We are approaching the time that some people call, “The Great Gloom.” It gets dark and rainy up here in the PNW. We can sometimes go for days or even weeks without sunshine.
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But we aren’t there yet. The trees aren’t completely bare. This is my view from the living room of the main house. There are still some very colorful trees on the property.
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I do notice that I’m feeling the urge to bake and to cook more comforting things. The problem is that I’m allergic to some of those things, like tomatoes, which means no spaghetti sauce. HOWEVER, I just discovered the best “No-Mato” marinara sauce and that’s filled in a lot of the urges nicely.
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As I mentioned before, now that it’s colder, I find that I want to do a lot more knitting than I was doing during the summer. I consider myself an advanced intermediate knitter. My mom was an advanced knitter. There were a lot of things that she could do that I still can’t.
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I recently stumbled upon a fascinating thread that some of the knitters on the Ravelry community were having about what makes an advanced knitter.
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For them, it wasn’t so much about following a pattern as being able to FIX said pattern or the resulting project.
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For example, if you find that you messed up three rows before, (like did a left-hand cable when you needed to do a right) can you fix it without having to take everything out? (In this particular instance, it would depend on the project for me. A sweater? Yes. A pair of gloves where I’m knitting with toothpicks? No.)
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Can you adjust tension on the fly? Can you look at a piece you’re working on, figure out what you did wrong, and fix it? Can you adjust a pattern? Can you look at a sweater and figure out how to make it? Do you create your own designs and patterns?
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The pattern for one of the pieces that I’m currently working on is actually for a vest. I plan on making a cardigan out of it. Because it’s stranded color work, I will actually knit the piece in the round, that is, one solid piece for the body, no seams up the sides. After I’m finished, I’ll do something called steeking, which involves cutting the front sweater open. I’ve steeked one other sweater before, and the process, while scary, isn’t too difficult.
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The other major changes I’ll have to make to the existing pattern is to the armhole openings. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll decrease the number of stitches there but keep knitting in the round and have to steek the armholes, or if I’ll change over to flat knitting for the shoulder decreases.
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I feel comfortable doing all of that. As I said, I consider myself advanced intermediate when it comes to knitting.
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Then I started trying to apply some of these same “techniques” as it were to writing.
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I remember when I was a less experienced writer having such difficulties pinpointing what was wrong with something I was writing. I would know that something wasn’t right. Generally, I can just sit down and write. When I’ve stopped, or I feel stuck, that usually indicates that something is incorrect with what I’ve just finished writing. I need to go back and tease out what’s wrong.
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Perhaps I’m using the wrong character, if I have multiple points of view. Maybe I’ve started in the wrong place, or at the wrong time. I remember once being so frustrated because of that—I kept hopping around the time line and eventually figured out that I was fifteen minutes too early in the story telling.
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At this point, I have a lot less difficulty diagnosing what’s wrong with my writing when something’s wrong. I also don’t have as many false starts, beginning incorrectly. Plus, when something goes wrong, I now tend to feel it immediately, say, within one to two paragraphs. I no longer have to go back several chapters. And frequently, I can fix it immediately. There are times when I can’t, when I have to go for a walk or take a day to think about it before I can fix things and move forward again.
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I also have a better idea of how to make the reader feel all the things. That’s what the best writers do, you know. They’re mind control experts. They are no longer so focused on the words on the page. Instead, it’s much more about the reader.
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At this point in my career, with 70+ novels under my belt (I’m currently working on novel #79) I consider myself an advanced writer. Not advanced-advanced, not top of the line. There’s still too much for me to learn, and my batting average isn’t good enough. So if there are three levels per category, beginning, intermediate, and advanced, I’m probably a beginning advanced. My husband would probably put me one step higher. I know I can reach that level, but I’m not consistently there yet.
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And how did I advance to this level? Three things helped the most.
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One: I practice. I write. I practice. I always choose a skill to practice for every piece that I write. Maybe it’s dialogue. Maybe it’s pacing. Maybe it’s cliffhangers. Always practice something.
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Two: I read. Not just in my genre, but all over the place. I don’t always read comforting things either, but hard pieces, by writers who are better than I am. I’ll finish a chapter, put the book to the side, and consider what I’ve just read. There are techniques I pick up that way, things I find coming out my fingers in the next book or the one after that.
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Three: I’ve taken workshops and classes, as well as read books about writing and the creative process. I was very lucky to have some amazing mentors when I was a more beginning writer.
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Fair warning: all of this takes time. There is no overnight success when it comes to writing. Sure, you might think it’s overnight, but you’re ignoring the ten plus years of work that went into that success.
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So what are you practicing these days? How are you leveling up things?
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A cozy fantasy romantic retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
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When the royal nursemaids keep falling asleep while holding baby Princess Daphne, the court finds it charming.
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Until they realize she's cursed.
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By her eighteenth birthday, anyone who comes within ten paces of Daphne collapses into a deep sleep. Self-exiled to a lonely tower, she resigns herself to a life of occasional correspondence, books, and distant dreams.
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The son of the fairy who cursed her. He claims that he can break the spell. His price?
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If Daphne falls in love with him, she can never tell him.
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It sounds like an easy promise—until it isn’t. Because some curses are easier to bear than their breaking.
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And if freedom means losing him, is it worth waking up at all?
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How to Wake a Sleeping Princess is a funny, lighthearted, cozy-fantasy romance with spice/no spice and a happily-ever-after.
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Perfect for readers who love:
• Forced proximity
• Slice-of-life fantasy
• Slow-burn yearning
• Witty banter
• Gentle caregiving
• Mutual rescue and devotion
• Fairy-tale retellings
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There are some excellent books here in this bundle. But for $40 you can get 15 (FIFTEEN!) writing books. Such a bargain!
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But deals like this won't last, so you'll need to pick up your copy of the bundle soon.
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To celebrate the newest addition to the A'Zedi Survey Corp series (Edge of the Map), we're putting book one, Knight Errant, on sale for the month of November!
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When Knight Maddox Nevin takes a transfer from Marrakesh to Survey Corps, he inherits a crew one step from being broken up and forgotten.
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Maddox must bring them together and take them out on patrol. However, a simple mission of exploration suddenly turns into so much more when pirates arrive.
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Do they have what it takes? Can they overcome their past to face a compelling future?
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The A’Zedi Survey Corps, an exciting new series in the Marrakesh universe (Trial By Leviathan, et al), where the ship and crew will sail into harm’s way whenever needed.
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Because A’Zedi Survey Corps is always First In The Field.
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