Thank goodness for shows like The Walking Dead or I wouldn’t have blog time.

Furthermore, how, after all these years of growing their own food and barely getting by does one of the characters have a twizzler to chew on?

Now that’s keeping it real.

Speaking of writing, my whole purpose here to start with.

I, by no stretch of the imagination have the soul of a writer but I do have the spirit of one, and I want to be a writer because I have a lot of cool story ideas. With that being said, I am the type of, author wanna be, that must learn to write. It doesn’t come natural for me. I wish!

I have found on my learning journey so far, that there are many fabulous writers with some great advice on how to write. So I learn, and I learn, and I learn.

And off I go into the wild world of, teach me everything you know so I too can be a writer and an author someday.

Now, I’m up against a wall when I say this. I’m sensing a lot of contradicting information on how to be all I can be.

No worries though, that’s just more for me to learn.

So, here’s to all you fabulous writers teaching other writers like me to be a good writer.

Thank you and keep on rocking it out.

Sometimes in life you just have to take the smack down that life’s situations give you.

Take writing for example. You may start with the grand idea of being a rock star and writing that first novel.

You can count every word right up to the moment you reach that number you needed to reach before you can apply for novelship.

However, on the way to noveldom you come up short on several thousand words and just like a landlord if you are short on your rent, you get knocked out of your apartment or knocked back to say, a novella instead of the novel.

No worries though. Here is where life slaps the hell out of you and you surrender the struggle to noveldom or you get back on that pony and write.

That’s if you enjoy writing while you’re on your pony.

Either way, what ever life hands you do something so cliche that it makes you vomit lemons and lemonade.

The End

Ah, the dreaded blog. A year ago when I started my blog I was scared to death to write anything on it. I was then, and still am, learning to be a writer. So, what was I so afraid of? I couldn’t even tell you now, but I can tell you this.

When I become intimidated about writing on my blog I simply ask myself, and let my self answer.

Myself: What would Sharon Stone do?

Myself: About what, being afraid to write in her blog?

Self: She did write childrens books in the movie Mosaic.

Self: And just like Sharon Stones, writer blog. Nobody red hers either.

The moral of my story is…Do not let Sharon Stone write your blog…

In life I am my own main character. Easy enough to share myself with my new friend, right? Well, yes and no.

If I had to put me in a book I swear I’d never finish writing all the stuff that consist of me. And, I’d never get the story written because there is constant sub plots to every bit of my being.

As for my main character in my book I was trying to tell my new friend about her and I swear I couldn’t verbalize her story fast enough. It was like my MC is a this, and then she’s that, and now she’s a murderer because of another thing. Through all that I learned that there is more to her than meets the eye.

I think what I did there by trying to explain my MC to my friend and at the same time explain myself to my friend I was surface surfing my character building. Now I want to hit the keyboard and add some more character to my character.

Finally, I just blew some fairy dust in my friends face and ran away. I heard that somewhere and decided to try it. It works.

One thing I have learned about myself is that I am not a daydreamer. With that being said.

I used to think that the really talented authors, Patricia Cornwell, Anne Rice, Benjamin Wallace, to name a few, must sit around all day and daydream about their next book. Then I started to learn about how to be a writer and picked up some helpful tricks of the trade.

Really great writers I’ve learned, do not sit on the couch all day or keep their eyes focused on a computer screen alone, they go out and live life and pick up inspiration from living.

The book I’m writing now chose me as its author. That may sound weird but it’s true.

One helpful piece of advice I learned from learning how to be a writer was to write about what you know. So, the first few revisions I did for my really groovy Zombie book ended up being a total bust and you may be able to guess why. If you guessed that the book bust because she doesn’t know squat about Zombies, you would be just about right.

I do however know about dead things, people mostly, it’s the nature of the job I did for thirty years. That’s where this current book I’m writing comes in. She chose me to write her because I’ve experienced some life, and my imagination is all over the place with so many crazy things.

If you asked yourself “how does she know about murder?”

I’ll just leave that there. 🤪

Am I the only one that thinks if you are watching a show on Netflix, or whatever, and  a character goes into the water, or even gets sprayed with a hose or sprinkler, should in the next scene be soaking wet when they come out?

Be wet, dang it!  How can I believe in a character that uses their power of persuasion to convince me of one thing yet is not even wet after diving in the water to save a dog.

What is my motivation to believe you never did jump in the water and instead sent your stunt double so you didn’t mess your hair and makeup?

GET WET, BE WET!!

Blog: where is the check mark symbol on the keyboard?

Okay, start over.

Blog: check

Neil Gaiman: check check

Neil Gaiman quote: check mate

“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”

Thank you, Neil, that is all.

Writing goals I’ve discovered are important for me to set and do my best to accomplish them.  Tomorrow is a good day to start with my first goal, write an outline for a story, a short story.

Several years back I wrote an outline and went as far as a second draft for a book that I totally grew to dislike.  Since I’ve done some learning as a writer I realized that I will start on a much smaller scale.  The short story.

Wishing us many words…Shirley

I have been totally a sloth writer. My book has been in its second revision for I don’t know how long and my friend and author Elizabeth Burgess got me to send her my first chapter as it was.

What a mess I it was. Elizabeth, really showed me some ways to make improvements in my writing.
It was really scary but so worth doing. I am so glad I put my big girl panties on. A real inspiring moment for me.

I’m totally moving into writing short stories.  I can only hope that by doing this I will learn to be a stronger writer and gain some much needed confidence in myself as said writer.