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!