Linda Nelson

Original image via Bing Creative Commons, courtesy of jobike.it

I like Idioms. I always have. Before now I honestly never gave them much thought and never quite noticed how they can be difficult for a person not from our country to understand them. Some of them, if you took them word for word you would be left wondering, what’s that supposed to mean?

Have you ever twisted them up?

I’m a NCIS fan. I miss seeing Zeva David on the show. She used to mess up the idioms we use all the time in our country. Some might find it annoying, but I always got a big kick out of it. In fact, I like this more than Tony’s constant quotes of movies. These are quirks of character that I have found myself paying attention to more and more since I have begun writing. Some of the best character quarks can be found in the weekly TV series we watch.

For example, Zeva tried to use the haystack idiom. It didn’t come out quite right. This is an example of what she might have come up with; the cat lost its tongue?

When I want to add a little bit of humor to my stories, I try to switch up idioms with my characters. I believe I did this more so in Witch Book than any of my other stories.

In the future, I will be attempting to do this even more.

ROW80 Check in:

Kait is calling for us to look at our goals once again and adjust them if need be.

I think my goals are going to stay somewhat the same.

I need to write as much as possible. It does not matter as to whether it is my blog posts or my work in progress, just as long I am working on something that has to do with writing.

I’m not making word count goals this time around. Instead, I want to make writing time goals as in 90 minutes a day. This can be either plotting, writing, researching, or editing. My words per minute, when it comes to typing, has gotten pretty high since I began in 2010. So, if I’m spending the right amount of time working on the work in progress, I’m sure my word count will reflect this.

I will log my word count on my blog counter once a week instead of daily. This is so I will stop focusing on word count and more on the actual doing of the writing. I’m hoping for a longer novel this time around that will be slightly influenced by The Game of Thrones. Why?

Because I like how in that story, everyone wants something, they all have some sort of secret, and I want to use the secrets and wants for the coming book. Enough! I can’t tell you anymore, or it will spoil the story, besides the part where I will be trying to get most of the cast in this book, even if it is in the mode of a guest appearance.

As you can tell, the plot is pretty much set in motion. I have my inciting incident that has carried over from Witch Book and Aaron and Keja. I even made a rough draft of a map to help me out.

Witch Book was written in 90 days as a first draft. It had a strong plot outline for me to follow. This is one of the most crucial things I need to have in order to write fast.

What about you? How do you go about your writing? Do you plot or punster? Do you use maps or charts? Cast outline or Character sheets or both?

Please share, I’d love to hear about your writing habits.

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So you just discovered your loved one is an addict. You are horrified, angry, embarrassed, frustrated, and almost every emotion known to man. What do you do?

Original image via Bing Creative Commons, courtesy of Christ the Truth http://christthetruth.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/addiction-seminar-for-teens/

It is hard knowing what to do.

My son has been an addict for almost half his life, along with being in and out of jail and rehabs.

At the moment, he is in recovery, and living at home.

How do I do it?

Well, it’s not easy. I had to learn coping skills and what I could change and what I couldn’t change.

You see, it all has to begin with you.

I hear you – You don’t have a problem – They have the problem.

But you can’t change them. You can’t cure their addictions for them. The only one you can change and cure is you.

First off, if you haven’t been to one, get yourself to either an al-anon or a nar-non meeting. Attend six of these meetings and then decide if they are for you. Chances are you will see you in a different perspective. This would be your first stage of change for you.

The healthier you become can open doors for your addict to change. They may not like your new you in the beginning, but so what. At this stage, you probably don’t like them much either.

You become stronger, savvier, and almost fearless. Maybe even a leader by example.

But if you try to change them instead of you, you will only be met with resistance. This will cause things to escalate even more.

So how do you get them to get help if you can’t do anything about their addiction?

You have to let them go – let them fall – the sooner they fall the less likely they will die from their addiction.

They have to get in trouble with the law. They need to learn about consequences. They need to learn how to pick themselves up.

So you wait – They have to ask for help on their own – you can throw ideas out to them as suggestions – The best suggestion is rehab, and it doesn’t matter how many times it takes either. They have to want the help or when it is given it won’t make a difference.

I know that my addict will probably mess up again. Each time he learns something new and takes a step forward in his recovery.

But know that the very first step of asking and getting help is the hardest one to take.

Check out these links on Addiction I think you may find useful.

http://addictionblog.org/

http://www.addictionblog.net/

http://www.thefix.com/content/blogs

http://addictionrecoveryspot.blogspot.com/

http://parentsofanaddict.blogspot.com/

http://peglud.wordpress.com/category/parent-of-an-addict/