Walking and Writing- Reading

🌳One old book and one new book. The blue notebook is one I ordered from the NaNoWriMo website a few years ago, when I reached 50,000 words. A treat for myself. I now use this book for my planner for the second book, Heirloom Lost Evacation. In it, I add pictures of my characters, both good and bad. 

💓Walking- While I go on walks, either in town or in my home forest. This is when my imagination goes wild! So now, I try to always take a notebook with me if I'm going on a longer walk with lovely views. When I go for walks, I daydream, and also end up where I didn't really mean to. Or I walk to where I meant to get to, but got there faster than I was expecting. 

When you go walking, do you find this happens to you as well?

🌳Writing in the forest- When writing in the forest, I try to make sure I have a decent place to sit. This spot in this picture is under my favourite tree, in my little magical forest at my parents' country home, where I grew up. The feeling of writing in a forest is so energizing for me. My soul craves it, so I try to do this as often as I can.

Do you have a favourite place you like to write at outside in nature?

Reading in the forest- I bought this book while my daughter and I were in Canmore, Alberta. The Physiophysics of walking by Frederic Gros. Ever since I was a young teenager. I'd pack my small pleather backpack with water, snacks and a good book. Walking to my favourite destination. Sit and read while the sun sets. One of my very favourite pastimes. 

 

14,383, very close to 15k.

 

Going for walks in the wonderful world of nature in my backyard has always helped my mind explore. What is resting in this sweet little pond? How long have they lived here, and do they like it?

Looking at the glowing green willow leaves on this outstretched branch, the time of day is the evening, close to the witching hour, 8pm/9pm or golden hour. Will this tree, this branch, tell the other trees that my daughter and I are stomping around the area? Are we known as a guest or an intruder? 

I think of these things as I walk, looking at small sticks and bending over branches that look to me like a magical portal to a far-off land. Taking these walks always helps my mind to refresh, ground and imagine all sorts of ideas for my WIP.

Working on my writing every single day. Thinking about it and daydreaming about what will happen in specific timelines, or Act One and Act Two. As I go for walks in nature, it helps my imagination be overly active. But this is a good thing; this is where the stories come from. I just love it!

Do you have small portals in your backyard as well? If so, where do they go? 

Rough Draft Challenge July 2025

 These challenges have become a lot of fun and something I genuinely look forward to now. This time around, I'll ensure that I have it filled out and ready to go, solely for my writing purposes. 

The project for this July will be going over the first draft of the second book. I want to ensure it is fully finished and read it over carefully. Check on my plots. Make sure it flows and is going in the direction I want it to. 

How do I plan to do this?

• Have my story read to me by the AI program I have bought only for my writing purpose.
• Share chapters with my friends to see what they think
• Listen to or read books on plotting and rhythm of adventure writing

I also will take myself away from home for this to get writing done away from house,laundry and other distractions that keep me from sitting down and actually writing!

Writing on Writing- fun stationary and candle

 Writing about writing? I do enjoy this topic, really. I think about my younger self and when I truly started enjoying writing and creating stories. 

I was a daydreamer; my head was always in the clouds. But making stories and ideas go from my mind to my fingertips, then to the paper. Or from the pencil to paper or pen. The love for stationery also started around this time. 

I remember being about nine or ten years old. There was an ancient typewriter resting in my grandmother’s house, gathering gentle dust. Asking if I could take it home, then getting a yes was so exciting!! In my room, I set up a space on the floor where I listened first to the sound of the 'Smak-tape' when pressing down on the keys. Trying to keep my fingers over the keys properly was a true challenge. To this day, I don't type the way we were taught in school. BUT! I can type without looking down at the keys now, just a different form.

While my daughter and I were gone to Canmore Alberta. There is a sweet little book store there I just love to support! So I purchased a candle that says 'First Draft' and smells of coffee and vanilla. It sits on top of a pretty day planner for 2026. So this one will only be for my writing, where and when Ill be to get my writing done. Also what sense Ill be working on and or character development.

Kind thinking about finding a old planner to keep up the time line in my story world. What do you think???

THanks for reading friends!

Writing week as a whole

TGIF! I am grateful that the week has come to an end, thinking of all the things I wanted to do and or get done. Some did get done, and some didn't. This happens from time to time as the days, weeks, and months go by.

I have moved my office from the room to the kitchen area under the window. It's a new spot with a lot of light, right beside the coffee corner. Also, I moved my corner shelf to hold all the writing books on writing and the craft of writing, so they will be easy access for me when I need them. During the process of moving the books from one location to another, I ended up opening one and reading, so I spent 10 minutes of the moving time reading. So far, it looks lovely. I'll add a picture next week.

My word count for this week has been about 800 to 1000. I'm working on ideas for the series and also redoing the first book of the series. Just since I am changing my pen name from my name to Kaye Archer. This name has an excellent ring to it.

Creating a map for my fictional books and series. I like this idea and will work on it further, as the landscape in the book is changing and has been changing. Making a map is easier said than done, but I will keep working on this. See how I like it and make many more to come.

READING!! 

Fourth Wing by Rebbeca Yarros. I have been reading this with my co-worker. She has bought the book and I took it out of the library. I will say, I am truly enjoying this book in all its excitement! I have never read anything with dragons in it before. The only movie I have enjoyed was Dragon Heart, which I need to rewatch.

While I was reading this book, I was also reading way too many other books. I have a pile I need to finish, or I just need to stop reading more than one at a time. Although it's so much fun having them here and there. It's an enjoyable pleasure!!

A Spot Away From Home

Going somewhere different and getting away from the regular routine of life always seems like a greedy need. Planning a writing retreat so I can go and just get my writing done, I will never do for myself. But for my daughter, yes of course 😏

My lovely daughter had exams to write four hours away from home, in the mountain area of Alberta. What a treat! We made a plan and I planned to go and get some reading and writing done. Although I didn't actually have a 'plan' 

With so much time to do what I wanted. What do I do? I found myself not as organized as I wanted to be or write as much as I wanted too. 

Finally I found a space to write that wasn't a Tim Hortons with club music playing, not even my ear buds could keep out the sound! 

I was on a roll, getting my paper copies done listening to productive music on my phone, as inspiration was flowing through my pen my daughter called and said she was done her exams.

Shucks! So I gathered up all my things, headed back over to pick her up.

Next time Ill be more organized and share what I did to keep it a steady plan with a solid productive plan. 

Thanks for reading, 

 

Feeling Like I'm On Auto Pilot

 Over the last few weeks, life has been up and down. If it's not one thing, it's another. Making me and my daughter move in the motion of life, with up and down corners and some stops. But it feels like we are just going through the motions. 

Like that part in the movie Click when he sees him self on autopilot so he can just get through the days, fast-forwarding his life to get to where he wants.

This is definitely not a good plan for us or for anyone. How do we slow down? Relax and rest when there is so much going on that we NEED to handle. Whether it be family issues, personal or global. 

Since it’s Friday, I’m looking back over the week to reflect on what I did, where we went, and what happened. If I don’t write it down in my journal, it seems as if the days just all form into one. 

The overwhelming feeling of being overwhelmed. I know what I need to do to fix this problem. Now I just need to get to work, serious work on a new HB90 plan and my Kanban board. Since these excellent tools do help. Sometimes, I forget or think I got this! But I KNOW I need these tools to keep me grounded, even with all the crystals I have in my shoes and ankles for supporting me. I still need to do the follow-through!

Wish me luck,

Do you have a system that helps you stay in the present and motivated to move forward?