Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

Well, I think it's clear, I've fallen off the wagon. Lucky for me, it wasn't too far away before I realized had fallen. I had enough time to catch up :) I've been busy, but not with the two things that are my goals :( I need to get going on editing the first draft, therefore completeing the 2nd draft of my WIP and I need to get Rain broke out.
In the mean time, while I haven't been doing either of those things or blogging, I have been scrambling to keep the house clean, take care of baby, prepare for baby's first bday, and working out. Speaking of working out, I haven't worked out in 4 days and after the bar b que and ice cream cake yesterday, I need it!
Baby's first birthday was wonderful and I can't believe he is now 1! He was a little hesitant about his cake at first, but after a minute or 2, he dug in. Once he started getting full, less went in his mouth and more got smooshed flat. He had a blast, as did everyone who was watching.
I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day and I'd like to say thank you to all of the men and women who have served and now serve our country. I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for them.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Brief

Ok, so let's be brief as possible, 'cause I'm so tired.
I've worked on my WIP for at least an hour, probably more today. I made a dumb mistake. I tried to start editing chapter 1 without having read it. Considering I've never read it, just wrote right through it, this was incredibly dumb. So, after not even getting through one paragraph, I realized I needed to read through the chapter. I've read the chapter, skimmed some of it, and as I did I made notes on a seperate document (WhatToFix) so that I can refer to it as I edit. I color coded my notes with my 2D. I also decided to change the font of the second draft, a tip I read somewhere, on putting one's self into editing mode. I also changed the font color of the first draft to purple. As I edit, I plan on changing it back to black. I'll let you know if these little quirks work :)
I've noticed that, for me, there is sometimes/always just as much prep work as there is actual work(i.e. plot, write, plot write, read some of WIP, prep to edit what was read, edit......)
There is more to life right now than my WIP, but I am just too tired to tell it. I stayed up late just to prep for editing, so enough bloggin, on to sleep!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Weekend

Hey all! Hope you had a great weekend. We spent time hanging out, watching one of our nieces softball games, soaking in the hot tub, playing at Elephant Rocks with our church family, and dun, dun, dun...moving my horses back(grass is tall now!) and working on preperations for editing the first draft! Busy!
So, like I said, we moved the horses. I practiced loading with Nina and Big Boy about 3 times. Nina was a pro! Big Boy did the same old, one time, one trick pony. He did however load fairly easy yesterday! So we did this in 3 trips, Nina and Big Boy, then Foster and Rain, and finally all the stuff(water tanks, feed barrels, grooming tools, halters, lead ropes...... When we went back to get Foster and Rain, they were out eating in the field. I hopped bare back on Foster with just a halter and lead rope and pony'd Rain off of him down to the gate. He really is a million dollar horse! Not to mention, this was the first time I've pony'd Rain. No hate comments, I at least am honest about my lack of caution! They were all super happy to be in belly deep grass. The bad news is that they keep moving around and are gonna stomp down half the grass before they eat it :( I'm just happy they're close enough to make it super convenient and less time consuming to work with.
As for my book... Last night I spend time looking up words in the dictionary and in the thesaurus. I have several words still yet that need looked up in the thesaurus, a little bit of setting's descriptions and a couple loose ends before I start the "real" editing of my book. I'm considering doing some research, aka blog reading, for advice from other authors on the editing process before I begin. I might just edit the first draft and save the advice for the 2nd draft. Any opinions?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

What do you see?

I was just thinking the other day how I skipped a lot of descriptions when it came to the characters in my book. Why? Well, I've realized for a while that when I read, I don't depend too much on those descriptions. Generally I keep in mind hair color, eye color, pretty or average, sometimes tall or short, but I don't ever have real specifics. I never see a face. Even after watching the Twilight movies, I can dive right into one of the books and not see Kristan Steward or Robert Pattinson. I thought this was strange until I asked my father in law what he saw when read. Like me, he sees general descriptions but doesn't put a real face to the characters. He did point out however that it does matter and used an example(shortened version) of normal looking people verses people who started looking more like ogres. The descriptions of the people in this case was very important to the plot and story. Anyways, all this made me wonder, what do you all see when you read? Do you plug in a face, familiar or made up? Or do you just have a general idea? I'm not saying that descriptions shouldn't be included, but how important are the details? "...flowing hair, the color of dark chocolate, gently curled into loose curls..." or "...long hair, rich dark brown, curls lying against her shoulder..."

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Today's Hodge Podge

I'm finding it hard to keep working on my current WIP. I'm at a point where I need to do some, well hard to prove productive, work. What do I mean? Well, I've been writing out character developments. You know, likes, dislikes, appearance, other key points, for each character. I also would like to do some writing exercises about some of the key places in the book. For instance, there's a bar & grill, and an apartment that pop up a lot and I think it would be good to have a general feel for each place. Kind of like how I want to write down my main chick's hair color. It may not be this way for other people, but for me as a reader and a writer, I like to know what the characters look like, but really as I read, I don't picture a face with details for each character. I may remember they have brown hair, but I don't have a face to go with that. So when I write, it's the same way. It's not about the way the character looks, although that adds important detail to some, to me it's about the story and the character's actions and reactions. I know, weird, right? Also, I kind of find work, like research, to be tedious. It's hard to really prove that it was important to research, oh say, a city that's in the book, but I've never been to. Again, it's important to know where the characters are, but for me, the rest of the details fade a bit. But I know that to many, these details are important, so I'm determined to get it right.
So for now, no actual editing :(
Next hodge podge, baby was very good today :) He took a 3 hour morning nap and an hour pm nap. Must have been tired :)
My work outs, to Insanity, are getting better:) I won't say more for fear of jinxing myself.
I have a confession! I've also had trouble doing the work on my WIP cause I watched the dvd's Twilight and New Moon, and then read Eclipse. I know I shouldn't, but I'm going to read Breaking Dawn too.
Horses: I want them back! They're not really gone, they're about 5 or so minutes away and I see them every day to feed them. But it's not the same! I'm feeling the itch to ride and more importantly, finish breaking out Rain. So, today I practiced loading. For those of you who've read previous post, you know how this could have gone! Bad news first. Big Boy loaded once pretty darn easy and then went into stubborn mode. Blah! I don't know why he has this one trick pony thing going on. Good news next! Nina went half way in on her own and then backed out. Then she loaded right in 2 times in a row! Lol, cause when I turned her loose she took off like I had been torturing her! Ok, 'nough said for now!
P.s. Wish me luck, hubby is miserably sick :(

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Review/Spoilers/Shift by Rachel Vincent

So on my week off, after finishing draft 1, I read Shift by Rachel Vincent. I have read all of this series and I love it. I will say, it is emotionally intense! Faythe has to save her Pride from the thunderbirds. The whole time she’s doing this with the help of the two men she loves! And one doesn’t know about the other! Did I mention that along with saving her Pride, she’s also saving a prized tabby? Tension!!! This book sucked me in and kept me reading, just like all the rest. But again, there is an emotional level that you don’t find in say, a Sookie book. Faythe sometimes makes stupid decisions and sometimes it’s not for a bad reason. Then you have to watch her go through the consequences. Sometimes I really dislike her mistakes, but I tell you what, she has grown as a character so much, that I dislike her mistakes a little less. Also, she’s growing up in a world that’s a lot tougher on women than ours so I mostly give her a break 

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Dead Until Dark

So I read Dead Until Dark about a month ago. This is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series and the tv series True Blood is based on this series. I loved it! I devoured the book and hence did not get any writing done. I will not be reading any more of these books or watching the season 1 until I am done writing my first draft, the book was that good. Sookie can read people’s thoughts and yet she’s pretty darn normal considering that. Instead of being some glamoured up, kick butt chick, she’s normal! This character is written in such a way that she’s believable. She acts like how a real person would act if they actually had her ability and grew up where she did(small southern town). It was a great break/relief to read a book set in a small town, with supernatural characters and normal characters facing everyday problems. Don’t get me wrong, I love urban fantasy to death(Keri Arthur and Rachel Vincent are 2 of my favorite authors), but I like to have a change too. There was a bit of mystery to this book, a killer on the loose, and I had no idea who it was until it happened. I was definitely surprised, but not in a too dramatic way. This book was great. Now I will say, I do have a couple ‘negatives’ to say, but really one isn’t my words and the other is being nit picky. Ok, first, I’ve heard it said that this is an adult Twilight book, but I totally disagree. Sure, there are some similarities, but come on, there are lot’s of books out there with similarities. Look how many werewolf stories there are, do we lump them all together? No! The other negative is about Sookie’s love story. In some sort of way, I feel like it all happened too fast. Although, on the other hand, she does have her doubts and asks her man to back off a couple of different times so she can acclimate. I dunno, it’s confusing to me(my opinion that is) so I’m sure it’s confusing to you too!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

What I've Done

What have I done today? WIP-wise I have made a 2nd journal that is strictly editing. Also, I wrote out a general plan of attack. I need to do some pen to paper on characters. This needs to be solid, so I can refer back to it. What am I talking about? Well, some of it is as simple as remembering a secondary character's hair color. I also want to do some brief descriptions of prominent scenes and solidify some other settings that were wishy washy :)
I also edited one and wrote out 2 other brief book reviews :)
Baby, at 11 months, now has thrush! So I spend a couple hours yesterday dealing with that.
In horsey news, we've re-advertised our paint, Rain, for sale and I realized I've done her a disservice. I know everyone says a horse has potential, but she really does. I have not trained her any where near her potential and I need to get on that stat! Ok, hope you all are doing great!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Checked Out

Sorry, I've checked out in the past week. I have mostly thoroughly enjoyed it too :) There have been a few bumps along the way though. Hubby threw up last week which convinced him after 2 weeks of running a low grade fever to go to the doctor. Hubby's job is super stressful right now :( and I can't do anything about it. Part of it's because he's been working long, hard hours and staying out of town some. Me, well I've got allergies and I've never had them like this before. I can't take benadryl, can't take sudephrine(sp?), so now I'm trying the off brand of Zyrtec. Cross your fingers that it works :) I did finish the book Shift by Rachel Vincent and it was wonderful! So now I have several book reviews due. I do plan on trying to get back into the groove of blogging, and to start some preliminary work on my WIP before real editing begins. I hope you've hit The End or are getting close, or are just on your way!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

THE END

I wrote 745 words today, the first day I've wrote in several. I let life get in the way and I was a wee bit lazy! Anyways I ended with a total of 75,697 words. That's right, I said ENDED, as in
THE END! (well, at least of the first draft)
'Nuff said.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Weekend


So, I've had a pretty good weekend and I hope everyone else has too. Nothing super exciting happened that I can think of...We went out to eat with some friends and some aquaintances, and had a good time. It's been a while since we did that sort of thing, so it made it extra nice :) Ok, so I thought I'd leave you with a picture from the circus I went to last fall. May your writing be creative and even if it's not great, at least you're doing something! That's more than some people!