tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post2343530223193175382..comments2023-12-06T00:48:23.734-08:00Comments on Daily Writing Practice: Sunday January 9th, 2011Marchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14952331166517430843noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-32733072652146871552011-01-11T23:17:10.613-08:002011-01-11T23:17:10.613-08:00Zhongming - that book was actually the inspiration...Zhongming - that book was actually the inspiration for this blog :)<br /><br />I'm glad you found your way here and that you continue to share your writings with us. It wouldn't be the same without you.Marchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14952331166517430843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-51919192339832573462011-01-11T06:35:28.081-08:002011-01-11T06:35:28.081-08:00Memory
June - I started a blog after reading &quo...Memory<br /><br />June - I started a blog after reading "Writing down the bones by Natalie Goldberg". Which eventually led me to this wonderful Daily Writing Practice blog. I can honestly tell you that writing daily has bring my attention of self awareness and seriously put my intellect into test. It pushes my limits whenever I'm in a slump or feel demotivated although mostly overly-emotional but I think that's me. June 2010 is the most eventful period of my life as I keep struggling to keep up with my job and writing daily. The challenge I faced includes time-management. So I've benefitted from all areas and I am so thankful to god that I found this blog which just keep on nurturing me. Best is that the folks here are extrememly friendly with their comment and kind with their words and not to mention that you guys just keep increasing the difficulty level everytime you all write something. It's so challenging and enchanting just to read these wonderful writings! Zhongminghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03316151636704591892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-80966340760158696602011-01-10T23:44:18.523-08:002011-01-10T23:44:18.523-08:00Morganna - sounds like you had an eventful year as...Morganna - sounds like you had an eventful year as well. Congrats on the major milestones :)<br /><br />Greg - if they find a way to put it back in so that they can remove it again, I'll be very upset.<br /><br />'... a semi-invalid with an authorial bent...' hmmph. :P<br /><br />Heather - two kids starting school in the same year? Sounds pretty memorable to me. And it sounds like there's some hope for your husband yet! :D<br /><br />Summerfield - don't encourage me too much, or I'll start jumping off the roof of the house thinking I can fly.<br /><br />Although it's sad that you lost your way from writing for a while, I'm very glad you found your way back. And I think your goals for the year sound great - best of luck with them!<br /><br />Watermark - a very eventful year for you as well! So much travel - a younger me would be very envious. The old me... still a little jealous ;)Marchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14952331166517430843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-6175177090905900982011-01-10T22:46:18.554-08:002011-01-10T22:46:18.554-08:00Marc: Many congratulations on the adventures of th...Marc: Many congratulations on the adventures of the year - taking the plunge and leaving the city, the wedding and finishing then moving in to the cabin :)<br /><br />Morganna: Congratulations to you too! Driving across the country sounds like one big adventure so well done!<br /><br />Greg: I would love to visit Canada someday too :)<br /><br />Heather: I've enjoyed your blog too and should visit it more often :)<br /><br />Summerfield: I can relate to your ups and down with writing so well! I really do enjoy your postings so do keep writing :)<br /><br />My year was quite big. I travelled to England and went back to being a full-time student. It felt very strange not having to wake up in a ritualistic manner everyday to go to work. <br /><br />I experienced the big freeze in England for the first time (getting snowed in and having the heating stop working was something I will never forget!) I continued meeting different people who were almost ten years younger who challenged my perspectives and I learned many things. <br /><br />I revamped my blog and started writing again in February. I also started reading a whole lot more. <br /><br />I finished my course in June and I spent the summer and autumn travelling. UK, Italy, Spain, Egypt and UAE.<br /><br />In November I took part in NanoWriMo for the first time and finished my first novel.<br /><br />In December I finished editing the <a href="http://www.protagonize.com/story/princess-petuna-and-the-fifth%20dimension" rel="nofollow">second draft</a> of my Nano novel. It was also when I decided to quit my nomadic lifestyle and I moved back to Sydney permanently.Watermarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09950214409406244159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-50213905974284777522011-01-10T19:21:18.646-08:002011-01-10T19:21:18.646-08:00marc, what greg said. plus congratulations on fina...marc, what greg said. plus congratulations on finally finishing the major jobs on the house. remember that to me, you are superman, or something close.<br /><br />morganna, i love driving. in fact last year i drove down to chicago three times, the last time i made it in 8 hours from chicago to toronto - i tend to drive 19 km over the speed limit. <br /><br />congratulations on your family's achievements.<br /><br />greg, i would like to meet you someday soon. if you find yourself in toronto, just let me know. dinner's on me. and of course, it's no secret, i love reading your posts.<br /><br />heather, i enjoyed reading your blog the few times i've moseyed on down there. i should try to visit more often.<br /><br />-o0o- <br />In January, in an attempt to re-capture my writing muse, I started following this blog. Although I had modest success in that I started to write something meaningful, I almost abandoned writing. This was because in the spring, a very good friend, also a writer, told me that my stories had no "kick" in them, no real conflicts in them, which made for uninteresting read. I felt so disappointed and I decided to not write anymore or strive to get published. I very much respect this friend and her opinions.<br /><br />During the summer, we had a family crisis, in that my son's marriage fell apart and he came to live with me while he tried to fix his life. He has two boys and they stayed with him at my house four days every week the whole summer. The care of these children fell on me and I used this as an excuse not to do any writing. <br /><br />But I still found myself writing snippets almost everyday, especialy after spending time with the boys, listening to them, doing things with them. There was one day when the eldest during one of our conversations said "they killed my dreams". The sadness that gripped me was unexplainable listening to that being said by an eight-year old child. That's the inspiration for my take on the prompt <a href="http://amatterofdistinction.blogspot.com/2010/09/dwp-interview.html" rel="nofollow">"the interview" </a>. Paragraphs 12 to 22 were a variation of that conversation one beautiful Saturday afternoon as we sat at the park.<br /><br />There are some people who like my writing and have been following my <a href="http://amatterofdistinction.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">blog </a> and had wondered why I seldom posted. Then I remembered what my boss in my first job told me one day when I told her my teacher in high school once told me I can never be a writer because "my essays were flat". Antonia, my boss, who was educated as a journalist and came from a family of writers and scholars in the Philippines, said, "Just because one person say you're no good, doesn't mean you are. Everyone has an opinion. So I say now, you're good, and if you keep at it, you will become very good. That's my opinion. Will you take heed?"<br /><br />So I kept on writing, posting on my blog every now and then. And when my other friend, Writer's Block, came and visit, I'd dash over to Daily-Writing Practice and take on the prompts. And I even started writing poems again, and learned to write 'haiku'. Of course, I have met you, guys, albeit online (for now).<br /><br />My goal for 2011? For now, I strive to write at least 1,000 words everyday. And before the holidays, I looked at my old files, more specifically, the novel I had been working on and damnit I want to get at it and finish it. And maybe NaNoWriMo in November?summerfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15517091613960178381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-14674577285384689952011-01-10T15:21:24.161-08:002011-01-10T15:21:24.161-08:00Marc- What a wonderful adventure (minus the append...Marc- What a wonderful adventure (minus the appendix) you've had!<br /><br />Morgana- There is little harder to do than relinquish little ones into someone else's influence. As far as that car trip you mentioned, my husband has proposed the same thing this Spring. I plan on flying :)<br /><br />Greg- Canada has a lot of striking countryside. We use to visit the-middle-of-nowhere-and-call-it-camping frequently when I was younger. I've never made from ocean to ocean though. I'd like to, at some point, and preferably in the summer. Dogs can be a joy (and a burden). Love yours unconditionally.<br />------<br /><br />Favorite memories, I wouldn't know what to write. But there are some that are more deeply etched than others.<br /><br />For the first time in too many years, my husband, anything other than romantic and easily clued in, took me on a week long trip for my birthday. Exotic location it was not, but we had a blast all the same.<br /><br />My son started kindergarten this year, a surprising development. I had intended on homeschooling until a dual-immersion program opened up just down the street (literally three blocks away). The little smarty already knows more Spanish than I do.<br /><br />My daughter started preschool. It was far more emotional than I expected. My baby bird is learning to fly and I am sitting in the nest.<br /><br />My own blog reached a full year. My other, two years. And, I won a few writing contests.Heatherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06237138428325062807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-51472686981031802192011-01-10T09:43:57.344-08:002011-01-10T09:43:57.344-08:00@Morganna: you might not have had any weddings but...@Morganna: you might not have had any weddings but it certainly sounds like an eventful year! The driving alone sounds like a task and a half. Congratulations though, on both your son graduating speech therapy and your husband graduating :)<br /><br />@Marc: Everything you've reviewed I think you've mentioned on the blog at some point or another, but somehow I'd not realised that it all happened in the same year -- it seems like enough for two years. Next year's bound to be calmer though, you've already had your appendix removed so it can't be removed again!<br /><br /><b>Mine</b><br />Last year was a Canadian year, I managed to visit both the East and West coasts, plus Québec, and almost all of it was for work. I discovered that east-coasters really do say "aboot," and that before I laugh at them I need to live in -30C temperatures for a while. I learned that Québec is the sex-shop capital of Canada after I remarked in passing that I'd only seen so many in Paris before. And I discovered that Vancouver not only lives up to its reputation well and truly, but that it's also in a rain-forest. That startled me.<br />I got a couple of days furlough while in Vancouver though, due to there being a gap between work tasks and it being (much) cheaper to keep me a hotel for two days than fly me there and back again. Somewhere in that time I met a semi-invalid with an authorial bent -- hi Marc! -- and his gorgeous fiancée. I'm not sure I made that great an impression on them as they've since fled Vancouver to the middle of nowhere, but I tried.<br />I also bought a dog, a little Chihuahua-Miniature Pinscher cross who has been nothing but joy ever since.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08503319830584828982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149217012399643733.post-21542705765274706872011-01-10T07:37:19.210-08:002011-01-10T07:37:19.210-08:00That was quite a year, Marc. Mine had some milesto...That was quite a year, Marc. Mine had some milestones in it too, although not quite as big as, say, a wedding. :)<br /><br />In April, we drove across the country (4000 miles one way) to visit my husband's ailing grandfather and other family along the way. Quite an experience doing that when neither my husband nor I had ever really driven a lot on interstate highways. And did I mention the two toddlers with us?<br /><br />In August, I sent my kids to school for the first time (just preschool, but still ...)<br /><br />In September, my son officially graduated from speech therapy. He had been in one therapy or another since infancy, so this was really great news that he was all done!<br /><br />In December, despite some last minute glitches, my husband officially finished his doctorate after 5 years of work.morgannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04295309367485408358noreply@blogger.com