Life in progress

Tag Archives: writing


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Like, #SoCS

Can’t you just stop?!

That’s what I wanted to say to a teenager today as I walked past her. She was recounting some story or another to two of her friends and I swear, this is what her speech was like:

So he was like, “what?” like I don’t, like, know and it was like, “haven’t you ever like, liked someone before?” and he was like, “no,” and so I like…

and on and on it went. I seriously almost stopped to ask her if she could utter three sentences without saying the word “like” once. But I didn’t in case doing so caused her to have, like, a seizure or something.

It’s similar (see what I did there?) to listening to a hockey player give an interview.

And uh, I did my best out there, and uh, I think we played a great game, and uh…

Makes you wonder if they teach it in hockey school. Luckily they don’t hesitate to shoot the puck the way they pause between clauses.

And then there’s those who can’t seem to help dropping the f-bomb (I really hate that phrase – f-bomb) between every third and fourth word. Yeah, I won’t – don’t need to – write an example. Do I? Nah. We’ve all heard it. It can get very uncomfortable too, depending on who you’re with. Chances are there’s no point asking the f-‘ing person to stop – they’ll probably do it all the more because what are they doing it for in the first place other than to get attention?

I suppose we all have our speech patterns though. I think I see mine when I write, which makes me more aware of them. I catch my characters sounding like me… I wish they wouldn’t.

 SoCS badge 2015

This, like, post is brought to you by, like, Stream of, like, Consciousness Saturday. You can, like, click here to join in. Do it, like, now, okay?


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 20/16

It’s Friday today and time for the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. It’s a lazy Friday, isn’t it? I’m lazy. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Here’s this week’s lazy prompt; I know if you’re lazy like me you’ll appreciate it:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “contraction.”  Make the first word of your post a contraction. For extra points make the last word one too. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at 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 the 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on 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 simply a single word to get your 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.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! 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 right 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!


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 13/16

Today is Friday and time for the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. It’s a long weekend here in Ontario, Canada, so that means it’s a looong weekend for me with the kids home. Wish me luck! Here’s this week’s prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “tire.”  Use it with a prefix and/or and suffix or use it as is. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at 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 the 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on 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 simply a single word to get your 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.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! 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 right 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!


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One-Liner Wednesday – A Disco?

So on Sunday I walked into a restaurant and was greeted by the hostess, as you are. She glanced out the window and saw that there was an ambulance, lights flashing, at the seniors home across the street.

“Oh look at that,” she said. “An ambulance. It looks like a disco over there.”

I stared at her, a little flabbergasted, with a remark on the tip of my tongue that went something like, I doubt it does to the person the ambulance is there for. But I said nothing. Because once in a while, we all say something totally stupid.

 

Hey! Don’t forget the badge contest for One-Liner Wednesday! (Which, by the way, this post is NOT a good example of. In fact it’s a great example of how you can break the rules!) For details on the contest and to get your name (and/or your blog’s address) mentioned numerous times every week, click the link! https://lindaghill.com/2016/02/08/one-liner-wednesday-badge-call-for-submissions/ The contest closes Sunday and voting for the best badge starts Monday. Don’t delay – start designing now!

____________________________________________________________________

Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Have fun!


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 6/16

Well, according to my calendar it’s Friday, so that means it’s time for the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. It seems strange to me that the days and weeks seem to run together like paint on an uneven palette this time of year. Perhaps it’s because there’s so much time between holidays and thus, so much time to wait for something to look forward to. But enough of waxing philosophic, here’s this week’s prompt:

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

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at 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 the 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on 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 simply a single word to get your 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.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! 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 right 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!


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My Plans for February and Why I’ve Been MIA

That would be Missing In Action, and the reason is also what is behind my exciting news. A friend, who is also an avid reader and a respected author and reviewer of fiction has accepted my request to read my manuscript. I’ve asked her to give me a no-holds-barred opinion on whether or not my novel needs a professional editor. Yes, I know how many authors and editors insist that every novel MUST HAVE an editor, but seriously… My novel is 750 pages long. I’m looking at paying more money than I can probably ever hope to get back. So this is my last-ditch attempt to really see what’s up with my grammar.

So why have I not been around? I’m concentrating on getting this baby as good as it’s going to get before I give it up. And then, it’s either going to an editor or not because come hell or high water, it’s getting published this year. Why is it going to be published this year? Because I told my muse in a letter that it would. And that’s what it all comes down to.

Just had to slip that in

That’s right.

Not that I’m delusional enough to believe that even on the off-chance he read my letter he would remember it ten minutes later, let alone remember I’m writing a character with his sense of fashion, his stage presence and his face, he’s damned well going to (potentially if it gets to him) receive a copy of my novel in the mail, complete with his name in the acknowledgements! So there! (Disclaimer: The preceding run-on sentence is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an example of the grammar in my novel.)

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing and what I’ll be doing for the next week or so. But I haven’t forgotten about you! I realize I’m terribly behind in my reading and replying to comments. I’ll be going back a couple of weeks to get to them, so if you get a reply to a comment you’ve forgotten you left, don’t be surprised. In the meantime I’m going to try to post every day on my fiction blog, plus blog about my trip to Japan here, and, (of course) keep up the weekly prompts. In other words, I won’t be as busy as I was last month. 🙄

Wish me luck. 😀


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Just Jot It January 31st – Clumsy

I admit to feeling clumsy in the way I go about organizing these prompts of mine. The pingbacks mixed in with the comments are haphazard and I can imagine they’re more difficult to find than they should be. So hopefully sometime within the next month I’ll have time to search for a better way of doing things. It would be awesome if I could set up my page like they do at the Daily Post – I like that idea better than having an offsite compilation with someone like Linky Tools or Mr. Linky. I have what is probably an irrational fear of leaving my email address on a site I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll start with the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt and go from there.

Speaking of clumsy, I’m also thinking about getting a real artist to design a new JusJoJan badge for next year. I’m starting to realize that maybe my mad Paint skillz aren’t up to snuff. And I’m getting tired of looking at the stick-figure blogger with a burning screen. If enough people insist, maybe I’ll give you all a choice when January 2017 rolls around to use the new one or keep the retro one.

Ha! Whoever thought I’d ever make it to “retro”? Not me.

 

The “Clumsy” prompt is brought to you by Judy at Edwina’s Episodes. Please head on over and have a read, and tell her I said hi!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 31st post here!


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Jan. 30/16

Welcome! It’s Friday, and at Life in progress that means it’s time for the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt!  Tomorrow is a special day for me here at WordPress – it’s my third unofficial WP anniversary, so I’ve decided to let the prompt reflect that in my usual roundabout way. The SoCS prompt will also be tomorrow’s Just Jot It January prompt word (if you can call it a word… I suppose you can), so if you want to use it for your JusJoJan post, go right ahead, and if you want to combine the two challenges you can do that too!  On with the prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “an-”  Use it as a word or find a word that starts with the letters “an” and make it your post’s theme. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at 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 the 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on 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 simply a single word to get your 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.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! 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 right 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!


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Just Jot It January 29th – Ghost

Let me start by saying I’m afraid of ghosts. At least other people’s ghosts. Their ghost stories scare me. I think it must be the unpredictability of them, because I’m fine with writing my own ghost stories.

For me, a ghost story has to have a romantic element for it to be enjoyable. Like in the movie Ghost, which is arguably the most famous purely paranormal romance out there, there has to be a feeling of comfort for me to be able to watch it or read it. I remember the first time I tried to read Stephen King’s The Shining – I couldn’t. I got as far as the twins in the hallway and I had to put it down. Yes, I was only about fourteen years old at the time, but it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I was able to read the whole thing. And I still look for a spooky set of twins every time I stay in a hotel. Especially if it’s an old one.

It’s funny, I used to love to be scared by certain movies and books (but not too scared, Mr. King) but now I’d really rather not. Is that growing up? Or growing old?

The “Ghost” prompt is brought to you by Barbara at teleportingweena. If you don’t already know her, please pop over and have a read!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 29th post here!


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Just Jot It January 28th – Serendipity

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about serendipity on this blog. The last time was just a little more than two years ago. I talked about how I met my children’s father; it was a serendipitous occasion.

However, something happened more recently that makes me think it’s possible for serendipity to work in reverse. Allow me to tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a girl who was walking alone around Tokyo, browsing through the open air market on a crisp but sunny November day in 2015 when she came across a man selling silver jewelry. This girl loved silver jewelry, in fact she was wearing four rings upon her fingers, all of them in silver.

As she perused the gentleman’s wares, she came across a ring that was identical to one of those she was wearing. Unable to contain her excitement at the chances of this happening, she pointed to the ring on the stand and then to the ring on her finger, to share with the man this unbelievable find. What she didn’t have the vocabulary in Japanese to say was that she had bought the ring she was wearing eleven years ago… in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada!

Extraordinary, wouldn’t you say?

Fast forward to Sunday, January 24th, 2016, the very same girl was out taking pictures when she accidentally took a picture of her ring with her cell phone.

CAM01294

How silly, she thought, and she considered deleting the picture but for some reason she didn’t. And now the girl is glad, for she had no way of knowing she would lose that very same ring the next day. No more than she could have known she should have bought its duplicate when she found it in Tokyo.

Because as it turns out, she found her ring in the most unlikely place in the world, two months before she lost it.

The “Serendipity” prompt is brought to you by Jan at JT Twissel. If you don’t already know her, please head on over and have a read!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 28th post here!