Thursday This n That

Hey, it's still Thursday!  I meant to post this morning, but I got distracted and then it was time to get ready for work.  

Man, we got slammed at work yesterday.  Thank goodness this afternoon was kinda quiet.  So quiet we were all afraid to say it was quiet and jinx it.  LOL

One of the things I do is collecting on past due stuff.  I figure as of today, I've already paid my wages to this point back to the company in the debts I've collected.  BE for the win.  Go, me.  Okay, so 7 days of work doesn't amount to any huge amount, but it's good to feel productive again.  And hey, it's good to know I'm taking some of the load of the gals who were slammed on a daily basis.

Nope, still not saying where I work.  =op

I had a meeting with the boss.  Kind of an informal, how're things going so far, chat.  He's good people.  They're all good people as far as I can tell.  Funny thing, though.  He asked me about my books and I went all 'deer in headlights'.  I guess I just made a wall in my head between that and this.  I can't think about being a writer when I'm in office worker mode.  

At some point, I need to slip into writer mode and then not think about the office worker.  Maybe this weekend.

It's hard not calling Mom every morning.  I do manage to get a couple short calls into the office first thing before I go to the day-job.  And I'm doing spreadsheets at night.  But the hour and twenty chatty calls with just Mom every day are a thing of the past.  I have to content myself with Saturdays, I guess.

There's an itty-bitty baby bunny who lives by the well-house.  I see it sometimes on my way to work.  It's soooooo cute.  

Okay, well, I'd better post this so it's still a Thursday.  Have a great day wherever you are and whatever you're doing.  :hugs:

Productivity

I wrote a post yesterday.  Thought I posted it and went on about my day.  Long about 1pm, I sat down at the computer again and realized it was still sitting there unposted.  But the time had passed, so I shitcanned it.  

Since my friend had errands to run and so did I, we agreed to take yesterday off of packing, etc.  I hit the grocery store and picked up a lot of meals I could throw together easily after a day of packing and whatnot.  Fried chicken, roast chicken, burger.  Forgot the eggs.  Forgot salad.  Derp.

I really am a total toad lately.  Still a walking branfart, too.  Thank goodness I'm at a point where I don't have to cogitate too hard.  I'm a happy packhorse.  Not too bright, but ready to work.  Then I come home, strap on the feedbag and veg.

The other day, chatting with their roofers, I did manage to do a little marketing, so I've got that going for me.  She got a bookmark and I got to talk books.  And my friend was right there telling the gal how awesome my books are.  Whether it turns into sales?  Not yet, but there's always hope.  

It feels good to actually get in there and get something visibly productive done for a change.  Today I'll go over there and survey the painting, which she says looks really good, and admire our handiwork.  I'll probably find a flaw or two, but that's me.  As long as she and her husband are happy, I'm good.  Then her and I will get back to packing and sorting.  

It's not writing.  But maybe right now that's exactly what I need to get back on track down the road.  

Time Off? Piffle.

So, as you may have heard, Sleeping Ugly went live Saturday night.  Sunday I was a total toad.  I couldn't have looked at another fictional word if my life depended on it.  And I proclaimed to Hubs that I was taking a day off. 

To which he replied, "A day?  You should take the next two weeks off."

Which would be lovely, except I can't.  I have a book due to the editor on September 1st and I want to scrub it up a little before I sent it to her.  That's less than two weeks.  Nope, no time for days off right now.

Hell, I took almost the entirely month of June off.  And that was the month I was supposed to be writing the first draft of Ugly and the Beast. 

Speaking of which, I'm committing to writing that first draft next month.  Kind of a NaNoWriMo in September.  I'll send Unequal off to the editor and get my buns in gear.  I'd be putting out UatB if I hadn't taken June off.  Instead, UEQ is next and UatB will be early next year. 

This is what comes of taking time off, doncha know.  Schedule shuffling and having to bust several humps to get things done that should already be done. 

I took time off.  Now I'm paying the piper for it.  Derp.

So, Sunday was my day off.  And that's okay.  It's not like I work 8 hour days anyway.  Of course, when I'm trying to meet a deadline, an 8 hour day isn't unheard of... :cough: this past Friday :cough:  And working a few hours every day for weeks on end isn't either.  Any time between 5am and 9pm, 7 days a week, I might be found working on something - writing, editing, marketing, accounting...  It's all part of the business.  We writers don't have normal schedules, eh?

What's your schedule like?  (Don't answer that, Silver, LOL. Your schedule makes me tired just thinking about it.)  Do you take 'time off', as in days at a time?  Or do you catch a few hours here and there when you can?

Sunday Update - Week Whatever

It was a whatever kind of week.

Wrote about a thousand words on Ugly and the Beast.

Touched base with my AWE and got Unequal on the schedule for editing.  It'll go to her on Sept 1st, which leaves September for writing new words on UatB.  It will be my PerNoWriMo. (Personal Novel Writing Month - in which I shall write the remainder of this book which should be about 50K words.  Good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.)   Which means, I hope, that Unequal will be out sometime Nov/Dec, and UatB will be out in Feb(?). 

I barely got any reading done.  (See yesterday's Reading Wrap-up.)

I did get my edits back for Sleeping Ugly.  I'm cracking as much as I can on those.

I went fishing.  Caught a bass.  See Thursday's post for more info on that.

See?  Kind of whatever.  Why?  Because early in the week, I pulled a muscle in my back and then I aggravated it reaching for juice on the bottom shelf, way in the back of the bottom shelf as a matter of fact, at Wallyworld.  So, for the most part, I've been sitting in my recliner, watching TV.  Can't read because staring down at a book makes the back thing worse. Oh, it's better than it was.  A little bit every day.  Well, except for that juice incident - which I admit was really stupid.  I should've called an employee over to get those for me.  But no, I had to do it myself.  Bleh.

This also means that I only exercised 2 out of 7 days - Sunday and Monday.  Three if you count fishing on Tuesday which was mostly sitting, so it probably shouldn't really count.  I had lost another 2/10ths of a pound, but I probably gained that back with 5 straight days of sitting on my ass.

Oh, and today is my daughter's 25th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Ki.  Have a great one!  And remember, no matter how old you get, you'll always be my KD Kitten.  ;o)

How was your week?

Procrastination Tactics

So, procrastination tactics... because it's NaNo time and who doesn't have procrastination tactics that jump out when you really ought to be writing? 

Sunday I helped the Hubs pick up the big piles of leaves he raked together on Saturday.  We carted them into the forest and dumped them where they wouldn't be noticeable from the house.  'Out of sight, out of mind' works for me.

Yesterday, I changed out all the faceplates on my kitchen outlets from dingy cheap-ass wood to tidy cheap-ass almond plastic.  Looks much nicer.

Today?  Well, I've already taken that drywall patching kit I bought back in April... yeah, I used something I procrastinated over to procrastinate - sue me... and begun the job of mending the holes in the kitchen wall above the stove.  The moro...people who lived here hung a microwave there and made an unholy mess when they removed it.  So, I patched the biggest holes with the kit and then filled in all the little holes with that spackling compound that goes on purple and then turns white as it dries.  It was like cake decorating!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.  If I get crazy enough, I may drive into town, pick up some paint and start doing the kitchen.  (Because now the patchy places will be white on off white, and we just can't have that.)

How are you procrastinating these days?  Or are you being good and doing what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it?  If you're one of the latter, I salute you. 

2012 is Almost Gone

Can't say as I'll be too sad to see 2012 go.  It wasn't a bad year, per se, but it wasn't a great year either.  It was more of a meh year.

Looking back - literally - I found this post where I talk about my half-year goals for 2012.

1) Finish Djinn 2 - Check
2) Polish Djinnocide - Check (this check turned into a total rewrite, though)
  2a) Put together submission materials so I can... - Check
  2b) Send this sucker out - Check
3) Edit at least one other forgotten book (you know - one I wrote but never edited like Nano or UEQ) - Not Check
4) Edit Djinn 2 (just in case Djinnocide sells or something) - Not Check
5) Read at least as many books this year as last year (the count was 90 in 2011 - more on that tomorrow) - I'm at 89 read this year with a few days left to go, so this'll probably be a Check.

I only really missed two, so that's not a bad thing.  It's just that here I sit at the end of another year, still unagented and still unpublished.  Bleh.

I feel like I'm in stasis - not moving backwards, but definitely not moving forward either.  And yeah, I'm so sick of listening to myself whine about it, I could spit.

"Really, Meissner?" I says to myself (because when I talk to myself I call myself by my old name)  "If you want something to happen, do something.  You toad."

Looking ahead at 2013, I see some things on the horizon that might make the beginning of this year interesting.

- Point 1 - which is a special surprise I can't talk about until next week or the surprise will be ruined.

- Point 2 - which I also can't talk about yet, but it's totally not writerly.

Hopefully, one of these will help shake things loose.  (Although the second one is going to be a bit distracting at first, so that'll shoot my productivity in the ass.  And NO, I'm not pregnant, planning to be pregnant or even remotely considering adding anyone to my tiny family.  :shudder:)

As for making public plans, here's a list which will probably be like last year's craptastic list:

- Finish Sleeping Ugly (from first draft through to submission)
- Resume submitting Djinnocide.
- Edit AWJ (because all of you who stopped by and read my snippet last Sunday said so)
- Edit one other forgotten book
- Read at least 50 books (because I'll be too busy to read as much this coming year as I did last year)

Check back with me next year to see if any of the above actually got checked off.

How about you?  Are you ready to see the back of 2012?  Was it a good year for you?  What expectations do you have for 2013? 

What's Up?

I've been busy.

I wish I could say I've been busy on writerly things.  I do have a new story I've been working on, but since I'm still over there on the couch hammering the story out in red pen on my trusty notebook, it's slow going.

No, I've been busy cleaning.  (Yeah, shocked the crap out of me, too.)  I know it's totally because I'm avoiding work.  I mean, why else would I get the sudden urge to rearrange the living room furniture?  Sure, I told myself I needed to move things around so I could decorate, but I decorated the house as it was last year with no problems, so I was just fooling myself.

Why, other than sheer avoidance, would I have tackled cleaning the vent hood on my stove yesterday?  It's a totally disgusting job.  And I know my landlady never bothered to soak the vent filter, so it was probably full of grease from past renters.  :gag:  Well, not anymore.  It's all clean and sparkly now.

So, the house is clean - mostly - and decorated for the holidays.  See?

Other than that, not much is up here.  I do have one piece of news that I'm not quite ready to share yet, as all the deets haven't been hammered out yet.  And, of course, there's the new blog: The Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival.  I wish I had NEWS - like an interested agent or a publishing contract.  Maybe in 2013.

How about you?  What's up in your world?

Write or Die?

In the past week or so, and over the past few years, I've had people suggesting the Write or Die site to me.  Umm, thanks, but it's not for me.  Not that there's anything wrong with the concept.  Many people need just the goose in the ass that place provides.  It's just not going to help with my particular problem.

You see, I don't have a problem writing once I sit down to write.  My problem comes with the act of actually sitting down to write.  I have a feeling no program is going to poke me into doing that.  I'd have to get up off the couch, come over here and implement the program - which means I'd already be sitting at my computer with the means to write. 

I'm lazy.  I get that.  Given the choice between sitting here working and sitting over there frittering away my time watching some asinine television show, I'm more inclined to fritter.  Unless I've given myself a deadline.  Then it's easy to drag myself out of my general malaise.  With a deadline - real or imagined - I can crank out the words.  Write or Die won't help me with that.  It'll just put undue pressure on me when I'm already putting enough on myself.

Another thing: I don't write well with someone staring over my shoulder.  I know the instant the Kid walks up behind me.  My brain stalls and my fingers get all stupid.  Same thing happens when the Hubs is watching.  Total paralysis of the writing muscles.  (Even when all I'm doing is typing a short email.)

Not every tool works for every person.  I've said that time and again.  And the whole different strokes thing is okay.  God, if we all wrote the same way, life would be pretty boring.  I do it my way, you do it yours.  Sometimes we can learn from each other's process, and sometimes we can't. 

Yeah, I was open to the Write or Die thing.  I just evaluated it and decided it wasn't my thing.  Which is probably what we all should be doing with every piece of advice, come to think of it.  Don't toss away advice out of hand, but evaluate it.  Who knows, something you never thought would work might just be the thing to get your book finished or published or at least get you over whatever hump your currently facing.

So, what do you think of Write or Die?  Is it your thing?  Why?  And if not, why not?

(And to those awesome folks who have suggested the Write or Die site - thank you.  I treasure your input always - even if I don't always follow it.)

Also, if you haven't dropped by my new endeavor - The Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival - please do so.  Today's post is a link to advice by author Jeffe Kennedy.

NaNoWriMo Pitfall #7

Good morning, Everyone!  Today repost of old Pitfalls seems particularly poignant - even if you're not participating in the sprint to 50K.  Procrastination (aka lollygagging) can crop up anywhere.  Don't want to face the mound of dishes filling your sink?  Procrastinate.  Unsure of where your story is going?  Procrastinate.  I know I'm a master procrastinator from way back.  If it can be put off, I've put it off.  Hell, I'm probably doing it now...

And on that note, here's a link to the old 2009 post (if you want to read the comments) and here's the real thing:

NaNo Pitfall #7- PROCRASTINATION!

As I may have said, Darling Daughter is also doing NaNo.  These posts are as much for her as for anyone.  Like any writer, she has her stumbling blocks, and like anyone new at anything, she thinks she's the only one.  After reading my Pitfall #6 post, we talked about the various things that can make a writer stumble during this race to finish a novel - or during any writing time - and she was dumbfounded to discover these Pitfalls aren't just things I thought might happen to someone else.  These Pitfalls have happened to me - this month even.  So, as you're reading this series of posts remember: You're not alone.

Now onward to NaNo Pitfall #7 - aka "Wow, I just remembered that I have to :insert procrastinatory item here:!"

We're writers.  We also have a million other things we have to do as human beings.  Laundry needs to get done.  We need to cook meals.  We have shopping and errands.  Some people have day jobs and others, like me, have internet businesses to maintain.  Add in homeschooling or kids' events or homework (either to do if you're still in school or to assist with if you're a parent), and the list of non-writing things requiring our attention can be staggering.

This month is no different.  Except when you're using those things to put off writing.

For instance, I had some stuff I legitimately had to do for my Amazon store.  True, it was stuff I'd put off and I should've done it sooner, especially since the deadline fell in November.  That was last weekend's blip in my writing schedule.  This weekend was another story.  You see, doing all that stuff made me realize that I had a bunch of other stuff I needed to do to make my store easier to work with - for me, not my customers.  Yesterday, I spent a good portion of my day screwing around with that.  It needed to be done...  Just not right this moment.  Certainly none of it was so crucial it couldn't wait until NaNo was over.

As I lay in bed last night lamenting my lack of words, it came to me.  This was yet another pitfall - not only in NaNo but for any writing we're trying to accomplish.  There's always something you can find to take the place of writing.  There are so many, in fact, I used to have a link to a site that listed all the things one can do instead of working on one's book.

Thinking about it now, I'm wondering if I should've made this a corollary to the other Pitfalls.  You see, the reason this push to do something else came up is because my brain is currently scrolling through the other Pitfalls.  Right now, I'm bouncing between "OMG, This Sucks!" and "Ack! I'm Lost!"

Enter "Wow!  I have something else I really should be doing!"

So, I've slapped myself around.  Today I will not being mucking around in the store, cleaning the house, doing yardwork, alphabetizing my socks, sorting my recipes, baking cookies, organizing my bookmarks...

Or sitting here thinking of other things to add to that growing list.

Today, I will write.  It may be several thousand crappy words and I may only succeed in getting myself more lost, but I will accomplish something writerly if it kills me.

Writerly?  Hmmm.... I never did sort through those last submissions and enter them into the database...

What's got you procrastinating today?  And what are you doing during this time of procrastination?

NaNoWriMo Pitfall #1

Hi all.  I'm not participating in NaNo this year, but in honor of everything November means to all of us writers - and to those happy few who are racing toward 50K by 11:59pm on 11/30/12 - I've decided to re-post my NaNo Pitfall posts from 2009. 

Here's the first (and please note this is the year when I first wrote Djinnocide, so you'll see a few references to those characters and whatnot - even though some of them have changed):

NaNo Pitfall #1 - do not go back and read what you've already written. 

Okay, so I opened the file this morning to get some words written, and for grins I decided to read some of the beginning of this book.  I found a few typos, which I fixed.  Not a problem.  Then I found a bit of worldbuilding that I have since differed from.  Umm.  Crap.

Now my brain is so busy worrying about how I'm going to fix this that I can't think about where I was supposed to take the story next.  Seriously.  And what's worse is, I knew better.  I know if I start finding flaws in the story, I'm going to want to go back and fix them all before I continue.  It's a thing about me.  It's also why I've learned to write the way I do - straight through, no stopping and no going back.

Yes, at the beginning of the book Nigel (a minor character whose name is going to be changed) doesn't know what the hell is going on any more than Jo (the MC) does.  But in the later chapters, he's part of the group that's known all along and has been keeping it a secret.  Sooo, I either need to fix the beginning or I need to fix this middle part.

Ack.

Deep breaths.  In through the nose, out through the mouth.

What I really need to do is forget I ever saw that flaw and forge ahead.  The story is going great so far, and whatever Nigel does ultimately doesn't matter to the crux of the plot.  (Unless I make this into a series, and then Nigel's crucial to the plot that would carry over several books.)  Regardless, I need to tuck this flaw into its proper place and fix it later.

Remember folks, you can always go back and fix afterwards, but you can't fix what isn't written.  So just write.  Damn it.  (That last part was for me, btw.)

And thus ends our brief neurotic break.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled psychoses. ;o)

(Go here for the original post so you can see the comments people made there.)

PS.  Nigel became Basil and I did fix the flaw.

Time for a Quickie

Update that is.  Not the other kind.

If you've been following along on FB or Twitter, you might already know some of this, and for that, I apologize, but in the interest of keeping everybody abreast of my most interesting and exciting life, here goes...

I finished the rewrite of Djinnocide.  It topped the scales at 124K - which means I have about 20 or so K to slice and dice out of it.

In the course of chopping, I was slapped upside the head by Insight (that big bully) and ending up changing a crucial plot point, which means I have to change all subsequent references to said plot point.  Some scenes are complying easily.  Others are being turds.  The worst of the lot so far growled at me Sunday, sunk it's hobnailed feet into the mud and refused to be changed.

It kicked my ass all day Sunday.  Sunday night, I kicked it back.

Right now, I'm on pg 93 and at around 119K words.  Since the Harper Voyager window opened yesterday, the countdown clock is ticking.  I have less than 2 weeks to finish chopping, do some polishing, check for typos, and submit.  I have committed myself to doing this.

In other news, I've unintentionally suspended querying.  I'm just too busy.  Once I get past this submission window, I'll start it back up again.  And no, I don't have any news on that front.  Wish I did, but them's the breaks.

On the real life front, I've been dealing with some personal stuff interfering with my writing stuff.  Nothing major and nothing horrible - just distracting.  Everything should be mostly cleared up now, though, so the only thing stopping me from working is me.

Okay, so that wasn't as quickie as I thought it would be.  What's up in your worlds these days?

A Day in the Life - or Where the Hell Does my Time Go?

Where do the days go?  Seriously.  I wake up, do a bunch of stuff, and before I know it, it's the next day.  And I still don't feel like I'm getting anything done.

Let's take yesterday for example (which was really two days if my head is to be believed).

5:15 - awake
5:15-7:00 - drink coffee, read blogs, increase the nicotine in my blood stream to acceptable levels
7:00-7:20 - mow lawn
7:20-7:40 - water lawn
7:45 - take kid to work
8:00-9:00 - call mom
9:00-9:25 - hang out with neighbor chick, smoking and gossiping
9:25-10:00 - play phone tag with old and new doctor's offices trying to get everything set up so I no longer have to drive 2.5 hrs to get my shot
10:00 - call mom again to discuss email she just sent reminding me to email my sister
10:00 - email sister
10:05 - receive bounceback of my email as 'spam' because I dared to put a link in sis's email
10:10-10:30 - call sister
10:30-10:45 - drive to bank and then post office, realize I don't have time to get groceries, go home
10:45-11:30 - sit around waiting for kid to call for lunchtime pickup, eat lunch
11:30 - pick up kid for lunch hour
11:30 - Hubs arrives home for early lunch
12:25 - take kid back to work
12:30-1:00 - get groceries on the way home
1:00-1:15 - put groceries away
1:15 - eat hunk of coconut cream cheesecake I just bought
1:20 - eat leftover turkey taco
1:30-2:45 - slip into afternoon TV coma
2:45 - call new doctor's office to see if they received paperwork via fax
2:50 - learn they didn't get the paperwork
2:52 - call and harass old doc's office and get assured it's being sent NOW
2:53 - call and leave message for new doc's office
2:54 - receive call from old doc saying fax # must be bad because.. wait, there it goes.
2:55-4:45 - resume afternoon TV coma while waiting for new doc's office to return my call
4:45 - pick up kid from work
4:45-5:00 - discuss kid's 60 day work eval ("Doing a fantastic job" btw)
5:00 - Hubs comes home
5:00-5:30 - prep 'cold buffet style' dinner
5:30-6:00 - gnosh
6:00-7 something, I forget - watch baseball, vegetate, etc.
7something to 9 - write 1400 words
9 something - feed Max, feed Kira, fall into bed

And I know I did other stuff yesterday - like taking care of Max more, throwing a rug in the washer because someone spilled tomato juice on it the day before and didn't bother to tell me.  I also know I totally ignored doing the dishes.

Ah, we writers slash housewives slash taxi drivers lead an exciting life.  Is it any wonder I keep thinking it's Wednesday?

Living in the Projects

No.  I'm not talking about government assisted housing.  Even though I don't work (at least not for cashola), we're not even close to the financial straights it would take for us to move into one of those places.

I'm talking about the myriad of little things I'm smack in the middle of.  I do one for a while, move to the next for a while, jump into the next...  So, yeah, I'm living in the projects I've created. 

It's April, so it's Ancestry season.  I'm tracing my tree.  I'm tracing the Hubs' tree.  I even traced my daughter's tree from her sperm donor up (which wasn't easy since there's no one I can ask).

Last month, or maybe the month before, I offered to do some tweaking of my nephew's senior pictures for my mother.  He didn't opt for the retouching.  Hmpfh, boys.  And since I took and retouched Daughter's senior pics, I was the obvious choice for the project.  I got the pics Thursday.  There are only three, and it's not hard, it's just time consuming.

Reseeding the lawn.  It's a yearly thing.  Living out here in the high desert makes keeping even the semblance of a lawn alive a pain - unless you have underground sprinklers, which we don't.  So every year, I pick up a bag of seed and hope for the best.  This year I'm trying a new product from Scott's.  It's the one with the dirt and fertilizer included along with the seeds, so it should be easier.  So far, no baby grasses, but I have hope.

I've also been making short excursions into the countryside.  I've got two goals for this.  Right now the birds are migrating, so I've been trying to see what new birds I can add to my birding lifelist.  And I'm trying to get some quality photographs while I'm out.  Ever since the guy at Cornell argued with me about my sighting of a Western Screech Owl in the area, I'm determined to get photos of the unusual birds that pass through here.  Plus, if any of them turn out really good, I'll print them and frame them. 

Oh yeah, and there's this other thing I'm supposed to be doing.  It's called WRITING.  Remember that stuff?  Yeah.  It keeps trying to make it's way to the top but it just gets shuffled back down again.

We're not even going to talk about the blanket I was supposed to be crocheting for my sister.  The strips are all crocheted.  It just needs to be sewn together and shipped to Michigan.  But it's sitting over there in my crocheting bag.

Of course, there are all the typical day to day things I should be doing as well, but since this is about 'projects', we're just going to forget about those for now.  (Why not, I've been forgetting about them so far. LOL)

And for all that, I still don't feel particularly busy or productive.  Maybe that's because I'm not making writing a priority in all that mess.  :shrug:

What projects are keeping you busy these days?  Anything fun? 

No Excuses

:waves:  Hi Everyone!  I woke up this morning and noticed that I've neglected the blog again.  No excuses - just dealing with non-tragic, but very distracting and brain-draining, life stuff.

Which reminds me.  If you didn't catch the first episode of the new season of Biggest Loser on Tuesday, they are modeling this season on the idea of No Excuses.  Seems pretty good to me.  I mean, there are million excuses why we don't do the things we know we need to do, but very few actual reasons.  And sometimes even with things that seem like reasons, we can usually find a way to still accomplish things if we think hard enough.

For instance, 'my computer died' might seem like a good reason not to write.  But if you think about it, people were writing long before there were computers. 

So, I'm going to try and not use excuses this year.  If I don't write on a given day, I need to recognize that was a choice I made.  It wasn't because I was too tired, or too stressed, or life stuff intervened.  I didn't write because I chose not to not to write.  Maybe I made the choice because I felt overwhelmed by some other aspect of my life, but it was still a choice.  Perhaps I chose not to write because my hands hurt or I had a headache.  But that's why they make Aspercreme and aspirin. 

And I also need to realize that sometimes making the choice not to write is okay.  As long as I don't make a habit of it.  I chose not to write on New Year's Day because I felt like I'd earned a day off.  It was a lovely day spent reading, btw, but the next day, I got back at it.  (And then Tuesday struck and bits of hell broke loose.  Now that day of not writing wasn't a choice, but shit happens.)

If I didn't lose weight this week (or in fact, gained a pound - I haven't checked), it wasn't because this life stuff had me stressed out.  It was because I chose to stuff my face and not drag my lard butt off the couch for a few simple exercises.  Hell, sometimes stress makes me lose weight and become a little frenetic with the house cleaning, so not losing weight this week is my own damn fault.

No excuses.  And every time I think I've got a reason, rather than an excuse, I'm going to try and remember to pick that reason apart until I'm sure it's valid.  No letting those excuses sneak up on me disguised as reasons.  (Sneaky bastards.)

Anyone with me?  Any urge to make 2012 the year of no excuses or am I the only nut in the trail mix today?

And in case I haven't said this in a while, thanks for following The Writing Spectacle.  I really do appreciate your presence here and I hope to provide you with reasons to come back - not excuses to leave.  ;o)

(On a completely unrelated note, doesn't the shadow in that picture up there look like a bear?)

NaNo No

Where did Tuesday go?  Oh yeah, I started rearranging the back room/library/Daughter's office yesterday.  And of course, the carpet needed spot washing...

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about this morning was a decision I made last night.  Despite telling damn near everyone I was going to do NaNo this year, I'm not.  I mean, I really want to.  I had planned on using this year's NaNo to crank out that MG fantasy I've been thinking about.

But see, here's the thing.  As much as I want to do NaNo, it's not going to really further my career goals this year.  I need to keep my focus on trying to get this WIP ready for submission.  And at 52K rewritten, it's not the best time in the world to shatter that focus and work on something else. 

If, by some chance, I get this revision done early enough in November to actually make a dent in 50K by 12/1, I'll jump back in.  Until that happens, I'll have to watch from the sidelines. 

I'm a little bummed.  I think this year's NaNo was going to be really fun.  But we can't always chase the fun when there's work to be done.  Ya know what I mean? And hey, Djinnocide is still fun.  It's not new and shiny, but I still love it.  I'll love it even more when it's polished and ready to send out into the world.  (Even more if it gets me an agent and/or a contract.)

So, if you're doing NaNo for real this year, let me know.  I'll live vicariously through you and be standing on the sidelines waving my pom poms for you.  I wish you all the most success. 

A Handful of Kitty Toys

Once, when Kira Cat was small, I took a handful of her toys (soft ones) and threw them up in the air, figuring it would be fun to see her try to go after them all when they landed.  Her poor little head tried to follow every single one, but she didn't move an inch.  She just sat there, confused and bewildered.  So many choices, so many things to follow, and only one her.  The number of options had her stalled.

I've never done that to her again.  It just felt cruel.  Now I know better than to present her with more than one or two toys at a time.  She can't handle more than that.  Give her one and she'll play.  Give her a myriad of options and she stalls.

I get it.  I'm the same way.  Take housecleaning, for instance.  If I think about the huge list of things I have to do, I stall and don't do any of them.  I'm much better if I take each chore as a single job and work from there.  I don't have a whole house to clean.  I have one bedroom, and then another, and then a bathroom, or the kitchen.

Unfortunately, this also carries into my work life.  If I think about all the things I have to accomplish, I stall.  Right now, I have a book to finish, a book to query (which includes updating a database, following up on requested material, doing research, etc.), and an ePub to find for yet another book. 

:thud:

So, I picked one thing to work on.  Right now, that one thing is finishing UEQ.  But I can't stop thinking about the other tasks I have to accomplish.  I'm like poor baby Kira, sitting in the middle of the floor with toys falling all around me like psychedelic hailstones. 

I just need to focus on the one thing.  Finish playing with the toy in front of me and move onto the next shiny important toy I need to play with.  Worry about finishing UEQ now and then figure out how I'm going to deal with the others. 

Because until I can get my focus on just one thing, I'm going to be stuck in the middle of a handful of kitty toys.

Why NaNo?

If you've been reading along, I actually joined the NaNoWriMo site this year, and I'm committed publicly to writing 50K next month.  But, you see, I've already been doing this in my own way for the past few Novembers anyway.  Why? 

My family probably thinks I'm crazy.  Husband looks at me with gentle humor.  Daughter asked me straight out why I was doing this.  (And then added, "So I suppose this means no computer time for me next month.")  So I had to ask myself why I NaNo...

The answer is partly because I think it's important to celebrate this occasion.  Even if you don't do NaNo, if you're a writer, this is your month.  I mean, it's hard enough doing this in solitude - with little to no cause for celebration.  Having a whole month dedicated to writing novels?  Well, it makes up for the long months of writing without a contract, I guess. 

Another part is that writing is my job.  NaNo is my way to preparing for the time when I actually have a book contract and I'm under deadline.  If I can write 50K in November and have it be some kind of cogent story at the end, I know I can produce a book in whatever timeframe a contract would require.  I'm hoping that by taking this month and using it as a faux-deadline, it'll alleviate some of the pressure beforehand.  (Time will tell whether I'm right.)

And the rest?  Well, I guess it's my way of proving - if only to myself - that I can do this.  I can sit down every day and write an average of 1667 words.  I can forgo television when I need to - even if it means missing Grey's Anatomy or NCIS or :gasp: football.  I can prove to myself and maybe to the rest of the world that writing is that important to me - that this isn't a game or a hobby or a pastime.  (Which writing can be mistaken for if you're unpublished and sometimes even when you are published.)

So, if you're on the fence and looking for a good reason to participate, I invite you to use a reason or two of mine.  Jump on board and push yourself to write 50K next month. Or if you don't have time or the urge to actually participate, set a goal of your own and push to hit it.  (Like say, 30K, or promise yourself to write for at least an hour a day, or commit to 500 words a day.  Whatever works for you.) 

One way or another, celebrate National Novel Writing Month, because as a writer, you've earned it.  =o)

WYAOW

WYAOW - or  Write Your Ass Off Weekend* - officially started yesterday.  I wasn't planning on playing along, but then, this morning, I decided 'what the hell'.  I'm not signing up for it or anything - mainly because I don't want to pick a day and because well... I'm not a joiner.  Instead I'll be approaching this like I did with NaNoWriMo.only on a smaller scale.  I'll just write as much as I can over this weekend and see what happens.

Should be productive.  We'll see what kind of demonic claws my hands turn into by Monday morning. 

Anyone else interested in writing her ass off**?

*Not to be confused with Write Your Ass Off Day - which was last May (according to someone from the NY Writers Coalition).

**Oh, that it were actually so.  Write and the gluteous pounds melt away.  :sigh:

NaNo Pitfall #4

Welcome to November 15th, aka The Halfway Point.  At this point in your NaNo experience, you should be somewhere around 25,000 words - or at least near there by midnight tonight.  As you can see from the progress meter, I'm behind (by about 8K when I wrote this post).  This leads us to NaNo Pitfall #4 - I'm so far behind now, why bother?  (Sorry the two proposed topics got shunted aside, but I thought today was the best day for this.)

Okay, so I'm 8K behind.  Why?  Well, some of it was life stuff - like the out of town trip I took Thursday and the right-cross Amazon dealt me that I have to deal with by Monday.  Some of it was squirmy stuff that will be addressed in a later Pitfall post.  Of course, the reasons and/or the excuses don't really matter.  Whatever they are, they've occurred and now I'm behind.

At this point, I could sit back and figure this year's NaNo is a wash.  When am I going to make up 8 THOUSAND words?  PLUS do the 1667 every day I'm supposed to do to reach the goal of 50K, mind you.

That's where the pitfall lays.  Like the dude in the picture up there, I have to find a way to swing across the gap.  (And he didn't even dig his own hole like I did.)  I could stand on this side, shaking my head at the depth of the hole, or I can find a way to get past the expanse.  2200 words a day will get me to my goal.  That's a load.  Or, I could bust out extra words on the weekends.

The point here is: Stopping isn't an option.

Sure, this is only a self-imposed deadline, but if I ever do get a book contract with actual deadlines, I'm sure as hell not going to be able to tell my publisher "Sorry, I had some things come up.  Maybe I'll hit that number next time."  I guessing there's a quick way to say buh-bye to your career.

So, there is nothing to do but forge ahead.  If I have to miss some sleep, or sit in this chair until my ass falls off, or type all day on Thanksgiving, I will do it.

And if I don't I will still count it as a win because I will have tried my damnest.

Whether you're doing NaNo or not, how are your word counts looking this month?  Has anything come up that's put you behind in whatever you're trying to accomplish?  Regardless of the answer...

:hugs:

New Words!

No, your eyes don't deceive you. There really is a new progress meter over there, and it really is for a new book. Of course, Fertile Ground won't be its actual title, but the book is begun.

This story was originally meant to be a sequel to Manhunter, but since I haven't gotten an agent for Manhunter, I decided to take what I'd already written and rewrite it to be a stand alone novel. It is still based on the same fictional governmental agency as Manhunter, and I'm borrowing the head hauncho as a peripheral character. Everything else is different, and hopefully this can serve as a launching point for the series - even though Manhunter couldn't. Hell, if I work it right maybe this book can help Manhunter get published (after some massive rewriting based on the full rejection I got). You never know.

Anyway, sitting here last night trying to figure out which book was going to be next, I looked through my ideas file, and this one begged to be written next. I checked out the pages I already wrote, still loved the beginning and scrapped the next scene. Too bad, because it was also good - it just didn't fit with where I want this story to go now. (And it's in its own little 'snipped scene' file - I never throw anything away.)

It feels so good to write new words again. I love all my stories, but this new word feeling is the best. I get to watch the story unfold in my head even as my fingers are laying it down on paper (or electrons, as the case may be). It was only 1200, but new words are new words, and I'm celebrating them.

Don't worry, folks. This isn't an April Fools joke. I really am writing again. Here's hoping I have a new first draft by Memorial Day.

Meanwhile, I am almost ready to send Blink out into the world. I finished the tweaking yesterday. All I need now is to tighten up the synopsis, and I'm ready to go.

God, I love Spring.