Tori’s Writing Hole

Two weekends ago, we took a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure with my parents. The five of us piled into my parents’ minivan and set out for the three hour trip to Jackson, NJ. We took the GPS - which meant that we were steered through some of the more scenic areas of NJ - meaning the stinky ones. It was fun. Then there was traffic - more fun. Basically, it was a family road trip, only I’m an adult now. So I can curse at the other cars.

We went through the Wild Safari first. Julia was not nearly as enthused about this part of the trip as I thought she would be. Pretty much just the emus were interesting.

Next came the actual theme park. Completely huge. Especially when walking with/pushing a stroller with a three year old. We decided (Stephen and I) to try taking Julia on her first ride - which just happened to be the Big Wheel ferris wheel. We were pretty sure we were going to have a meltdown - but she loved it! And then she loved every ride in the kids (Wiggles, feh) section - even the ones she rode alone!

Aside from being raped for food and drink at the park, we had a great time. Left much earlier than usual because well, we had a three year old, and Stephen and I only got to ride one roller coaster. But, we’re already looking forward to the next time!

Let’s face it, we all make excuses. I’m queen of excuses - I’m sick, depressed, busy - I make them all the time. Well, yesterday I decided to stop. I’m going to plow ahead, no matter what. (I hope I don’t end up wanting to eat these words, for my computer does not look tasty). I started a novel - it’s only one page of miscellaneous words, but it’s there. I’ve written four online articles in the past two days. I finally updated Wordpress and I feel like I’ve stopped avoiding writing.

I’m also taking pains to keep myself busy in the house - cleaning (yuk) playing with Julia and just generally not sitting and feeling sorry for myself.

I hope this works.

Not that things haven’t been happening in my life - heck, they must have been, if I’m not writing my blog. I’m just checking in, floating along in summertime sweaty-ness and trying to plan my next writing project.

I’ll update when I’ve got… an update.

well, at least of my writing life. Well, in this case it’s actually writing getting in the way of writing as well. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to find writing jobs. Unfortunately, this leaves me little time to write blogs and poetry and stories - what I want to do. Sigh. If only people would pay me to blather on and complain.

Julia’s developing like crazy into a wacky storyteller in her own right. Evidently, the star of her stories is a "real princess" named "Fishy". Not sure what her naming convention is - she’s got Smushy-smush the friend and has named her stuffed cat "Poof". At least they’re not all Sally or Mary or something.

We’ve learned more about Smushy - in case you were interested. She eats grass and drinks juice, she sleeps in the bed with Julia and she gets a bath when Julia washes her hands. I know you’ve been dying for an artist’s interpretation of what this creature looks like, so here you are - Julia’s Smushy-smush:

Tags: writing, mom, imaginary friend

I know, you’re sick of me saying this, but darn it - I’m going to write a book. I’ve gotten further than before this time - this time I downloaded SOFTWARE. See, I’m thinking if I actually dedicate something to just writing my book, I’ll work better. Sounds great, right? Um, well, something has to give me a swift kick in the arse.

I wanted to use yWriter, a freeware application that is supposed to be great for organizing outlines, thoughts, character models, you name it. Unfortunately, it is not available for Mac. Why not, dudes at yWriter? Don’t you know that most creative people (sorry Windows users) use either Macs or Linux (gotta nod to my penguin peeps).

So I searched for a viable alternative. Jer’s Novel Writer is free, well, sort of. It’s super-nag ware, annoying you more and more as you use it. Not good. I will get angry at Jer. And it’s $30 if I don’t want to get angry. So I’m thinking about Scrivener. It’s also not free - but you get a nag free 30 day trial and then the cost (for me, a lowly student) is $34.95. Plus they’re British, and spell things differently like "specialised".

Anyone with experience with either of these is welcome to give me advice. I’m trying, Mom!

Tags: writing, software, free