Life in progress

Category Archives: Stream of Consciousness Saturday


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 16/19

It’s Friday! Another week closer to December(!), and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. We’re getting some crazy weather here. Like, January weather. How is it where you are? Here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “dream.” Use it as a noun or a verb; use any way you’d like. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our beautiful new SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 17 Comments

#SoCS – Might be a Light at the End of the Tunnel

What was supposed to be a light little story (comedic, at that) about two people who fall in love has taken on so many complications, I haven’t been able to add to my NaNoWriMo word count today. Which sucks, because this was supposed to be the first novella of two I planned to complete for this month’s challenge.

But that’s me and my writing: no story is ever without its twist. I’m incapable, it seems, of writing a straightforward boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-boy-gets-girl-back tale. There are always other forces involved, and intricate ones at that. I think it’s the villains. They worm their way into my stories whether I want them to or not. There’s never just a circumstance. There has to be a physical villain.

As the title of this post implies, though, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve spent hours brainstorming–done everything short of actually getting in the shower, which is where my best ideas usually come to light. (I’m saving that for when I really get stuck … and saving unnecessary water-usage at the same time.) And I think I’ve got the plot sorted out. The bare bones of it, at least. That’s something I never do, and honestly, I worry that overthinking it will ruin my usual pantsing (flying by the seat of my pants) style. But we’ll see.

In case you’re curious about the book, it’s the prequel to the novel I wrote last year for NaNo, about an office romance between a female manager and a male temp who’s also a stripper. The story isn’t nearly as tawdry as it could have been. IT managed to be light (despite a menagerie of villains working in the office) and funny. I’ve already written the sequel to that one. They all revolve around the bar where the strippers perform. The second novella I still hope to write for this year’s NaNo will be the third in the series. The one I’m writing now will be free with sign-ups to my mailing list.

Wow. I never self-promote in my SoCS posts. I hope you’ll forgive me. But that’s what comes of just writing off the top of my head.

Anyway, time’s tight, so back to work. Hopefully the words will start flowing now that I’ve started writing. For me, writing a story is much like this stream of consciousness stuff. I start writing with a character’s mindset in my head, and it just comes out. It’s not the characters that give me problems. It’s the sticky situations I put them in.

Right! Back to work.

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Click the following link to see all the other posts in the comment section, and join in. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/11/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-9-19/


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 9/19

Would you look at that–it’s Friday! And that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Busy week with NaNoWriMo. And what fun it is, too! Here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ght.” Find a word that contains the letters “ght” in that order, and use it any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use three or more different words containing those letters. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our beautiful new SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 17 Comments

#SoCS – Things that are nuts

My list of things that are nuts:

1. Me for deciding to put my clocks back before midnight and declaring this post on time. (It’s still Saturday, damn it!)

2. Buying “mixed nuts” which, nine times out of ten, are 90% peanuts. Peanuts aren’t nuts, damn it!

3. My mother’s smoking habit. Or rather, the decision that was recently made by the management of her retirement home to charge old ladies with dementia $100 a pop for smoking too close to the building. That’s $30,000 per month if she forgets ten times a day!!!!

4. Nuts. Nuts are nuts. (Does not contain peanuts.)

5. NaNoWriMo. Which I am participating in this month. Or at least I used to think it was nuts to do it. But now that I’ve figured out how to write 1,667 words per day easily (sprints, particularly whilst depriving myself of my morning coffee until I’ve written 900 words), it doesn’t seem as nuts as it used to.

6. #5 is nuts. I shouldn’t have added it to the list.

7. Living somewhere where it gets cold in the winter. Then again, at least we’re not on fire. (Thinking of California, where things are really nuts. Take care of yourselves, Californians!)

8. Christmas carols and ads on the first of November. Calm down, damn it! We’re not going to forget it’s coming!

9. Wracking my brain in the attempt to come up with more things that are nuts when I really should be writing. Or sleeping!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This nutsy post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. (It’s still Saturday, damn it!) Click the following link to see how you, too, can join in the fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/11/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-2-19/


by 39 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 2/19

Friday’s here! And that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Halloween’s over–have you heard Christmas music yet? Ads? They’re coming, sure as Santa is. Here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “nuts.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our beautiful new SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 15 Comments

#SoCS – Dressed

I got dressed today! That’s a big deal some days since I don’t have to go out to work. Today I took Alex to see Maleficent 2. We both enjoyed it a lot! Alex was literally sitting on the edge of his seat through the battle scenes, and at times I closed my eyes because the cinematography made me feel sick, but it was well worth it. And the costumes! If they don’t win an Oscar, I’ll be surprised.

Speaking of costumes, Halloween. I’m going to let Alex go out trick or treating one last time this year, and that’s it. He’s nineteen years old. And although he’s still very much a kid, I’m tired of the whole thing. I’ve been dressing kids up for the last twenty-five years. Or at least this will be the 25th. Costumes are so expensive! At least when you don’t have any talent for making them.

There’s a Halloween thing going on tomorrow at the local mall–it’s iffy whether we’ll go. Alex is terrified of people in masks (which creates another issue for trick or treating that I’m getting tired of). We’ve already missed one Halloween party this year because of that particular fear of his. He wouldn’t even go to school if they were allowed to wear masks on Thursday. I’d hoped he’d get over it as he got older, but no.

The push and pull is real. Much like the push and pull of trying to get last year’s costume on. Ha ha.

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This post (and our lovely new badge!) is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link and see how you can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2019/10/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-26-19/


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Oct. 26/19

It’s Friday, and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. We still have a lot of green leaves on the trees, but the nights are getting frigid. Hopefully there won’t be any snow on our pumpkins this year! Here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “dress.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our beautiful brand new SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 56 Comments

We Have a Winner! 2019-2020 SoCS Badge Edition

First, one last huge thank you to Pamela for our lovely, leafy badge of the past fourteen months!

SoCS badge by Pamela

Much appreciation, Pamela!

And now …

The race was close, the contestants neck-and-neck most of the day. It was a nail-biter, all right. Then, in the evening (my time) a few badges shot ahead. I gasped–who was going to win?

Yeah, I’m stalling.

Okay, counting down. Here we go.

Oh, wait. First, I should explain that there were two ties, one for 4th place, and one for 5th place. So last place is actually 8th.

So here we go.

For real.

In 8th place, we have Janet, with Rocktober! I loved your badge, but I’m afraid you were just ahead of your time with the symbolic stream of light. Best of luck next time!

In 7th place …

Keep in mind, these were all very close. Like, within one vote of each other!

In 7th place, Wendy, with Signpost!

Coming in 6th, we had Willow’s Waterfall!

Tied for 5th, Pensitivity, with Canoe, and Jill, with Flowers! They ran a close race all day.

In 4th place, we have another tie between Paula, with Pets, and Fandango, with Geese! Seems the animals stuck together this time around.

Now, for 3rd place …

By the way, if anyone wants to know exactly how many votes there were on which badge, I’ll be happy to e-mail you with a screenshot of the poll. Just contact me at linda@lindaghill.com.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, third place.

The bronze medal goes to none other than JoAnna, with Babbling brook! Congratulations, JoAnna!

That brings us down to our first and second place contestants. Who could they be?

Should I write another post?

Nah, I’ve made you wait long enough.

The honour of second place goes to

…

…

…

Barbara, with Notebook! Congratulations on your silver medal-winning badge, Barbara!

Which means, our new 2019-2020 SoCS badge was designed by Shelley, with Drops of water!

Thank you so much, Shelley, for your beautiful design. And congratulations!!

 


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Vote Here for the 2019-2020 SoCS Badge

Voting day is finally here! We have ten designs to choose from–two contestants didn’t make it. I tried to let them know there was a problem, but they didn’t get back to me by the deadline. Maybe next time!

I have a feeling the race for our new Stream of Consciousness Saturday Badge going to be really close.

The winner will have his or her badge displayed both here and all around the Internet by whomever participates in the weekly SoCS prompt.

Before we get started, I’d like to say one last huge thanks to Pamela for our 2018-2019 badge.

We’re going to miss it!

So here we go. The links below will take you to the contestant’s sites, to the posts on which their badges are displayed. Please make sure you have a look at all of them before you vote! I’ll give each a descriptive name which you’ll find both with the link and on the poll for easier voting. I’m not going to vote unless there’s a tie, so it’s all up to you!

Here are the badges in the order they entered the contest:

Barbara, with Notebook

Paula, with Pets

Fandango, with Geese

Pensitivity, with Canoe

Janet, with Rocktober

Wendy, with Signpost

JoAnna, with Babbling brook

Willow, with Waterfall

Jill, with Flowers

Shelley, with Drops of water

Thanks again to all the contestants for your awesome badges! Best of luck to all!

The poll will be open for 24 hours–all of Thursday, October 24th, -5GMT. Vote once, vote carefully, and be sure to tell your friends!

 

Best of luck!

 


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#SoCS – Oh, really?

Oh yes. I’m really sorry about the mess I made of the SoCS badge contest by not realizing the comments were turned off. I haven’t had a chance to look at any of the entries, but there are sure to be some amazing ones there. Because of the screw up, I might end up accepting more than ten … I’ll see tomorrow. I hope.

Because if tomorrow is anything like today, I’ll have my hands completely full with Alex. What a horror story that was. He’ll be nineteen years old on Wednesday, and at this point, I’m starting to doubt the behavior issues will ever stop.

The good news is the swelling in my neck seems to have subsided a bit.

Oh. You know what else? I’m getting really sick of complaining all the time. So, you want some good news?

I managed to get out tonight to see the Downton Abbey movie and it was amazing. I think the thing I really enjoyed the most was just revisiting the characters. It could have gone on for four hours and I wouldn’t have complained a bit.

And now it’s quarter to two in the morning and I think it’s time for bed. I really have to put an end to these late nights. Half the time, I look at the clock and realize how much the time has gotten past me.

As Homer Simpson would say …

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This unfinished post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link to see all the other posts in the comment section and join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/10/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-19-19/