Edits Continue

Since I posted last week, I've passed the halfway point for the edits in my SF novel (yay!), and started working on the synopsis (boo!). I'm sure that for-real authors can do a full edit of their novels in like a day or two. Yeah... I'm on week 5 maybe (I'm afraid to go back and count), but this is probably because I only work on it for about a half-hour each day... on the days I actually work on it. Must be more disciplined about this!

If you were reading the blog last year, you know how I feel about "The Synopsis", but it has to be done for those persnickety agents and publishers. Something about making sure the story holds together and that you're eloquent enough to condense and convey it. Grrrr. And here's a news flash - I'm not good at writing a synopsis. There's just so much STUFF, that it's hard to figure out what needs to be in, what can be left out and how to make it not sound like a train that's afraid to slow down.

Later this week, The Vacation. I promise.

Writing Progress Update & B&N Offer

Business first - writing info. Then tomorrow or next week I'll cover our recent vacation

(and its affect on my writing, because this is after all, a blog about writing and books).

Final Edits on the SciFi novel before sending it around to agents are going slowly. But I am working on it instead of just staring at it, so progress is being made. I planned to take the manuscript on vacation, but it got left at home along with the kids' bathing suits and our sweatshirts for the cooler evenings. I had to play games on the Nintendo DS instead (and the kids each got a new bathing suit). :( Tragic... I'm on Chapter 16 out of 35 with the edits, so almost halfway.

Big breakthrough with plotting for SciFi book #2. I'd been worrying about this one for a while, because while I knew how book #2 started out and a bit about the personal conflicts, I had not a single plan for the overall conflict of the story. No ending. No plot. Nothing. Then I got a massive brainstorm and it all started to become more clear. Of course, the first thing I did was start trying to punch holes in the idea - figure out where and how it couldn't possibly work. Instead of realizing that it couldn't be done, I found a place where I could seamlessly tie in an event from book #1. It was like they'd been meant for each other all along. That was promising and scary all at once, because things don't just fall into place like that for me. I'm all kinds of suspicious. I hope the idea works out in actuality, because it's a pretty good one. I've been working on writing all the bits and pieces of the idea down so that I don't forget it. Hopefully I'll sell book #1 and there will be a reason to write book #2. :)

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As for the B&N offer, they're running a Romance Sale until July 30th where you buy 2 and get a 3rd free on select (BIG selection) of romance titles. WHY are they not offering this for nook e-books?!?!?!?

Happy Half Year

Half of 2010 is gone. Are you happy with what you've done with the year so far? Are you working to achieve something you'd promised yourself you'd do this year?

I can't say that I'm exactly thrilled with my progress towards my goal, but I can say I'm still working slowly but surely towards it. At this half-year point I'm re-evaluating my approach and trying to analyze what is and isn't working for me.

Have you set some goals for the rest of the year? Here are my writing goals:

• Finish editing SF novel
• Write synopsis for SF novel
• Begin submitting SF novel to agents
• Submit more completed short stories to magazines/contests
• Finish first few chapters of SF novel #2 so I've got that started in case #1 sells & pin down ending of SF #2 so I can write a proposal for it if needed
• Finish plotting dark fantasy novel
• Write another short story related to most recent UF short story (maybe - I'd rather work on writing a novel, but I'll work on this as the novels stump me)
  
• Revamp beginning of UF novel I began submitting last year

I think this list will keep me plenty busy this year. :)

Out of Practice

Sat down to write the other day. Had an idea for a scene and thought to myself, oh, this will be quick. Yeah. It was quick in the same way my kids are able to occupy themselves for longer than 3.5 minutes - Epic Fail.

An hour later, I was angry, my scene was done (kinda), and my brain was cramping. Obviously taking several weeks off from writing hadn't done my brain any good. Bad Writer!

I have done a good bit of plotting though, so that ways on the Nice side of my list. Unfortunately, that's the only responsible writer type thing I've done lately. No editing, no editing, no editing. Sigh. I really need to edit. :(

Roller Coaster O' Writing

Inconsistent is an understatement when it comes to my writing habits lately. Last week I was a good little writer-monkey. No, that doesn't mean that I threw poo at my characters. I worked on my writing in one form or another every day last week. Whether it was new stuff, editing, plotting or research, I felt like I was moving forward.

This week?

Not at all. I need to go back and input my 2nd critique partner's suggestions for my SF novel, modify some scenes in the SF novel based on some other recent feedback, fix up a short story for a contest entry, and countless other things. I just can't seem to make myself DO it. Sigh.

Instead of whining about this, I think I'll go and actually work on some of those things... if I can make myself do it. I think I need a snack first. And maybe a drink. And I should go over that new recipe I'm going to try for dinner tonight to make sure I have everything. And I need to find some removable stickers to assign yard sale prices. Gotta get a birthday gift for a party this weekend too. Did I ever start that load of laundry this morning? Better go check that. And - Gah! This is how's been lately. I'm pathetic.

Send strong writing thoughts my way. I need them.

Getting Back Into The Swing of Writing

Okay, so I took an unplanned hiatus from writing. My critique group has been reading through my SciFi novel, and in the meantime, I did nothing but write a small short story. Bleh. I was plotting some stuff in my head and somehow convinced myself that that was enough - I was still progressing.

Then I woke up and realized that it's definitely not enough. I wasn't progressing, because not a single new word had been written. Having it in my head wasn't good enough. So now I've gotten back to trying to write some everyday in between my other commitments, even if I'm not writing much or just writing down plot points or notes.

Anyways, my focus is a dark fantasy I've been considering for a while, but I think I might take the time to get the first chapter or two done on a second SciFi book to follow up the one I just finished. I have plans for a second book, and if I can get the first sold, they might be interested in a second, so it would be good to get a jumping off point written while I've still got their voices strong in my head.

Have you guys had to jerk yourselves back on track recently?

Problems with Plotting - Part 2

Ooookay, lots of progress here on the writing front... NOT. I did figure out that my "ending" isn't really an ending. It's an integral step to the ending but not an ending in and of itself unless the book is already like 750 pages long and I need a quick ending where the reader is left to assume that after this breakthrough, everything works itself out perfectly and the good guys all ride off into the sunset patting their backs after a job well-done. Since right now I'll be lucky to eke out 75 pages for this story, let alone 750, I don't think a quick ending is in the cards. So I still don't have an ending and the rest of the plotting isn't going all that great either.

One of the things I was trying to do for this story is make it like a snippet of the MC's (main character's) life instead of a whirlwind however many days where the sky is falling and everything else is put on hold while the catastrophe is dealt with. I want to show her dealing with other life difficulties and everyday stuff that either challenge her or provide some much-needed balance. Regardless of what purpose these events serve, they're not going to be cryptically tied into the main event by some weird collection of coincidence and circumstance. They're just other aspects of her life so we can see the fullness of it and her character.

Why is this important to me for this book? There are a few authors who do this regularly in their writing and I think it really adds something to the reading experience. Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books are the ones that come to mind first (and no, not only the "Early AB" era as some readers refer to it). Anita will have all this monster drama going on and still be juggling her animator job, bridesmaid's fittings, and friend emergencies. I like that. Also, I've been reading my critique partner's novel recently and the whole thing is like "Everyday Man Experiences Life" but not in a "And then I brushed my teeth. Scrub. Scrub. Scrub." boring way. It's more like seeing everyday events through his eyes - how he sees the situation, what he thinks about the other people involved, how he hides stuff from his parents even when he can't figure out why he's bothering to hide it in the first place. It's a bunch of experiences that we often relate to, even if we're not proud of our showing at the time.

I don't intend to do this to the same degree that he did, but again, I think it will offer the reader an interesting experience - to be able to relate to some of the mundane aspects of the MC's life even while the MC is battling demons or whatnot in an alternate reality. And that's where I'm stuck - trying to pin down her other interests. She's being cagey. I'm also at a bit of a loss concerning how to move my main plot forward. I'm stuck in the "icky-sticky mud" as E3.11 would say (thanks Dora the Explorer...). Or is it the "icky-gooey mud?"

Anyways, that's where I am on the writing front.

Problems with Plotting - Part 1

I've been in a massive writing funk lately. Once I finished my SciFi novel, it seemed that all my writing ambition decided to up and take a walk - to the next state. I can only assume that it's having a grand old time, because it hasn't even bothered to call or drop me a postcard. Stupid ambition...

Back a while ago, I told you guys that I was going to try to plot out my dark fantasy novel. Many authors have said that they have the whole story planned out before they start writing. I usually have an idea of what kicks off the story, a few main characters defined, and.... that's about it. Sometimes I don't even have a desired ending figured out until halfway through the novel, and that just strikes me as a bad habit to continue. If I don't know where I'm going, I can't be sure that I'll ever get there. Sure the journey is fun, but it's just not orderly enough for my engineer's brain.

So this time, I decided to start by writing out each plot idea, hitting the high points - characters, what led to this point, what it should accomplish, the emotions that come into play, etc - and then moving on to the next one. It's basically the same process I have done when writing in the past, but I'm not actually writing the scenes as I go now. Occasionally I go ahead and put some actual dialog down if it comes to me, or scene building, but that's it. I move on to figuring out the next point. This was working pretty well for me. I wasn't writing every single day, but when I did sit down to write, it was flowing nicely. Once I had the initial scenes and interplay figured out, I took a look at what this book should accomplish - how it should end (in a very general sense). Amazingly enough, it worked! I came up with an ending and I wasn't even a quarter of the way through planning out the book. Remarkable.

And then I sat there. And my brain sat there. We twiddled our thumbs. We haven't come up with a single idea since then (it's been a week now, and I'm starting to get antsy). I have no idea what happened to bring everything to a grinding halt. Is it somehow not the right ending and my subconscious knows this but isn't sharing with the rest of the class? Could be. Is the idea for this novel only strong enough for a short story or novella? Maybe, but I don't think so.

Are any of the rest of you in a work/writing dump right now? I'd like to know that I'm not alone in here...

Catch-Up

I've hardly blogged at all lately, I know. The sad thing is that I've hardly written anything either. I'm averaging a whopping 1000 words per week for the last two weeks. Yikes! This full-time job gig has put even more of a cramp in my writing progress than I had hoped. After the holidays though, I plan to devote some time each morning to my writing. For now I'm just trying to get by.

Oddly enough, I'm getting no sympathy about this from my full-time-job/writing-on-the-side friends. Go figure.

And now, brought to you yet again by our dinner table...

E3.8 climbed into her chair for dinner the other day and immediately said, "Ow! My peanuts hurt!"

My husband and I exchanged confused looks. She didn't sound hurt and she didn't have peanuts of any sort, either food or toy related. "Eh?" I said, seeking clarification.

E3.8 laughed and shouted again, "Ow! My peanuts hurt!"

By this time, I knew what she meant. And I could tell by the way that my husband was incredibly interested in the sheet of scrap paper our kids had plastered with stickers, that he had clued into the situation also. I sighed. It was up to me. "Who did you hear saying that?"

"Darius! Darius says it all the time!"

So apparently, Darius at the daycare manages to injure his manly parts on a frequent basis while climbing into chairs. But how do I address this? Avoidance seemed like the best option to me, I mean, she's only 3. Then J6.5 decided to wade into the battle.

Being a first grader, J6.5 is much more worldly than her sheltered and delicate younger sister (cough, cough). J6.5 rolled her eyes, heaved out a put-upon sigh at this evidence of her sister's ignorance, and says with all the superiority an older sister can muster (and I am very familiar with this), "E3.8." Another sigh. "Girls don't have peanuts. Boys do. Darius has peanuts because he's a boy. You're a girl, so you don't have them. And they're right here," she says, pointing helpfully.

Gah! Why me!?!?!? My husband is now hiding behind the Christmas tree. Thanks, dear. We all know that kids can be mean to each other. I couldn't let J6.5 continue with her erroneous naming of the male physiology, because what if she gets mocked for not knowing what the right term is... On the other hand, J6.5 is allergic to peanuts, and is extremely afraid of coming into contact with any. This could be a good way to get an early handle on keeping the boys and their nefarious parts away from my little girl. If only we could be assured that she wouldn't figure out our misdirection before she hits those tricksy teen years. Yeah, probably not much chance of that.

Needless to say, I corrected Julia's mistake, even spelling it for her, at which point my husband decided it was time for dinner and came to the table. End story.

Amelie: The Good, The Bad, and the Pitiful

Okay, so I said I'd talk about the writing things I'm good at and the things I suck greatly at doing. So here goes:

Good

• Dialog: Me, I like my dialog. Oftentimes the dialog is the first thing that pops into my head when coming up with a new scene. Now, someone who's read my dialog needs to weigh in here and tell me if I'm way off-base with my evaluation of my own dialog brilliance. :)
• Plot: I think I do a fair job with plotting and making sure things flow logically. Bus-sized plot holes still occur, but they're usually infrequent and my critique partners point them out with glowy pens and markers for me. ;)

Bad

• Scene Description: I wish I could describe scenes better. I'm worse at that than my kids are at listening (and that's pretty stinking bad, just ask my husband). In an effort to improve that - the description, not the listening because that's a hopeless cause - setting is something that I'm concentrating on for the dark fantasy that I've started plotting out. I've browsed the net for pics that show my world (concentrating mostly on just a city right now because most everything is happening there) in the hopes that when I'm doing a scene, I can do a better job of describing it if I have something to look at that resembles it somewhat. I've also spent time coming up with particular places so my folks won't be in a random tavern, but a place with a name, history, a particular clientele, ambiance and structure. What helps you guys with your settings?
• Not So Likable Characters - I love reading characters who are not all "good" or "bad" but I'm not so good at writing them. I tend to give my chars small flaws that are too easily overcome or overlooked, and that's just not how real life is. So that's something I need to work on.
• Full Book Plan: This is the biggie that I'm working to resolve. I want to be able to tell where I'm going from page one so I have a road map to get there. It's fine if I take an unplanned turn along the way and get the Garmin's testy voice in my head saying, "Recalculating..." because I will still have a destination to drive towards. I want to get away from just having a starting point and letting the story meander and frolic along on the way to somewhere. It's worked so far but....

Hit and Miss

• Emotions: Sometimes they're on the money and sometimes they seem too overwrought. I think this is something that I'll get better at with time and practice. I hope. Oh, I soooo desperately pray this is so! See what I mean?

There we go. I'm sure there are more that I'll think up later. But for now, back to our regularly scheduled life. Have a great Wednesday!

Harsh Writer Earnings Reality

Earlier this year, Lynn Viehl posted about an actual royalty statement she received for one of her bestsellers (paperback). On Friday, she posted a follow-up covering the 2nd royalty statement she received later for the same book. This might discourage some writers, but I'm still determined and I appreciate her telling us the truth. If you want to see the real kind of money a bestselling author might be wallowing in, go check these out.

As for my November writing progress, I'm off to a good start. By Sunday night, my goal was 6500 words. As you can see from the sidebar progress meter, I'm up by almost 1100 words. This is good because I start my new full-time job today and I suspect that my writing stats will drop off drastically.

Yes, that's right folks, I'm no longer unemployed and living the good life, sponging off my husband's efforts. Weeping, weeping. It was good while it lasted, but there's that whole need for monies to feed the offspring and keep the roof over our heads. Wish me luck, in both the new job and maintaining my writing efforts in the face of it. I think I'll need it.

This Writing Gig? It's Tough. Bonus Family Funny.

Five days I've kept to my goals now, and it's killing me. I'm completely in awe of full-time writers. The amount that I'm writing per day isn't even close to their output, yet from the amount of mental whining I'm engaging in, you'd think I was single-handedly creating the Holy Grail.

I thought I had decent discipline before and good, consistent writing habits. Yeah, not so much. The writing almost everyday thing was an important mental step in my quest for publishing when I decided to do it. And I'm getting the feeling that this is another. It's a different mindset when you have a deadline, even just one set on a whim, which this completely is for me.

And I think that reporting to you all on my progress is helping me to toe the line. So thanks to those of you who are following my efforts. It makes a difference, knowing that you're there, even when you don't comment. Again, thanks.

Now, for a quick family funny. The setting: Dinner table. The feast: Mac & Cheese (shells). The lead actor: E3.almost7.

E3.almost7: "More mac & cheese, mommy."

Me: "Excuse me?"

E3.almost7: "I said, More mac & cheese, mommy."

Me: "Yeah, I heard that. What do you say?" (I'm angling for 'please' here, in case you're not catching on)

E3.almost7: "Put it in the bowl." *husband coughs to cover his grin*

Me: *just staring at her*

E3.almost7: "Right here." *helpfully, she points at the bowl she's shoved under my nose already* *husband starts choking, and not on food*

Me: *trying for one eyebrow raise, but can't really, so probably one up, one at half-mast and looking goofy.* "What. Do. You. Say?"

E3.almost7: *big grin* "Thank you." *husband has to leave the table*

Me: "Gah! What about please!?!?!?!"

E3.almost7: *nods and gives a sweet smile* "Please. Now."

*head-table-head-table*

Oops - Wrong Character

Before I get into my word count status, let me just say that I am an idiot. This isn't a shock to many of you. I sat down at the keyboard this morning determined to hammer outs lots o' words. So I sat there. And I stared. I finally started typing. The words came on with the speed of erosion, and were just about as productive to my story growth.

I was writing from the POV of an assassin who just missed his target and had to retreat. He was beyond pissed. He was looking for a fight and wanted to tear someone limb from limb, beat them with said limbs and then kick them while they were down. The passage seethed with emotion and barely restrained violence. I mean, he was this primo assassin and he'd missed! Because of some freak accident! It all makes sense, right?

WRONG!

I'd previously described him as a cold, remote man who saw her death as just another job - a tick-mark on his To-Do List. He doesn't want to kill her - has no need to maim or cause pain. But he doesn't care that someone wants to end her life prematurely either. Even if he'd liked her he'd kill her because it's his job and he said he would. That's who this guy is, not some boiling cauldron of emotion.

Grrr. Highlight passage - delete. Words gone. Word count back to zero. :( And I liked that passage too. Oh well. I did save it in case I do come across a just-failed emotional assassin later...

As for word-count, yesterday was just as difficult as I expected it to be. I was so blasted tired, that if I hadn't come up with this plan for November, I would have bailed on writing yesterday. (I think that by writing at all yesterday, I'm pursuing the spirit of my intent) As it was, I got just under 500 words written, not quite half of my goal. Although technically I'm still on track since I went over by 500 words on Sunday, I'm going to try to over-write today also. So far I'm at 800 words, and I'll write some more this evening after the kids go to bed. I need to spend some more time today plotting before I'm ready to write again. This is where plotting out the story ahead of time would be helpful. Pantsing is not so good for a consistently high word count.

Discouraging lack of progress...

Currently, I'm at about 72.5K words on my SciFi novel. That's great. Only about 25K-30K more to go. Yippee. Sorry. I need more enthusiasm there. I really am excited about this, so YIPPEE!!!

But all this talk about Nanowrimo got me thinking about my own rate of writing. Currently I've only been managing about 700 words per day, weekdays only. That means that over the month of November, when all the contest goers will pound out 50K words, I'll only squeeze out... 14K. :( Yuck. I won't be finishing my novel until the end of December, and that's if the holidays and the still-hoped-for job don't slow things up. That was depressing to realize.

So although I won't be Nanowrimo'ing in November, I think I will make my own effort to ramp up my word count. Even if that just means extending my writing to the weekends or getting an extra 100 words per day in, obviously that's something I need to move towards. I eventually want to be a for-real published writer, and not just of a single novel.

Do you guys care to follow along and watch my progress? I could post a word count meter and update it daily. It would allow you to point fingers and laugh, I'm sure, so there's even something in it for you!

What do you guys do to discipline and keep yourselves on track for your job, diet, exercise regimen, or whatever?

And btw, have a safe and fun Halloween!

Writer Growing Pains

Now it's J6.3 home with a fever & vomiting. My life is a joy. We're hoping (yet again) that it's not the flu.

As for writing, it's been frustratingly slow-going lately. I'm moving along on the SciFi novel but it all seems kind of blah.

I've been working out the world for a fantasy novel or series (preliminary naming is Nightingale) in my head for about a month now and that's finally starting to gel a bit, but I'm trying to do the plotting thing for this one as opposed to pantsing it like I usually do. Plus, I'm not ready to start yet another project when I already have a few in the works. I want to plot the entire thing out this time, do the synopsis ahead of time, the whole bit. Even being an unpublished writer, I feel that I've grown as a writer over the last year, and I'm trying to keep stretching myself. I'd feel better about tackling a career as a writer if I knew I could accomplish my writing using a process and not just winging it every time. My logical math/science mind prefers that although the crafty side likes creating as I go. But from what I've read from other plot-happy writers, there's still room for writing off the beaten path and spur-of-the-moment plot developments even if you're writing according to your plan. The story always changes your plans, kind of like the first engagement in a battle it seems. Hmm, writing is the same as waging war? I can see that. :)

The other thing I'm going to try to improve: Giving my good characters more faults. Oh, they're not all perfect goody-goodies anymore, but I think I still do tend to make them "all people I'd want to be friends with" as one of my critique partners put it. Now, I'm not going to take it to the extremes that he suggested because I don't think that would be true to their inner characters, but I can certainly make them more "real" and believable. Now I just have to execute that somehow. Sigh.

What is something you think you could improve in your writing, your work habits or just life in general?

Gah! Writing gods, why do you hate me so?

I've been working on my writing for about a half an hour now so far this morning, and it's like this:

1. I write a little bit
2. It sucks and I delete most of it
3. I sit there and spin my wheels in place
4. Go back to 1. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I can't seem to write a paragraph without deleting half of it! I've written probably about 500 words so far today and I only have 240 to show for it. And even those 240 words are blah. Just blah. :(

Weekly Writing Progress

Perhaps that title should actually read "Weakly Writing Progress" for this week. Between the holiday, working, kids, and whining about my lack of time, I haven't done much writing this week. Maybe 200 or 300 words each of Tuesday and Wednesday - gak. But yesterday I was a good little writer bee and did about 800 words on my SciFi novel. Then, out of shame when I confessed to my writing critique partners that I hadn't worked on Quint's novel in almost 2 weeks, I went and forced out about 225 words on his book. I feel much less guilty now. Really. I'm sure those 200 words on his story made up completely for 2 weeks of abandonment. Is anyone buying that? Yeah, me neither.

Anyhow, I hope you all have a great weekend, and that you're putting the time in to do the things you want/need to do.

I Lied (Shocker) and Kids Update

Yeah, so I lied about being productive this week. Not going to be a good writing week, I don't believe. Another busy week is starting up, but I did get about 450 words written yesterday on the SF novel. Something is better than nothing I suppose.

As for the kiddos (since Beci asked in comments), J6.1 starts 1st grade today. I just don't get that kid sometimes. We ran to the school yesterday to drop off meds for her allergies, along with the six reams of paperwork it takes to get them to treat her at school in an emergency. We made brownies in the morning and took them with us to butter up the front office staff and get a start on 'extra credit' with her teacher. Really, we made the brownies and immediately started getting flack from my husband because we're 'trying to make him fat' - as if. So we took them with us on errands to get rid of some of them.

The teachers were all in staff meetings, but we found a school employee who has the keys to the city and was able to let us into J's classroom so we could leave the goodies. J6.1 knows the lady who helped us out, Ms. N, and saw her everyday last year in the cafeteria where Ms. N apparently assists with keeping kids in line, opening food packages, cleaning up messes, etc. Ms. N knew J by name on sight. J knows her. Would J talk to her? No. Answer her questions? No. Even look at her? No.

This worried me. So when we got out to the car, I asked J if there's some reason she doesn't like that lady. Is she mean? Does she do stuff that seems wrong? Does she say mean things to the kids? Does she do things that make the kids feel weird? You guys know what I'm getting at. J gives me this 'Mom, you are so bizarre' look and says, "No. I just feel shy today." WTF? You feel shy, so you give this poor woman the 1,000 yard cold hairy eyeball of death? Go figure.

As for E3.4, she's been entertaining us with singing songs, and "reading" books to herself that she's pretty much memorized the words to. It's pretty cute. She also does a super impersonation of Mort from the Madagascar penguins. We sit down to dinner and get, "I liiiiiiike rolls!" Once I had even commented that I hadn't realized she knew about such and such (can't remember what we were talking about) and she said, "I don't have to know, to liiiiiiiike!" which was a quote from one particular episode. She's a trip. Yesterday, I had been working on playing a PC game for J6.1 and accidentally exited without saving!!!! You guys know my pain. All that effort and progress playing a game that I find frustrating in the first place, and it was wasted. I was writhing on the carpet like a salted slug, bemoaning my idiocy, and I felt this little hand patting my cheek. I opened my eyes and E is sagely nodding her head at me. "It's okay mommy. I kiss you. You feel better." I did feel better after that. :)

Writing Withdrawal

It's been 4, count 'em 4!!!! days since I've written anything. Thurs and Fri were landscaping days that wiped me out and I never write on the weekends (because, hello, kids). Given that, I actually attempted to write both Sat and Sun nights just to get something on the page, but was too mentally fried to get more than 13 words written. That's an actual count, folks. Thirteen entire words. It was... epic.

So, not really a post today because I need to get a move on with the word count. I was pretty rockin' early last week: 1150 words on Monday, 1100 words on Tuesday and 1150 words on Wednesday, but that was where the word train stalled out. :( It might have been one of my best writing weeks eva if I had just managed to keep it going.

You might have noticed a lot of slang in the written word this morning on my part. Unfortunately, none of my characters really talks like that, so it's about to get cut off. Except Chase. Chase talks like this . Maybe he has something to say. We'll see.

Later, everyone! Have a great week!

Update: What do ya know! It was Chase, but I had a prior commitment to writing something involving Quint that I had worked out over my unanticipated 4-day break. After all the trouble I've had with Quint, I wasn't letting this scene escape unwritten (complete now at 885 words). Chase allowed me to simply take notes about his scene, complete with his voice narrating things. So I'll work on that tomorrow. Now to get a little bit of work done on the SF novel before getting back to (gag) housework and job hunting. I really need to win the lottery.

Need More Discipline...

Blah. Last week started out slow, remember? At the start of the day on Wednesday I was at 300 words total for the week. I ended strong, writing 1100-1300 words per day for the next 3 days. Unfortunately, that was almost all on the SciFi novel, not Quint's novel!!! Bad Amelie! I forced myself to get at least a few hundred words written for him each day, but that was about as much enthusiasm for it as I could muster. I just have no idea where I'm going with that one. :(

So yesterday I made myself sit down and concentrate on what each of the main characters needed to accomplish over the course of the book - where they were going emotionally, developmentally and physically. That helped some, and at least now I have some scenes that will come later in the book figured out. Now I just need to fill in the spaces on getting there and come up with a big ending because I'm not happy with my original thoughts on that. It needs to be changed. If I get stuck again (i.e. when Quint starts getting cranky and won't work with me again), I at least have the later scenes of the book that I can write and at least feel that I'm moving the work as a whole forward.

I think I figured out Quint's general problem and why he's being so stubborn about this book. He's been around for almost 2000 years now and let's face it, he's turned into a crotchety old man (just not physically). If he had a cane, I'm sure he'd be sitting on his porch shaking it at every kid that walks by, telling them to "keep off my yard, you young whipper-snappers!" He doesn't like change. He keeps up with technology, but he resents it every step of the way. And frankly, he doesn't feel like things need to change. He'd not exactly happy with things as they are, but he's been beaten down by fate so many times that he's afraid to rock the boat on this one for fear that things will go worse. So he doesn't want to confront the stuff he needs to, because he's worried about the fallout. He's doing a serious ostrich impersonation right now. Apparently what he needs is a kick in the pants (I know this because he told you guys to give me one and this feels oh-so-similar), so I think I'll work on that today - figuring out what needs to happen to make him see that change is necessary.