>The alternate reality where I am not a wuss…

>

In my quest to not peek at my cooling novel (sitting there so nicely on my iPad I might add), I’ve been keeping myself relatively busy.


Busy, being in the eye of the beholder, means my Tauren Druid is level 74.5 (as of 11:00pm last night), all my various iGadgets are sync’ed with the mothership (just learned I can’t library share my iTunes when the mothership is napping though…), and I stopped waiting for my husband to downgrade our cable.  Which leads to the wuss part.


I have the pleasure of being the negotiator in the house.  Call it a personality quirk, if you will.  Just about everything that needs to happen gets processed through my brain first.  No, this doesn’t bother the husband – he likes not having to be responsible for all the nuances and I geek out hard core being said responsible person.  Usually.  


Which brings me to my call with the cable company.  The only time I’ve not had cable was a brief 2 or 3 year stint with a satellite company.  I liked the sat. co. but with our move out west and a swank deal on the cable + equipment, well, there it is.  We started with a decent package and I knew right away we had “too much” cable.  The only ones who watch TV here are the ones who shouldn’t be – the kidlets.  Couple years later and for some reason we decided the problem with our package (for non-TV watchers) – not enough cable.  Yeah, I know.  


Today, I called to downgrade.  And I wussed out.  The intention was to get rid of all movie channels and drop to just above the basic so we retained several essential kidlet channels.  The problem is, the cable company would only honor the “new customer” price for one step down, not hitting the bottom down.  I guess HBO and Starz is worth $10/month, but I still feel mission unaccomplished.


I will be hearing about this when the husband gets home.  And he will file it away for future use.  This tarnish is unlikely to become a patina.


Distractions:
~  It’s all a distraction, baby!  


Accomplishments:
~  I did manage to outline a short story I’ve been kicking at around.  Itching to get back to work.  

Photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos

>I have to wait how long?

>

This past weekend, I finished the first rewrite of Wishful Thinking.  Five minutes after, a funny thought occurred to me: I couldn’t wait to go back and reread it from the beginning.  And I wanted to do that right then.


I wrote this for the first time during the 2009 NaNoWriMo, the idea one I’d been kicking around for  months before.  I wrote somewhat faithfully to the first outline I drafted in October and breezed through the first draft.  I even hit my 50k words well before the November 30th deadline.  Still, I worked on, reaching The End in December at 63k.


Took the draft with me on the plane heading east for the holidays.  Read the first chapter and realized it all sucked.  Really bad.  The climax scene was anything but.  I know the common rule is to read from page one until the last without editing but I couldn’t imagine wasting several hours on something I was going to rip to shreds.


So I didn’t.  I put the manuscript away for almost all of January.  When I came back to it, I grabbed the first chapter and pulled out what I liked.  The plot had changed dramatically so chapter two was a goner.  Unfortunately, so was chapter three, most of four, all of… well the rest.  I think out of the first edition, I’ve kept about 20k words.  Even that might be a stretch.  


At the least,  I’ve learned I’m fairly detached from my work.  I’ve learned lots more stuff too and will chat about it in the coming days when I’m trying not to go back in and peek.  I’m not sure what my reaction is going to be when I reread in a couple of weeks, but I know this plot is stronger and more interesting the way I’ve rewritten it.  Lasting a couple of weeks is going to be the hard part.    




Distractions:
~  I was a laser-guided missile the last several days.  The three loads of washed and dried laundry in piles on my bed can attest to it.  As can the receipts scattered on the counter from a take-out/eat-out frenzy.  As can children who look at me and say, mommy?  Well, not really, they all still remember me, but I holed up as much as I could and cranked out the last 4k words.


Accomplishments:
~ 75,471 words, the majority fresh.  Which means for Wishful Thinking, I’ve written at least 130k words.  Letting that sink in.

Photo courtesy of Francesco Marino

>First Page Blogfest

>

Kelly Lyman at Kelly’s Compositions is hosting a First Page Blogfest and I’d hoped to squeeze in right at the deadline.  This entry is from my wip, Wishful Thinking, which has three scenes to go.  

#   #    #   #

Aurelie scanned the sides of the road stretching before her, seeking the perfect tree.  Only the best would do.  A stout tree for hand-crafted Aston Martins weren’t made of fiberglass and spit.   She needed elegant.  Evergreen.   She wrapped her slender fingers around the leather steering wheel, feeling the powerful engine purr as she accelerated.  The DB9 handled like no other car.  A pity it needed to be sacrificed. 

The swick-flick of windshield wipers brushing away steady raindrops did not distract from her task.  Her focus rested entirely on her mission.  She wondered, when the end came, if it would hurt, if she would feel any pain.  That was partly why she wanted a big tree.  Aurelie didn’t want to linger in agony, hovering between life and death for a minute longer than necessary.  Just get it over with.

A glance at the speedometer showed her cruising at forty miles per hour.  A little slow for that stretch of road if anyone else joined her.  So far, Aurelie had encountered only oncoming traffic and even those instances had been sporadic.  Rush hour and its relentless traffic had been long gone, those worker bees tucked into bed with their night lights on.  Where Aurelie drove, closer to the mountains, the road wound through miles of pine trees interspersed with open plats.  Two lanes of meandering asphalt ferrying the souls who desired gainful employment in the bigger cities without sacrificing aesthetics.  She wondered whether they realized how much of their souls had been traded long ago, how much informed consent they had given.

>Not so fast, romance…

>

The last several days, I’ve been writing until my fingertips cramp.  Partly to make up for the tiny funk from two weeks ago, and partly because I am almost finished with the 2nd pass/rewrite of Wishful Thinking.  It looks amazing to see that typed out.  Almost finished.

This means for a self-imposed three weeks off from the novel, my husband won’t look over in concern at me every time I gasp, or glare furiously at my screen because the antagonist pulled a rather %^&$# move.  I think he wants to ignore most of them but doesn’t want to get stuck if my expressions are reality related.

It also means I can take a break from the emotions of my characters.  Throwing rocks at them takes a toll on even the most wonderful days; when the words are hard to come by, every pebble becomes a boulder and I kick and scream more than my darling main characters.

In the meantime, the last five scenes are the hardest ones to write.  My protagonist is elevated, hopeful, like the couple in the picture above.  She has no idea what’s coming.  But I do, and it isn’t pretty.  It’s sad, it’s messy, and it’s the way it has to be.  And it’s almost over.  For now. 

Things that distracted me on the internet:

~  Trying to work through what the Health Care Act means for me.  Lots of text to slog through. 

~  Reserved my iPad and raring to pick it up on 4/3.  I am even going to brave the crowds of people to get it.  This is no small deal for me since any group larger than 5 people is a crowd to me. 

 Non-internet distractions:

~  Dragon Age: Awakenings conquered.  Hats off to the writing team on this franchise, the lore is well done.

 Accomplishments:

~  Did I mention around 5 scenes to go?  Granted they are the longer ones because they are ramping up to climax but I’m in the last 2 or 3 chapters.  Woot!

Image above courtesy of Dynamite Imagery/Free Digital Photos

>What do you call spring cleaning if it isn’t spring?

>

I am convinced writer’s funk is worse than writer’s block.

I can blame the sun for daring to shine for days before slipping behind the clouds again where it belongs this time of year.  I can blame having to rewrite several scenes (ok, the whole end of the book…) because the plot works better this way.  I can blame my house for being dirty.

What I ended up doing – moped for three days, scrubbed the master bathroom, rearranged middle daughter’s room (and bought her a tv).

The whole time I complained I wasn’t writing.

Before I left for a weekend break and some fun, I sat down and pumped out 1800 words of a scene that had been bugging me for a bit.  Of course I break the funk right before swearing to leave the laptop home.  Part of me feared I might not get back into it when I returned.  Irrational thinking that turned out to be – over 3500 words over the course of the day yesterday.

The funk has faded, I’m energized and ready to get this novel done.  I learned two important lessons over the last week though.  1. Writing can be a bitch.  2.  I don’t feel right anymore without doing it.  I am clearly an insane typist (Thanks @alta03).

Things that distracted me on the internet:

~  More research on setting I needed for a scene between brothers.  Decided to bookmark it but wasn’t worth adding too much description. 

~ I had fallen way behind in my blog reading and I wanted to peruse the expert websites.  There were too many good updates to list but my Distracting Writers and Agents blogs are starts. 

Non-internet distractions:

~  EA Games and Blizzard helped pass the rest of the time when I wasn’t scrubbing my house.  And indoor waterparks are pretty awesome.  Running up and down five flights of stairs, not so much.

Accomplishments:

~  Will cross the 50k barrier today.  The rest of the book is a rewrite and I am determined to be 3/4 of the way done before April 1st.

>Hot dogs that snap when you bite into them…

>

 

Now that I’ve gotten my sun fix for the day… .

In all seriousness, I bow to our weather overlords for giving us  in the greater Seattle area the second best winter I’ve experienced here.  The first time around, I hadn’t realized how atypical a winter it was.  This is the first year since then I haven’t needed to fly to LA and parts south for a break.

Just as the rain usually doesn’t let up here, I’ve tried writing every day including the weekends, including when I didn’t feel it, when the scenes had to be ripped screaming from my brain.  And each time I’ve forced myself, I wind up deleting or archiving what I’ve written.  If there is one thing I can’t stand (besides from hot dogs that snap when you bite into them…), it’s inefficiency.  Writing subpar is bad enough but writing subpar just to hit a number of words on a spreadsheet is a waste of time.  

So, I’m ready to try something revolutionary.  Something atypical.  At the end of the day, I’m going to go through what I’ve written and take words off the total for various insults to the English language.  Something like a net return on decent words.  I’ll give myself a break if the sentence could be written a little better.  No, the words I’m talking about are most adverbs that I throw in lazily (:P  I’m talking about the word ‘just’, the word ‘that’, the filler words padding my word count.

I’ll post next week how I did.  Now, excuse me while I play hooky and get my pasty self some more vitamin D from the primary source before mother nature tells me she didn’t mean to give us an early spring.

Things that distracted me on the internet:
~  The teen needs a driving school to get her one step closer to her license.  I’m trying not to fall over how expensive it is to drive when you are <18 years old. 
~  The teen also needs a college and has given me a short list to peruse.  Somehow, I’m not experiencing sticker shock there.  I am experiencing information way overload. 

Non-internet distractions:
~  Pulled my level 66 druid out of languishment and have been fast leveling her.  My server went down unexpectedly and I played around on my Alliance priest (1st character).  So strange not to fly to Thrallmar 🙂

Accomplishments:
~  Passed the halfway point on rewrites/1st round of edits.  Have made peace with tossing more than 25k words from manuscript.  If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.  Oh well.  Also made it through a difficult scene emotionally and the family is only singed.  😀

>Cool Chick and Procrastination

>

A lovely award arrived for me the other day, called a Cool Chick, thanks to Carolina Valdez Miller (go check out her talented self).  


I’m passing along the rules: Before you take him home, you have to tell me how you like your eggs cooked. Feel free to hand over the award to other Cool Chicks if you wish, but please advise those recipients to keep his hutch clean and tidy at all times. Oh, and make sure he has plenty of grain and water. And love…. 

I only eat my eggs scrambled or in an omlette (which counts as scrambled).  I’ll add cheese, mushroom, shredded zucchini, but that’s about it.  
I will be passing along my Cool Chick in another post, when my unsuspecting victims delighted recipients will love him too 🙂


Procrastination….
Only a few more days left of Pen Olympics and I’m feeling the crunch.  I may have been a tad overeager with my goals.  Not anticipating needed several new scenes in my editing has put me behind and I’m pushing to catch up.  No matter where I end up, I will have at least 3 chapters more revised/rewritten and I can only count them as a win.  I may have had a little more done had I not caved and commenced leveling a druid in WoW but that was whispered and no one heard.


Things that distracted me on the internet:
~  Still following the 2010 Olympics when I can catch them and at this point, I can only catch them online.  Going for highlights.
~  Today is TwitterTattoo day and I’ve been considering more ink for a while.  Motivated to find something close to an idea I’ve had which incorporates the triquetra; I discovered Celtic Trinity Knot Swirl as designed by Captain Bret in Rhode Island.  It’s perfect (middle of page from the link) and I want.


Non-internet distractions:
~  The Kodak ink commercial interests me but for some reason the sound of the ink splatting on the paper is my nails on a chalkboard moment.  Included in that moment is the sound of chewing food with mouth partially open.  It’s not you, it’s totally me.


Accomplishments:
~  The toddler nap strike goes on but I am rising to the challenge and cranking out 2k + words a day.  I have no idea why but it’s not like I’m putting a stopper on this bottle.  

>Sleep Writing

>

The other day, I was having a bit of a laugh with someone about sleepwriting and how funny some of the output is when reading it the next morning.  Naturally, I got to thinking about whether writing anything while too tired to form coherent sentences is a waste of time.


My unscientific conclusion is: no writing is ever a waste of time.


I can think of plenty I would consider a waste of time.  Putting down a fresh layer of mulch a week before the windy season – waste of time (and money, but I’ve already kicked myself and learned from that mishap).  Steam cleaning the carpet with three kids and a dog (needs to be done anyway).  Going to the mailbox (has the level of junk mail tripled in the last year or so?).


No matter what gibberish lays on the screen in the morning after two cups or so of coffee, I find I can always salvage something.  A thought, a phrase, an emotion needing to be expanded on.  After I finish erasing the embarrassing prose I wouldn’t even let my husband read (and he likes most of my stuff), I look at the potentials left and get back to work.


I find, however, all of the above does not apply when writing intoxicated.  I bow to the myriad authors out there who are/were slaves to the drink and produce masterpieces.  I’m not even sure I can get a noun/verb thing going together.


Things that distracted me on the internet:
~  Wealth, and I mean potential to be distracted for days wealth, of information to read on agents, the publishing industry, and more with tons of links thanks to Teresa Nielsen Hayden, courtesy of Neil Gaiman.  I’m in research obsessed heaven right now.  Here’s the linky.  It’s from 2005 but hey, it’s new to me 🙂  It might be new to you.
~  Revising my novel means putting my characters in something other than white space.  While I can visualize a house layout, sometimes it’s nice to look at a picture of something while I write.  Home plans on the internet rock.  Home plans (in microscopic print) for 10k + sq ft homes are drool worthy.


Non-internet distractions:
~  Two of my three kidlets are back in school after a mid-winter break.  ‘Cause two weeks off around the Christmas holiday and a week in April isn’t enough.  I believe this may qualify for accomplishment rather than distraction.


Accomplishments:
~  Three days this week/end of 3k plus words written.  A two scene chapter has morphed into four when realization struck me that I was leaving a lot of stuff out.  All good things have gone in.  Very pleased.

>Award from @EisleyJacobs

>

 So, here I am, waking up from a decent length sleep, and grab my Blackberry off the side table.  (More about my obsession with having my phone near me at all times later)  A cute little icon shows up at the top, letting me know I’ve been mentioned in Twitter.


And, looky what I got!


@EisleyJacobs from Twitter awarded me Lesa’s Bald Faced Liar “Creative Writer” Blog Award.


I rub my eyes and wonder why my tweeples are calling me a liar.  I’m always honest about their prose!  Oh man, I might have used up a truth that could’ve gone below…


After really waking up, it all becomes clearer.  The answer is really 42  This is a good award, as Eisley put it – Lying for a good cause 🙂


Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven “Creative Writers” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.


Now on to my balderdash…and true statements. But which is which? (hint, I have 2 of either lies or the truth)
1. I have 3 daughters and each were born in a different state.
2. I have an eidetic memory that I conceal most of the time so I don’t scare people.
3. I have no first cousins at all.
4. I had to have someone come set up my computers and networking.
5. I have a BBA in management.
6. I once sold cheap knockoff perfume in parking lots and I was terrible at it.
7. I have blue eyes.


So, which ones are true… and which is the bold faced lie? Comment if you know! Or if you want to take a guess.


Now to tag my unsuspecting friends with blogs you should go read. They are my latest #amwritingparty and writing followers. 


Courtney Reese (@CourtneyReese86)
Carolina Valdez Miller (@cvaldezmiller)
Kimberly Gonzalez (@kimberlycreates)
Tina Marie Frawley (@TinaFrawley)
Clair Devers (@clairdevers)
Dustin Hansen (@DustHansen)
Riley Carney (@RileyCarney)



In honor of this post (and I have to rush to the dentist without my hair up in a towel) I will put my distractions in later 🙂

>The Olympics are coming

>

I can’t wait for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC to start tomorrow.  For one thing, live sporting events are occurring in my time zone.  I never realized how New York centric we are until moving from there to the west coast.  I will not complain (in this post  at least) about 10am Sunday football.


Back to the Olympics…  Another thing, these are the winter games and I vastly prefer the winter games to the summer ones.  Sorry track and field, your javelins may be fun, and your runners may be lightning fast, but come on!  No way you are beating out alpine skiing, speed skating (Woot Apolo!), and yes, even curling oh you strange sport you.  Need I even mention hockey?  (Why doesn’t Washington have a professional hockey league?)


Now, I am psyched to be watching the Olympics, but a little disappointed that they are happening 3 hours from home and I won’t be there in person.  I’ll get over it in the next decade or so.  


This year, the two weeks surrounding the Olympics are also playing host to the Pen Olympics, an event happening by the fantastic advice givers Alicia and Theresa over at Edittorent.  Since I am distracted by the internet more often than not, I plan on giving the friendly competition my all.  These chapters don’t edit themselves after all.


Go, USA! USA! USA! 


Things that distracted me on the internet:
~  Reading about the Kubler-Ross model.  Since this is technically research for a short story I’m working on, does this count as distraction or accomplishment?
~  Believe it or not, I have another possible accomplishment distraction (can I use those together like that?) – body language descriptions.  Sometimes a shrug can mean different things depending on what body part is doing it.  That’s all I’m saying on that, here.


Non-internet distractions:
~  My darling two year old came downstairs with a sliver of paper wadded in her adorable hands, quite proud of herself.  So was I until I saw she had shredded a 1/4 of my working outline for my short story.  The outline I had handwritten and chose not to type because the story would be done in the time it took.  Or not.  Many thanks to scotch tape and my middle daughter for not decimating that roll hidden in the back of the drawer.


Accomplishments:
~  Come on, the distracted has to count today.  Okay, 500+ words on the short.  With last night that makes it half done.