Online Writing

I am quickly discovering more and more about the world of online writing as well as doing my best to soak up and learn all I can right now about the behind the scenes work that goes into both it and blogging. I won't bother you with all of the boring details in that JUST yet. I'll wait until I understand them more and can make them vastly more interesting to you as the reader.

In the meantime, writing for Yahoo's Contributor Network is really kicking off. Taking assignments, turning out articles, waiting through the submission process (anywhere from a few hours to a few days), and the final thrill of acceptance each time...it's becoming one giant roller coaster full of mini-rushes and excitement. It's revving me up to be more focused on my own projects, and I'm loving the feeling.

Two more articles came out today about writing and hopefully you'll find some interest and use in them as fellow writers and readers.

How to Write a Sestina
The Top 5 Podcasts for Fiction Writers

In honor of the first article, I thought I'd share a sestina that I've written and give you all one more excerpt of some of my writing before I dive back into the hole of working on the novel.

Just remember, for better or worse, I LOVE feedback!

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C



"Death Doth Follow Me"


I arose that day and thought, "Death doth follow me."
It was an inexplicable feeling that I did not question
And I felt it deep down in my heart.
The heat rose in my blood
And I remembered last night's wine
And my lover, my sweetheart, dear Robin.


A knock rose at my door and then entered my Robin
Who spoke sweetly as he said unto me
That the kitchen was all out of wine
And the servants had many a question,
That they'd cleared the counter of blood
And thrown to the dogs the nobleman's heart.


Then rising to a faster pace my heart
Took in the cool countenance of Robin
And racing like a torrent of rain, my blood
Echoed that, "Death doth follow me."
Again all silenced were my questions
And my mind remained muddled in wine.


The counter had been half wine
And not all sustenance from his heart,
But that would hardly answer the questions
For well as I knew, and so did my Robin,
That the blame should all fall to me,
And my conscience wallow in blood.


But my hands held not just the lord's blood
And they were not stained in wine,
Though I remembered that Death doth follow me
The fear turned blue in my heart
As I watched my beloved, my Robin,
Open his eyes wide in question.


In silent tongues he spoke his question
As the gleaming dagger soaked up his blood,
He crumpled upon the floor and Robin
Lay in his own red wine.
The ghostly murderer flew and my heart
Stood still, repeating, "Death doth follow me."


No more have I the taste for blood-red wine,
It reminds me of Robin's heart,
And though I should have, I never did question why Death doth followed me.

A First

So for all my talking of writing, I have yet to actually post anything of my own work on this blog. I suppose I've always been a bit wary of publishing anything of mine on public domain such as blogs or social networking, but there's a first time for everything.

So in celebration of the several new followers I've received, here is a copy of "Exploitation of a Chair", the poem I wrote about two posts ago when mentioning the Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition. This was the 98th place rhyming poem in 2010!

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

P.S. I love feedback, so send me your comments!



"Exploitation of a Chair"

You do not love me.
You love the slobbering mass wreaking delicious chaos upon my
Lysoled plastic cage, stuck with french fries and cherry pie.

You do not love me.
You love the peace you enjoy when your cooing child slips
Into Sandman's slumber as I rock like sailing treasure ships.

You do not love me.
You love the discipline enforced when your feisty four-year-old
Learns not to throw toys, but instead do as he is told.

You do not love me.
You love the chef's hard work and your senses' delight,
Scraping me across harsh tile before relishing in the first bite.

You do not love me.
You love my streamered convenience in a celebratory crowd;
You even make games where only so many of me are allowed.

You do not love me.
You love the boost I give to your step.
When nature made you too short for the job, I will always abet.

You do not love me.
You even shroud and embellish my pathetic metal frame;
Just for bride's delight, I have been defamed.

You do not love me.
You adore your novels, philosophies, and arts,
Not my broken leather that warms all of your parts.

You do not love me;
You love only my purpose.

Getting Published....at least on your own time

This post is an update to my adventures with Yahoo Contributor Network. I'm finally published! But it's not without its moments.

I submitted my first article on Friday of last week, and it drove me absolutely crazy waiting to hear back on it. The first 3 articles you submit are carefully reviewed for content, writing style, grammar, and more. While anyone can write for YCN, they want to make sure they have contributors putting up quality articles as well. I knew that little if anything getss accepted over the weekend, but it was a very long weekend, let me tell you.

Then came Monday. I waited all morning when finally at 1:20 PM, there in my inbox, was their response! I was so excited I could hardly stand it so I hurried to open it and read.......rejected.

I was surprised and crestfallen for about 5 seconds before I gave myself a mental reminder of my last post. "This stuff happens," I told myself. "Stop feeling bad and read their feedback so you'll know how to do better next time."

It turns out they loved the content, hated the title. That was all. And they were giving me a chance to resubmit since that was their only issue with it. I went and wasted 5 seconds of self-loathing for absolutely nothing. =)

You see, I'm learning that there are different types of titles. This is something I should have already known, probably did already know, but somehow just now came to the conclusion. I am so focused on creative writing and thus creative titles, that I didn't think for a minute about online content and keywords and search engine optimization. Didn't even cross my mind. No wonder they read it and thought, "There's no way someone will find this article if we leave it like this."

So note to self, just in case you didn't already know:
Creative Writing = Spiffy titles. Just about anything you want even remotely related to what you're writing about as long as you think it will get readers' attention.
Online Writing = Just get to the point and make sure it's something people will actually Google. Don't be fancy. Save that for the article.

Anyway, I resubmitted it Monday night and by Wednesday morning I had my acceptance.

I won't bombard this blog with every trivial article I post, but anything that relates back to writing I'll defiintely link here since you'll be much more interested in that sort of stuff. (You're here already, right?)

This week's article is in honor of National Poetry Month and it's about America's first poet. Silly me took this assignment and starting writing it with Anne Bradstreet in mind, not even realizing she was the FIRST of our country to be known as a poet! She's super interesting and my article is just a shortened version of her life and one of her poems, but I highly encourage you that after reading the article, check out more information on her. She's a fascinating woman.

National Poetry Month: Anne Bradstreet

I have two more articles I am currently working on about writing, and will post those links when they are published. Happy Writing!! I've got a new post in store for you soon!

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Remember This Excitement

Alright readers...have you ever submitted your work anywhere? I don't necessarily mean your novels and anthologies to publication houses (though that too), but I'm curious about the little things. Does your library have a creative writing contest? Does your school? What about creative essays for scholarships? Have you written for your local newspaper? (Doesn't count if you're part of the normal and paid staff!)

What was it like for you? Did you win? Were you published? What did you get from that experience?

I ask because today I'm reminding myself of how much all the little things really do mean and just how much they can boost your confidence.

Last year I finally entered the Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition after watching it drift by for several years. I decided it couldn't hurt to try. My goal wasn't winning. I knew it was a huge national contest and my chances were ridiculously slim. (Not to say that winning things is a bad thing!) So instead my personal goal was to place. There are 10 categories and I entered 2 of them. In the rules, Writer's Digest stated that they would recognize the top 100 entries in each category. There are thousands that get sent in for each category, so being recognized at all is pretty exciting.

And lo and behold...I placed. I got 98th place in the Rhyming Category for my piece "Exploitation of a Chair". (If there's enough interest, I will be happy to post the poem.) 98th place can sound rather discouraging, but I didn't take it that way. I did exactly what I set out to do. I placed! That means out of the thousands of submissions the editors read through for months, I stood out enough for them to set aside my name. Wow.

This year I plan on entering again. It can't hurt, only potentially help. My goal is the same. I want to place. I want to get a number next to my poem and not end up in the discard pile. And if I want to take that goal a step farther, I want 97th place, one better than last year!

You can enter too! Go to Writer's Digest and check out the contest. May 2 is the deadline, though there is a late deadling of May 20. It's not just a poetry contest, there's something for everyone. Best of luck to all!

The Writer's Digest competition isn't the only thing that got me thinking about the excitement of accepted submissions. A good friend of mine Tea & Yarn recently started writing for Yahoo's Contributor Network and referred me to it. (This used to be called Associated Content if that is more familiar to you.) It's a fascinating service in which people post articles or bits of creative writing and get paid as people view them. But the payment isn't the big reason we started with the service. (Because let's face it, you probably won't get rich off this service anyway.) But it's the joy of being able to submit our work on something other than our own personal blogs. It's also the encouragement we get from actually have writing projects to work on outside of our own long-term goals.

Today I submitted my first article and I'm as eager as a kid on Christmas watching it sit there with it's status saying "Submitted" and waiting for it to say "Approved" instead. Once it does, I'll post a link here for all of you!

How to Use the Labels for This Blog

I've decided to rework the tags on this website to be more reader friendly. In other words, there will be a lot fewer of them and they'll finally be organized so that you, the reader, can find exactly the posts you want to find. Below are the categories I'll be using and what you can expect to find in each!

NaNoWriMo = These are my posts during November, or National Novel Writer's Month, the exciting 30 days and nights of literary abandon that prompted me to begin this blog in the first place. There may also be a few posts that are not written in November if something NaNo-specific occurs at another time in the year.

Progress Report = This blog is, after all, the journey of a first time novelist. Any time I mention my current progress in a given story in a post, I'll use this tag.

Editing = My thoughts and my experiences with the editing process.

Characters = Anything character-specific.

Plot = Anything plot-specific.

Excerpts = If I ever choose to post an excerpt of my writing, you'll find it under this tag.

Inspiration = Just what it sounds like, my musings about my muses.

Nine-to-Five = Writing isn't always inspiration, it's work too. Posts about the not-always-fun parts of writing, but the parts that pay off!

Publication = Any posts written about being published or the process of trying to be published.

Curiosities = Posts that have to do with writing, but not so much with me or my experiences.

Reader's Corner = I often like to ask things of my readers and get their input on me, this blog, and their own experiences with reading and writing. If a post contains a question to my readers, it will be marked with this tag.

Personal = Posts that have little or nothing to do with writing. There aren't very many of these, but they do show up from time to time.

And there is your introduction to this site! I will keep this post under the tag "Introduction" to (hopefully) make it easier to find in the future.

The Stories of Our Lives

Warning: This post may offend some people. I do not write it with that intent nor do I write it hoping to cause any type of frustration, disagreement, or upset; this is truly nothing more than a writer's musings. Please take it as such and if this upsets you, I am truly sorry.

This post is about religion. But not about my beliefs. More this is about the STORY of religion.

What exactly do I mean by that you may be asking now. I am not here to debate who is right or who is wrong. I am not here to ask you to believe anything other than that which you already do. But I am here to question what part of the STORY drew you in?

After all, let's think for a moment. Whether you are Jewish (one of the oldest still practiced religions on Earth) or perhaps Mormon (one of the more recent belief systems), or anything conceivable in between, none of us have lived the creation of any of our religions. To us they are all stories. Some of them are simple, some of them are infinitely complex, but they are all stories that caused us to believe in something. I'm not sure about you, but when a story causes you to believe, I think that is the most powerful story of all.

We read our novels, our works of fiction that we so carefully treasure and some of the best cause us to believe. Some make us believe in love, some cause us to believe in hope. There are stories to make us believe in every human emotion we could possibly imagine. Those are powerful and amazing works of art.

But then we have stories that make us believe not just in emotion, but in salvation. Stories that direct our life. Stories that push and pull us along every step of our waking path. What do those stories have that others don't?

Some people are raised with a specific set of beliefs. Some fall into their beliefs simply because it feels "right". Some are persuaded by other believers. Some believe because they have nothing else left. There are so many reasons for people to believe the things they believe. It's intriguing. It's fascinating. It's incredible.

To my readers: I don't ask to know your religion. I don't ask to know what you believe. I don't even necessarily ask how you came to believe it. You can share if you'd like, but this is not what I ask.

What I DO ask is what about your religion's story draws you in? Look at the story and nothing more. What about the Torah sings to your heart? What about the Bible or the Koran or the Tao Te Ching or any other religious text fills your soul with absolute belief?

Don't think about what you've been told. Don't think about how you were raised. Don't think about what your minister or preacher has said. Don't think about what you believe.

Think about what the STORY says to you. The story and nothing more.

Why does the STORY tell you to believe?

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C