Back at Our Center

Starting last Wednesday, my mental health group has been back at our center which was closed for repairs for more than two months. We were glad to finally be back.  Though it was kind of fun meeting elsewhere, though the rooms at the main office where we'd meet temporarily got a little crowded at times. At the Starbucks meetings got a little crowded even at a really big table. We once tried meeting at a park for my writing class, but chose to meet a Starbucks instead that day, since it was windy outside.

Also during our time away from the building, we had a park day in May and a beach trip last month. And tomorrow is our animal shelter and duck park trip. That will be something new and different. I'll be glad to be out for a few hours. Will ket you know how it goes.

And now that we're back, I'm hoping to do more craft projects. I'll have to come up with an idea.

13 Random Things on Facebook This Week

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  

Here are some totally random things that came up on my Facebook feed this week, both current and in my memories:

What I've Experimented With Doing So Far

For writing in an unusual format, that is.

For one thing, I tried using different fonts on different pages. So far I like how this varies that look of the manuscript. Even using one font for headlines and another the text. In some cases varying the font sizes on the same page. It's been fun seeing what different fonts look like and seeing them in different point sizes. One I've used a lot is Verdana, which I use most on my blog posts. The default font is Times. I've found a lot of script-like fonts and funky ones like Chalkduster, seen in my current memoir challenge image:

Not sure what this script font is right off hand, but I sure like the way it looks. This is the image used on another of my current challenges, one that my book will fit into if it sees the light of day 😉

I like to change up the images for my challenge every year, so I've already done some font experimenting.

Another thing I've tried is adding images to the page, letting the text wrap around in some instances. Still experimenting to see how I really want to do each page. but enjoying it so far. I found a notebook paper image that I used. I'd like to show it, I can't find the exact one right now, and I don't want to spoil what I have done just yet, as I have typed text over the image. I've also done inserting text boxes in or around the regular text. I tried the box in different positions, deciding (for the time being) to use wrap-around text, placing the text box on the right side of the page. I've never had a chance to type anything with images or wrap-around text, so this has been fun experiment.

As I've said earlier, I used one of the letter templates to write a fake letter from a hospital. This was new to me. I was reminded of the Shopaholic books, where the MC continuously receives letters from her bank and credit card companies. In my letter, I used a a fake phone number with the 555 prefix, but used my town's actual zip code. I don't know if there is a fake zip code used for fictional stories. I did not use my actually town name, however.

And I've been trying to find how to type an email in my book, using a fake domain. I have seen actual email domains (yahoo, hotmail, etc) used in books, but am worried about unknowingly using someone's actual email address. Everyone already gets enough junk in their emails! I don't want to add to that! Anyone know anything about this?

And I now need to find out how to insert images that may not be free. One book I have at home has the cover of a Nancy Drew book and images of news events from the 1960s, among other usual formatting. I'm planning to read this one soon, BTW. 

13 Things This Month So Far

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  

 13 Things This Month So Far (not in any particular order):

1. My previous psychiatrist left the clinic last month, and I met the new one on the first of this month. The previous one (who communicated by telepsychiatry) always called me at home, but the new one (who also communicates via Zoom) is meeting patients at the office. My Prozac dosage was increased as well, and moved to daytime.
2. Our meeting center is still under repair, and we have been meeting in a  room at the behavioral health main building. We don't yet know when we'll back at the center, but are hoping to be by August.
3. There has been a heatwave lately in my neck of the woods. The first Saturday this month was particularly hot. I stayed home all day.
4. Trying to get to the store or get gas in the mornings before the weather gets really hot. 
5. Deciding whether or not to use a hair dryer on days that are expected to be hot. Another thing I try to get done before it gets really hot. I certainly want to have completely dry hair when I have to be at work.
6. Drinking a lot of water  to try to stay hydrated. Having to keep getting bottles of water, increased need for the bathroom. I experimented with wearing a pull-up on one of the hot days (TMI???)
7. Getting to bed early during the heat, then awaking at 1 or 2AM, turning the TV on, trying to get back to sleep, but eventually getting up between 4 and 5.
8. Forgetting to set the timer on the fan when going to bed, but remembering to set the sleep timer on the TV.
9. Getting even more sleepier during the day when it's hot.
10. Got around to finding something I wanted to write. As I have said, I'm trying to experiment with unusual formatting. I've already used the letter template.
11. Have an upcoming field trip with the behavioral health group to an animal shelter, followed by a trip to a duck park, on the 31st. Will let you know how it goes.
12. No more meeting at Starbucks for my writing class. I got a little tired of the eavesdropping, and observing strangers prompts, and the table we'd meet at was just getting too crowded, depending on how many clients showed up.
13. Just reading, reading and more reading, as usual.

Book Discussion: Unusual Formats

 

As I pointed out in this blogpost last week, I want to experiment with using an unusual format. I did already write a diary-style tween novel, but now Want to try other formatting, similar to, if not the same as those in the pictures below:

I experimented with using different fonts and different sizes for pages of texts, and with writing a formal letter using one of the letter templates in Pages. 

Other samples of unusual formats that have been used in books include stories told entirely or almost all in the form of tweets or text messages. One book I currently have on my TBR shows images of post-it notes, and hand-drawn cartoon illustrations, pie charts, and notes written on notebook paper, to name a few. I want to learn how to format these sorts of things. 

When reading books in one of these unusual formats, there are times when I'm not sure of the order in which to see the formatted text, such as that in the top photo above, the pages with the dark background. See this link for other examples of unusual formatting (the images above are from this link as well.)

What is your take on these so-called unusual formats? 

13 Fairy Tale Cartoons

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂 

 

I particularly resemble that last one very much lately:)

Getting Back to Writing

It's been more than a year since I last tried to submit my memoir. I'd written an afterword. I neglected that for a year, then just now printed it out. I am still making the difficult decision to self-publish thru Amazon. Those who have done that, tell me again how it is?

And my tween book set in the 1980s--still don't know about publishing that one.

Yesterday I started typing something totally new, something more aimed at the adult crowd. It's a little hard to explain this one just yet.

Is it unusual for the same person to write in more than one genre, with more than one audience in mind? I'm pretty sure this is true.

I just now posted this as my Facebook status. And it's true what I said about starting to write something new.

I'd been wanting to start something new, but wasn't sure just what. I pulled some notes I'd made from a dream I once had and tried to go from there, but never got far. The dream notes were several years ago, so maybe the idea wasn't so great since wasn't fresh.

But now I have something new. It's hard to explain it just yet. But one thing I am attempting to do incorporate things like email, letters, texts, charts and maybe some pictures. I found in my Pages on Mac various templates for writing letters and copied one into my document.

Here are some examples of unusual formats:

A book I currently have on my TBR includes pages designed to look like notebook paper. Another includes newspaper headlines from the 1960s. I have no clue how to do any of this! At least I learned how to type the trademark symbol.

More on this to come.

Don't Want to Think About This Now

 These came up on Facebook this past week:

I have not seen these holiday items in stores as of yet and won't be actively looking for them just yet. Right now, we are having a heatwave in my area, and this is the last thing on my mind right now. I'm just trying to stay hydrated. 

13 July 4th Cartoons

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂 

In honor of the 4th of July, I am posting some cartoons for the holiday.