Mis-scanned

First off – it feels so weird to be posting something other than a six sentence snippet on Sunday! 😉 I’ve signed up for Skye Warren’s New Proposal, which is actually based on a monthly schedule; you can sign up starting from the first Sunday of the month and post your excerpts on the third. We’ll see how that works out. And I’m interested in a few other possibilities, including Weekend Writing Warriors and the Unaffiliated Six Sentence Sunday Facebook Group. But I didn’t get it together to join either of those for this week.

Instead, I wanted to post today about drawing! I’ve been working through Betty Edward’s “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” for several months on and off now; a few pre-instruction sketches the last week of October, quite a bit of reading and some drawing in December, and an upside-down drawing every day in February. I’ve put this onto my February goals list, that I want to timeslice some drawing stuff six days a week, (either reading from the book or a drawing exercise, or both,) and added a new letter to my Calendar of Goal Tracking for it; A for Art.

So I want to share some of my drawings with you, faithful friends and followers, and I had a flatbed scanner sitting around on a shelf, one that my Mom didn’t want. So after several days of telling myself that this was the day I scanned pictures for the blog, I finally…

The Surprising power of Time Slices

Just a few short thoughts to share for today. One – about the closing of Six Sentence Sunday. First off, I have to once again give big props to all the admins over at http://www.sixsunday.com for all the work they’ve put into running such a huge ongoing blog hop for so long. I can appreciate that the job only got more stressful once they announced that it was going to be closing, and that they’re sick and tired of hearing pitches about people who want to carry on the torch and want something from them.

But – man, they closed up the shop quickly! I’d been looking forward to reading more entries from last Sunday, and sixsunday.com is locked up tight. Everything’s been taken down, the linky lists, the cover art ads, the FAQ and rules list – just one post saying that they don’t endorse any copycats – and commenting disabled on the post. It’s a little sad for me to see it end that way – would it have hurt anybody to leave the Jan 27th link list available for a full week? Sigh.

Moving on – as you may know, I’ve been doing cleaning timeslices for a long time, off and on. One of my 2013 goals was to keep up an average of 2 hours cleaning and tidying in my apartment for the whole year, and I had a good streak going from December too. So after I was done with work yesterday, I looked around the living room, decided that I should probably tackle the CD containers near the back shelves in my living room, as that was one of the few loci of mess remaining on the living room floor that doesn’t really belong there. Once the floor is actually clear, I can start working on sweeping and even washing the floor! (I’ve already been through this in the other rooms of the apartment – the living room is the last holdout.)

Then I did a bit of math on the numbers from the iPhone project tracker I’ve been using for my January cleaning timeslices and changed my mind. I was up to 9 hours and an odd minute, which was enough to declare that I was keeping up on my goal for the month – I could skate through the rest of the month and dive back into the living room stuff when February started. So I sat down at the Toshiba laptop and worked on some photo conversion stuff for the old Dell Axim handheld that I’d been wanting to get done.

After an hour of that, I figured that I’d done enough for that and needed to get another timeslice marked off on my calendar. So what do I do? Completely forgetting that I’d decided to give myself three days off cleaning, I log back into the hours tracker and spend ten minutes clearing mess off the living room floor! 😀

That’s the power of timeslices right there – when doing something that you’ve always thought of as an unpleasant chore becomes enough of a habit that you find yourself doing it even after you gave yourself a day off from it, or three. 🙂

Are you doing any timeslices lately? What’s the most unappealing project you’ve gotten through a little bit at a time?

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 10

It’s the last Six Sentence Sunday ever from sixsunday.com . I’d like to thank everybody who’s ever given me feedback, and the admins at sixsunday.com for helping me meet so many fellow writers and bloggers.

Last time, Kinwer accidentally mentioned Gibbs, his missing gnome friend, in front of his sister’s fiancee.

First Six Second Six Third Six Fourth Six Fifth Six Sixth Six Seventh Six Eighth Six Ninth Six

 

“I told you that you shouldn’t be spending time with those folk, Kinwer,” Father said. “You’ve got enough to keep you busy…”

“I don’t have any other friends!” Kinwer exclaimed. “Not since you pulled me out of school. As long as I get the work done, what’s it to you if I talk to a gnome? He’s the only one who understands me at all – and he didn’t come out of the mound this morning and I’m worried that something horrible happened to him.”

Thank you for your feedback, and I hope to see you all around the blogosphere sometime!

 

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 9

Happy Six Sentence Sunday, everybody! Next week will be the last SSS under the current dynasty. I’ve been posting sixes on Sunday for more than a year now, and it’ll be like the ending of an era.

Last time, Kinwer accidentally mentioned Gibbs, his missing gnome friend, in front of his family and his sister’s fiancee. Just to warn you, I’ve been revising this part recently, so I might have repeated or tweaked something.

First Six Second Six Third Six Fourth Six Fifth Six Sixth Six Seventh Six Eighth Six

Father turned and glared at Kinwer, and mother muttered something to him under her breath. Father didn’t like Kinwer talking to the gnomes about anybody, even family – and Zaffaran was ‘almost family.’ Zaffaran seemed to be a little upset too, but he forced a wide and friendly smile on his face. “Yes, what’s wrong with your gnome friend?”

“Umm, it doesn’t matter.”

“Are you sure?” Zaffaran said, and looked around at the rest of the family.

Thank you so much for reading. Even though it’s months yet to Easter, I’ll be handing out chocolate eggs to anybody who leaves feedback this week. 🙂

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 8

Happy Sunday, everybody! I guess this is the third-to-last official Six Sentence Sunday, though I’ve already raised my hand for the Skye Warren unofficial version.

Kinwer is getting very concerned about his gnome friend, but has been stuck working all day in the fields…

First Six Second Six Third Six Fourth Six Fifth Six Sixth Six Seventh Six

Kinwer was feeling very tired when he got back into the house, and saw that the rest of the family was gathered around the hearth, drinking something from a tall bottle. Mother was sitting next to father, and Hope had her hand demurely in Zaffaran’s. Kinwer liked Zaffaran a little, but he still had a hard time imagining his big sister getting married and moving to Zaffaran’s little candle shop in the village.

“Good evening, Kinwer!” Zaffaran said, waving to him with his free hand. “How was your day?”

“I’m doing alright, but I’m a little worried about Gibbs,” Kinwer said before he thought about it.

Thank you for leaving any feedback, and if you don’t want SSS to end in January, raise your hand at Skye Warren’s page too!

Looking for my Gnomes in new places

Well, I finally got around to reading through some of the critiques I got back in December for the first sample chapter of “The Gnomes are Missing.” There were some very nice things said in all those emails I got from critterfolk, and a few problems raised that I have to agree with.

I took a little while to think about it, and decided that I needed to turn the project around at this point. When I started with ‘Gnomes’ in late November, I really hadn’t planned it at all beyond ‘Hey, this will be a great thing to write now that I’m done with “Snow Job,” and maybe I can send it to CSSF novels.’ I took maybe 15 minutes to organize a few character thoughts at a local write-in and then dived into the first scene.

So, now, I’m going back to the drawing board. Based on what I’ve discovered about the Gnomes and their friends in Nanowrimo, and what people have said via critters and Six Sentence Sunday, I’ve started a new list of characters, changing around some of the personalities and relationships I began with in Discovery. Next I’m planning to do the five-page plot synopsis, (or as many pages as I can wring out of myself,) and then go back to rewrite the sample chapters with a clearer idea of where I want the story to go.

It’s going to be hard to put some elements of my trial run aside, but I’m also excited!

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 7

Happy 2013, everybody! Six Sentence Sunday continues on, though the end is drawing near.

At this point, Kinwer is worried about his gnome friend, but not sure what he can do to help…

First Six Second Six Third Six Fourth Six Fifth Six Sixth Six

He went straight out to the fields to begin pruning, and Father came out to look for him after he’d finished one row. “Boy! Come in for a bite before you keel over.”

The slice of bread and bowl of vegetable soup did help him feel a bit stronger, and his mind was buzzing with possibilities as he went back out to the field, thinking about the gnomes. He’d probably woken up too late to meet with Gibbs. Gibbs had a father, too, who was always nagging him about something or other. 

Maybe Kinwer could get out to the mound before dinner, if he got the pruning done quickly.

Thanks for all your comments and feedback!

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 6

Happy Holidays and Merry Six Sentence Sunday to you all. It looks like I’ll get up to ten snippets for “The Gnomes are missing” before the SSS list goes down at the end of January 2013.

I’m going to skip ahead out of the flashback at this point:

First Six Second Six Third Six Fourth Six Fifth Six

The school bell started to ring, and for a second Kinwer was startled, because that wasn’t the way the memory went. And then he shook himself, and went back to the present. He had to get to the schoolhouse NOW. He wouldn’t be able to meet Gibbs this morning. So he ran the long way around the family farm. He’d be late to school, but he could tell the schoolmarm that he was doing chores, and Father wouldn’t know that he’d been out to the gnome mound.

Happy Boxing Week, and here’s wishing you all a happy New Year!

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 5

Happy Holidays and Merry Six Sentence Sunday to you all. After this week, it looks to me like we have five Six-Sundays before they end – January 27, 2013 will be the last SSS.

We’re still in a flashback, with my main character, Kinwer, meeting his first Gnome friend:

“So if you’re eleven… how long until you’re full grown? They say that men don’t live as long as we do.”

“I might be as tall as I’m going to get by the time I’m seventeen.” Kinwer counted on his fingers. “I’ll be a man by law once I’m fourteen.”

“Gosh,” Gibbs repeated.

Thank you very much for reading! I’ll try to send out Xmas presents or cards to everybody who comments!

Six Sentence Sunday: The Gnomes are Missing, 4

It’s Six Sentence Sunday – which will be ending after January 2013, so you better get your sixes while they’re hot! 

I’m continuing with sentences from the opening of my Missing Gnomes story.

“I’m only eleven. Father is a man, and he’s MUCH bigger than me.”

“Bigger than you?” the little creature replied.

Kinwer raised his hand as high above his head as he could. “This tall – maybe a little more.”

“Gosh… I’m Gibbs, man-child, and it’s my honor to meet you.”

Thank you very much for leaving feedback!