Well, April didn't turn out quite like I was expecting. I had oodles of freetime, there were times when I literally spent an hour lying in bed staring at the ceiling. And yet still--no words. No nothing.
Guess going through a separation (and soon divorce) doesn't encourage those creative juices! So my total was dismal. I think that Novel 4 is done-for. It's excruciating to write, I think it's coming out boring and affected, and I haven't got any excitement to even finish it. I won't think of it as a waste of 17k words, though! I like to think that I've learned and improved from it.
On the bright side, I dug back into Novel 1, and I still think it has promise! Want to finish this overhaul and then will be querying seriously.
Words written: 2,008.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Blast From the Past
I just found an old school assignment in one of my "memory" boxes filled with odds and ends. We had to write our own obituaries--I believe it was in 6th or 7th grade. It's so funny to remember what a little silly I was, and to see how some things never change! I didn't fix any of the errors, and I just wish I could make the font show the sparkly, blue gel pen it was written with!
Nora Bailey: Author of our age
Nora Anne Bailey was born on September 7, 1987 in Madison, WI. At 7 years of age she moved to Decorah, IA where she attended elementary, middle, and high school. In 2006 [apparently I didn't do my math very well, because I was a class of 2005 grad!] she moved to Massachussetts to attended Harvard University.
After four years at Harvard, Nora began to pursue her lifelong goal: to become an author. Her first book is called Down to the Meadow and is a delightful book. After its publication, she churned out many more favorites such as: Devestation on Pine Street, Dettenburg is Dead, Living at Pine Grove [I had a thing for pine, I guess?], and Last Call for Honor. By 2014, Nora had become a well known and well loved author. She lived in the suburbs of Chicago, IL with her two cats, Literature and Creativity [puke, I'm sorry, fictional cats!]. She wrote about one or two novels a year until 2022 when she wrote her most well known book The First Word.
At the age of thirty-seven [I was a little off...like 15 years.] she married [name redacted] and had one child, Chloe [This was before I realized it was an option to not have kids!]. Nora continued to write until the age of 76. She died at the age of 76 on July 27, 2064 in a carplane accident.
She remains one of the world’s most famous author and her books continue to captivate readers of all ages. May she rest in peace.
Ah, naive younger Nora! But still, reminds me that I really don't have any other major dreams in life except being an author, so I probably should get off my ass and get writing!
Nora Bailey: Author of our age
Nora Anne Bailey was born on September 7, 1987 in Madison, WI. At 7 years of age she moved to Decorah, IA where she attended elementary, middle, and high school. In 2006 [apparently I didn't do my math very well, because I was a class of 2005 grad!] she moved to Massachussetts to attended Harvard University.
After four years at Harvard, Nora began to pursue her lifelong goal: to become an author. Her first book is called Down to the Meadow and is a delightful book. After its publication, she churned out many more favorites such as: Devestation on Pine Street, Dettenburg is Dead, Living at Pine Grove [I had a thing for pine, I guess?], and Last Call for Honor. By 2014, Nora had become a well known and well loved author. She lived in the suburbs of Chicago, IL with her two cats, Literature and Creativity [puke, I'm sorry, fictional cats!]. She wrote about one or two novels a year until 2022 when she wrote her most well known book The First Word.
At the age of thirty-seven [I was a little off...like 15 years.] she married [name redacted] and had one child, Chloe [This was before I realized it was an option to not have kids!]. Nora continued to write until the age of 76. She died at the age of 76 on July 27, 2064 in a carplane accident.
She remains one of the world’s most famous author and her books continue to captivate readers of all ages. May she rest in peace.
Ah, naive younger Nora! But still, reminds me that I really don't have any other major dreams in life except being an author, so I probably should get off my ass and get writing!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
March 2011 Wrap-Up
About the only good thing that can be said for March was that it was better than February.
Words written: 4,765.
Then again, I knew this month would be rough with moving and everything. April, on the other hand, should be a treasure trove! Of course, I'm sitting at zero right now--but that is about to change as soon as I finish this blog post!
I will be finishing up my move this week, and then I am going to have bundles of free time. And hopefully the determination to actually use that free time productively! My goal is 15,000 words. That's only 500 a day, so this isn't a big step up in terms of goals for the year, but it will be such a huge improvement over the past few months that I'll be thrilled!
Words written: 4,765.
Then again, I knew this month would be rough with moving and everything. April, on the other hand, should be a treasure trove! Of course, I'm sitting at zero right now--but that is about to change as soon as I finish this blog post!
I will be finishing up my move this week, and then I am going to have bundles of free time. And hopefully the determination to actually use that free time productively! My goal is 15,000 words. That's only 500 a day, so this isn't a big step up in terms of goals for the year, but it will be such a huge improvement over the past few months that I'll be thrilled!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Learning From the Mistakes of Others
If you haven't seen this meltdown by an indie author, I highly encourage you to check it out. (http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html)
Perfect example of why people don't always take writers seriously. Truly shocking behavior, I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from this. One, always make sure you are sending out the best possible product. Can you imagine sending a query to an agent and then quickly backpedaling with "Oh no, that was the wrong copy, please read this instead?" I'd imagine that's instant form rejection territory. And two, no matter how precious your work is to you, you can't protect it forever.
Not everyone will like your writing. Or my writing. But on the bright side, we're in good company. There is not a single author in the world that isn't disliked by somebody.
So keep doing your thing, working hard, being professional, and writing for yourself, not everyone else.
Perfect example of why people don't always take writers seriously. Truly shocking behavior, I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from this. One, always make sure you are sending out the best possible product. Can you imagine sending a query to an agent and then quickly backpedaling with "Oh no, that was the wrong copy, please read this instead?" I'd imagine that's instant form rejection territory. And two, no matter how precious your work is to you, you can't protect it forever.
Not everyone will like your writing. Or my writing. But on the bright side, we're in good company. There is not a single author in the world that isn't disliked by somebody.
So keep doing your thing, working hard, being professional, and writing for yourself, not everyone else.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Into the ether...
I am in a rage! Well, I'm not a very angry person, so I suppose it's more like my feathers are ruffled. Either way, not happy! I actually felt like writing today, but I thought working on one of my short stories rather than my current WIP would help get the juices flowing. I went to go find it...and it's not saved in my Writing folder.
Then I have the horrible, sinking realization that I wrote the first half on my computer at work. Where I left two weeks ago. So that work is pfffft! Just gone!
It wasn't a lot. Maybe a page and a half of writing. But the idea of going back and re-doing it is more than I can handle! I do have a very, very slim hope that it is on an old USB, but since I don't really know where that USB is (in the middle of moving...), that isn't going to do me much good.
I guess it's back to the drawing board! Grumble...
Then I have the horrible, sinking realization that I wrote the first half on my computer at work. Where I left two weeks ago. So that work is pfffft! Just gone!
It wasn't a lot. Maybe a page and a half of writing. But the idea of going back and re-doing it is more than I can handle! I do have a very, very slim hope that it is on an old USB, but since I don't really know where that USB is (in the middle of moving...), that isn't going to do me much good.
I guess it's back to the drawing board! Grumble...
Friday, March 11, 2011
February 2011 Wrap-Up
I know, I know, I'm way overdue! In my defense, I started deployment a week before the end of February, and although I'm back now (yay for PCS orders), it threw a major wrench in my schedule. Also I went through a huge debacle in my marriage--which, thankfully, seems to be back on track. So maybe now I can get back to writing! Because these totals for February--well, they're shocking.
Words written: 1,486.
Yikes. I know! And so far for March I'm doing even worse. But like I said--life has been throwing me a few curves! I am ready to knuckle down and get some work done. Especially as I have oodles of free time until May.
And on the bright side, I did get a re-read of draft 2 of Novel 1 done, made some notes, and am ready to attack draft 3!
Words written: 1,486.
Yikes. I know! And so far for March I'm doing even worse. But like I said--life has been throwing me a few curves! I am ready to knuckle down and get some work done. Especially as I have oodles of free time until May.
And on the bright side, I did get a re-read of draft 2 of Novel 1 done, made some notes, and am ready to attack draft 3!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Blogroll!
I added a new section on the sidebar for the writing blogs that I like to read. I'm not sure if anyone will ever read this blog or care, but if they do, maybe they can stumble upon stuff that helps them too.
Reading about writing almost always inspires me to get up off my ass and write! TGFWB!
Reading about writing almost always inspires me to get up off my ass and write! TGFWB!
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