Holding Fast - ROW80 Check-In
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A Round of Words in 80 Days Round 3 2023 The writing challenge that knows you have a life |
Abbie Emmons Motivational
I thought I would 'cheat' a bit with this post and save time by not trying to write my own essay above the GOAL check list. I thought, Why not share a motivational video that would also introduce one of my resources online, a writer and vlogger whose specialty is two fold: Inspiration and How To.
So much for a time-saving cheat tho. I've already spent longer than I usually do on composing these check-in posts because I've spent at least two hours scrolling through hundreds of video thumbs and watching several while looking for the ones I hoped to share.
Abbie Emmons is a self-published author whose third book is coming out this fall. I think her first two easily fall into the the genre Romantic Comedy. 100 Days of Summer and it's sequel The Best Christmas Ever. I thought I'd reviewed the first one but I can't find it. The source of my memory could be either it is one of the unpublished drafts that don't have an identifying title, or it is in one of my note or word processing files also without an identifying title. The kind of thing I might do when what I'm working on is rougher than a rough draft--a collection really of notes and quotes and biblio details, links and images and blurbs and bios. When I was posting reviews regularly I would collect those minutia while I was still reading the book and then creating the post was a matter of plug and play. Another place my 'review' could be is inside one of the read-a-thon posts. That just occurred to me but this is not the time to squirrel off to check out that thought. But I have a good idea where to look first as I was reading it in early 2020--just before or just after the onset of the pandemic shutdown. Which was about when I lost my mojo as my life crashed around me.
Anyway.
Abbie Emmons' third book, The Otherworld, sounds like it could be another RomCom but possibly with literary aspirations. I suspect this because of comments she has made about it over the last several years as she worked on it during the write-ins she occasionally hosts on her channel. Another thing I love about her channel. The write-ins. I find it soothing to listen to the sound of typing and if I'm sitting here holding my own hands over my own keyboard while I listen it isn't long before I'm clickity-clacking right along with her.
I am especially anxious to read The Otherworld because it is set in the state where I grew up and now live. Tho I've never been to one of the islands off the coast of Washington state that hosts a lighthouse I have childhood memories of exploring the Puget Sound area with a great aunt who lived in Tacoma.
But that isn't the only reason I'm so wanting to read this one. My main reason is that the protagonist was raised on one of those lighthouse islands by a uber protective father who won't allow her to be exposed to 'The Otherworld' by which he means our modern culture on the mainland. This I'm sure will find resonance with my own experience of having been raised in a cult.
I wasn't isolated on an island nor even on a compound. I went to a regular public school but the isolation was created by 6 to 10 hours of Bible Meetings or related group activities per week along with the 6 or 7 hours of related activities performed as a family at home all enclosed by a structure of hundreds of taboos against exposing ourselves to contamination from the 'outsiders' aka 'the world'. One of the worst things that could be said of one of our group was that they were 'too worldly'.
So much for a time-saving cheat tho. I've already spent longer than I usually do on composing these check-in posts because I've spent at least two hours scrolling through hundreds of video thumbs and watching several while looking for the ones I hoped to share.
Abbie Emmons is a self-published author whose third book is coming out this fall. I think her first two easily fall into the the genre Romantic Comedy. 100 Days of Summer and it's sequel The Best Christmas Ever. I thought I'd reviewed the first one but I can't find it. The source of my memory could be either it is one of the unpublished drafts that don't have an identifying title, or it is in one of my note or word processing files also without an identifying title. The kind of thing I might do when what I'm working on is rougher than a rough draft--a collection really of notes and quotes and biblio details, links and images and blurbs and bios. When I was posting reviews regularly I would collect those minutia while I was still reading the book and then creating the post was a matter of plug and play. Another place my 'review' could be is inside one of the read-a-thon posts. That just occurred to me but this is not the time to squirrel off to check out that thought. But I have a good idea where to look first as I was reading it in early 2020--just before or just after the onset of the pandemic shutdown. Which was about when I lost my mojo as my life crashed around me.
Anyway.
Abbie Emmons' third book, The Otherworld, sounds like it could be another RomCom but possibly with literary aspirations. I suspect this because of comments she has made about it over the last several years as she worked on it during the write-ins she occasionally hosts on her channel. Another thing I love about her channel. The write-ins. I find it soothing to listen to the sound of typing and if I'm sitting here holding my own hands over my own keyboard while I listen it isn't long before I'm clickity-clacking right along with her.
I am especially anxious to read The Otherworld because it is set in the state where I grew up and now live. Tho I've never been to one of the islands off the coast of Washington state that hosts a lighthouse I have childhood memories of exploring the Puget Sound area with a great aunt who lived in Tacoma.
But that isn't the only reason I'm so wanting to read this one. My main reason is that the protagonist was raised on one of those lighthouse islands by a uber protective father who won't allow her to be exposed to 'The Otherworld' by which he means our modern culture on the mainland. This I'm sure will find resonance with my own experience of having been raised in a cult.
I wasn't isolated on an island nor even on a compound. I went to a regular public school but the isolation was created by 6 to 10 hours of Bible Meetings or related group activities per week along with the 6 or 7 hours of related activities performed as a family at home all enclosed by a structure of hundreds of taboos against exposing ourselves to contamination from the 'outsiders' aka 'the world'. One of the worst things that could be said of one of our group was that they were 'too worldly'.
Imagine giving your novel's protagonist the whole world and the entire culture of their birth the role of villain and antagonist? In this scenario there is no success, no safe place to land in one's lifetime. It is all out there to serve as obstacle, temptation, ensnarement and punishment.
My own storyworld came into existence as the sandbox in which I tried to work out what had happened to me after I had flipped the script on my own life story in my late 30s when I concluded that the world was not my enemy the doctrine was.
Well. That was a tangent I was not planning to take in this post but I guess I will let it stand.
I just wanted to share one of the writer resources that I enjoy on several levels but especially whenever I need reassurance that my dreams as a creative writer are worthy even if 'wordly'. But Abbie Emmons is also very good at all the minutia of the how-to from story structure, character creation, and world building, to outlining, writing, rewriting, editing and self-publishing.
Her favorite question is: Why does your story matter? And she encourages us to answer that for ourselves for if our story doesn't matter to us or we don't consciously know why it matters we can't make it matter to anyone else. The second vid is one of many that touches on that theme which is the the theme of her channel.
My own storyworld came into existence as the sandbox in which I tried to work out what had happened to me after I had flipped the script on my own life story in my late 30s when I concluded that the world was not my enemy the doctrine was.
Well. That was a tangent I was not planning to take in this post but I guess I will let it stand.
I just wanted to share one of the writer resources that I enjoy on several levels but especially whenever I need reassurance that my dreams as a creative writer are worthy even if 'wordly'. But Abbie Emmons is also very good at all the minutia of the how-to from story structure, character creation, and world building, to outlining, writing, rewriting, editing and self-publishing.
Her favorite question is: Why does your story matter? And she encourages us to answer that for ourselves for if our story doesn't matter to us or we don't consciously know why it matters we can't make it matter to anyone else. The second vid is one of many that touches on that theme which is the the theme of her channel.
Abbie Emmons on How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Other Writers
Note: I discover4ed while going after links to the titles above that the books are tagged as YA. I don't want to take the time to edit so I'll leave the caveat here.
- Morning pages daily. Average 40 minutes (ala Julia Cameron The Artist Way and Writing For Life) YES In fact I just passed a milestone by filling the first spiral notebook. 70 pages both sides. Started May 20. Probably would not have jumped into NaNo and ROW80 without having had a month of morning pages behind me.
- Storydreaming with notebook for noting ideas for characters or scenes. (ala Robert Owen Butler From Where You Dream) 30 minutes per day TWICE since Wednesday (Until about ten days ago, lots of storydreaming. No notebook. I'd misplaced the one I used to use for this and was reluctant to start a new one but I think I need to be less fussy. The notebook is the key to this goal as without it the storydreams go to the same place night dreams go an hour after waking. I found the notebook. So. No excuses left.)
- Working on the Fruits of the Spirit (aka FOS) Storyworld Bible at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week. I'm sure this will expand as I get involved but I need to set a minimum for that jumpstart. 3X since Wednesday (with pain level back to normal background hum and the Reverse Thon in the rearview I will make this and storydreaming the high priority for the rest of Camp NaNo. They are the core after all. The rest are support. Well Camp NaNo is over in 24 hrs and i'm not going to hit the milestones I pictured no fulfill the 11K word count I established in my Camp NaNo project specs but I'm still pleased with the start I've made and the storyword bible will continue as my ROW80 main project for the remainder of this round. Oh I just realized that the 2x I reported last Wednesday plus the 3x I just reported add up to 5 which is actually a fulfillment of the stated goal of at least 5x a week.)
- Weekly Artist Date (ala Julia Cameron) This is about doing something to recharge your creative battery. I'll go into more detail in one of the check-ins. NOPE
- A minimum of 5 minutes of physical activity. Either a walk outside with my caregiver or a session on my mini-tramp, or pacing the floor between front and back door. YES (may need to look at upping the expectation soon. this is getting too easy)
- I want to reengage with my blog so: Two blog posts per week besides the two check-ins. One about encountering other people's stories via print, video or audio which can include formal reviews. The other about a current fiber art WIP or about one of my personal challenges: widowhood, independent living with visual impairment and autism and issues related to health and aging among them. NOPE (I've continued to choose reading over blogging. I've been finishing 2 to 3 books a week so there is plenty of fodder for reviews. I think the main hurdle is my personal issue with transitions (part of my high functioning autism) it is hard to change the channels in my head which translates to: hard to switch from awake to asleep and back again. hard to switch from dry to wet and back (think swimming and showers). Forgetting to eat and then forgetting to stop eating. Really it is any activity including topics on my mind. Except for reading NF books. For some reason I'd rather read one chapter each in ten books in one sitting then read ten chapters in one book. Odd that. I wonder why switching channels is preferablein hat one instance. Is it just the fact that it is all reading and uses all the same neuropaths and I don't have to get up and move to another location but even if I happen to I can still switch to a different book without a glitch? These are not idle questions. This is an example of the self-reflection I've talked about in earlier posts. Questions like these often lead to insights I can plug back into my life in another context and increase my success.
1 tell me a story:
About your caveat... Not an issue. There are some amazing YA writers out there.
Though.... gotta say, she pretty much lost me (personally) on the "I know what you're thinking" followed by a number of pieces of negative self-talk. I Do have a lot of negative self-talk going through my head, but often not the one's she stated, and... heck, I don't know what I'm thinking 1/2 the time. I dearly hope no one else does! Some of that stuff is pretty scary...
Otherworld though... that looks VERY interesting. And I definitely can see why it intrigues you so much too.
Interesting post. Joy.
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