Month: April 2017

What your Procrastination Critter is trying to tell you

The Procrastination Critter is a sneaky creature. Why don’t you procrastinate a while and read my strategies for defeating him?

I had good intentions this morning. I planned to get up, do a bit of housework, do a couple of writing sprints for the new short story I’m working on, and then write my blog post for tomorrow.

That’s not quite how it turned out.

I haven’t added a word to my short story and I’m only starting this post now. But I did learn some useful things.

I learned that listening to an audiobook makes sorting out recycling more fun.

Listening to the audiobook, I learned why they say you should cut at least 10% of your word count when you edit.

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Blogging really is a get-rich-quick scheme

Blogging is still a get-rich-quick scheme, assuming the riches you’re talking about aren’t money. Here are some of the things you might get out of blogging.

When I started to toy with the idea of blogging, I wandered around the blogosphere to see what kind of things people blogged about. I quickly reached the conclusion that there are two main topics: how to blog and how to make (ridiculous amounts of) money blogging. (Purists might argue that these are really the same topic. I don’t care enough to disagree.)

Careful consideration led me to believe that this is in fact a beautifully circular pyramid scheme. The thing about pyramid schemes, which I thankfully learned in high school economics, is that the first people to get in can make a lot of money.

It’s only the poor suckers who follow who end up penniless.

I entered the scene some time after those poor penniless suckers, so I had my doubts about whether blogging was the panacea the people atop the pyramid would have you believe.

My conclusion? It is.

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What’s your beta reading philosophy?

I’ve beta read a lot lately. Here’s how I beta read, and what writers I beta read for do that makes me love them or never want to talk to them again.

I’ve done enough beta reading recently that I think I should have a beta reading philosophy.

My life philosophies tend not to be complicated. For example “I like cats and dragons” covers the important bases, and my husband tells me it’s a perfectly adequate philosophy.

There might be more to my beta reading philosophy, because otherwise this won’t be a very long post.

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Ten things I should have done before I turned 30

I accomplished a few things by the time I turned 30, but it turns out they were the wrong things. Here’s what I should have done instead.

Recently I saw a tweet by @obviousplant_ listing 20 things to do before you turn 30. Some of the items were great. “Release the kraken” was my favourite.

I decided to write my own list, and this is it.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that all the things I will achieve by the time I’m 30 I’ve already done.

There are some, honest.

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My inability to recognise people is ruining movies

I have a lot of trouble recognising people, and it seriously interferes with my enjoyment of certain movies.

On a scale of 1 to 10, my ability to recognise people I’ve met before is beyond terrible.

At times this is inconvenient, like when I introduce myself to someone at a conference and they gently remind me that we’ve met at several conferences before. Same thing at meetings.

Fortunately I can smile sweetly, which usually stops them being too mad.

Look, it’s not my fault that all people look the same. They all have hair, except the ones who don’t. They all have faces, except the ones who don’t. And they all have a body, two arms, and two legs. Except the ones who don’t.

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