Tag: writing

posts about writing

Looking back at 2024 and ahead to 2025

On By MiriahIn Life, Writing PathLeave a comment

Standard blog content for this time of year would be a review of my past year and committing to goals for the upcoming year.

My 2024 in review:

  • I was extremely sick with pneumonia and complications for all of January and February.
  • My father passed away in July at the age of 97 from covid. The best friend of one of my daughters died suddenly of cancer – he was only 23 and his partner was pregnant (their baby is healthy). Also, both of my elderly cats passed away.
  • I continued volunteering on the Board of Directors of Cascade Writers Workshop.
  • I resumed submitting a couple of short stories to markets. (I had sort of stopped bothering when covid hit and put my energy into mainly writing for fun.) Black Cat Weekly accepted my novelette, The Ballad of Kinmont Willa, for publication (but I don’t know when it will be published).
  • The in-person Numenera table-top campaign I GM’d, based on Monty Cook’s Slaves of the Machine Gods wrapped at the narrative end after about 14 months.
  • I continued to participate as a player and GM in multiple play-by-post roleplaying games. On one forum where most of my games are hosted, I volunteered on a ‘Collaboration, Accessibility, Community, and Equity’ committee. A game I GM’d in the Killjoys tv series setting came to a narrative end, and I started GMing a new game with three groups of players in a setting based on fairy tales and Monty Cook’s We Are All Mad Here by Shanna Germain.
  • In September, my husband and I went on a week-long guided tour of the US southwest National Parks that included Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon. It was absolutely lovely and amazing! But we both came home with covid, curtesy of another couple on the tour.
A large black and white dog named Teddy.
Teddy, looking back.

Looking ahead to 2025

  • My goals include more exercise, declutter, keep a log of the books I read.
  • I plan to engage with world events in a meaningful way, although I don’t quite know how I’ll do that – yet.
  • My big goal for 2025 is to write a novel. Often when I get a novel-sized story idea the beginning and end are clear to me, but when I write an outline, I realize I don’t know what happens in the middle. For this novel idea, I’ve been working on what feels like a good working outline that includes what happens in each act, and I’m excited about writing it, the characters, and the theme. I can write a novel in one year, right?

What are your goals for 2025?

House-sitting Writing Retreat

On By MiriahIn Writing PathLeave a comment

Last week while my oldest daughter and her family were on vacation, I got to cat-sit at their place and enjoy a writing retreat. Just me, my grand-kitty, and quiet thinking and writing time.

Miriah Hetherington holding a black and white cat
Miriah and Malcolm (the cat)

Creatives have to make the most of whatever creating space and time they can set aside for themselves. It’s not always easy to do. I decided in advance that I would plan some breaks, including coffee with a friend, and leave the TV (and awesome gaming console) off.

Those solid blocks of uninterrupted time were so useful.

I’ve been working up an idea for a fantasy story that I think will be novel length. The plot outline, the characters, world building, magic system, etc. I’m super excited about this project.

Malcolm the cat laying in his patch of catnip
Malcolm visits his catnip patch

It’s not the only writing project on my plate. I have a novelette to revise and cut down to less that 10k words. I attended a lecture about writing interactive fiction at the Dream Foundry online convention and now have a better idea of how to make my interactive fiction time-travel story work. On top of that I’m still busy with play-by-post roleplaying games.

Have you done a writing retreat? Was it useful for you?

Tabaxi Inspiration

On By MiriahIn Uncategorized, Writing PathLeave a comment

A while back my table-top group decided to play an out-of-the-box Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It had been a very long time since I last checked out D&D (we used the GURPS system for five years), and I was intrigued by the Fifth Edition (5e) new playable races. The tabaxi, a cat-like humanoid race in particular.

So, as you do when you’re a writer and you love roleplaying games like I do, I wrote a D&D fanfiction story about my character’s backstory. You can read it here: Dream of Starlight on Still Water

I also did something I’d never done before. I bought and painted miniatures!

photo of tabaxi DnD miniatures with quarter to show size
‘Miniature’ is an understatement

photo of tabaxi DnD miniature with hood before and after painting
before and after painting

photo of tabaxi DnD miniature with daggers extended before and after painting
before and after painting

A new year – 2019

On By MiriahIn Life, Writing PathLeave a comment

I tend to think that a list of New-Year’s resolutions will end up being a depressing list of things I didn’t do in twelve month’s time. So I’m keeping my goals for this year general: Finish editing my novel (The Heartstone of Tehnareach). Continue improving my health. Read more. Write some short stories. Finish more things. Support my loved ones. I’ve started the year with a spreadsheet to keep track so that at the end of each month I can review and update my goals without feeling like I have no idea what the heck I actually did.

Miriah Hetherington
My helpers, Teddy and Thea

New Year Goals: 2017

On By MiriahIn Writing PathLeave a comment

Microsoft main campus trail January 2017
Along the trail when walking my dog this morning

Today was a clear, sunny January day in Western Washington. The kind of day that makes you run out in your short sleeves and sandals.

Then you run back in the house, because it’s bloody 27˚F outside and everything is frozen. You put on a warm coat, gloves, and socks. Then since this is Western Washington you put your sandals back on and go outside.

January 1st whooshed past, smelling of popcorn optimism for the new year. So this is the semi-obligatory goals-for-the-new-year blog post.

My writing goals for 2017:

Goal 1: Get my novel ready to submit to agents.
This will be occupying most of my writing time. Although I finished my zero/first draft last June, the next draft of that novel is going very slowly. It’s only about one-quarter done, and I am far from happy with the beginning. I think the problem is that this novel, the characters, the plot, etc., crystalized in my head as I wrote it.

So my plan is to finish the current/second draft by April, and get two or three beta readers to give me some feedback while I take a break. Then another rewrite. After that more beta readers and hopefully ship it off to agents by the end of the year.

Goal 2: Attend a writing workshop in June.
I applied to Taos Toolbox. Chances are slim that I’ll get it, since acceptance is audition-based, and there will be lots of competition because the instructors are amazing and the special guests are famous. So my back-up plan after I’m rejected is to register for Cascade Workshop which is local, run by some fabulous people, and they always have great (though less famous) presenters.

One important thing I learned from applying unsuccessfully, three years in a row, to Clarion West workshop is that dreaming and hoping to attend a prestigious workshop is crazy-making, wasted energy. I should be writing. So for Taos, I edited the first 10k words of my novel to the best of my ability, then sent it off with my application, and went back to writing.

Goal 3: Write and submit three new short stories.
My plan is to do this during my break between the current re-write of my novel, and the next re-write. At the moment, I only have three short stories circulating to markets.

Goal 4: Critique other writers’ work on a weekly basis.
I’m a member of two critique groups, but sometimes they go on hiatus and I get out of practice. But I can take advantage of other critique forums where I can both supply helpful feedback and learn about craft.

Goal 5: Keep track of the books I read.
And write reviews. Because reviews make a difference.

Goal 6: Keep track of my non-writing goals and activities.
This is a new one.
I have other things going on in my life besides writing, including raising two teenagers. Life happens, and when I inevitably get slammed by other responsibilities it’s way too easy to beat myself up because I haven’t met my writing goals.

Villain POV and editing

On By MiriahIn Writing PathLeave a comment

I can’t believe it’s already the end of September. My eldest daughter got married one month ago, and my twins have been back in school for three weeks.

Writing the second draft of my novel (which I’m calling the first draft since I’m calling the novel-like pile of words I completed my zero draft) is going much slower than I expected. I think this is because when I wrote that initial draft I did more “discovery” writing than I thought – the story crystalized as I wrote it.

It took me two-and-a-half weeks to write/rewrite the first 5000 words in which I introduce two of the three POV characters, their goal, the world, and foreshadow the third main character.

I got stuck when I started writing/rewriting the next chapter of the novel in which I introduce the third POV character, his goal, another part of the world, and the main villain. I realized I had no idea how this third hero would interact with the villain initially, before he is aware of their conflict. In my first/zero draft I worked out the what/why/how for the villain later, but not so much in the beginning.

My solution: Summarize the novel from the villain’s point of view.

That brought so much of the story into focus for me. It also clarified the motivations for another character… the one who betrays my main characters.

Miriah Hetherington maple leaves
It’s Autumn! Teddy gets to help rake leaves.

Zero to First Draft

On By MiriahIn Writing PathLeave a comment

I mentioned in my “Still here and blogging” post that I finished the zero draft of my novel on 5 June 2016. Let me just pause to relish that statement…

Woo-hoo! I finished the zero draft of my novel!

All the best writing advice says that it’s a good idea to let that zero draft cool off until the writer can muster enough objectivity for the next step which is editing the novel. (Cooled off. Check.)

The next step is to edit that roughly novel-shaped pile of words to the best of my ability. (The following step is recruiting beta readers and other writers for feedback/critique. Then more editing.)

But, where do I start? I had a hard time wrapping my head around the entire 115k words of novel draft. It’s tough to hold the whole slippery thing in my mind all at once. Do I start editing at the beginning? Do I jump around in the middle, using the notes I made to fix the sudden shifts in plot and character motivation and loads of other stuff? I haven’t really seen any writing advice about the nuts and bolts of digging in to a messy zero draft and turning it into a coherent first draft.

So, this is the approach I came up with for editing my zero draft:

First, I read through the zero draft and summarized everything as it is. Including that chapter I knew would have to be thrown out and rewritten the moment I finished it. Mistakes and all, even the first chapter that doesn’t work anymore now that I know exactly how the novel ends. My summary consists of about one sentence per section, so there’s a paragraph for each chapter.

My next step is to write a chapter-by-chapter summary for the novel’s next draft. This will serve as a detailed outline when I begin re-writing and give me a tool for holding the entire novel in my brain at the same time. So far, I’m up to chapter 4 of 18. I hope that the two outlines will serve as a map from where I am to where I want to go.

How do you handle the first revision of your zero-draft?

Barley Thrasher we saw 17 July 2016 near Alchi, Leh district of Ladakh, India
Barley Thresher we saw 17 July 2016 near Alchi, Leh district of Ladakh, India

Still here and blogging (sort-of)

On By MiriahIn Life, Writing PathLeave a comment

Reasons I have not updated my blog in four months:

1. I was putting all my writing energy into finishing the Novel.
(And on 5 June 2016 I DID finish the 115k-word, zero draft!)

2. End of school year chaos.

3. My husband and I took our twins on a family vacation in northern India for three weeks.

4. The illness I picked up in India came home with me and has been hanging around for one-and-a-half weeks (so far).

5. My oldest daughter is getting married four weeks from now.

More blog posts to come…

Miriah Hetherington visits Tak Thog Gonpa, photo 15 July 2016
Statue at Tak Thog Gonpa, photo taken 15 July 2016

Novel Progress: 75k

On By MiriahIn Writing Path4 Comments

Today I passed 75,000 words on the initial draft of my novel. Based on my outline, I think I’m on target to reach “The End” at around 100k words in the middle of May.

Writing a novel is hard. And yes, that’s not a surprise to me. But, still… even when I love the setting and characters, writing about them in the same story day after day… it’s hard.

I’ve been sticking to my plan of not taking any breaks to write sneaky distracting short stories. I admit that I’m toying with the possibility of taking a small break to edit a previously written short story that is set in the world of my novel – so I can submit to an open call.

Lake Quinault Rainforest Writers Retreat
Lake Quinault, 27 February 2016, Rainforest Writers Retreat

In February I got to go to the Rainforest Writer’s retreat, and boost my progress.

I’ll be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo during the month of April, and I’m hoping that will help me keep up my slow but steady pace.

If you are a novel-writer, what was it like to write the first draft of your first novel?

Novel Progress

On By MiriahIn Writing Path3 Comments

Today I reached 50,000 words on my novel. Based on my outline, I’m a little past the half-way point.

I’m still learning what works for me. Here are some of the main things:

Set, and reset, an achievable goal.

I floundered a bit in December, but recommitted to my goal of 500 words per day on average. At this rate I will finish the novel first draft sometime around the end of May. Some days I write more and some I don’t write at all, but that’s okay because I’m in it to finish.

Keep track of progress.

I use an Excel spreadsheet to track my daily word-count. I set it up to display what day I will finish the novel, based on my current total word count and daily goal. I find that I feel really motivated to keep up my progress when I see my projected completion date change. And if I have one… or two… or even three days without writing (because life happens) my writing log motivates me sit down and get back to it.

Guard against things I know will derail me.

The temptation to “take a break” from writing the novel to “just write one short story” is very enticing to me. But I know that the sweet and sparkly lure of writing distraction that a short story offers is pure kryptonite for me. So lately when I get an idea for a short story, I write it down and save it. I don’t get to revisit that idea until the novel draft is finished.

Almost as tempting, but equally derailing, is the urge to go back to the beginning of my novel and rewrite it. I’ve made notes, and I don’t get to do that until the first draft is complete and I start editing.

I’ve found that short-story/novel-chapter critique groups can be detrimental to my novel-writing process. I am constantly resisting that inner voice telling me if I’m a serious writer, I should be producing at least one critique-ready short story or novel chapter a month. So I’m wary of engaging with a group that echoes that voice. Luckily, my critique group is very supportive.

Miriah Hetherington's dog
Teddy explains that there is no plot problem that cannot be helped by going for a walk.