Pronunciation Guide

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

30-day writing challenge - part 1

So…I was supposed to be doing a 30-day writing challenge the whole month of April, but I’m a slacker. :P Stick with me; I’m going to catch up!

Below, you will find days 1-5. The next set will be in another post!


Day 1: Five problems with social media

1. That I waste so much time on it
~Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE facebook, and I have met some incredible people through it, but dang it, I am such a procrastinator, and sometimes, facebook just kills any productivity. Blah. (That was a long sentence.)

2. You can’t tell tone in text
~I’ve gotten into spats with people solely because I interpreted something a certain way because if I were saying those things, I’d be saying them sarcastically. (Even though I rarely use sarcasm…I mean, come one. Have you met me?) So much of communication is body language and tone, and without that, only words remain. And words are often mistaken. So yeah.

3. That I think facebook is the only social media, apparently :P
~I know other things exist. I am awful at them. Twitter? *laughs, swipes hand over head* Yep, I can’t follow it. Goes right over my head. (Body language!)

4. People present the image they want to present
~Some people are super real all the time, in every area. Some people put on a front. Most are somewhere in between. It becomes a problem when you equate someone’s filtered facebook life – everything is perfect, we’re always smiling in pictures, etc. – with your struggles. Don’t assume people are always happy just because they post happy stuff. We all have our own battles.

5. There are so many different avenues, it’s hard to know which to use
~Advice to authors says to be on social media. To have a twitter, instagram, facebook, goodreads account, blog – all of which you update regularly. That’s all fine and dandy until that becomes your life, and you don’t write in your books anymore because you have to keep up with all the platforms you have talking about the books you don’t write anymore because you’re updating your twitter for the thousandth time today about the book you’re writing but actually aren’t writing because you don’t have time because you’re on twitter! (Run-on sentence!) It’s exhausting. That’s why I default to facebook and kind of keep it at that. :P Though I do want to keep this blog off the ground for longer than five seconds.


Day 2: Your earliest memory

I’m in a lake, standing just a little ways into the water. I’m maybe three or four. I can see fish swimming around my feet. Why that sticks out, I have no idea. But there ya go. I don’t go in lakes now, but if I can see things, they don’t freak me out. I’d wade in up to my ankles where the water is still clearish enough to see the fish. I have no problem with fish unless I can’t see them. :P Plus, goopy algae and stuff. *shudders*

Okay, moving on from that


Day 3: Your first love and first kiss

*blushes* My first love was my first kiss. He’s also the only guy who’s ever kissed me. And I actually don’t remember our first real kiss. (For shame.) I remember when he first kissed me on the cheek, though. Whew. I think our first real kiss was in my living room; he was sitting on the floor with his back against the couch, and I gave him a little peck on the lips. That wasn’t the first time he’d kissed me… We have a kind of complicated courtship thingy. For a long time, we weren’t going to kiss on the lips until our wedding, but we strayed from that, and it was a freeing thing, too. The waiting had become legalistic, and I…well, kissing him on the lips was a big step for me in freeing myself from some very harmful beliefs. (Not that I think waiting to kiss is bad. It was just bad for my mind and heart, if that makes sense.)


Day 4: Ten interesting facts about yourself

I don’t know if these will be “interesting,” but…

1. I’m short, under 5’0. I still hate it at times.

2. I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 11. I was scared before we moved (when I was 7), and we moved to the country where there weren’t sidewalks or a paved driveway where I could learn.

3. My first crush was at my house for some party thing, and he was dressed up as a pirate. I think. But I was messing with him, and I broke his plastic sword. And I hid it and lied about it. Afterward, I felt awful, and I went in my room and cried for being such a terrible person.

4. Lemon, lime, and orange hard candy flavors are my favorite.

5. I say I don’t like certain foods when I’ve never had them. But there is literally no need. I know they’ll be nasty.

6. I changed the way I cross my arms because of a character I wrote about ten years ago. He crossed his arms a certain way, and I wanted to imitate him, so I did. It felt unnatural for a while, but now the other way feels wrong.

7. I don’t really care for the beach. I’d rather be in the woods. Sand gets everywhere. It’s gross. The beach is pretty, though. Just not as pretty as a forest.

8. I talk mostly in movie /TV show/Jim Gaffigan quotes. It is sad when people don’t catch this. It’s awesome when they do.

9. This list is difficult. I just woke up. My brain is tired. My body is tired. … My nose is froze. My tail is froze. (See! Quote! What’s it from? Can you tell me? Think Disney.)

10. I talk to and about my characters as if they’re real people. Yes, I’m aware that they’re not actually real. But they also are. They feel real. And I argue with them too. That’s fun. No, I’m not crazy; I’m a writer. ;)


Day 5: A place you would live but have never visited

Europe. Germany, Wales, Scotland, Ireland…any of those. So. Gorgeous.


WHEW. Stay tuned for the next five! I know one of them is about tattoos! Ahhh! *dies*