Qberty
- Location:
- Naperville, IL
- Hobbies:
- Walks on the beach, romantic candlelit dinners, holding hands ... oops - this is NaNoWriMo, not eHarmony. Rewind ... when I'm not reading, you'll find me playing games - Tetris got me hooked on PC games, Pong started my console craze. I also like crosswords, Sudoku, Kakuro.
- Favorite noveling music:
- I like silence personally
- Website:
- http://www.writetoo.me
- Occupation:
- Microsoft Office Professional taking college courses while searching for a new p
- Favorite books or authors:
- Stranger in a Strange Land, My Sister's Keeper, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist, Robert A. Heinlein, Danielle Steele, Jodi Picoult
Author bio:
2010 is my first attempt at participation in NaNoWriMo. I didn't even "start" until the second week. I may have only gotten in a couple thousand words, but I am proud of myself and grateful to NNWM for at least getting started. I've enjoyed writing (short stories, compositions, letters, journaling, blogging, etc.) for the last 40+ years. Since I didn't finish in November, I'm planning on attempting this again in 2011.
2011 Update. I'm baaack! This time around, hopefully more prepared. The plot is steeping and outlines are forming. The mad scientist laboratory has incubators containing the flesh, blood, and organs to transplant and graft onto my characters once their skeletons have fully developed. (Halloween reference anyone? I feel a bit like one of the three witches in Macbeth.)
I've spent the last year reading attentively. Exploring how my favorite authors move their plots along, the ways they paint their scenes on my mind's canvas, how they create the tension that makes me eager to turn the page to discover what happens next. I've plodded through material I would normally toss aside, dissecting the pitfalls that made those particular efforts boring, pretentious, or stilted. Hopefully I can wrangle these insights into a better "first effort."
I'm not expecting a masterpiece. In fact, based on the words of wisdom from experienced writers I'm expecting pure tripe. So why am I putting myself through this torturous exercise? Because I realize that in order to become "better" there first has to be something to be better than. Right now, for me, there is nothing. So, to use one of my favorite quotes "If not now, when?"
This year I have the dubious advantage of being unemployed. Does that mean I have more time on my hands? Unfortunately not. To add to the nearly full-time effort of job searching and networking, I decided to go back to college and take courses on web programming. Even with a mainframe programming and HTML coding background, college is just as challenging and time consuming (if not more so) as my job was last year. And here I thought I would be able to fly through these courses and easily gain the certification that would enable me to find more lucrative employment. This has been truly humbling.
So, armed with a new plot and having gathered more (hopefully useful) tools, I enter the fray once again.
