I am currently re-reading the book I got for a writing class last semester –> “Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft” by Burroway & French x2. It is written in a very down to earth, laid-back style that I find particularly easy to read. Books that pontificate for pages on some fussy point or another tend to get chunked in the nearest trash receptacle. Books that I find helpful tend to look like this:

And there is excellent advice in this book. I am even finding information that I missed on the first go-through. One of the bits of advice that I did *not* miss is on the very first page. And that is:

Whatever Works
The Writing Process

The whole first section of this book is on the act of just sitting your ass down in the chair and getting to it. I don’t know about other writers but, I am guilty of the “social media” school of procrastionation. There is SO MUCH Internet out there, people. I would be remiss if I weren’t reading my email or exchanging “Blazing Saddles” quotes on my Facebook or even just looking longingly at Dragon*Con galleries. For hours.

“Writing Fiction” offers some great tips on how to get in the habit of writing. I really like the thought of writing as a habit. It has got to be much less offensive than smoking as a habit, yes?
Upon waking, every day, I should come in and commit to words the crazy dreams that I had the night before; or, maybe the adventures in hobbling around a dark house with leg cramps while avoiding the kitties [whose favorite game is to play speed bump in front of the stairs.] I know those are not terribly exciting subjects. But, the idea is to write ~anything~ just to force it into habitual routine.

So look forward to a great deal more random bits of writing popping up on here. I promise to write about the cats only once in a while.