about it all. Yes, the irony is not lost on me that all of this commences on the Day of Fools. I laugh at this day and reclaim it as the Day of Awesome!

This past week has been wonderfully awesome for me. I’m getting the hang of the blogging life. I’m excited of the stories waiting to come out this month. And I’m already building a following of people who appreciate me as much as I appreciate sharing my thoughts with them.

Much love to all of you for that.

Special shout out goes to Arlee Bird for founding such an awesome event. I look forward to many more blogging challenges to come.

So, fellow bloggers, how’s your first day of awesome going? Let me know your awesome goals for the month of April. 🙂

=8=

Today’s theme is brought to you by the letter

T-Minus… We’re on the Precipice, the Calm Before the Storm

Posted on 2013/03/31 by Tonette dela Luna

TWO STORIES, ONE MONTH, A BLOG, and ME.

STORY ONE: A Love Less Ordinary

The first is a contemporary piece about the Murphy’s Law of relationships. Protagonist’s best friend and roommate kicks her out of her own apartment because she and her deadbeat fiancée (the freeloader who never paid rent) are ready to take the next step. This on the same day she’s laid off from work. Dodging questions from her mother about her career and love life, she just wants out of her current situation. Unemployed, newly homeless, and desperate for work, she doesn’t realize how lost she is until she ends up working as a live-in nanny for a family that’s just moved to town. At least there’s the cute guy she sees at the deli every Tuesday. Their sandwich banter is something she looks forward to. On this Tuesday, however, after all that happens, she misses her deli run and ends up at some family’s dinner table, hired on the spot, after saving the young son when he ran into the street. Things start to look up until her new employer’s husband walks in, holding a big bag of sandwiches from the deli.

STORY TWO: Hamelin

This one’s a beast to get into. The gist is that it’s a YA Speculative Fiction piece, a riff on fairy tales, hopefully unlike what’s already out there. First off, I’m focusing on a fairy tale that isn’t saturated in the media, at the moment, the Pied Piper. In my story, the Piper is female. In this fairy tale universe, heroes are villains, and vice versa. Aside from characters you may know by name, circumstances are quite different as the story unfolds. Other notable fairy tale characters from classic and contemporary authors alike might make an appearance but in this land, nothing is what it seems.

=8=

That’s what I’m writing about in April. Well, the major writing projects for April, that is. Since the Blogging Challenge is thematic, I’ll try to keep it writing related, as much as possible, and hopefully slip in some word count updates. Otherwise, I’ll be keeping everyone apprised of my story progress each Sunday (the day we have off from the blogging challenge).

So, today was a lovely sunny day. Since I live in the vicinity of Raincouver, I don’t trust it. I bet there’s a rain cloud waiting to leap out from behind a tree.

Tomorrow it begins. To borrow from a phrase of an awesometastic program premiering its third season tonight,

“WORDS ARE COMING.”

And plenty of them, if I can help it.

I suppose this is where I make the choice. Do I stay the course or head back to shore? Heck, I didn’t even know I was on a boat, but here we are. [cue JAWS score]

Was this how Neo felt when given the choice of the red pill or the blue pill?

“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
— Morpheus, The Matrix

As writers, do we not tread the fine line between reality and the real world on a daily basis? Neo was The One. That meant squat in the end… oops. SPOILERS. I will speak of this no more.

What’s my choice?

I swallowed that red pill, bitter taste and all, back when I decided to do this trifecta of writing awesomeness: Camp NaNoWriMo, Savvy Authors April Boot Camp, and the Blogging A to Z Challenge. That pill swirled around my gut and my hand did the T-1000 morph the moment I Tweeted my declaration of the write-a-palooza.

I’m not doing this because I’m a masochist–writers are inherently so. I’m doing this because I know I can. Hundreds of thousands of creative folks know they can, too, or at least they’ll give it a try. We’ll support each other. I’m doing it for the global frenzied encouragement as much as I’m doing it for my own writerly goals. It’s just a matter of how far I’m willing to push my creative self down the rabbit hole.

Care to join me?

(via yassimanga)

CAN YOU BLOG YOUR ABCs?

Posted on 2013/03/30 by Tonette dela Luna

BLOG YOUR WAY THROUGH THE ALPHABET IN APRIL WITH THE BLOGGING FROM A TO Z CHALLENGE

With my two whopper writing projects this April, Camp NaNoWriMo and Savvy Author’s April Boot Camp, I knew I had to blog about it. But I had no blog to speak of. So, the last few days had me rushing to put together a blog for the purposes of recording the ups, downs, and sideways events of this writing extravaganza. You can read my thoughts on Camp NaNo here and Boot Camp here. Of course, when I saw something people were buzzing about, I decided to have a look. A challenge, you say? A third one to add to my glorious tower of looming word counts?

The BLOGGING FROM A TO Z CHALLENGE. I fell in love with the idea as soon as I found the website. Starting April 1st, everyone begins with A and works through the alphabet. With Sundays off, that ends with Z on April 30. Sounds simple enough, but what do you do with said letters? Each letter is a theme for that day’s blog post. You might pick the letter itself or it might be the beginning of a word, as long as you stick to the theme in some shape or form. Again, sounds simple, right? Well, this is where the challenge comes in. And it doesn’t hurt to get creative. Some bloggers are working with a theme, others are going freestyle. The point is to blog, visit other blogs, and have a good time with the online community. At the time of this post, there are already 1,600 participants. That should make for some interesting reading next month.

Since I’m new to the whole blogopshere–that’s a thing, right?–I realized that I needed to do this. What a great way to meet people from around the world. You’ve got something to say, they’ve got something to say. If you blog, regardless of topic, here are just a few benefits when you JOIN THE BLOGGING FROM A TO Z CHALLENGE.

1) DAILY WRITING PRACTICE. Be kind about this. People are going to the trouble of blogging their hearts out. It’s a reciprocity that’s necessary to make this event a success. Also, writing everyday is good for you, especially if you’re a writer. So do it for yourself as much as anyone else. If you blog it, they will come.

2) DAILY SPARK OF CREATIVITY. Whether it’s something pre-planned or something inspired from a fellow blogger’s post, when you create something, put words on the screen, you challenge yourself each day. Share home remedy tips, inspirational quotes, obscure dance moves. If you have 26 thematic posts to share or even 26 completely random posts to share, your creativity will shine through the daily act of writing.

3) BUILD YOUR READERSHIP. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have people I never expected to stop by my three-day old blog. The likes, retweets, comments, they’re all encouraging. It lets me know there are people out there who like what I have to say. That’s motivation to keep me going as a writer. One day when my WIPs are published, I already have people who support me and they might enjoy reading my novels, too. Such a huge facet of being a writer nowadays is one’s platform. I’m still a newbie in this regard, and the A to Z Challenge comes at a perfect time to serve as a launchpad for a writer’s platform. You like to write. People like what you write. Hello, world. Social media is such a powerful tool. It makes perfect sense to take part in something mutually beneficial.

4) NETWORKING. This is obvious, but more than that. When you take the time to visit other blogs, read what other people have to say in their part of the world, you join the international community. I’ve only partaken in social media via Twitter for the last two months. I’ve already ‘met’ and interacted with people in my industry and it’s made me a better writer. I’m constantly inspired by everything I read each day. As introverted as the writer’s life may seem, eventually we need to come out of our shells. The books don’t always sell themselves, you know. Networking is a great way for writers or anyone who wishes to talk about their expertise to communicate their message to a global audience. How lucky are we to do this now? I keep going back to how excited that I’m a writer in this technological age.

5) WINNING. Ha. I giggled when I typed that, but it’s true. (I hope you got the reference.) You get through a month-long challenge, what does that make you? Of course, for whatever reason, there might be a day that you miss, but it’s a commitment that 1,600 people made along with you. That should push you enough. If not for them, do it for the spirit of such an innovative simultaneous blogging experience. We haven’t even started yet and I already feel like we’re winners.

So, come, gentle viewer… *singing*

Since we know our ABCs,

won’t you come and blog with me.

In April.

2013.

Join.

You have a day left.

You can do it. 🙂