I don’t even have to nag you about doing your homework from Writing Roundup #3 because if you haven’t done it, my hairless ghost lemur is already haunting you. The power of delegation! Muhahahaha! As usual, today we get a whole new set of assignments. If you're new to the class, I recommend checking out the Eclectic Writing Class post hub for explanations on the categories and links to the earlier lessons. Order doesn't matter for most of the resources, but some items (grammar) build upon previous lessons' assignments.

Productivity

Writers should love writing, but an unhealthy mindset can cause us to dread the daily work. Dean Wesley Smith writes about one such mindset in Product Focused vs Process Focused.

Writing-Craft

Don't get what "Show, Don't Tell" means? Here's a good place to start:



An optional bonus for those who want to dig in deep is a DIY workshop for novel revision, also on Janice Hardy's Fiction University:

Prompt

You can read my basically unedited attempt at this prompt on Wattpad. Placeholder words are in [square brackets] and notes to myself for later are in {curly brackets}. You may notice that I tweaked this one a little to fit my scene. Don't forget that you're welcome to do that too.


And also don’t forget to share your attempt on Twitter with the hashtag:

Vocabulary

If you want to use my words, I have a Memrise Course for this class.

My words for this lesson are:

1. Cirrus
2. Craven
3. Gelid
4. Manticore
5. Mummery
6. Spinney
7. Sward
8. Thaumaturgist
9. Tussock
10. Whin
11.  Gorse (bonus word. Synonym to whin.)

Progress

My writing over the last month has been both wildly successful and wildly unsuccessful. I've been having some really obnoxious health challenges for a couple of months now, feeling tired all day, every day, no matter how much sleep I get and sometimes being really grumpy, weepy, sore, or in pain. When I'm in that state, it's difficult for me to focus on technical and non-fiction writing like blog posts.

So even though today is only the 17th of July, I've already spent 27 hours on my outline, character profiles, etc. toward my 30-hour goal for Spirit of Sacrifice. I've even done a little bit of research to help me incorporate some cultural tension into the story and character relationships. It's been a blast. I'll probably have to kick my goal up a little higher before the end of CampNaNoWriMo.

On the flip side, I haven't been getting my blog posts done! You haven't noticed this, of course, because I usually have a buffer of 4-5 posts at least semi-written in advance, but I've been seeing that reserve go down and thinking "Well, crum."

The good news here is that even though I haven't been writing the book reviews, I have been reading books more quickly than usual (my tired brain can read more easily than it can write), so hopefully I'll be able to get far enough out of this brain fog to write a few reviews next week.

You may also have noticed that I've been less active on social media in the last few weeks. Again, this is just me being super tired. Social media is not my natural habitat and it takes a lot of energy for me to come up with posts and interact with people, so I'm trying to be kind to myself and save more of my energy for writing and life stuff.


That’s it! Writing Roundup #5 will come out in four weeks, so you have plenty of time to do the homework. To find other posts in this series and a more detailed explanation of the categories, visit An Eclectic Writing Class.