The Renaissance Rebels - New Year, New Reality (Cross-Guild Creatives)

[ShadowLion]

It's a New Year and a New Reality!

 

We are the Renaissance Rebels

and YOU are invited to join us in making 2014

a year of fitness, fun,

creativity, and camaraderie!

 

Do you have a creative quest among your challenge goals?

Then join this ragtag, eccentric group of nerds and

level up your health and fitness habits and your creativity.

 

Sure, that's a lot of balls to juggle over the course of six weeks,

but it's a lot easier and more fun when you've got buddies!

 

 

 

 

This is the Renaissance Rebels third challenge. You can check out our previous challenge threads here and here. If it looks like fun, signup on the Cross Guild page and post a reply below to introduce yourself. We're happy to have you!

[ShadowLion]

Hi! I'm Lt_Laurel, the ringleader of the Renaissance Rebels. I'm a 55 year old ex-firefighter and EMT who got overweight and out of shape when I was no longer a first responder. Now I'm a music teacher who's fighting my way back to health and happiness while exploring a multitude of creative projects. I'm having a blast here on Nerd Fitness and with the Renaissance Rebels.

 

This is my third challenge with the Renaissance Rebels and my fifth challenge overall. This challenge I am tying my creative and fitness pursuits together by gamifying my challenge. I'm using a character and storyline based on the fantasy novel I am writing, something that I started last challenge but which fizzled out in the chaos of the holidays. I am undeterred. :-)

 

Last week, in anticipation of the start of this challenge, I enrolled at the local crossfit box and have gone two times so far. I've also been reorganizing my office and my business systems to accommodate a bump up in my student enrollment. I'm happy to have the business AND I still want to be able to keep my sanity and my commitments to my Nerd Fitness goals and buddies!

[Jakkals]

I am in again.

 

This time I will try to be more active online.

 

I will be doing Thing-a-day in February, doing some thing creative every day for the entire month.

[Leithient]

I am here again (I was daggart on the previous challenges). For this challenge my main goal is keep everything simple, in other way I tend to feel anxious when the third week is coming and I give up. I don't have an specific creative goal for the challenge, but I want to maintain two blogs with two posts weekly (2 music reviews and 2 book reviews), and in Februrary I have to write a short story 7-15 pages), so I'm on creativity this year, too.

 

Glad to see you again, guys.

[Galaxy Gamer]

A team to help me lose weight and get my creative life in gear? Sign me up!

 

I write a middle-grade science fiction series called Galaxy Games about a team of kids from Earth who compete against alien kids in an interstellar sports tournament. The second book of the series, Messenger of the Milky Way, was on my editor's desk when the publisher pulled the plug on the project. My plan is just to make whatever tweaks are necessary to make this Book #2 into a proper Book #1 of a rebooted version of the series, and to find a literary agent who can make a successful pitch to a new publisher.  So that's six weeks to edit and revise while researching my agency options, and having query letters out by the end of the challenge.

 

Also, I'd like to lose another ten pounds.

 

I'll also be working on a social media plan for my author platform--ugh. I have accounts in all the usual places (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest) as well as a group blog, but it's so much trouble to keep up with it all. So what I'm looking to do is automate, pre-plan, and organize better. Maybe rethink some things from scratch.

 

Anyway, I'm pleased to meet all of you other creative types and am looking forward to a great challenge.

[Roswenthe]

I am also a writer. I write YA spy novels right now, and will be doing superheroes and space opera later this year.  Just got my first challenge thread up, though I started during the holidays. That was so-so, but I lost a couple pounds, so not horrible, I guess.

 

Viola lessons start up again this week, but I will admit I didn't practice much during the holidays. It was all so busy. Community chorus starts the week after next, as does dance. Taking it easy with dance for this challenge, just going to the tribal bellydance basics drop-in class. The rest of my troupe is preparing for TribalCon, but I'm grounded for that. Might go to the show, but it might make me sad to just watch, too. Not sure yet. My life quest and creativity challenge are the same, and that's to finish this third book in the series so I can move on to completely new series. Ready to give my little band of misfits their epic conclusion.

 

Galaxy Gamer - done quite a bit of reading about platforms myself, and come to the conclusion that if you focus on a couple where you're most likely to make connections, the rest really aren't worth the amount of work to keep up with them. I use my blog, Facebook, and a little bit of Twitter, and then I do quite well on Goodreads. I also automated some things with IFTTT (you can google it), it's pretty swift. I recommend David Gaughren's book Let's Get Visible. It's been useful to me. Many of the platform books I've read are written by nonfiction authors who pretend fiction readers act the same as nonfiction reader, and they don't. I recommend his blog, too.

[ShadowLion]

I am in again.

 

This time I will try to be more active online.

 

I will be doing Thing-a-day in February, doing some thing creative every day for the entire month.

Hi, Jakkals - Good to have you back! I think we all had problems keeping up last time. The thing-a-day sounds interesting. Is it something you are doing on your own or is it a group sponsored event like Nanowrimo?

[ShadowLion]

I am here again (I was daggart on the previous challenges). For this challenge my main goal is keep everything simple, in other way I tend to feel anxious when the third week is coming and I give up. I don't have an specific creative goal for the challenge, but I want to maintain two blogs with two posts weekly (2 music reviews and 2 book reviews), and in Februrary I have to write a short story 7-15 pages), so I'm on creativity this year, too.

 

Glad to see you again, guys.

Welcome back! Keeping it simple is a smart plan. I wish I could make myself do that. The writing on your blogs sounds like specific creative goals to me!

[vibrantnotions]

I know I have sooooo much trouble keeping up online!  

 

I was thinking of trying another group this round because my challenge has nothing creative in it at all, so I was worried I'd be a bit out of place.  When I went to the sign up sheet I noticed it was all the same and apparently they are keeping the groups for two challenges. 

 

So you guys are stuck with me! HAH!  

 

This challenge I'm trying to address sleep and self-acceptance/confidence issues which have a negative impact on my ability to succeed at my challenges.  

 

The closest thing I have to creativity is a side quest of attempting to make a freezer meal.  

[ShadowLion]

A team to help me lose weight and get my creative life in gear? Sign me up!

 

I write a middle-grade science fiction series called Galaxy Games about a team of kids from Earth who compete against alien kids in an interstellar sports tournament. The second book of the series, Messenger of the Milky Way, was on my editor's desk when the publisher pulled the plug on the project. My plan is just to make whatever tweaks are necessary to make this Book #2 into a proper Book #1 of a rebooted version of the series, and to find a literary agent who can make a successful pitch to a new publisher.  So that's six weeks to edit and revise while researching my agency options, and having query letters out by the end of the challenge.

 

Also, I'd like to lose another ten pounds.

 

I'll also be working on a social media plan for my author platform--ugh. I have accounts in all the usual places (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest) as well as a group blog, but it's so much trouble to keep up with it all. So what I'm looking to do is automate, pre-plan, and organize better. Maybe rethink some things from scratch.

 

Anyway, I'm pleased to meet all of you other creative types and am looking forward to a great challenge.

 

Welcome aboard, gfishbone! As an amateur writer who aspires to more, I'm very interested in hearing how you quest goes to find a new publisher and to make social media work for you. Here's to rockin' your challenge as a Renaissance Rebel!

[ShadowLion]

I know I have sooooo much trouble keeping up online!  

 

I was thinking of trying another group this round because my challenge has nothing creative in it at all, so I was worried I'd be a bit out of place.  When I went to the sign up sheet I noticed it was all the same and apparently they are keeping the groups for two challenges. 

 

So you guys are stuck with me! HAH!  

 

This challenge I'm trying to address sleep and self-acceptance/confidence issues which have a negative impact on my ability to succeed at my challenges.  

 

The closest thing I have to creativity is a side quest of attempting to make a freezer meal.  

 

Hey, Vibrant! There's more than one signup sheet out there, I think. Try this. Cooking is certainly creative, and I look forward to your helpful comments and links this challenge. Maybe you'll have a great recipe to share, too!

[ShadowLion]

I am also a writer. I write YA spy novels right now, and will be doing superheroes and space opera later this year.  Just got my first challenge thread up, though I started during the holidays. That was so-so, but I lost a couple pounds, so not horrible, I guess.

 

Viola lessons start up again this week, but I will admit I didn't practice much during the holidays. It was all so busy. Community chorus starts the week after next, as does dance. Taking it easy with dance for this challenge, just going to the tribal bellydance basics drop-in class. The rest of my troupe is preparing for TribalCon, but I'm grounded for that. Might go to the show, but it might make me sad to just watch, too. Not sure yet. My life quest and creativity challenge are the same, and that's to finish this third book in the series so I can move on to completely new series. Ready to give my little band of misfits their epic conclusion.

 

Galaxy Gamer - done quite a bit of reading about platforms myself, and come to the conclusion that if you focus on a couple where you're most likely to make connections, the rest really aren't worth the amount of work to keep up with them. I use my blog, Facebook, and a little bit of Twitter, and then I do quite well on Goodreads. I also automated some things with IFTTT (you can google it), it's pretty swift. I recommend David Gaughren's book Let's Get Visible. It's been useful to me. Many of the platform books I've read are written by nonfiction authors who pretend fiction readers act the same as nonfiction reader, and they don't. I recommend his blog, too.

 

Hi, Roswenthe - good to have you in the group! You've got a busy and creative challenge planned. And thanks for the perspectives on author platforms. That kind of sharing is what this group is all about!

[vibrantnotions]

Hey, Vibrant! There's more than one signup sheet out there, I think. Try this. Cooking is certainly creative, and I look forward to your helpful comments and links this challenge. Maybe you'll have a great recipe to share, too!

 

Oh thanks! I think I'll stick it out here.  I do like the people.

 

It isn't part of my challenge but I recently got a book in the mail Woodland Knits, and I plan on making the Dragon Watchers Hood for a friend.  We're talking over yarn choices right now.  She does a lot of SCA and needs something warm.  

[Leithient]

Welcome back! Keeping it simple is a smart plan. I wish I could make myself do that. The writing on your blogs sounds like specific creative goals to me!

 

Thank you! I've been passing through a bad weeks, so I hope this challenge could help me a bit with my 'personal' (actually, they're psychological, I have the self-esteem under minimums) problems.

 

We're on Tuesday and I've written 2 of my 4 posts. The only problem is that they're in Spanish, but if anyone understand it, wants to learn it, or whatever, I can share them, I don't care.

[vibrantnotions]

Thank you! I've been passing through a bad weeks, so I hope this challenge could help me a bit with my 'personal' (actually, they're psychological, I have the self-esteem under minimums) problems.

 

We're on Tuesday and I've written 2 of my 4 posts. The only problem is that they're in Spanish, but if anyone understand it, wants to learn it, or whatever, I can share them, I don't care.

 

I'm sorry to hear you've had some bad weeks recently.  I really truly hope this six week challenge gives you what you need.

 

2 of 4 posts sounds like great progress.

 

I'm curious, why the name change? 

[Galaxy Gamer]

Galaxy Gamer - done quite a bit of reading about platforms myself, and come to the conclusion that if you focus on a couple where you're most likely to make connections, the rest really aren't worth the amount of work to keep up with them. I use my blog, Facebook, and a little bit of Twitter, and then I do quite well on Goodreads. I also automated some things with IFTTT (you can google it), it's pretty swift. I recommend David Gaughren's book Let's Get Visible. It's been useful to me. Many of the platform books I've read are written by nonfiction authors who pretend fiction readers act the same as nonfiction reader, and they don't. I recommend his blog, too.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely need to check out Gaughren's book. I have an IFTTT account, but soured on it after a whole bunch of my recipes went missing and the customer support staff weren't at all responsive or interested in helping me recover them. 

 

Welcome aboard, gfishbone! As an amateur writer who aspires to more, I'm very interested in hearing how you quest goes to find a new publisher and to make social media work for you. Here's to rockin' your challenge as a Renaissance Rebel!

 

Thanks, definitely looking forward to it.

[ShadowLion]

Oh thanks! I think I'll stick it out here.  I do like the people.

 

It isn't part of my challenge but I recently got a book in the mail Woodland Knits, and I plan on making the Dragon Watchers Hood for a friend.  We're talking over yarn choices right now.  She does a lot of SCA and needs something warm.  

 

Glad you'll be sticking it out with us - I think we've got an awesome group! The Dragon Watchers Hood looks like great fun. Even if it isn't officially part of your challenge, maybe you could post some progress pics for the rest of us to see? Would love to see how it turns out.

[Jakkals]

 The thing-a-day sounds interesting. Is it something you are doing on your own or is it a group sponsored event like Nanowrimo?

 

Thing-a-day

 

And it is lots of fun if the planning is done right, and incredible to see how good some people are.

 

Last year I did pencil sketches, this year is still very much unknown. The problem is choosing what to do. I prefer to do things I won't normally do, or are not very good at. 

[Leithient]

I'm sorry to hear you've had some bad weeks recently.  I really truly hope this six week challenge gives you what you need.

 

2 of 4 posts sounds like great progress.

 

I'm curious, why the name change? 

 

Leithient was my nick since 2004 on the Internet, but I've been changing it during the last couple of years. I thought that returning to it could be like a symbol of a new starting.

 

Thanks for your supporting!

[Roswenthe]

I have an IFTTT account, but soured on it after a whole bunch of my recipes went missing and the customer support staff weren't at all responsive or interested in helping me recover them. 

 

 

That stinks! I only use it for a few specific things, and so haven't had any trouble with it, but I can imagine if you had a bunch and they all went poof it would be really frustrating. I use it to automate tweets and facebook posts when I post to my blog, mainly.

[cracked_belle]

um, does daily work on writing a fiction novel count for this group?

[Galaxy Gamer]

I sure hope so, otherwise I'm in the wrong place.  

 

What's your novel about?

[cracked_belle]

James the Greatest here.  27-year-old lass who's looking to get both more fit and more Creative.

 

my whole life, I've been a writer.  and one day, I want to be able to consider myself an actual author.  but to get to that point, I need to start writing daily.

 

my Goal this Challenge include exercising daily, following the South Beach Diet for the Challenge, and writing daily.

 

I began my fiction novella Hospital Den Hélder back in 2010.  I wrote 50,010 words on it for NaNoWriMo that year.  however, I stopped after that.

summary:  Mentally disordered ten-year-old Eliza is sent to a "special hospital" in hopes that the time away from her two parents will encourage all of three of to be brought back to good health. While inside, Eliza meets other children in the hospital who seem to have magic abilities, much like herself. Hospital Den Hélder is Eliza's personal account of struggling through life in the hospital away from her parents, her pushing through her worsening mental malfunctions, and her battles with the brigade of heroes she attempts to create.

 

for this Challenge, I'm going to start by re-reading all that I've already written and edit it some.  once I've re-read it all and am caught back up, I'll start adding more to it.  my Goal is to work on the novel for at least one hour every day.

[cracked_belle]

I write a middle-grade science fiction series called Galaxy Games about a team of kids from Earth who compete against alien kids in an interstellar sports tournament. The second book of the series, Messenger of the Milky Way, was on my editor's desk when the publisher pulled the plug on the project. My plan is just to make whatever tweaks are necessary to make this Book #2 into a proper Book #1 of a rebooted version of the series, and to find a literary agent who can make a successful pitch to a new publisher.  So that's six weeks to edit and revise while researching my agency options, and having query letters out by the end of the challenge.

that sound rockin'!!

 

 

I am also a writer. I write YA spy novels right now, and will be doing superheroes and space opera later this year.  Just got my first challenge thread up, though I started during the holidays. That was so-so, but I lost a couple pounds, so not horrible, I guess.

 

Viola lessons start up again this week, but I will admit I didn't practice much during the holidays. It was all so busy. Community chorus starts the week after next, as does dance. Taking it easy with dance for this challenge, just going to the tribal bellydance basics drop-in class. The rest of my troupe is preparing for TribalCon, but I'm grounded for that. Might go to the show, but it might make me sad to just watch, too. Not sure yet. My life quest and creativity challenge are the same, and that's to finish this third book in the series so I can move on to completely new series. Ready to give my little band of misfits their epic conclusion.

 

Galaxy Gamer - done quite a bit of reading about platforms myself, and come to the conclusion that if you focus on a couple where you're most likely to make connections, the rest really aren't worth the amount of work to keep up with them. I use my blog, Facebook, and a little bit of Twitter, and then I do quite well on Goodreads. I also automated some things with IFTTT (you can google it), it's pretty swift. I recommend David Gaughren's book Let's Get Visible. It's been useful to me. Many of the platform books I've read are written by nonfiction authors who pretend fiction readers act the same as nonfiction reader, and they don't. I recommend his blog, too.

superheroes!!

[ShadowLion]

um, does daily work on writing a fiction novel count for this group?

 

Absolutely! And, as you have already found out, we have a number of writers here - from pro to aspiring - along with artists, musicians, craftspeople, cooks/chefs, creatives of all types. Welcome to the gang!