Odds and Ends and Scattered Bits :: Come in and make yourself at home!
Prolific Blogger
Welcome to my mental playground. I won't lie to you. I'm an eclectic, research-loving, question-loving writer more than happy to dig the web up for anybody who asks (including my finicky muse) for little known facts or ways to create them for fiction. Feel free to comment, ask for posts, ask me to do your research for you (as long as it doesn't require too much time for me to locate - I'll let you know if it does), or heckle me to shut up. I'm well known for talking too much. :grins shamelessly:
On my off days, I'm a blunt, hardnosed analyst with some serious left-brained tendencies and absolutely in love with math, computational sciences, and in-depth breakdowns of just about anything slow enough to run across my path (or not fast enough to escape my chasing it). On my mellower, dreamy, off in another land days, I'm a pretty intensely creative right-brainer who loves to write, muck around with languages and ideas and all sorts of other more intuitive junk. In short, welcome to the land of whatever I feel like it whenever you want to put up with reading it.
You've been warned.
And now to the boring details on exactly who and what I am. (Fairly sure we just went through this... :muttering under breath:) Well, here goes.
My name is Megs (not Meg). I know I should give you the full details, S. Megan Payne, located...somewhere...in the United States of America (God bless this land!), of (obviously) female gender, and general writer, researcher, and amateur...a lot of things. Being interested in writing, especially science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction, generally requires you to be a partial or temporary expert in a lot of things. So naturally, I've acquired a lot of affinities over the years. I still haven't published anything with a major book publisher (mostly from lack of trying), but I've done a bit on the web, in writing communities, and such. Also made the grand mistake of self-publishing a Christmas story. It was mostly for family, so not awfulness, but the only thing I still unreservedly love about that book is the illustrations, done by my sister. So yeah...um...not really broadcasting that one far and wide.
I've decided it's time to move up a little, set higher goals, aim for publication. In the process, I intend to share my favorite resources and all the things I'm learning, since I do that all the time anyway. In keeping with these aims, please view above "All & Sundry," a blog about all the things I dig up in my research on writing or for writing, "Musings," an ongoing chat with my muse :shakes head at self sadly:, "Calindria," the exploration of my current world creation, "Bookends," a confab over good books and short stories, and "Odds & Ends," the detritus of my life, website updates, notes to all the people that help me so much, or whatever else comes up that I want to share. Addendum: Many of my odds and ends and links to amazing writing articles end up on my twitter instead @scatteredbits. My muse's dumping ground is @TheIdeaBox.
Please enjoy!
On my off days, I'm a blunt, hardnosed analyst with some serious left-brained tendencies and absolutely in love with math, computational sciences, and in-depth breakdowns of just about anything slow enough to run across my path (or not fast enough to escape my chasing it). On my mellower, dreamy, off in another land days, I'm a pretty intensely creative right-brainer who loves to write, muck around with languages and ideas and all sorts of other more intuitive junk. In short, welcome to the land of whatever I feel like it whenever you want to put up with reading it.
You've been warned.
And now to the boring details on exactly who and what I am. (Fairly sure we just went through this... :muttering under breath:) Well, here goes.
My name is Megs (not Meg). I know I should give you the full details, S. Megan Payne, located...somewhere...in the United States of America (God bless this land!), of (obviously) female gender, and general writer, researcher, and amateur...a lot of things. Being interested in writing, especially science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction, generally requires you to be a partial or temporary expert in a lot of things. So naturally, I've acquired a lot of affinities over the years. I still haven't published anything with a major book publisher (mostly from lack of trying), but I've done a bit on the web, in writing communities, and such. Also made the grand mistake of self-publishing a Christmas story. It was mostly for family, so not awfulness, but the only thing I still unreservedly love about that book is the illustrations, done by my sister. So yeah...um...not really broadcasting that one far and wide.
I've decided it's time to move up a little, set higher goals, aim for publication. In the process, I intend to share my favorite resources and all the things I'm learning, since I do that all the time anyway. In keeping with these aims, please view above "All & Sundry," a blog about all the things I dig up in my research on writing or for writing, "Musings," an ongoing chat with my muse :shakes head at self sadly:, "Calindria," the exploration of my current world creation, "Bookends," a confab over good books and short stories, and "Odds & Ends," the detritus of my life, website updates, notes to all the people that help me so much, or whatever else comes up that I want to share. Addendum: Many of my odds and ends and links to amazing writing articles end up on my twitter instead @scatteredbits. My muse's dumping ground is @TheIdeaBox.
Please enjoy!
Megan's Rules of Writing
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Writing is promiscuous.
I'm sure this statement could be taken a lot of ways, but I assure it has nothing to do with the main modern sense of the word "promiscuous." In earlier years, that word meant "indiscriminate" or "with many partners," regardless of the activity under consideration, and anybody that has bore with me long enough to listen to my ramblings knows my muse is very indiscriminate with its many writing partners.
Poetry, music, flash fiction, novel writing, revision, language creation, blog posts, articles, reviews are all upon my ever too long writing list. It turns out I do everything better if I do it all thoroughly and enjoy myself and don't get caught up on finishing one thing to the exclusion of all else, but make forward progress in multiple directions. It's not an efficient process, so I cannot recommend it.
But as a friend once said, "It works for me."
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Prioritization is key.
My creative process has always been promiscuous. If one thing is flowing, it's likely something else is too. :whispers: or a million other somethings: So naturally, if I'm ever to complete anything, I must prioritize. This means that certain things must get done at any given time and everything else is only as it comes.
And that is the key to my writing life in a nutshell. Write often. Write widely. Prioritize.
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Soon is relative.
You will often see the word "soon" pop up in my posts, promises, and plans. Why? Because soon means that I will definitely do it, but the truth is, with two jobs and all the writing priorities above, soon is relative to how much is on my plate, what time of year it is, how much sleep I'm getting, and whether or not the rest has left me exhausted before I get there.
So when I say soon, just remember that soon may be a few months down the road or just a few minutes.
I'm sure this statement could be taken a lot of ways, but I assure it has nothing to do with the main modern sense of the word "promiscuous." In earlier years, that word meant "indiscriminate" or "with many partners," regardless of the activity under consideration, and anybody that has bore with me long enough to listen to my ramblings knows my muse is very indiscriminate with its many writing partners.
Poetry, music, flash fiction, novel writing, revision, language creation, blog posts, articles, reviews are all upon my ever too long writing list. It turns out I do everything better if I do it all thoroughly and enjoy myself and don't get caught up on finishing one thing to the exclusion of all else, but make forward progress in multiple directions. It's not an efficient process, so I cannot recommend it.
But as a friend once said, "It works for me."
-
Prioritization is key.
My creative process has always been promiscuous. If one thing is flowing, it's likely something else is too. :whispers: or a million other somethings: So naturally, if I'm ever to complete anything, I must prioritize. This means that certain things must get done at any given time and everything else is only as it comes.
And that is the key to my writing life in a nutshell. Write often. Write widely. Prioritize.
-
Soon is relative.
You will often see the word "soon" pop up in my posts, promises, and plans. Why? Because soon means that I will definitely do it, but the truth is, with two jobs and all the writing priorities above, soon is relative to how much is on my plate, what time of year it is, how much sleep I'm getting, and whether or not the rest has left me exhausted before I get there.
So when I say soon, just remember that soon may be a few months down the road or just a few minutes.
Copyright ©2009 S. Megan Payne
- Megan's Rules of Writing -
Writing is promiscuous.
Prioritization is key.
Soon is relative.
Reading is writing.
Character is story.
Story is character.
Writing is reading.
- I READ -
BLOGROLL::
Between Fact and Fiction
Blame it on the Weatherman
Bookends, LLC
Day by Day
Enoch Covenant, The
Genreality
Help! I Need a Publisher!
Ink Fever
Elephant in the Writing Room, The
Owl and Sparrow
Pocket Full of Words
Procrastinating Writers
Rabia Gale
Rhiannon Hart
SFNovelists
Spellmaking
Talk to YoUniverse
Tribal Writer
Writer Unboxed
MAGAZINE RACK::
Acts & Facts
Biblical Archaeology Review
MindFlights
National Geographic
Poetry
Scientific American
Writers Digest
BOOKCASE::
Nonfiction::
Mister God, This is Anna: Fynn
Steering the Craft: Ursula K. LeGuin
Fiction::
Brother's Keeper, The: Tracy Groot
Guardian, The: Jane Hamilton
Ingathering: Zenna Henderson
Joseph: Terri L. Fivash
A Ring of Endless Light: Madeleine L'Engle
Dream Voyagers: T. Davis Bunn
- I WRITE -
UPCOMING::
"Dreaming from the Void" at Procrastinating Writers
RELEASED::
"Imagine a Language" in Skipping Stones
ONGOING::
Scattered Bits (Twitter)
The Idea Box (Twitter)
Unbound
- REFERENCE -
- I WORK -