Happy Anniversary: Looking Back and Looking Forward

As I was perusing the blog today, I noticed that it's been a year since we got this craziness going!  Our official anniversary was the 13th of this month, but we'll celebrate it a few days later because I definitely feel it's worth celebrating.  Firstly I want to congratulate everyone who has been a part of this blog, the admin, the writers, the editor, and the readers.  I know that for me, Detangled Writers has been a source of pride, enjoyment, and education.  Taking a look at our contributor profiles, I see a group of people who I hold in high esteem.  These women have taken time out of their lives to share their thoughts and knowledge with the writing community.  Some of the goals we wrote in our profiles might be a bit outdated by now - some things might be all done and checked off, some things may have been set aside, while others may be in progress.  I invite the contributors to create fresh goals lists and provide an update.  Tell us about your writing; what projects do you have going on, is writer's block bugging you, are you having trouble finding time for your craft?   Also, let's talk about what goals we have for the blog in general and how we can become an even better support network for each other.  

 

Old Goals for Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora)! 

1. Time Management 
2. Keeping the Creative Juices Flowing
3. Finishing what I start...
4. Grad School and everything to do with it!
5. Characters - working on characterizations

I accomplished part of number four by applying to and being accepted to an MFA program.  I am currently working toward completing my masters in creative writing at Pine Manor College.  Number five can be removed because, for me, the writing itself is what generates character and plot and trying to work on those independently is possible but not really a goal.  As far as the first three goals, I would keep one and three on my list!  Number two is less of a goal for me and more a goal for the blog.  My new list, a much more specific list, would look like this:

New Goals!

1. Time Management
2. Finish Death Man (my current novel in progress)
3. Work on short stories for Workshops
4. Read craft books and fiction novels
5. Attend an AWP conference (Seattle 2014)

Some goals for the blog would be to see some more blogs on hot topics such as fanfiction writing, romance versus erotica, elements of craft, literary definitions and analyses, and even book reviews and discussions.  I would love to see more vocab words!  Everyone is encouraged to post vocab builders and word exercises.  If people have personal blogs where they share writing pieces, I would like to see entries detailing the process, successes, and failures they had with the project and then a link so we can read your work.

I hope that everyone who is part of this blog is as proud of it as I am.  This post brings our total to 148 published blogs for Detangled Writers.  Here's hoping that by this time next year we have upwards of 300!  Thank you to our contributors and readers.

Hello from your 2nd Administrator.

Hey guys, I was recently made an admin so I could move some things around as we post them. Dani has been caught up in life and, for the moment, is unable to tend to the blog as she would like. So with that said, I have a brief update and a few small requests to make.

1. I've put the weekly vocab words on the vocab page, formatted it as best as I am able, some things still look a little off, but I am working on it. Eventually I will have the page set in alphabetical order. 

2. If you've done a writing prompt, in the past would you be so kind as to make sure you've labeled the post. This makes it easier for me to make sure that I can get all of the prompts to the right page. 

3. I heard mention of a Grammar corner page. I'd like to go ahead and make a page for that and thus need the same labeling from everyone who had made such a post. 

4. For those of us still interested in a writing workshop via Google hangouts, I'd like to post pone that until summer so our student contributors can get through midterms, finals, and Camp Nanowrimo this month if they are participating.

5. I have a question for the Contributors Page, do we want to post our pictures beside our profile descriptions? 

6. Finally, I am going to speak to Dani about possibly changing the appearance of the blog. If any of you have any suggestions or ideas of that you'd like the blog to look like, please let me know. I general tend to use free blog formats I find on the internet since I'm not an HTML wiz (I remember some things from my HTML class but not enough). So if there is a particular color scheme or theme you think would work nicely, let me know. But remember, I still need to get the okay from Dani.

***

Edit: I've Cleaned up and put together the Grammar Corner Page. I have also spoke with Dani and she's given the okay to change up the appearance of the blog. So any suggestions are welcome. 

Back on the writing wagon and with drive!

"I LOVE DOGS!"

About a month ago my father called me up and wanted to know if I would be interested in flying home for a visit while Amanda Lafantasie (a.k.a Skoora), was in Boston for her MFA Residency. I was more than interested, I was down right giddy and more than ready to brave flying alone. So we decided on three weeks in which I would relax and visit a few friends and some family and two days later I was home bound.

That trip seems to have been just what I needed. I didn't do too much, just had a few mostly quiet visits with friends and family, and played with my parent's dog, Kali. But somehow whether it was the comfort of being home and truly relaxing, the quiet of my parent's house, or both, my brain settled down, stopped running a million miles a minute and complete thoughts of stories and ideas started happening.

One night I got up to let the dog out to do her bathroom business and for some reason when I laid back down, I just couldn't sleep. I started thinking about a movie I'd seen that evening and, like with most movies, anime, TV shows, or books, I started plotting a fan fic. I'm not sure how I got from Narnia to a dragon story I only have notes for or even how I got from that to a vampire story, but an hour later I had some little notes written and I could finally sleep.

I can say that I didn't get to writing the next day, I was still in the middle of my trip and wanted to wait until I got home. When I arrived home, I was excited and really wanted to write but I was kind of scared. It took getting settled in, some venting time, and a serious brainstorming session along with some helpful plotting notes from Amanda's MFA homework to get me on the right track. Not only am I as excited as Roy Mustang is about dogs, but I actually have some confidence and the first chapter arc plotted out and ready to be worked on today!

Also, while I was away I got a letter from the Long Ridge Writer's Group. A couple of years ago I was doing their short stories for magazines program, almost finished it but moved and life happened. Their letter was basically stating that I only had one assignment left and I could still do it, for a fee of course. I would like to finish it and get the diploma. But I have to wait until I have the money and contact them to find out if I can get the material sent to me for the last assignment simply because half my things are still in Kansas and what I did bring up here, well, I haven't seen it in the garage.