Didn't reach my goal for this morning. I want to have 10 pages done everyday. I've got three. When I wanted to be at 2.5%, I'm at .5% of 100k. I'm at least happy that I started the first page without any major first page jitters.
Does anyone have any tips on how to get yourself to wake up earlier than you want? I've tried the last few days, but I always end up back asleep until I have to get up or be late for work. I want to get up early, to have more time to write in the mornings.
The story is coming along nicely in my head. I am trying to implement what I learned from my first novel into this one. Main thing is, I learned I go extremely light on description, of everything. Almost to the point where my characters are floating in an air bubble talking.
Writing the first novel was hard. I know writing the second won't be any easier. If I can finish it in a decent amount of time, and have less revision work to do, I'll be happy.
When do you fit writing into your life?
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Posting Schedule
I know a while back I said I would never say which days of the week I would post.
Well, posting whenever I felt like it hasn't kept my blog all that active. I want to change that.
I will post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Writing posts, yummy recipes, whatever comes to mind. But I will post on those days. I promise.
:D
This is part of my plan to make the time in my life to write. My work schedule isn't as awesome as they told me it would be. We have to stay until all the stock is done. Sucks, but it's a paycheck.
I've made some serious strides on my outline for Entry Into Madness. I think I'm going to stop where I am and start really writing the first draft now. I'm not sure how I want to end it, so I want to let the story take me where it wants to go.
Just talking about it makes me want to get to work. I love writing.
Oh. And I will be more active in the blogosphere (is that even a word?). Don't be surprised if I take forever to reply though, I'll probably be active early in the morning then not around till late, if I even think to turn on my computer.
I like working, as much as it cuts down my free time, it's kind of fun.
Laters!
Meg
Well, posting whenever I felt like it hasn't kept my blog all that active. I want to change that.
I will post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Writing posts, yummy recipes, whatever comes to mind. But I will post on those days. I promise.
:D
This is part of my plan to make the time in my life to write. My work schedule isn't as awesome as they told me it would be. We have to stay until all the stock is done. Sucks, but it's a paycheck.
I've made some serious strides on my outline for Entry Into Madness. I think I'm going to stop where I am and start really writing the first draft now. I'm not sure how I want to end it, so I want to let the story take me where it wants to go.
Just talking about it makes me want to get to work. I love writing.
Oh. And I will be more active in the blogosphere (is that even a word?). Don't be surprised if I take forever to reply though, I'll probably be active early in the morning then not around till late, if I even think to turn on my computer.
I like working, as much as it cuts down my free time, it's kind of fun.
Laters!
Meg
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
I'm Bad at Titles
It's no secret I'm bad at titles. My first novel got it's title because I finally decided to just steal the MC's name. Blog posts aren't any better.
Excitement! I got a job! It's a good thing, I've been trying since January. It will be nice having a set schedule. It's a part-time job, with an awesome schedule. 8am till noon. How hard is that? I may start the waking up early routine to write before going to work.
Other excitement. I'm procrastinating. That's also a good thing. When I'm actively procrastinating from writing, I get more writing done then when I just ignore my computer all together.
All the other news in my life isn't so pleasant, most of it private and thankfully not directly involving me. Just indirectly involving me. I am an optimist. I see the best in people and hope till I can't hope anymore that they will be the best they can be. Just like I try to be. Doesn't happen very often I'm learning.
I go off on random tangents, but I finally finished Stephen King's On Writing. I rather liked it. I will admit it took me several reading sessions to get through it. I did better with the memoir parts over the technical parts. I will be keeping it as a reference though. Even if I just read a little random bit of it to remind myself we all have to start somewhere.
I just will not let work ruin my writing time. I love that I feel that way so intensely. I'm looking at my schedule, seeing it getting crunched for time and I am making damn well sure there is time for writing. And I love it.
It's funny. When faced with plenty of time to do whatever I wish, I get nothing done. But being faced with too many things to do, I get everything done. I guess I work better under pressure...
Back to writing reference books. I have...a few. First one I ever bought was Shrunk and White's. Love it. Sadly, I lost it so I get to buy it again. Then the order gets fuzzy, but I have Stephen King's which to me is more of a 'hey, this didn't happen over night' kind of smack on the head, I have one for editing. Writer's guide to self-editing or something like that. It's the one with text all over the cover with blue pencil marks. I have a couple more random ones that I think are for nonfiction.
What do you have in your writing closet?
Excitement! I got a job! It's a good thing, I've been trying since January. It will be nice having a set schedule. It's a part-time job, with an awesome schedule. 8am till noon. How hard is that? I may start the waking up early routine to write before going to work.
Other excitement. I'm procrastinating. That's also a good thing. When I'm actively procrastinating from writing, I get more writing done then when I just ignore my computer all together.
All the other news in my life isn't so pleasant, most of it private and thankfully not directly involving me. Just indirectly involving me. I am an optimist. I see the best in people and hope till I can't hope anymore that they will be the best they can be. Just like I try to be. Doesn't happen very often I'm learning.
I go off on random tangents, but I finally finished Stephen King's On Writing. I rather liked it. I will admit it took me several reading sessions to get through it. I did better with the memoir parts over the technical parts. I will be keeping it as a reference though. Even if I just read a little random bit of it to remind myself we all have to start somewhere.
I just will not let work ruin my writing time. I love that I feel that way so intensely. I'm looking at my schedule, seeing it getting crunched for time and I am making damn well sure there is time for writing. And I love it.
It's funny. When faced with plenty of time to do whatever I wish, I get nothing done. But being faced with too many things to do, I get everything done. I guess I work better under pressure...
Back to writing reference books. I have...a few. First one I ever bought was Shrunk and White's. Love it. Sadly, I lost it so I get to buy it again. Then the order gets fuzzy, but I have Stephen King's which to me is more of a 'hey, this didn't happen over night' kind of smack on the head, I have one for editing. Writer's guide to self-editing or something like that. It's the one with text all over the cover with blue pencil marks. I have a couple more random ones that I think are for nonfiction.
What do you have in your writing closet?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Life then Writing Chatter
LIFE:
The fact that I am willing awake before 6am should tell you something about how my day is going so far. Not bad, so much as. I'm awake before 6am. Awake since 5am really. I am not a morning person. Not one little bit.
I have two giant red marks on my chin, previously zits. I have a job interview this afternoon. I have to exercise and go grocery shopping this morning. And then shower and all that fun stuff before the job interview. And I'm awake before 6am. Since 5 actually, first got woken up around 4 I believe.
This is my life during deployments. I can't give you any of the gooey details, this is way too public for that. But that's what it is. Whenever he's awake and able to just sit at the computer for a while, I'm awake too. Not that this happens all that often, but when it does, it's on days when I really could use the sleep. Totally going to suck if I do land a job, but the extra money coming in will be worth it.
And I either have a headache and runny nose from the lack of sleep/allergies, or I'm getting sick.
WRITING:
I know I started to write a post about how I finally did some writing again. I think I forgot about it and just went to bed the night before last. Short story is that I've dived back into writing. Forgot how much I loved it. I'd been stuck in 'editing only' mode. Not anymore!
I started working on a small scene for Ivory. It needed some help, mainly because it was lacking in description. Pretty sure I mentioned before that the entire novel is lacking in description. I have one part, the part I actually wrote first, that has a good amount of description. Everything else is on a description diet.
I've got my first reader helping point out where description is lacking. One chapter...it was is first note and it was for the whole chapter. That's when I decided to start back at the beginning and go though it again. I just have to break it up into scenes. I seem to do better staring at a scene then a chapter. I don't do the chapter a scene thing. My chapters range in the number of scenes.
I'm rambling.
My point is, my life is pretty crazy right now. So the fact that I managed to get my butt back to work is amazing. And I'm proud of myself for it.
The fact that I am willing awake before 6am should tell you something about how my day is going so far. Not bad, so much as. I'm awake before 6am. Awake since 5am really. I am not a morning person. Not one little bit.
I have two giant red marks on my chin, previously zits. I have a job interview this afternoon. I have to exercise and go grocery shopping this morning. And then shower and all that fun stuff before the job interview. And I'm awake before 6am. Since 5 actually, first got woken up around 4 I believe.
This is my life during deployments. I can't give you any of the gooey details, this is way too public for that. But that's what it is. Whenever he's awake and able to just sit at the computer for a while, I'm awake too. Not that this happens all that often, but when it does, it's on days when I really could use the sleep. Totally going to suck if I do land a job, but the extra money coming in will be worth it.
And I either have a headache and runny nose from the lack of sleep/allergies, or I'm getting sick.
WRITING:
I know I started to write a post about how I finally did some writing again. I think I forgot about it and just went to bed the night before last. Short story is that I've dived back into writing. Forgot how much I loved it. I'd been stuck in 'editing only' mode. Not anymore!
I started working on a small scene for Ivory. It needed some help, mainly because it was lacking in description. Pretty sure I mentioned before that the entire novel is lacking in description. I have one part, the part I actually wrote first, that has a good amount of description. Everything else is on a description diet.
I've got my first reader helping point out where description is lacking. One chapter...it was is first note and it was for the whole chapter. That's when I decided to start back at the beginning and go though it again. I just have to break it up into scenes. I seem to do better staring at a scene then a chapter. I don't do the chapter a scene thing. My chapters range in the number of scenes.
I'm rambling.
My point is, my life is pretty crazy right now. So the fact that I managed to get my butt back to work is amazing. And I'm proud of myself for it.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Guys Lit Wire
Most, if not all, of you have probably seen this. But I love the idea so much I had to pass it along.
Guys Lit Wire blog. They are trying to get a library put together for the boys in the LA County Juvenile Justice system. They have a wish list set up and it tells you where to send the books.
Everyone should have a library.
Guys Lit Wire blog. They are trying to get a library put together for the boys in the LA County Juvenile Justice system. They have a wish list set up and it tells you where to send the books.
Everyone should have a library.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Haven't Done a Thing...
Haven't edited, haven't written, haven't outlined...I haven't done anything writing related in like two weeks.
Life just got a wee bit crazy, and lack of motivation.
No new recipes either. I totally butchered my meatball recipe today. Didn't add enough pepper and bread crumbs. Still tasted good, just not great. I'm overly critical of my own cooking. But I'll eat my friend's mushy spaghetti and say it's not that bad. lol
My plan:
Monday - Finish LIGHT IN THE DARK (short story) that I was supposed to finish...3 weeks ago.
Tuesday - Working on my outline for Entry Into Madness and type up two chapters of Ivory, fixing the tense as I go and adding description as needed. (Turns out, I'm very light on description.
Wednesday - Break day to get new tires on the car.
Thursday - More Ivory chapters, hopefully get at least 3 done. Proofread short story.
Friday - ...not sure yet. It'll depend on how the week goes.
Why nothing for tomorrow? (Sunday)...because I know I'll get busy, all of my friends happen to have Sunday either off completely or half days. And I really need to fold up all my laundry. I've got two baskets sitting, drives me crazy but I haven't had a chance. Okay, I'm all for honesty, I've just been lazy. It's all stuff that has to get folded and I'm not a huge fan of folding.
I have been trying to have a point to my posts. I guess this one is that we all have off days/weeks and it's the desire to get back to work that makes us writers. I think about writing all the time. I had a crazy dream last night, and when I woke up after I wrote it down, I started thinking about how I could turn it into a story. Maybe that's why I'm all for getting back to work. lol.
How are the rest of you doing?
Life just got a wee bit crazy, and lack of motivation.
No new recipes either. I totally butchered my meatball recipe today. Didn't add enough pepper and bread crumbs. Still tasted good, just not great. I'm overly critical of my own cooking. But I'll eat my friend's mushy spaghetti and say it's not that bad. lol
My plan:
Monday - Finish LIGHT IN THE DARK (short story) that I was supposed to finish...3 weeks ago.
Tuesday - Working on my outline for Entry Into Madness and type up two chapters of Ivory, fixing the tense as I go and adding description as needed. (Turns out, I'm very light on description.
Wednesday - Break day to get new tires on the car.
Thursday - More Ivory chapters, hopefully get at least 3 done. Proofread short story.
Friday - ...not sure yet. It'll depend on how the week goes.
Why nothing for tomorrow? (Sunday)...because I know I'll get busy, all of my friends happen to have Sunday either off completely or half days. And I really need to fold up all my laundry. I've got two baskets sitting, drives me crazy but I haven't had a chance. Okay, I'm all for honesty, I've just been lazy. It's all stuff that has to get folded and I'm not a huge fan of folding.
I have been trying to have a point to my posts. I guess this one is that we all have off days/weeks and it's the desire to get back to work that makes us writers. I think about writing all the time. I had a crazy dream last night, and when I woke up after I wrote it down, I started thinking about how I could turn it into a story. Maybe that's why I'm all for getting back to work. lol.
How are the rest of you doing?
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