Thursday, December 31, 2009

Shower Time

Some of my best "book" time is spent in the shower while hubby is home to watch baby. I really prefer to have a good idea of the scenes that I'm about to write before I actually sit down to write them. That means the shower time is very important to me and my book. Another good time for me is as I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep. Granted, I don't usually come up with new ideas but I'm able to play out scenes in my head over and over again so that I have them "just right."
Oh yeah,
HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I will be going to sleep in aproximately 45 minutes, so the new year will be ringing in while I'm asleep. That's ok, I really like my sleep. So since resolutions seem to always be the theme this time of year, I'll mention mine. It's one I've already commited to though. I will finish my current WIP in 2010 and have it queried out to agents too. And since looking back and looking forward are also a big part, here goes:
My favorite part of 2009? My baby being born! The next best thing of 2009 was being able to move back home to be near our family.
What am I looking forward to? My baby growing up and walking and playing with him and doing all the things I've always done, but with my baby. You know, like swim, play with the horses, sit in the sun, go camping.... Ok, onward, onward!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A downward spiral

The word count on my chapters is shrinking from chapter to chapter. I think I know how to fix it, but that won't happen until, you got it, editing time. I think that it's a matter of trying to cram a whole bunch of vital information in the first couple chapters and now I'm getting on with the story. There's also another possible reason but that has to do with how I'm structuring the book and I'm not confident with it, anyways. I'm thinking some of the information may be able to wait until later in the book to come out and possible I will divide the first few chapters. That would mess with the structure I'm talking about though. These are all problems that I will deal with at editing time. Oh, I foresee a headache coming on!
Another downer: New Years plans were ruined by hubby having to unexpectedly work :( Oh well, for all that, I'm really not in a bad mood, just a little bored :) Onward, Onward!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Progress

I figured out a couple days ago something that was niggling at me in my story. It just wasn't quite right but I wasn't sure what 'it' was. Once I figured it out I decided that the first few chapters will survive until editing time before I fix it in them. From here on out the detail will be correctly modified to fit the story. I thought at first it would bother me to not go back and fix it, but other than my one quick change(a few paragraphs from where I had stopped writing before figuring 'it' out) it doesn't bother me at all. I know there are so many things that will change and be tweaked later but all I'm focused on now is writing this first draft into completion.
Baby has been doing pretty darn good at night :) He falls asleep around 7 or 8 and usually wakes up before 9 for his last bottle. Then he sleeps until about 430 or 5 am. This makes me quite happy! On the other hand I know that this isn't neccesarily normal, nor is it guarenteed to continue. According to babycenter.com, some 1 out of 6, 6 month olds sleep all the way through the night. Many parents are getting up, up to 6-8 times a night(even if it's just to insert binky.) So don't feel bad if your baby isn't sleeping so long. It seems that's the norm! lol
557 words were written yesterday! It was basically another rare scene from the pov of the mmc(main male character). Ok, onward to facebook and then writing :)

Monday, December 28, 2009

Progress

I managed to write a little over 900 words last night. I'm not sure if where I stopped was a good end of the scene. I was so tired that my eyelids felt like they were made of lead. Quite possibly that could be a sign of a crappy scene :( Hopefully not. How sad is it that at 9 pm I'm done for? lol at myself.
I am planning on breaking out the pack 'n play today. My son is too fast and inquisitive for me to do anything anymore. There was a point in time before now that I thought a play pen was cruel and lazy. I can not spend all day sitting behind him to catch him when he pulls up on the couch, the tv stand, the highchair, etc... when there are dished to do, a floor to sweep, etc... The problem right now is a Christmas tree and the very small apartment we live in. I'm hoping to get the PNP out first and have that safety net for taking down the tree. Speaking of the tree, I was going to leave it up until after New Years, but "Why?" I ask myself. It is only in the way and blocked off from baby. The PNP will be taking it's spot, hopefully soon :)
Ok, enough rambling, enjoy your day!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Merry Christmas

Ok, so it's a bit late, but I still mean it. Merry Christmas! I had a wonderful holiday and I am looking forward to New Years and getting together with friends I haven't seen in a while. Baby had a good first Christmas and a bad night. :( I think it was all the stimulation and running around that day. I was up at 10(awake, but hubby inserted the binky), 11, 12, 1, 2, and 430. I also had major sinus congestion. Baby loved all of his new toys and is still having a blast with them. Surprisingly I didn't get one book,hardback version of Twilight doesn't count since I've read it more than twice :) So now I'm going to have to buy my own books :)
I haven't done any writing since my last post. I did come up with an idea that will fix something that has been niggling at me about being not quite right for the book. With hubby having a 4 day wknd and the holiday, I've been too exhausted to write by the end of the day. And to be truthful, I wasn't quite feeling it. I wonder, do other authors ever hit a time when they feel 'bla' about writing? I don't know if it's the writing itself or something else. *shrugs* But after slacking for so long, I feel the need to "man up" and write. Ok, off to type for a few minutes :) NO facebook, no facebook, no facebook... :)

Monday, December 21, 2009

Caution! I Tend to Ramble.

I love the Deadline Dames blog. It is a simple fact of life, of my life that is. They have been such a huge influence on my attempt at writing a book. While sometimes they depress me (see last post), they then lift me up! The latest blog, Just One More Page, talks about how a book goes from idea, to clay on the table(first draft), shaping the clay (2nd draft), making it beautiful(Final draft) and then adding the glaze(edits and proofs.) Now, I realize I will probably be doing more than 3 drafts, that still doesn't ruin how this blog made me feel much better.
Most things don't just become instantly beautiful and good, they require lot's of hard work! But if there's nothing there to work on(aka that 1st draft), then there is nothing there to make beautiful and good. Thinking about this in horse-terms, if you're training a horse to be rideable, the first draft corelation would be establishing a good relationship with the horse. No relationship=no foundation.
Now, I haven't written much since the last post, but I have: went to 2 nieces basketball games, finished my Christmas shopping, cleaned the bathroom, fed another round bale to the constantly eating beasties out in the field, had quiet time with my hubby... So obviously I have somewhat twisted priorities, but that's ok. I am where I am, aka in a position to have some spare time to write, because of wanting all of that stuff that I've done the past few days. I didn't know that having a baby and moving back to be near family would also free me up to write. I'll consider it a bonus :) And I won't be disappointed that it's not like all those executives at the banks bonuses :)
Anyways, since the last depressed blog, I've written 1,375 words. I wrote a scene with my top girl's top guy and I'm feeling like I've gotten to know him a little bit better. On top of that, I've realized that while I've gotten short bio's on all my characters, I still don't know them all that well. I feel like that by the end of the first draft, I should know them well enough that I could flesh out a better bio if I wanted to, but more importantly, I'll be able to edit better by then because I'll know the characters better. I've seen a lot of blogs and comments where other writers do extensive bio's first. I'm sure that works for them, but for me, right now, I don't mind how I'm going at it. Hopefully I'll be published one day and then I'll be required to be a bit more organized to get other books bought before they're written. For right now I'm using this first book as a "get to know me" phase. I'll figure out what worked and what didn't and go from there. Ok, now I've rambled enough, I'm off to... well who knows!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Model

I am considering making my baby a model. LOL, my ultimate goal would be to make enough money off of him that my hubby can stay at home too. Ok, seriously, I just got the pictures that I had taken of baby for his being six months. My baby is adorable! No, really, he is! When I saw the pictures, I thought to myself(and almost said out loud to the secretary at the photograper's business), "My baby is freaking cute!" I managed to restrain myself though.
Ok, onto bigger, better, longer things: 1, 132 words were wrote yesterday.
Now, just so you know, I'm depressed. I was reading some blogs written over at the Deadline Dames and have realized that I am going to have so much editing to do. Just the thought of it all almost makes me want to quit. I know that first drafts should be crap; that's just how it is. But still, it is depressing me. Anyways, now that I've given myself my much needed interenet time, I'm off to see if I can write some more crap...*scrunching face* not crap, just first draft quality words. Ok, see ya!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

La, la, la...

Ok, enough joyful singing. Today I managed to write about 1,148 words in about 47 minutes. I've got it in my head how I want the chapter to go, so basically it's a matter of just sitting down and typing. I always feel a little bogged down as I get to each chapter and have to do that whole working out the details thing. I just can't sit down and type. I have to have a detailed idea of each scene that I want to fit in a chapter. Then I take all of my "spare" time and hash out more details, picturing the scenary and listening to the characters' conversations. Now, once I get past the plotting out detailed ideas, I can easily get the scenes started typing-wise while I'm still playing things out in my head. What a hodge podge of way of getting 'er done, huh? Oh well, may be it will get easier with each book I write and finish(*a little bit of positive thinking there*), at least I certainly hope so!

Word Count

Just to be brief('cause I have got some cleaning to do while baby sleeps!):
I wrote 514 words yesterday. I also finished plotting out exactly how I "think" chapter 3 should go(before I wrote the 514 words.) And a few nights ago when I started a tentative detailed plot for ch. 3, I also started a tentative detailed plot for ch. 4. Now, off to cleaning! Yeah! *You couldn't read it, but if I had said it, you would have heard the sarcasm!*

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Just for the record

Ok, so I think I finished chapter 2 yesterday. Now I need to sit and thoroughly plot out chapter 3(I all ready have the general idea). I'm hoping that as I plot out chapter 3 I'll get a feel for whether chapter 2 was really done. Of course if I start writing 3 and then realize 2 wasn't done I will then have the dilema of whether or not to break the No Editing rule again. Oh well, I'm fairly confident I have it right. And...just for the record, below is my current writing update.
Time spent writing:33 minutes
Word count:20,748
Number of pages:60 1/3
Words written yesterday:887

On the darker side of life, last night sucked royally. Baby was bad...For no reason he was up at 230 am and wouldn't go back to sleep. After an hour of sitting and standing around in the dark with him, he then decided that either A. he was hungry or B. he wanted a bottle to sooth himself back to sleep. I wasn't going to feed him since he usually goes until 430 or even later before having to eat. Hubby gave in and fed him. After that baby was asleep and hubby couldn't sleep. So he went in to work over an hour earlier than normal. Due to parenting differences, I have no sympathy for him. :)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Drip...drip...

Writing has currently slowed to a mere trickle. In fact today was the first day I've wrote anything in several days. I've either been busy with "stuff" or busy with baby. I've also slowed down quite a bit on blogging. I'm afraid the drip...drip...dripping may continue until after the holidays. Also it is very cold. I have been quite spoiled with unusually nice weather until now. It is quite disappointing.
On a happier note, my Christmas tree is up and has lights on half of it. I hope I finish the lights and ornaments before Christmas :0 Also, I picked up my Christmas cards yesterday and let me just tell you, my baby is freakin' adorable! lol, I'm thinking of making him a model so hubby can quit his job and we can both be stay at home parents. ;)

Friday, December 4, 2009

Let's talk about...Life

So today started out wonderful and then went, well not so wonderful, but now is again, wonderful!
So baby did normal last night, maybe even better than normal. That surprised me since he had 4 shots yesterday. He was great this morning and I was super excited because my fil was going to watch him so I could get some major shopping done.
Well, I dropped him off with my fil and went out to feed the horses before I left. Our dog was going nuts! She was chewing desperately on her chainlink pen and looking around, I saw no reason for this. I yelled at her to stop it as I was walking around a shed, the dog disappearing out of sight for a minute. Breathing the crisp morning air, "cough". The scent of burning plastic drifted to my nose on the breeze of smoke. I ran the rest of the way around the shed and saw smoke trailing out of Izzy's dog house. My husband had wanted her to be warm(may be he should let her be an inside dog, but that's a different story) so he put a heat lamp in her house. Her house happens to be one of those thick plastic ones. He even checked it a couple hours later to make sure all was well and it was. Not this morning though! I unplugged the heat lamp and then pulled the house away from the shed it butts up to. Good thing, because a few seconds later all those smoldering shavings burst into flame. I ran to hook up the hose and turned it on. Did I mention there was frost on the ground? No? The hose was frozen. I decided I couldn't handle this as well as I thought so I ran inside. Thank you fil! The dog house collapsed a few minutes later. Izzy is perfectly fine but I'm wondering about tonight with no dog house. Of course, she probably(errr, hopefully) didn't sleep in it last night either.
Well, after that excitement, I went shopping :) I got some much needed stuff and started my chirstmas shopping :) I haven't wrote anything yet, but notice I said yet. There is a big scene that need writing and I've had a couple days to sit on it. Here's to hoping it turns out slammin'!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday?

So today I did no writing :) Lovely grammar, huh? Today was a mommy and baby day and family support day. While the morning was great with baby, the afternoon was bad. We had a dr.'s appt. and baby received 4 shots! Yuck, yuck, yuck! Fortunately, he's an angel. He stopped crying as soon as the pacifier went in his mouth and I picked him up :) He has also been really good this evening despite shots. Pray that the night is good for me too :)
Also tonight we went to see my niece's elementary school play; she's in 3rd grade. It was cute and sweet and short ;)
Tomorrow I will hopefully be super lucky and my fil will be watching my baby so I can go do lot's of much needed shopping(groceries, Christmas, horse feed, etc.)
Yesterday I wrote a total of 1,092 words. *Doing a happy dance* *Or not 'cause my fave kitty is curled up on my lap as I blog*
Also wanted to mention that one of the blogs I follow(Fangs, Fur and Fey) had a fab blog today. It was about the Really Very Beautiful Rule. You must read it! I copied the blog post and pasted it in my Book Journal(a journal I write in as I work on my book, it is filled with numbers, editing advice, words to thesaurus, my emotions, etc.). I will definetely be using it when editing rolls around.
Oh yeah, another great gadget was on Keri Arthur's blog. Ummm, how to explain? Well it basically shows you(literally) what words you use the most in your writing. www.keriarthur.com/blog It was posted a few days ago, the gadget is called Wordle. I also plan on using it.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Rain or Snow?

How about neither? I hope so. Anyways, just thought I'd update quickly as my baby is waking up.1,269 words yesterday.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

No Editing Allowed!

Well, I've broken my number one rule. Yesterday, I edited not once but twice, on a scene. It just wasn't right, pure and simple. It was not true to the characters and I felt like I could not go on. Needless to say, I do have it more true to the characters although I think that section is still only first draft quality.
Word Count:17,500
MW pages: 50 3/4's
Time spent:1 hour 15 minutes

Hope all is well with everyone!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is done and over with and I"m not quite sure how I feel about that. Just for your information, here's what I'm thankful for: God, my husband, my son, my family and friends, my animals, soldiers...
So I've been pretty busy between my son, the holiday, my husband having a 4 day weekend and I didn't do much over the past week. But I'm getting my blogging and blog reading done tonight so that tomorrow can be devoted to writing.
Current word count:16,402
Out!

Monday, November 23, 2009

The Numbers Game

I have an obsession with numbers. Not neccesarily math, but just numbers as they relate to writing a book. How many pages are there? What's the total word count? How many words did I write today? How much time did I spend writing? The list goes on and on! The only thing I can think of, is that it's a progress meter for me. Checking the numbers shows me that I really am getting somewhere(not the end yet, but at least somewhere closer) and not just fruitlessly spending my time.
I'm curious if the numbers will always stay my friends or if one day they'll become my enemies? I think that is a distinct possibility.
Anyways, as for numbers, I wrote 420 words yesterday :)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Short and Sweet

Current word count: 14,878
I'm working on how to figure out adding the blogs that I like to follow on the side bar, any suggestions?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

So Far this week

Riding: (-) It has been raining off and on all week. Not good for riding or working horses or for my nieces lesson for that matter.
Baby: 2 a.m. woke up for binky, 4 a.m. binky, 430 a.m. eat, 6 a.m. "Uh, hello mom, I'm awake!" Also, the combination of rain and it being deer hunting season means that I've gotten no absolutely and only me time. Blah! I am slowly turning to quickly burning out :(
Writing: Now this is a bit more positive. On Tuesday I spent a couple minutes jotting down(I say jotting, but actually I was typing, umm anyways...) some ideas for later on in the book. Here's the writing numbers:time=19 minutes, words written=392. Now today, Wednesday, was rocking. I wrote for 7 minutes on ideas for the next chapter and for what I wanted to get started today. The actual writing numbers for today were: 52 minutes, 969 words. So right now the total word count is 13,780 and there are 39 1/4 pages on MW. Woo Hoo!!!

Monday, November 16, 2009

WC

301 words in about 19 minutes vs. a couple nights before 63 words in 11 minutes
Current word count: 10,863
Update: The above wordcount was from last night. This afternoon I wrote 1,052 words in about 40 minutes. Woot! Woot!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Word Count

Mmmmmmm.......I only wrote about 62 words. I just wasn't in the mood(go figure) and couldn't even force out pure crap just for the sake of word count. Just out of curiousity, is there such a thing as "pure crap" ?

Friday, November 13, 2009

Can you help me find a pea-sized brain?

Riding: My little green mare lost her brain. I knew it was gone before I even had her caught. I knew it was gone when she nervous pooped as soon as I tied her up. I knew it when she took off trotting while I was riding her and wouldn't slow down. Luckily she did "whoa". I knew it when after lunging her again she didn't want to just walk. I knew it when I got back on her and she didn't want to just stand still. So really the only thing that got done was just getting a work out in. Nothing learned, but nothing hurt either.
Writing: Well, MO is installed and I'm off to use it:)

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Can you say, "short attention span" ?

Riding: None this morning, my f-i-l had to go pick up one of my nieces, aka another of his grandkids, to babysit today. But I did give my one of my other nieces a riding lesson. She did good, but she was in a goof off mood, so unlike last week, she wasn't "great." Don't get me wrong, she picked up on everything quick, she just wasn't in the mood to "keep at it." Oh well, she's a kid.
Writing: None :( But.... Hubby stopped by WallyWorld and bought MO, so I'll be at it again soon. That's a good thing too because I have lot's of thoughts and ideas and words floating around in my head and I feel like a kid who really needs to tie the balloon to their wrist or they are going to lose it!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Up, Down, Up, Down

Riding: Ok, so I actually wasn't posting the trot but it made for a good title. Right? I think if I acutally posted I'd probably scare the dickens out of Rain and make her shoot out from under me and leave me on the ground. It was warmer than normal for November so Rain actually sweated and she actually got tired! She did absolutely wonderful! She learned how to drop her head while stopped, or rather she learned to lower her head and neck, but not how to soften her face/jaw at the same time. To help her with the softening of the jaw/face, we're working on giving her face/jaw/neck to each side. She gives better to the left than the right. Rain even did wonderful when the other three horses went out of eye sight into the other field. I really want to ride her tomorrow, but I need to ride Big Boy so he's ready for my nieces lesson on Wednesday.
Writing: None :( However after having several days of not writing I realized I wasn't coming up with new ideas either. Then, in the middle of the night I woke up to the characters talking in my dreams. Laaaaa. I also realized at church on Sunday something else. I haven't been able to find music that really inspires me and gets me in the mood for writing. I have found that music/genre and that makes me super happy :)
Baby:Slept from 9 pm until 5 am, woke up to eat at 5 and decided it was time to be up. I spent the next hour and half getting up every 10 minutes to turn the mobile back on(he was turning it off) and/or putting the binky back in his mouth. When the alarm finally went off, he had been asleep about 10 minutes. Sounds cruel, but I woke his little butt up.
Job: Considering substituting at the local school, but not really sure I want to ;)

Friday, November 6, 2009

Just Riding, oh and Baby

Writing: No MS word and I detest writing long hand. Actually, what I detest is typing what I wrote long hand. Oh, and my hand cramping up while writing long hand. Ummm, yeah, I detest writing long hand.
Riding: Well, let's start with Wednesday. I gave my niece her first lesson in a few weeks(she was sick and other kid stuff got in the way) and she did great! Plus, Big Boy, was a saint and made me realize why I love him so. My N would start tsking(she can't cluck) for a trot and I'm sure that Big Boy thinks there is a loud fly on his back and then when she gets to the spot that she's supposed to have him trotting by, *thunk! thunk! thunk*, she whacks him with her heels, he jerks and then starts trotting. Bless his heart!
Now on to Thursday. I worked and rode Rain. I could tell when I was long lining her that she was bored, so I moved on quickly to riding. She did wonderful! We did almost as much trotting as walking and she was great. A couple of times she would drop out of the trot on her own, aka being lazy. But I would much rather her be lazy than be hyped up. It was a great ride. Today, no babysitter :( But hopefully hubby will watch baby tomorrow and I'll get to ride her again.
Today: I am having a good day so far. Baby is only a little fussy at times. Maybe he's trying to make up for horrible nights? For some reason he thinks he can get up an hour early than his normal night feeding(read: 3 am instead of 4 or 5). Here is the problem, I know he can make it to 5 am with out having to eat. So the other night I was trying to decide if I should try to eliminate the night feeding or not. Well, baby decided for me when he woke up way earlier than normal. So, I didn't feed him, but I did change his diaper cause it was full. Not to mention he is then fussy for the rest of the night, then he screams bloody murder at 5 am to eat and low and behold he hardly eats. What is up!!!! And my question is, if I have to get up and change a diaper at 3 am, why don't I just nurse him?! Sometimes I just don't know!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Coming up with titles gets old

Writing: None for the past 3 days. My excuse? Besides baby and shopping, well I was using the trial MO and now the use it free for so many days has ran out. So now I need to buy MO. The problem being that online it is $150 that I really don't have to spend on it right now. Hmmm, I'm hoping that the vague memory of it being cheaper at the store is true.
Riding: Yesterday I did a very light work-out on Rain. All she did was some round-penning, very little free jumping and lot's of grooming. I thought it wise to go easy since the last hard work out she had was over 10 days ago and the last work out she had was super duper light for video taping and pictures on Wednesday.
I rode Big Boy today and free jumped him. He was wonderful, of course!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Pulling Teeth

Writing:
I don't know why, but writing the first chapter is like pulling teeth! I have a bad feeling that the next couple of chapters are going to be the same way. For whatever reason, I keep having good ideas for scenes and moments further along in the book, but not the beginning. For instance, last night, as I was getting ready to climb into bed I had an idea for a scene several chapters later than what I'm writing that I had to go to the lap top and write. Grrrr!!! Why is this? I'm guessing that part of it is the further along the book goes, the more exciting it gets. What does this mean? Well once I've reached "The End" I am going to start pulling more teeth to edit the beginning of the book so that it is also exciting or at least not boring(you do have to build.) Something I wonder about is what I heard, umm read, from another author's blog. That author, I belive it was Rachel Vincent, said how she likes to try to get a chapter out a day and if it takes more than a couple of days to get a chapter out she feels like her pace is off, aka slow, even if it really isn't. So, is that what is up? Because it has taken me several, several days due to my writing time limitations(aka 5 month old baby) to get out a prologue(which I haven't decided to keep or not) and 1/2 to 2/3's of the first chapter.
Maybe it's a combo of those two things. Doesn't matter because I can't fix the latter and I'm more concerned with just getting through this book and the first chapters rather than editing to spice it up.
Riding:
Not a whole stinking lot! It has been raining continously for what seems like forever. In fact, about a week ago, a new record for rainfall in Oct. was set. That was before these past few days of rain, rain, rain. Luckily enough I was able to "work and ride" Rain yesterday afternoon. I put quotations on that because it wasn't much of a work out. Really my husband and I were just trying to get some under saddle photographs and video footage for a potential buyer who lives out of state. Of course, now we have to figure out how to get the video on the computer so we can edit it(I really, really hate the sound of my own voice.)
Anyways, back to writing:
24 minutes, 28 and 2/3's pages, 10014 words

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Rain and Rain Don't x

So it's been raining a ton and that's been holding me up with working with Rain. Combine that with no baby sitter and I've not gotten a whole lot done.

Now on to writing. Well, again, I haven't done a lot of that either :( No baby sitter, fussy baby, nap times when he's with the bs, my m-i-l borrowed the lap top for work, it just hasn't been working out. I did however pop out 6 minutes of plot work before my son woke up from his nap and that got out a quick outline of an idea that was floating around in my head while my lap top was MIA. During the next nap I also put in about 41 minutes of writing to the tune of 616 words. So right now I'm at 9378 words and 26 1/2 pages(MW not publisher's standards). Only about 70000 or so more to go.:)

On a web surfing note: I love to cruise around at other writers' blogs. They give me inspiration to keep writing, answer questions that are lurking in mine and other writers' heads, remind me of things that I should be doing. For instance from the Deadline Dames blog I've gotten the goal of writing a crappy first draft. All I want to do is get the words on paper and not worry about editing right now. To that idea of just getting the words down, I'm adding what I do as I write a story. I have a word document that is my story and then I have a w.d. that is my "research." It includes far more than research though. I have research, outline, character details, edited out scenes that I may want back :) and most importantly the "talking to myself" section. ttm is the most important part because this is where I keep track of my word count(for motivation, etc.) and write down editing ideas that I need to take care of "later." Basically the ttm section is my blog to myself. I highly suggest this if only for keeping track. Heck, maybe y'all all rady do this, but if not, I hope my suggestion helps you out.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Writing and Riding

Riding: I long-lined Rain in the pasture today. This was her first day being ll'd outside of the round pen and... two out of three of my other horses were loose in the field. She did really good those things considered. We did have a couple of "moments" that were a combination of Rain trying to get closer to the other horses and her not wanting to move forward and steer at the same time. With verbal encouragement (growling "get up") she pretty much got over that.

Writing: As of last night, 8276 words and 21 1/4 pages on Microsoft Word. 'Nough said, off to write today.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Thank YOU!

Thank you GOD! (Seriously, I'm a christian) I have had two somewhat rotten nights of sleep due to my baby, I had a pretty rotten work out with the mare I'm training this morning. I will say I definetly prayed to God to help me control my temper(2 bad nights of sleep) while working with Rain. Well, despite her being a turd, I did keep my temper in check. Somewhere in the fog of sleepiness, crankiness and trying desperately not to be out of sorts that it felt like all was going wrong and I was desperately wanting to finish something successfully with out interuption from a fussy baby I had a realization. Yes, I have a goal to finish the first draft by the new year and yes I want to make a career out of writing, and yes the dishes need done, but more importantly, I have a son! He is the most important thing and if I don't finish the book but he is happy then life is still great! Laaaaa, thank you GOD for knocking my ocd mind into order. I will win this battle of frustration at not finishing tasks in one try and not being able to write out book plot ideas as they come to me!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hard

Of course a book is hard to write. I know that, other authors(published or not) know that. But what I wonder is how hard is it for other writers? And do they face the same problems I do? I've started 3 different books and haven't finished any. I have finally determined that I am going to focus on one book at a time and finish it. My goal is to finish my YA book by the first of the year. Let me clarify that, by finish, I mean write the first draft. As for the editing and querying, well, I will see how long that will take when I get there. Right now I feel like I'm fighting through this book. I've done an outline but then I change it here and there. I've thought about how I generally want the book but now I've got to get that down. That can be pretty hard when I'm writing during my son's nap time(which was sporatic at best today :(, and in the evening when I'm tired from the day. Yes, I am whining! Ok, now that that's been said, onward to riding.
I rode my gelding today and he did wonderful! I rode Rain, the little mare I'm breaking out, yesterday for the first time in about 10 days. She did really good for me. So good that I even trotted her a little. She is going to be a wonderful little mare and dispite pressure from hubby, I have no regrets for taking my super slow time with her(which isn't always neccessary for her, but it's how I like it.) Ok, that's all for now.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Slacker!

It's been a busy weekend full of great fun. On the downside, no writing done :( However, I have certainly thought about my book! Does that count for anything? I hope so!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

49 Minutes

Ok, I put in 49 minutes of time on my book. I've got 5764 words and 16 1/3 pages done before my son woke up. That's pretty good, right?
No riding done today though, I didn't have a baby sitter, so that makes 6 days in a row with out working Rain or riding my gelding.
So good on the writing, but not the riding. Let's face it, that's going to become a trend as the weather gets worse as fall keeps on trucking and winter rolls in.

Monday, October 12, 2009

New Beginnings

Ok, so I've started this blog for several reasons(besides expressing my opinion to the world.) It's a way I can participate in other blogs with my comments, plus I can talk about my attempt to write a book, training horses, dealing with the rest of my life(husband, baby, multiple animals).
For starters, the book I'm writing now, I've got a somewhat general, somewhat specific outline and I've written about 4389 words.
I'm training a five year old registered paint mare. She's doing good, but I haven't put a ton of time in her because of weather and a baby.
Should anyone feel the need to share their writing and riding status, feel free!
Also, here's to hoping I actually keep up with this blog!