Thursday, April 29, 2010

And the Winner is....

Entry Into Madness! Paranormal Thriller for the win. Winner? What? I was stuck choosing between two ideas for my new WIP. This makes 3. Way too many most likely, but Ivory is in the revision stage, and the alien on with the Flying Spatulas of Doom is my 2YN one. I need one in the middle. :D

I had started working on it before. I'm starting over with just the raw idea. It will probably morph into something different, but this is the gist right now:

Man had the picture perfect life. Then his daughter is stillborn, his wife dies in a traffic accident 3 months later. He goes into a deep depression, an old friend comes to cheer him up. Problem is, this friend really tricks him into signing a contract allowing some extreme human experimentation.


I have more worked out, but no clue how it will end yet.

Moving on to Ivory boards and outlining EIM! As well as studying for my finals next week...

Studying for finals is more important. I will do that first, then play!

Enjoy your weekend!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Writing Goals - Short, Medium, and Long

IVORY

I'm way behind, that makes it the perfect time to catch up! These are revised from a while ago, not sure I posted the original time line anywhere.
  1. Finish boards. (1/5 done. All will be done by: May 14th)
  2. Complete all changes/write all new material. (Will be done by: June 4th. Giving myself extra time due to husband's birthday party and possible family visiting.)
  3. Have someone, who rules at crits, give Ivory a read through. (Reread it myself.)
  4. Write and review query. (Will be done by: June 18th.)
  5. Submit! And wait. (New Years Resolution is to have 200 rejections!)
  6. Get Ivory published!
I know the space between 5 and 6 is a lot larger. I'm just not there yet, so I'm not sure what all the steps are. I do know it takes much more work, even with a contract.


2YN - Aliens and Flying Spatulas of Doom!
  1. Keep up with classes. Pure and simple.I'm doing this with Zette's 2 Year Novel Course.

EIM/AF (Entry Into Madness / Atlantis Found, Paranormal Thriller / Science Fiction-ish)

  1. Decide which one to focus on. (Will be done by: April 29th. Yes, tomorrow.)
  2. Write up a full outline. At least chapters, preferably scene by scene, with subplot tracking. (Will be done by: May 21st.)
  3. Complete the first draft. (NaNo if necessary, but I'd rather be done by August 6th, earlier if possible.)
  4. Take a break, fall semester starts soon. (Break over on: August 13th.)
  5. Do boards for this one. (Will be done by: August 20th, if I'm still on track. Which is unlikely.)
  6. Make changes per boards. (Will be done by: September 17th. This is a guess, I have no idea how next semester is going to play out.)
  7. Have someone read it, reread it myself.
  8. Make any necessary changes. (Done by: End of Christmas break. Around January 10th.)
  9. Write and review query. (Do over Spring break.)
  10. Submit! And wait.
  11. Get it published!


Puppy Picture of the Day:

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Touring Tuesdays - Patio/Backyard!

Giant yard. Sucks for my husband! When he deploys again, I'm paying someone to mow it. Especially at the height of summer.

I'm in love with this yard! And our patio set. It's nothing fancy, but it has swirly chairs!


My baby marigolds. They'll be getting put into the ground soon. The pot got tipped over when they were barely sprouts...so they got all jumbled together on one side.



This is my 'sunspot'. This was all that would fit on our apartment patio. :D





We're getting a kiddie pool for the pup, I'm hoping he'll like it.

All the water is from the 10 minute downpour we just had. I'm glad we're just renting, I'm pretty sure the house has been sinking into the ground. It's all clay/mud around here.

That's my backyard! A big step up from a tiny apartment patio. :D :D

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Touring Tuesdays - Office Pictures!

EDIT: Now with pictures!











At first the office was all setup, then it become the dumping ground for the 'deal with it later' boxes. I will not live here for a month and not be fully unpacked. Which means I have a whole week.

A week where I only have one class! WOOT!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Relaxed!

Today is one of those odd days where my kitchen is a mess, yet I'm able to relax. It may have something to do with the fact that I can't see my kitchen from the living room anymore...

Zeus had a fun puppy play date at my friend's house while we went free stuff shopping. What's free stuff shopping? My friend using all her coupons for free stuff at once. Her total was $225 something dollars, she only had to pay about 14 dollars. Now that's a good reason to clip coupons!

I did my menu plan, I'm working on my grocery list. My plan is to write when Zeus crashes and takes a nap again. Right now he's attaching a plastic jug. He loves the simple toys, like kids and cardboard boxes.

I just feel very calm today. I have an easy week for school, I only have to go in on Tuesday. Woot! I'll just get a headstart on studying for finals. Which are May 5th and 6th. Plently of time to study!

My husband was able to get on a detail to go down to the NASCAR race today, sadly it got rained out. He loves NASCAR, all the males in his family does. I'm hoping he still had some fun.

This post is all over the place, sorry about that. I'm relaxed, yet scatterbrained. Awesome combination.


Signing off! Have a great week everyone!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Breakdown of Grids

Puppy Status: Sleeping, using my flip flop as a pillow. (He's so cute, he gets his own status.)

In my new puppy joy, I didn't explain what I did with the grids and post-its. I'm using them as a tool to aid my revision/edit of Ivory.

My poster boards are 20x30, as you can see I divided them into 12 rectangles, four across, three down. I made a 1 1/2 inch header for each box. I have six boards, which is 72 scenes. That's pretty short for a fantasy novel. It was a lot longer until I cut the fat. It will grow, I already know places that need more fleshing out. I'll make other boards as I need them.

I went through and wrote the chapter number and scene on post-its and labeled each box. I tried to use one color for each of the three main parts of my novel, but I didn't have enough of each color.


I followed Keli's method of using one post-it per square to identify the main character and the other characters in the scene. Each main character has their own color and I use it when it's their POV. (Even if more than one main character is in a scene at the same time.)

Another for the when and where, I'm switching between two colors because I know I don't have enough of one. I may end up organizing it even more. Brown for in the city, green for the woods,blue for the coast/underwater, etc. I'll probably do that shortly. Once an idea for better organizing gets in my head, it's next to impossible to get out.

Then I used the big one for the three questions. 1. Why is this happening? 2. Why is this scene included? 3. What devices are used?

I may nix the devices one and ask "complete mini story arc?" instead. I've noticed I have a hard time making scenes complete. I jump around too much with the intention of 'finishing it later'.

The poster board can get expensive, that's why I'm heavily using the post-its. Once I've written enough books to figure out my normal chapter to scene ratio, I may sharpie that in. For now, Post-its! They make the boards very reusable.

I am absolutely in love with this method, and I will most definitely be using it to outline my next project. (Which involves aliens and the Flying Spatula of Doom! Stay tuned. :D)

What is your opinion on post-its? Are they an essential office supply? Useless waste? I use the flags a lot for studying. I will admit, I bought the off-brand copycat version. The flags are just so pricey for what they are.

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Flyin' Time

I have two weeks until my final exams. Wait, WHAT? How the heck is it the end of the semester already?

I have a full week this week, but Wednesday looks good. I soo want to work on Ivory with the grids.

Zeus has his vet appointment on the 19th. Poor thing is going to get shot a few times. And we'll be able to start giving him the flea medication next week. (Gotta be 8 wks old, not quite!)

Reading? *sigh* I haven't read anything beyond school work in a while. I keep forgetting to throw a new book in my school bag, so I end up rereading The Black Swan on my lunch. Maybe I'll remember today, but I doubt it.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Grids, Post-its, and Puppy!

Only thing left to unpack; the random 'office stuff' boxes. Furniture wise, my husband only had to finish putting the dining table chairs together.

Now the important stuff!

Grids!


With post-its!


And more post-its!




And puppy!



His name is Zeus, he's just about 8 weeks old. We know his mom is a blue heeler, they weren't sure of the dad, but they think it was the collie next door. So far he mainly sleeps a lot. I'm not looking forward to the house-training...we've been home over 2 hours and he hasn't peed yet. We have puppy pads and all that fun stuff. I foresee a long night of whining and playful puppy. I've been trying to keep him awake...but he just wants to snooze.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Things are Settling Down...

...slowly. My office is one of the 2 rooms fully put together. Fully unpacked? Nope. The closet is about 1/2 full of boxes.

I'll post pictures as soon as the camera cable or the card reader makes itself known. My old laptop had an SD card reader, not so lucky with my new one. That's what I get for going from a top of the line to the cheapest. :D

That makes me shake my head. What was a top of the line laptop 5 years ago, is now a worse laptop than the cheapest.

I'm hoping after this week my schedule will get back in order. I'm not a fan of chaos.

  • This week I have an exam, that I have do to well on as I bombed the last one.
  • I have to wear my business suit into one of my classes for "Come to Class Dressed Up Day." They want to make sure we have the proper attire for interviews a such. (I got mine on sale at JCPenny's for about 80bucks. Woot!)
  • We need to finish unpacking, we're tackling the kitchen today while waiting for the water guy.
  • I get to go through our now giant yard with a trash bag and pick up all the little pieces of crap left by the last tenants. We're getting a puppy soonish (Not as soon as my husband wants, but I'm not bringing a puppy into a chaos filled home.) and I am not wasting money on extra vet visits because it cuts its paw on something in the yard.
Have a good week everyone!

Friday, April 2, 2010

All Moved!

The internet is finally turned on!

It was weird being disconnected for only a few days. But kind of nice too.

Anywho, I'll be posting pictures of my very own office as soon as my camera comes up...

That's the real trouble with moving, you manage to lose everything.

Friday's Baking will be up next week as my darling husband has requested cupcakes, and I need to work on my decorating skills. He wants choclate frosting, so not great for Easter bunnies. Ooo maybe I can attempt some kind of dog, like a black lab. That may work, or end in yummy disaster.

Off to unpack some more before bed. My plan is to be completely unpacked by next Friday, but I have a test Thursday. So maybe. I can hope!

I hope you all have been having wonderful weeks!