Crazy past few weeks

So I know my posts haven't been exactly riveting lately, but there have been many things, not all good unfortunately, happening in my life.

Since graduation my cat has died :-(, and my car has been out of commission for three whole weeks. I've also started a new job, which I'm loving so far. But overall it has been difficult to get much reading or writing done, though I have tried.

The writing group is going well, we've been meeting every other Friday, but I am experiencing some dilemmas that I hadn't anticipated.

Some of my group have extremely personal tastes when it comes to descriptive writing--now, don't get me wrong, I love descriptive writing, but it is very difficult to maintain a good balance. One or two members of my group seem to feel that the more descriptive their writing is the better, but some of their scenes are, well, burdened by description. This coming up Friday I mean to talk to one of them and explain how quality is better than quantity when it comes to analogies and metaphors, but at the same time, I feel like they might not take this advice to heart simply from how they have reacted throughout our meetings. For them more is always better, but I can't help but feel the opposite.

How do you manage your overly descriptive passages? Do you pick and choose the best after it has been written, or do you prefer to have an abundance of description?

And would there be a better way for me to express my concern to my group members?

Thanks for reading!

Things to be excited about...

So...I will not apologize for being a neglectful blogger, just because it will make me feel worse about it than I already do. Instead I will share good news and pictures of things that I'm excited about.

I start my new job on Monday, which is a wonderful but also terrifying thing.

Also, I got a fancy new printer as a graduation present...for, of course, all my writerly things. (It does Duplex printing :-P)

And also, the Tuesday after this upcoming Tuesday I will be going to see Neil Gaiman and Lev Grossman in NYC. Something I have not allowed myself to get excited about until recently because I was not certain I would make it. But now I have a ticket. Yipee!

I really have also been looking for an excuse to learn how to post pictures on here, and now I know how. 

On a more writerly note: the story I am working on right now is going well. My sci-fi short story got rejected almost instantly by Lightspeed Magazine, but that's alright, and I am still dutifully awaiting a response from the first magazine I submitted to, Weird Tales. I shall continue to do my best to not lose my mind waiting, though I should hear back from them any day now.

I hope you are well, and have as many little things to be excited about as I do. And I'll try to post more often, maybe even with some more "serious" / academic things to say, though probably not considering my brain has been on vacation since graduation. :-)

Getting Back Into It

I've been a bad little writer...and no, not in naughty way, but in the completely neglecting to write way. For the past few weeks my life's been thrown completely off-track, mainly because I'm done with school but haven't yet begun to work. Because of these two big reasons, and countless tiny ones, I have no structure in my day and my brain has decided to abandon me in La La Land for a few days.

The fact that I might actually finish and post this blog post is an indication that it may have returned. I also woke up this morning ready to write.

A main reason for why I haven't been writing lately is because the amount of research that I need to do in order to continue my WIP is extensive and therefore very intimidating. I've now submitted two short stories to magazines so I don't even want to look at those for fear that I'll find some glaring mistake and I'll hate myself (there really better be none)! But now I have a plan. I will work on a new story while I wait for the impending rejections of the other two and work on the research for the big story.

Though I've been a very bad writer the last two or so weeks I'm not upset with myself--as long as it doesn't turn into a summer long thing. I gave myself a break and now I'm back!