Tag: dailyprompt

Googling “derealization,” hating what you find.

Sara Mazariegos

I sure picked a great time to stop writing. My #1 distraction from all the craziness, and I’m not using it right now.

I’ve started reading through my latest draft, though. That’s been interesting. I’m not allowing myself to make any changes yet, just reading through it and making little notes about the changes I intend to make.

Not sure if it’s the relentless heat or the constant barrage of bad news, but I haven’t been having the best summer, mentally. In that regard, perhaps it’s better that I’m not trying to write now. I just wish I could take more of a break than a weekend getaway. (The weekend getaway to National Harbor last weekend was really nice, though. I just want a longer break. 😛)

Anyway, here’s a distraction:

Daily writing prompt
If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?
View all responses


Do they have to be alive? If they have to be alive, then I’d probably invite Kate Clayborn or John Green or Neil Gaiman so we could talk about books and writing. If I’m being honest, John Green is at the top of my list anyway, just to talk to him about anything. #fangirl

If they don’t have to be alive, I’d love to have dinner with Jim Henson or Walt Disney or George Harrison (I’d say John, but I have a feeling George would be a nicer guest.) The list of not-alive people I wish I could’ve met grows longer each year.

I finished reading Happy Medium by Sarah Adler and really enjoyed it. There’s a ghost in it, and it kind of has a Ghosts feel to it, so I recommend it if you like that sort of thing. I would’ve had the main character fall in love with the ghost, but that’s just me. 😉

Now I’m reading The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas. I was surprised when I got it from the library and saw how long it is! It will be a movie eventually, so I’m ahead of the curve for once. I’m probably going to have to renew it the maximum amount of times since I read slowly and it’s nearly 500 pages long.

Luis and I have also been watching classic SNL episodes, from the 70s to the 2000s. Some of them include Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig so it feels weird to call them “classic” but they’re not new anymore. We’ve seen one episode from the Eddie Murphy 80s cast so far. That was rough.

I hope you’ve been finding distractions that make you happy.

We’re doing it, we can’t have it all.

Sara Mazariegos
Daily writing prompt
What are you most excited about for the future?
View all responses

That depends on how you define “future.” This year, I’m most excited about our anniversary trip to Cleveland, to visit the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame together. I’ve been there at least once (I think I’ve been there twice) but Luis hasn’t been there yet. Now that Alice Cooper’s been inducted, he needs to go see it! Even if it is in Ohio. 😉

Thinking about the future beyond that is kind of scary and stressful. I try to think of things in more “lily pad” terms. I jump from one upcoming event to the next, enjoying the moment as much as I can.

That’s my theory, anyway. I worry about the future an awful lot, so it’s better for me to try and rein it in and only think about the things at hand.

This break from writing is going better than last time. Granted, this blog is still writing, but it’s not fiction so it’s allowed. I’ve come up with a few ideas I want to put into my novel once I’m free to edit it. Certain things in the story have come more into focus now that I’m not trying to hash it out and get to the appropriate word count.

I’m planning to mostly work on this novel this year, and then switch over to revising my more holiday-themed novel at NaNoWriMo time.

I’m looking forward to when the temperatures are well below 90 degrees again.

Bucket of nerves.

Sara Mazariegos
Daily writing prompt
What are you most worried about for the future?
View all responses

What a loaded question.

“What are you not worried about?” is a question with a shorter list of answers. When I saw Inside Out 2, Anxiety reminded me that my work plans to move offices next year, to an office that’s not easily Metro/bus accessible. They’re planning to hire a shuttle to bring me and the other carless plebes to the office each day, but then a) it’ll probably throw off the nice timing I’ve created for myself b) it’ll make leaving early more difficult* and c) it will probably still pick me up/drop me off at the nearest Metro stop, so I’d have to take the bus to it each morning/from it each evening which further increases my commute time. AHHH.

So much uncertainty has made me quite frazzled these past few weeks.

And then there’s the usual, “What does the future hold?” questions. Like “Will I still be at this job in a year?” “Where will my husband be working?” “How much is going to change?”

Change is scary for the anxious. I recommend Inside Out 2.

Anyway.

I finished my novel last Thursday! 🎉 The funny thing about finishing on a Thursday night is that I went to work on Friday and then it was a normal weekend (I do my best not to write much on weekends) so it didn’t feel all that “WOO!” as it might’ve felt if it had been on, like, a Tuesday or something.

As usual, I feel like “What do I do now?” I’m not going to read it until mid-July at the earliest. I already know a lot of it needs to be chopped and diced. I’m at peace with it. I feel less “aww, my perfect baby” this time. I’m ready to pull up my sleeves and edit it!

But I’m giving myself a break first. Especially due to the aforementioned anxiety. Heh.

* I can probably just use rideshare and my company card, but STILL.

That’s just the way it is.

Sara Mazariegos
Daily writing prompt
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
View all responses

I give myself permission to suck.


Full disclosure: I discovered Maureen Johnson through her short stint as John Green’s stand-in during his first paternity leave from his YouTube channel (Vlogbrothers.) As a writer, the video above is so valuable. I think about it every time I’m in the midst of a writing sprint. It’s so important to allow yourself to power through when things aren’t clicking the way you thought they would in your mind. No one’s first, second, third, eighth* draft is as good as they want it to be. You just gotta keep going, keep writing, and eventually the kinks will be ironed out and it will become the story you were going for.

Why am I posting this today?

I started rewriting my second novel (the one from last November/Christmastime.) It’s been… a challenge. This time of year is busy. But I’ve started it! I’m about 5,000 words in. My goal is to be kind to myself this time. I don’t have to write 2,000 words a day if I really can’t. I’ll still do my best, but some days are just not great and that’s okay!

My goal is to be finished with this second draft by the end of June. That’s plenty of time! I found my groove yesterday, so I’m past the blank-first-page mental hurdle.

How’s your writing going? I assume you’re also a writer. You might actually be a welder. That’s cool, too. What’s that like?

Until next time,


*not necessarily hyperbole. Some novels take a lot of drafts before they’re finished. It really does take time.

Mythical Best.

Sara Mazariegos

Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.

My answer is not quite about shoes.

In 2010, I bought some Mythical Shoes to show my support of Rhett & Link. At the time, they had a YouTube channel full of songs and silly sketches. The shoes were green and blue, and quirky with their little “Randler” mascot on the heels and their faces on the inner soles.

I gave myself the Mythical Beast name “Squinchilla,” for half squirrel and half chinchilla. I had a gray-black chinchilla back then named Habichuela (Habi for short,) so I thought it was fitting.

Cool people dress like a fox when visiting the zoo.

When I met my husband in 2012, I was wearing the shoes. That’s not to say that they contributed to him wanting to continue to see me, and eventually marry me, but it couldn’t have hurt.

When Habi the chinchilla died in 2013, I buried him in the Mythical Shoes box.

I don’t wear the shoes anymore, mostly for fear of them getting beat up beyond recognition. But I still have them, as a small memento of Habi, and of the most pivotal time of my life.