Sunday, and finalizing plans for upcoming vacation

A special bit of recognition to those sons and daughters who have lost their fathers this year. Father's Day is hard when your dad is gone, that first year especially so. May the memory of your dad be of comfort to you today, and always.


There's a new post at QueryShark today.



Blog hiatus starts in two weeks. I'll be using that time for a reading retreat, so think of yourself as making a sacrifice (daily content) for the good of a lot of writers (those in the requested full scrum who have been waiting for what seems like forever to them.)

Two weeks back I asked for some ideas about what to do for the week I'll be reading.

Here's a list I culled from your comments.  Let me know what you think!

Sarah

For Nine Days, Nine Questions, I'd love to know what quote, advice or encouragement folks keep going back to: those sentences that you scrawled on a Post-it and suck to your wall/computer screen/desk. (Or forehead for the really rough days.)

Jan added to Sarah:

I'd love to know the one (yes, only one) writing tip that each writer feels has helped them the most.

Kristin Owens

How about: What's the first sentence from your current WIP?

Sam Mills

Nine Days, Nine Questions: What hobbies have you given up to make more time for writing? What hobbies did you keep to get a break from writing?

Dena Pawling

Have you participated in NaNoWriMo? Did you finish? What did you learn? Has your family stopped believing you're crazy?

Have you participated in writing-related twitter contests? Which ones? Why? What did you learn?

Do you submit short stories for publication? Where? What has been your experience, good or bad?

Have you ever submitted anything to a contest? Which ones? Why?

Where do you do most of your writing? Why? How many chairs have you had to replace?

Of the books you read, what percentage are purchased and what percentage from the library? How do you choose which to buy? Have you had to purchase a larger house to accommodate all your books?

Do you use writing software like Scrivener or similar? Is it better/easier than a basic word processing program? Why?

What do you see as your main strength as a writer? Main weakness?

Besides this blog, which writing-related blogs/sites do you visit? Why? Why are you reading blogs instead of writing?

What category/genre do you write? Why?

In the past year, which book have you read that impacted you the most? Why? How many copies of that book have you purchased and/or stolen and/or given away?

Have you ever let someone borrow a book and it comes back to you damaged, or does not come back at all? Does this make you happy or sad or mad? Who posted bail for you?

Have you ever borrowed a book and never returned it? Is that person still your friend? Does that library still welcome you? How many community service hours do you still have left to complete?

Julie Weathers

2. Share tips on how you keep writing even when you don't want to.

3. How do you organize your books? If you organize them by color, I don't want to know.

4. What were some of your writing goals this year? Are you on track?

5. Do you have a "posse" that keeps you on track with your writing?

What's something(s) you keep around your work/writing space that is iconic to you? 

Mike Howard

How about simply posting your word-or-idea count for the day, each day, every day

Eileen

1. What are your three favorite books?
2. What are you reading now?

Colin Smith

The nine questions could be fun. Especially if they're not all writing-related questions. Maybe some interesting but not-too-personal questions about other things. E.g.,

What did you do after high-school?

If you went to college, where and what did you major in?

What's your favorite non-writing activity?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would that be? (That could get a bit personal, but I can think of things I wouldn't mind sharing.)

John Davis (manuscript) Frain

What one idea has most helped your writing practice? (I have to thank Julie W. for the idea of a sand timer. It sits on my desk, and when I turn it over, I WRITE.

And it works!

No internet, no phone, no interruptions for one hour, one minute and twelve seconds. Even the sand timer wants me to write more--I timed it and there's an extra minute-twelve of sand in there, so I get an extra paragraph every time I play.)*

*Longest parenthetical note ever!

Lennon Faris

Weirdest writing experience.

Or creepiest!

Karen McCoy

Maybe one of the "nine questions" days could cover stories of when we met authors (or agents? or editors?), and what we learned from each experience.

KDJames

-Where do you live and is it where you were born? If not, why did you move?

-What is something special or unique about where you live?

-What is your favourite local food? Fav non-local food?

-What did your grandparents do for a living?

-What is your dream vacation, if money were no object?

-Other than writing, fill in the blank: "I've always wanted to __________." What's stopping you?

-What life skills do you bring to the zombie apocalypse, and can I be on your team?

-Why is Blogger suddenly making me log into my gmail account before I can comment? (OK, so that's not a question for the blog)

-What's your favourite way to procrastinate (other than thinking up questions for this blog hiatus)?

Sherin Nicole

4 Books that Shaped Your Writing Style?

Jeannette Leopold 

Aspect of WIP that makes you most nervous to share with beta readers?

Her Grace, the Duchess of Kneale

If you couldn't be a writer, what would you want to be when you grow up?