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Fictional Worlds - August 2009

Prompt: Heartache

August 31st 2009 13:10
Heartache
-------------------
My heart aches
for you-
watching you
in all this pain
I wish there was more
I could do for you;

I've done what I can
but I wish
I could
make it all go away.

I wish
I could just
wrap you in my arms
kiss your pain away
show you
the extent of my love-
even more
I wish
you could return it.

But could someone
as wonderful as you
love someone
as twisted as me?

So as I watch your heart ache
and I comfort you
my own heart aches
for you...

~Dianna
----------------------
Your turn...
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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Poetry
   


Hi Guys!

August 31st 2009 06:23
Hi everyone. First off, I'm back to my regular blogging schedule. I'm sorry for the rough week as far as posting is concerned. Posts will be regular again.

I had an amazing birthday weekend. I got the signatures of some great voice actors, got some buttons, a bookmark, two free mangas and a very long book to read written by a friend of mine. Some parts of it weren't so great but I was entirely satisfied after all-especially considering that all the signatures were stroke of luck last minute type things.

As for writing, obviously I didn't get much done this weekend. I did write some great poetry which I will be posting with a prompt tomorrow.

Over the last month though, I've done some work that I'm pretty proud of. I've done a lot here at Fictional Worlds, learned a lot more about the world and story of Eternia, which leads into the story of Moonshadow's Guardian, written two myths and part of a third for Jihad, and written some great poetry and made good progress with Bleed.

For the next week, I'm hoping to wrap up Eternia Falling so that I can move onto other projects and finish the myth I'm working on for Jihad, in large part because next week the whole headache of school begins.

I had a great summer. I got a lot done with my writing and I'm pretty proud of myself. I hope that you guys enjoyed yourselves too, accomplished all or at least most of your goals for the summer, and if you go to school, that you're planning to really enjoy yourself before you go back (unless you're already there.)

Thanks for your patience, and for reading,

~Dianna
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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Poetry, Writing Exercises
   


4 Great Posts

August 28th 2009 17:55
This week I'm going to highlight 4 great posts from other blogs about writing:

1. Secret Blogging Alliance This post is from ProBlogger, showing the advantages of a blogging alliance.

2.Do You Question Rejection This post is from Hope Clark, editor of FundsForWriters, talking about why an editor might reject an author's work.

3.Believe In Yourself But Believe In The Evidence Too A post about hard work as a writer.

4.This Side Of The Submission Desk A post by Michy talking about being both an author and an editor.
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Update: What I've Done This Week

August 28th 2009 17:42
This week I accomplished A Lot Of Nothing. I got to 85, 000 words, but I spent a couple days away from home helping a friend through a bad breakup. Sigh. I'm behind on just about everything writing related, but I've had a great time. There will be a post tomorrow, hopefully Sunday and definitely Monday.

I am almost finished Eternia Falling, which is great. [ Click here to read more ]
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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Updates on Novels
   


Outline Review: The Snowflake Method

August 28th 2009 17:06
The The Snowflake Method is an outlining method which goes deeply into detail. There are 10 steps to this outlining method. Essentially, you write a sentence about your story, then turn it into a paragraph, then turn that into multiple paragraphs, et cetera.

Personally, I've never tried to use this outlining method before, because it's way too in-depth for me. He says that it doesn't stifle creativity, but I can't go into that much detail for the plot outline or I'll just lose my patience, especially because I'm going to completely go off the rails of the outline, that being what I always do. There's no way I could keep that outline correct


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Sorry Guys

August 28th 2009 09:27
Hi Everyone,

I know I haven't posted in a couple of days. A good friend of mine went through a harsh breakup and I stayed with him for a couple days because I was worried about him and he needed someone to be there for him


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Non-Fiction
   


Best Of Fictional Worlds

August 25th 2009 21:02
I just wanted to update and say that I've been working on my Best Of Fictional Worlds (clicky) lens and that I've added a section for rants, a section for series/workshops and a section for the Dear Diary exercises. I've put links to the best posts from the first Dear Diary and hope to get the best posts from the second one up later this week.

I've also added a poll asking readers what their favourite type of post here on Fictional Worlds is (I have no idea how to, or even if I can, post polls on this blog via some nifty tool Orble hasn't quite told me about), and am debating adding a poll later on to ask readers what they would like to see more of on my blog


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Writing Exercises
   


Previous Posts: The Use Of Critiques&More

August 25th 2009 17:50
In excitement for my Critique Circle offer of a trial premium membership, I want to talk about Critiques. And on my editorial calendar that I'm experimenting with for the 31 Days To A Better Blog workshop, the post for today is supposed to be highlighting an old post in my blog.

Over the last two years I've written a couple posts here and there about critiquing. I even got a volunteer who let me critique their first chapter and post the first few hundred words of their story, and the first portion of my critique, on my blog, which was great for showing a good critique and where they can be useful


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Critique Circle Premium Membership Trial

August 25th 2009 11:56
Let me just say SQUEE! As anyone who regularly reads this blog should know, I am an active member of critiquecircle.com. In fact, I've gotten more praise for my critiques over there than I have for my writing anywhere on the web. I've critiqued 55 stories, most of which were chapters of novels for a couple writers I've worked with. This is counting the fact that I've disappeared for four or five months at a time from Critique circle, having done that twice and having only been a member for a little over two years.

I just got a message on Critique Circle saying that because I'm a prolific critiquer, they would like to offer me a two-week free trial with NO obligations of the Premium Membership


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Fiction, Writing Exercises
   


The Art Of The Short Story

August 25th 2009 02:49
This post was inspired by a thread on the Augnowrimo forums, which I have linked to in previous posts-Augnowrimo is now coming to its end. This year the wonderful moderator, Erin,
who recently self-published a book of her own short stories which can be found at this website, decided to compile an Augnowrimo anthology, with various short stories from different members, which will be sold at its production cost.

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Fiction
   


Review: Stephen King's On Writing

August 24th 2009 21:04
On Writing by Stephen King


Not having finished the book that I'm reading right now, which is a very very long book (but great) and not wanting to do a website review, I decided to review a great book I've already read


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Outlines: An Article&Call For Help

August 23rd 2009 15:23
Fiction Factor: Outlining

The above is an article about outlining which some of you may find useful. It lists three different types of outline and describes them briefly with advantages and disadvantages. It's a good article on a great website for writers at every stage in their career


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New: Nanowrimo Participation Badges 09

August 23rd 2009 07:10
Nanowrimo participant badge
Nanowrimo Participant '09


I was wandering through the Nanowrimo forums (nanowrimo.org for anyone who didn't read yesterday's post) because it's a minefield for story ideas, research information, wonderful website links, and support even in the off-season, and I wandered onto the home page of Nanowrimo and found this


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5 Wonderful Writing Communities

August 22nd 2009 23:07
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary thing. You spend hours by yourself on the computer typing away, getting your story out onto the screen, replacing the blank white screen with a screen full of black text.

But one of the things that has influenced and helped me most as a writer is community, starting with some communities I've mentioned in previous posts (some of them quite often). I'm a mamber of several writing communities, and each one has helped me in its own way


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What I Accomplished This Week

August 21st 2009 18:30
I'm almost at 70, 000 words and my mother is forcing me to rush out the door before I can make it. I've gotten pretty far in my story with Eternia Falling, sort of. I'm realizing that it's going to need to be more like two or three books, because I've just gone over a week in something like fifty thousand words.

I'm busy all weekend, so I have no idea how much I will or will not be able to write. I'm frustrated and rather worried that I won't make 100K this month, just because I'm busy almost 24/7 for the next two weeks


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Interesting Note

August 21st 2009 03:03
Looking through my daily Orble stats, I've noticed a trend. The entry that receives the most attention is an entry entitled The Hardships Of Character Death. This is a pretty old post and not nearly the most informative that I have written, but it seems to be drawing twice the attention of any of my other singular posts.

Just curious to my readers, what makes that post so special? Is it the personalization, the way I write to each of my characters, the descriptions of the characters, or is it just because a lot of writers struggle with killing their characters


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On Fiction: Outlining Part One

August 20th 2009 22:18
I've decided to write a series of posts about outlining. There will be five posts in this series, each one focusing on a different type of outlining. The first post will focus on my style of outline and the following ones will be reviews of different forms of outlining available online.

Not every type of outline works for every writer. Personally my outline is very basic, showing the biggest scenes that need to happen and what order they need to happen in. Some writers on the Nanowrimo forums (Kateness, who wrote 800K last year, being one of these) write outlines that can be up to 10, 000 words in and of themselves


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Great Book Blog and Giveaway

August 20th 2009 05:27
Surfing the web tonight I found a book review blog which regularly reviews urban fantasy novels. (I like Urban Fantasy but I don't get to read enough of it.) I really like the layout here. I found it searching for interviews of newly published authors.

This looks like a great blog and I will continue to follow it


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Non-Fiction
   


5 Fiction Markets

August 19th 2009 21:47
Here are 5 fiction markets I found on Duotrope's Digest:

1. Bards And Sages is a print/online magazine which publishes all forms of speculative fiction, short stories up to 2, 000 words. They pay $0.01 per word. Check out their guidelines, including some fine print at the bottom which clarifies copyright stuff


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Sunset On The Beach Part 2

August 19th 2009 18:18
sunset at Sauble beach

Sauble beach is pretty big. It's at least a few miles long, though I'm not sure where it ceases to be Sauble, or where it ceases to be beach. Earlier I saw at least a hundred people on the beach or in the water. Now most of them have gone back to their cottages for dinner, and many will not return until tomorrow afternoon.

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Excerpt: Eternia Falling

August 18th 2009 18:26
A small excerpt from Eternia Falling, my Augnowrimo novel.
----------------------------- ----------------------------- --------------------
I woke up to find myself in a dark room. In one corner of the room there was a tiny lit candle, down to a stub. I looked around, trying to see something, anything, but there I couldn't see anything other than the candle and a small table it appeared to be on. Putting my hands out in front of me I slowly crawled on all fours toward the table, making sure to feel for anything I might hit.
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Sunset On The Beach Part 1

August 17th 2009 19:22
This exercise is a lot longer than the other so I'm going to post it in two parts. There will be a picture with the second part.
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Day #12: Editorial Calendar

August 17th 2009 07:53
I've been working through the 31 Days To A Better Blog workshop, and I've reached #12. Exercise number twelve is to design an editorial calendar, in other words a posting schedule.

Being a very fluid writer and blogger, I'm not sure how well this is going to work for me. I'm going to try a couple methods and see how they go. The first is a two week alternating schedule, which I'm going to try to keep to for at least three or four weeks to see how well it works for me


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5 Reasons To Start A Blog

August 17th 2009 06:32
In light of my recent blogaversary I've written some posts about blogging, which is not usually my focus here, as I like to focus more on fiction writing. (I do a lot more of that.) Over the last two years I've really come to love blogging. If you're a writer, and you don't have a blog, I think it's high time you started one.

Here are five reasons to start a blog


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Sunrise On The Beach

August 16th 2009 19:04
We arrived at the cottage around 3AM. People sat around, talked and drank until a little after 5AM at which point most of them went to bed. My mother's boyfriend and I went down to watch the sun rise over the water.

At Sauble Beach, the water goes as far as the eye can see, eventually blending with the sky at the horizon. Sauble is on lake Huron, and in the distance you can sort of see where Huron meets Michigan


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Book Review: Phantom Feast Diana Barron

August 16th 2009 09:23
There's a quite interesting story behind how I found this book. Diana Barron is a local (she's definitely Canadian, maybe not the same city but I think the same province) horror writer. In Toronto we have a literacy festival called Word on the Street every year. I don't always make it but I try to.

Two years ago I was there with my grandmother, and we ran into a good friend of mine. We were looking at the various horrors on the tables, and just happened to see this one. Diana Barron was there, signing books. My friend thought it would be pretty epic if I had a novel signed 'To Dianna from Diana' and bought me the book. We got her to sign it, and it is one of my autographed books-Newes from the Dead is as well-a collection I hope to build over the years


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I'm Back

August 15th 2009 20:50
Anyone who commented on the posts I've made over the last few days will notice that their comments are now being responded to-and thanks to everyone who's been reading-as I am back from the cottage.

I had a great time. I did pretty much everything I wanted to do in terms of writing except outlining the pre-Nano course I have planned. I went swimming twice every day except yesterday, when I only got down to the beach once (I wish I could've gone twice though). I watched the sun rise and set on the beach, and we had lots of fun with fire


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10 Things To Look Forward To On Fictional Worlds

August 14th 2009 00:11
This is a list of ten things you can look forward to here on this blog over the coming year. I've been planning quite a few workshops and things to do around here to make life more interesting. I've also been debating making a forum for these workshops. Anyone who would be willing to help me run it should contact me at diannalgunn@gmail.com about it.

Here are some things you can expect to see


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2 Year Blogaversary

August 13th 2009 23:40
This is my official two year blogaversary for Fictional Worlds. Today, that is. So I'm writing a special post to talk about the last two years of my writing.

When I first came here, I had never had a poem published. I was completely unknown, unheard of, and no, I could not be found on Google. But I did have one good thing going for me: a talent and passion for writing


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10 Things I've Learned By And About Blogging

August 12th 2009 23:28
Yes, yes I know this is one list post after another. Bear with me folks, I'm doing these in a bit of a hurry. Tomorrow's will be longer and more interesting and not a list.

So I've been blogging for two years now, officially. There have been gaps, times when I didn't have computer access or not enough computer access to blog regularly, times when I was under too much stress and pressure to even remember this place existed, and times when I was just too sleepy to blog for a few days when I got home


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Short Non-Fiction
   


Day #7: Link Post-5 Great Writing Blogs

August 11th 2009 22:28
Continuing along, plodding as slowly as I am, I am now on the seventh excersize in 31 Days To A Better Blog. The ones that have been going on behind the scenes have been reading exercises and I've found some great reading along the way. I'm happy with the way this is going so far.

So I'm going to link to five great blogs for writers, and tell you exactly why they are great blogs for writers. They aren't in any particular order of awesomeness, it's just in the order I thought of them


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Harry Potter Review: Part One

August 10th 2009 17:47
Just thought I would let you guys know that I decided to do the first part of my Harry Potter review lens before leaving for the cottage. I've also decided not to do any best-of posts, seeing as how I worked my butt off yesterday making a best-of lens. I spent two or three hours working on the darn thing, so I figure I'm going to just leave that as it is and not to a best-of at this moment in time.

Here's the link to the Harry Potter review lens


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Believe

August 10th 2009 16:44
Believe
-----------
Believe me


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Poetry
   


Squidoo: An Experiment

August 10th 2009 03:09
There's a website called Squidoo which allows you to create webpages, essentially. It's a pretty popular website from what I can gather, and a good place to market yourself. I've just joined up and can be found here:

Dianna L. Gunn
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Water!

August 9th 2009 17:57
Well, I got great news today. Tomorrow night I will be heading off to the cottage. This means a few things, but the most important two are 1. No internet and 2. No computer which means no real writing will get done. I probably won't be back by the thirteenth, which is my two year Blogaversery (whoever gave me this word, I love you. I think it may have been Wilson, not sure).

What does this mean? It means that I need to write 10, 000 words today for AugNoWriMo, meaning I need to write a few thousand words in Eternia Falling and I really need to write out the myth of the Green Man, the one I've decided would be best for the AugNoWriMo short story anthology


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Some Links

August 9th 2009 07:04
Really Long Link

Just a funny little thing I found a link for


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I'm Sorry

August 8th 2009 06:46
I'm Sorry
--------------
I'm sorry


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Poetry
   


Book Review: The Screwtape Letters

August 6th 2009 15:41
The Screwtape Letters is a book written by C.S. Lewis during world war two. It is a series of letters written from one more experienced 'devil' to his nephew, trying to help him corrupt a human.

This book is quite interesting. Some time ago I tried to read it but couldn't get into it. I don't remember why, quite possibly because I got distracted. I started reading it again a couple of weeks ago and found it quite interesting. I finished it last night before falling asleep


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Writing Exercises, Articles/Info
   


Eternia Falling: Week One

August 6th 2009 03:16
So this is officially my first week into Eternia falling. So far I'm at 15K. I'm frustrated with it already, though I know I'll keep going and get through the story. It's not the story that's the problem. Once I get through this week in story time, everything will become easier, I'll be speeding up the story and once more in familiar territory.

Right now however I've spent 14K writing about two days. To be fair, a couple thousand of those were from another point of view, Naomi/Riana's, and quite a bit was spent extensively describing the dragon and certain parts of the castle. But I'm not sure how I feel about it


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A Short Poem

August 4th 2009 05:18
Lost
------
I am lost


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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Poetry
   


AugNoWriMo

August 3rd 2009 13:04
So. It's officially August. In fact, it's Agust third. I spent the first two days of August partying, so I haven't gotten any of my planned writing done, really. Well, I got nothing done yesterday or Saturday. So far for the day I've written 3, 331 words.

I'm planning on getting that word count up to 10, 000 by the end of the night, at which point I will be fully caught up for the last couple of days. My end goal for the month is 10, 000


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