Thursday, September 30, 2010

Writing and Riding

Well sort of ;) Today and yesterday I've been hacking away at my synopsis. I've been going through at least a couple chapters a day trying to describe each page in one sentence. When I start each day, I go back and put the day before's sentence chapter descriptions into paragraphs. Once I've done that, I move on to one sentence per one page the next couple chapters(that way I have something to do the next day *insert sarcastic laughter*. I'm up to chapter 9 for 1 sentence per page descriptions and I've done paragraphs up to chapter 7. Tedious and I'm not even half way done yet!

Anyways, last night I had a great couple hours working with my horses. I worked with all three able bodied ones :) First I round penned Big Boy and then saddled him up and lunged him a little more. After taking off the saddle I took him to the trailer where he loaded fairly easily(we're trying to stay in practice).

Next I moved on to Rain. I round penned her a little with some grooming in between. Then I proceeded to flap the saddle blanket all around her and on each side of her. She had a few panicked laps around the round pen before she realized the blanket might not eat her and it was a little easier(although much scarier) to just stand still. After that I took the saddle and tossed it on her several times from each side. She was tense and was going to walk off a couple times, but I contained her and she did okay. Finally I saddled her up and round penned her a little more.

I finished up with Nina. I round penned her and saddled her, then round penned her some more. She is the most uptight horse. Of course, I haven't worked with her(other than to haul her in the trailer some) for over 2 years, so I don't blame her one bit. Even if she's not my favorite riding horse and is a difficult ride, she needs to be working. There is no reason to have her and not be using her, playing with her, etc.

The only horse that doesn't have to work is my old man, Foster Boss, whom is completely retired. In fact I am facing the possibility that he may not make it through the winter. He's in okay weight but that's about the only thing he's got going for him. He's got a problem with his feet abscessing, he's over the knees and he's arthritic as can be. He had a long working life and with his poor conformation it's showing now, even though he's only 22.

Well so as to not end on a depressing note, here's a picture of the herd :) This was taken in the summer of last year. From left to right:
Nina, Big Boy, Rain, and Foster

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

*Claps hands*

Adelinde Cornelissen and her horse were eliminated from the World Equestrian Games! Why? While she was performing a Dressage test a ground judge spotted bloody saliva coming from the horse's mouth. Blood coming from a horse's mouth is against the rules. She was stopped immediately and dismissed from the ring. Her and her horse can't perform in the rest of the games this year. It was said that the reason the horse was bleeding was because it had bit its tongue. Supposedly the bleeding had stopped by the time the horse made it back to its stall and after the vet had examined it.

Hmmm. I suppose that I can imagine a horse is capable of biting its tongue. I think this is likely of may be an unbroke horse, a very green horse, a horse in a panic, or a horse that falls on its face(don't laugh, it's possible!) But would I expect that a world class dressage horse would bite its tongue for no good reason? Nope, I don't buy that.

Take a look at how Adelinde sometimes rides(as I'm not stalking her, I have no idea how often she does this) her horses. It's called rollkkur and in my opinion *it is my blog* I find it a cruel way to ride for more than a few moments at a time. It looks unnatural, uncomfortable and cruel if the horse is forced to contort itself like that for extended amounts of time, whether the horse is walking or cantering.

I'm impressed with the judges for doing the right thing. Even if the horse accidentally bit its tongue and not because of harm from the rider, they followed the rules. So often in the horse show world, cruelty is ignored for the sake of performance, winning and money.

Here's a couple of pictures of head positions I prefer. Now I'm not saying these photos are perfect, I just prefer the fact that the horses' noses aren't touching their chests.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I didn't wanna

I have been in a I don't want to mood today, but I sort of overcame it :) I really wanted to just sit and enjoy the book I'm reading. But I have been thinking to myself lately, what is my dream job? What do I really want to do? Well I have several dream jobs and one of them is to be a writer, but not just a writer. I want to be published, repetitively :) So I decided if that I wanted to do that then I needed to fight the mood.
Right now I'm not at a point where I'm writing/aka making a word count go up. I'm at a point with my current WIP and my next WIP that requires work, but not just writing the story. I'm coming up with scene ideas for my next wip and I need to get together a synopsis and a query letter for my current WIP. I'm also sending out D3 of my WIP to get feed back from beta readers and letting those responses and D3 sit and stew for a while.
What did I do today to deal with both of the above paragraphs? Well I separated out chapters 11-21 of D3 for emailing to my beta readers, I summed up my bare bones of ch. 1 & 2 into a couple beginning paragraphs for the synopsis, I basically dry outlined chapters 3 & 4, and I picked out names for all but one of my known characters in my next WIP. See, I was productive :) Not that anyone else in my life will think much of it, but it all took about one to one and half hours of time! See, I told you so! lol, ok, I'm wishing you productivity and the ability to fight the mood of I don't want to!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Daunting

Today I took some time for me :) Me and baby headed to the library where I picked up the next Sookie book to read. And by next, I mean my next(Dead and Gone.) I also took the time to read to baby in the very cute kids' section of the library. Of course all he wanted to do was explore this new place, so I let him. Lucky me, there was no one else in the kids' section. He had a blast until it was time to leave. We only read 2 books and honestly he really didn't appreciate them. *shrugs*
Do you know what else happened at the library? Well let me start by saying I park in a parking lot behind the library, enter through the back way which is a basement level and then I ride up an elevator to the library. While I was there, a young boy, maybe 14?, was walking around and watching me and baby. When I got ready to leave, guess who was behind me in line for the elevator? Yup! I was a little nervous until I turned upon hearing him talking to another young boy who had an arm full of books. Silly, huh? And yet...I admit A. I'm paranoid and B. Even in the rural area I live in, you never know.
Ok, what else did I do? Well I filled up feed barrel with bleach and water, something I"ve been meaning to do for the past 4-5 days, then I put medicine in one of my horse's eyes, and I started a load of laundry. Which I need to go put in the dryer. Anyways, after that I had lunch, played on the internet and then...dun, dun, dun*cues dramatic music*...I read a book! Now not all of the book, but I at least enjoyed some of it :) I also managed to stop before trying to finish the book(reading should be savored, you know?) and...
hopped online to research the Daunting task of writing a synopsis. Hence the post title. Let me just say, writing a synopsis really is daunting(but necessary if an agent you want to query requires one) and time consuming. Right now I'm not worried about all the little details(formatting the page, number of pages, etc.) I'm just concentrating on getting the darn thing started. I'm going to go with the method of dry outlining your chapters and then spicing up the dry outline for a great synopsis. By the by, when I say dry outlining, I'm starting with summing up each page or so of the book in one sentence. Can you say tedious???!!! Ok, I've been productive for both myself and my book, and now baby is up, so I"m off to get him!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Characters

Honestly, I may have wrote about this before, but now I can write about it as someone who has actually wrote a book(albeit unpublished, but hey, I"m one step ahead of those who say "I'm going to write a book someday...") I’m going to talk about how I’ve gotten to know my characters on my first WIP. I’m sure this will differ from others and I’m sure it will probably vary a bit for future books I will write, but for now…
I had a general idea of the characters I wanted and I started with their names. Depending on about how old they were supposed to be, I searched up popular names from their birth year or there abouts. Then I read through the list and picked the name I felt suited each character best. After that I did a short description on each character. I included who they were, what they looked like, things they would do in the book and other characteristics. With my lead girl I had a “daydream” about how she felt towards the beginning/middle of the book. And then…
I wrote the first draft aka D1. As I wrote D1 I got more of a feel for the characters, who they were and what motivated them. Frustratingly enough I found that my lead girl wasn’t quite as, assertive and outgoing, as I thought in the beginning. So as I wrote I started to change her to how she really was.
When I went back to do D2 I changed all of the “wrong” things about her that were at the beginning. Any responses or thoughts that didn’t ring true to the “real” girl, I fixed. I also ended up switching the motivations a little bit of two of my lead 2ndary characters. Also before I continued on to D2 I wrote/rewrote/detailed out those character descriptions from before D1 existed. They are a great reference for detailing the book and for getting me back into my characters heads.
As for where I’m at right now…aka having just finished D3…I’m keeping in the front of my mind who my lead girl is, and how she’s feeling about everything whether it’s what I’m editing right now and I speculate about later chapters too. I can only hope that in my next book I am more comfortable about getting to know my characters having at least some experience to rely on, even if I have to be flexible.
And if I'm being honest, I'm getting to know a new set of characters too. A lot of things aren't concrete because I"m trying to be indirect about the "start" of my next WIP. So far, I've got a list of who's going to be in the book(subject to additions, of course ;) , a name picked out for my main chick, ideas of names for some of the other characters, some motivations for and what happens to some of the characters. In an effort to continue concentrating on getting my current WIP published, I'm holding off on any "serious" work. And by serious I mean that it is my main priority and I want to up the word count every day.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Deadline Dames

So I was writing a comment in response to a question asked by Erica Hayes, the Dame for the Day over at Deadline Dames, and I decided to make my post my comment. Creative, huh? First off, here's the question(s) that was(were) asked:

Over to you: if you’re a writer: where’s your writing haven? And what are you escaping from?

And if you’re a reader, help me out here: how do you like best to interact with your favorite authors? Blog posts like this? Twitter? Facebook? What kind of stuff do you like hearing about from authors? Writing updates? Favorite reads? Cat pics?

And here is my answer:

I love following other authors on blogs, it gives me a glimpse into their lives revealing…they live regular lives too! They’re not like movie stars, you can relate to them and I find that very comforting.
Right now I live in a very tiny apartment, so I write on my laptop at the dining room table(where we never eat; seriously it’s covered in mail, the laptop, my purse, the 2nd and part of the 3rd draft of my current WIP… you get the picture!) When I was writing my WIP I kept the tv off and played a couple of cd’s, but now that I’m editing I usually have the tv on for background noise. If…I mean when I get published I fully intend to buy an inexpensive(sounds better than cheap, doesn’t it?) laptop that only has Microsoft Word on it. While I do use the internet for research, it often ends up distracting me…like now LOL, anyways, thanks for the post!

Also, have fun finding all my typos in my original comment at DD, cause I didn't spell check. It's first draft stuff in all its glory!

Feel like relating to other readers or authors? Head on over to www.deadlinedames.com and read the comments in response to Erica's post.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Pretty


I’m not sure I’ll read this story but I love the cover. It’s by Maurissa Guibord and will be out January 11, 2011. Here's the blurb:
Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy.

P.S. I'm done with D3! Yay! Now for a short hiatus from the actual WIP to refresh mine brain!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Today

Ok, so I'm still not done with D3 but that's on my list for today. I sent out D3 chapter 1 to two more beta readers. I've all ready gotten feedback from one person and I cringed! Lol, nothing said was mean or anything of the like, but it still hurts a little to have your book critiqued. I really do need a break from my WIP, I think I'm getting sloppy/lazy, so I'm saving all the critiques to look at in a few weeks.
Also today I went to meet a second potential day care. I'm planning on substitute teaching so baby needs a day care. The only problem with the day care is there are a few days here and there they can't take him due to state regulations on how many kids of a certain age you can have. Did that make any sense? I really don't have any one else to watch him on those days, so I'm stuck for now. Other than that, he loved playing there this morning and was totally self absorbed, playing by himself almost the whole time. I think he'll love being around the other kids though :)
I'm working really hard on handing over my stresses and worries to God. It ain't easy, let me tell you! I'm not talking about just ignoring that they exist, I'm talking about actively talking to God and leaving those worries in his care.
Well I'm off to trudge, see I told you I need a break, through a few chapters D3. Bye.
Oh yeah, I'm still working on the same shiny, not as new, idea and falling in love with it more and more. It won't be easy, but let's be honest, writing a book is hardly ever easy. What makes it easier? A story you're passionate about!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Almost...

Ok, I am almost done with Draft 3!!!!! All I have to do is backtrack and read pages 166-230 to do another sweep for mistakes and changes to make and I'll be finished! I'm going to give up stat's right now though, because I feel like it!
D3=230 pages, 21 chapters, and 71,907 words Compare that to:
D2= 234 pages, 13 chapters and 74,163 words Compare that to:
D1= 229 pages, a prologue + 13 chapters and 75,697 words

What's some major differences? Well I dropped the prologue from D1, but added enough words in D2 that the word count was almost the same! I tightened up the manuscript enough to lose 2256 words, although lets face it, that's not a lot of tightening, lol. My chapter count went up because as I did D3 I divided the chapters up in a tidier, makes more sense, fashion.
My dilemma now? I'm sending out D3 to 2 beta readers. When/if I decide the mistakes/changes should be applied, does that count as D4 or is it still D3?
I've got a little over a week until my goal date of having this book finished is reached. So what's my plan right now? I'm going to finish my final read over and changes for D3 and then I'm going to take a break from the manuscript. I hope to get a query letter written up and a list of agents to contact. In that time, I'll let the manuscript sit for at least a couple weeks before looking at it again and possibly applying suggestions from my beta readers. From there I really need to send it to one or 2 more beta readers and make any necessary changes. My hope is to have my WIP actually queried out to agents before January 1, 2011.
In the mean time, I've got a shiny new idea that ain't going away! I've been typing up notes and doing some research for the past month or so. I'm kind of scared to start on it though. I feel like the book may be "it" for me, not that I don't love my current project, but I just have a feeling about this next idea. I also don't want to start it too soon and A. burn myself out('cause I really need to read some books!) and B. I don't want to slack off the business end of finishing up/getting my current WIP out to the world.
Okay, wish me luck as I wish you luck!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sick List

1. Baby is still having loose stools, although not as often. He is still eating and drinking great and not running a fever.
2. Foster is still having issues with his abscess. I'm thinking this is due to the rubber medicine boot more so than the abscess. I took off the boot this morning and will see tonight how his hoof and abscess looks.
3. Scooper is still having loose stools, but I haven't found any diarrhea. After giving her the medicine the vet prescribed, she did horrible. All she did was lay on the floor and sleep. This is very unusual for her. I talked to the vet and she said to take her off the medicine for one night and then call the next day. I haven't given her any more medicine because she is slowly getting back to her normal self. Ugh!
4. Big Boy has an ulcer on his eye which required a farm call from the vet, staining of the eye and now he needs medicine in his eye 4 times a day! He and Nina will be coming back to deplete our hay supply since I'm not going to drive to my brother-in-law's 4 x's a day to put med's in his eye.
Other news: The appraisal on the house we want to buy seems to have went great. We should know in a couple weeks if everything is a-okay and ready to sign papers. I put in an application to start substitute teaching at one school and need to apply at a couple more schools so that I'm working 5 days a week. I'm still searching for that "perfect" job, but since I haven't found it and it hasn't found me, sub'ing it is. I'm up to page 202 in Word for D3 and I've put ink to paper for about 7-10 more pages. Ok see you later!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

What I've Read So Far

I’d like to put a disclaimer on this list right now. I have a birthday coming up some time before the end of the year *g* and I hope *crosses fingers* that I get lots of books for it…or a gift card to Borders so I can pick out the books myself. What can I say? I like to touch them. As a tangent, I also like to pick up and touch bits, for you non-horsey people that’s the thing that goes in a horse’s mouth while you ride them.
Ok, ok back to that list...Here's what I've read so far this year :)
1. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
2. Living Dead in Dallas by C H
3. Club Dead, Dead to the World by C H
4. Dead as a Doornail by C H
5. Definitely Dead by C H
6. All Together Dead by C H
7. From Dead to Worse by C H
8. Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer(*This was the 3rd or 4th time**I watched the dvd’s Twilight and New Moon)
9. Shift by Rachel Vincent
10. Moon Sworn by Keri Arthur
11. Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs(This was a reread, the 2nd or 3rd time)
12.Twilight( currently rereading for the ..... time; if I pick up a new book right now, I'll completely abandon my WIP)
There may be more, besides my own WIP, but I can’t think of them just this moment.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Poop

Quite literally. Now I'm thinking to myself, who wants to read about poop on a blog, but then I realized when thinking about a blog I just read by the author of Paranormalacy, that I'm doing this blog for myself. And myself is thinking about poop! Let me explain...

Baby had 4+ diapers of poop, specifically diarrhea, yesterday and 2 diapers so far today. Other than that he is eating ok, drinking a lot, acting fine except....he hasn't been napping as well(although that could be because he fell asleep before eating lunch) and he's been putting his fingers in his ears a lot lately. Now at first I thought it was just the fact he found he has 2 more holes in his body and it sounds really cool to plug up those holes and then make noise. He never tugs at this ears, or rubs at them and cries, just sticks his fingers in them. I haven't noticed a fever either. But now he has diarrhea....I just don't know.


Let's add on top of the baby conundrum the fact that my beloved Scooper, my cat who is twelve years old, has had a couple of accidents that were diarrhea and had blood in them. Okay, can we say TOO MUCH POOP! So needless to say I scheduled a vet visit for this afternoon and I currently have her poop in zip lock bags in my 'fridge. My husband is going to kill me when he A. reads this or B. sees the poop in the 'fridge(please God no!).



Ok, let's add on top of this the fact that my old man, aka Foster boss, aka my twenty something year old horse, has an abscess and keeps losing the medicine boot which means the abscess ain't a healing up! Yes I could do a duck tape boot, but it's so much easier to slide on the rubber boot by Davis! Now I have to spend this evening at the vet and then coming home to search the field for the boot so that I can soak his hoof, scrub it and once again put the boot on.



Plus I really need to get my butt in gear and break Rain. I'm having negative thoughts about her which I"m sure are caused by my stupidity and falling off. I love to ride but I need to do some fun riding. The problem is that I won't let myself because it's supposed to be more important that I break out Rain so I can sell her, as originally planned when I bought her while I was pregnant 2 years ago.

POOP!

Ok, I"m going to try to quite complaining now. Happily I've put red ink to several more pages and now just need to put that ink on Word, but....I'm rereading Twilight. Why? Because if I read a new book I will completely desert all work ethic for my current WIP. That can't happen until D3 is complete. So, there! All right, I'm done now.

Mmmmmm....One more thing. I still need a job 'cause writing a book and being a stay at home mom are still not paying cash!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

How Many Times

So I was wondering to myself last night, how many times have I read my WIP so far? Then of course it got more complicated because I don't count writing D1 or creating D2 as reading. Those two things do count as a "go through" though. So I scribbled out(sounds better than the truth, which is I typed it) all my "go through's" and "read through's".

1.Wrote D1
2.Edited D1 creating D2
3.Read through paper copy of D2
4.Started on D3= A. reading D2 and painting it with red ink B. skimming through my painted copy of D2 as I transfer the paint to word and C. going back every few chapters of D3 and reading it to check for more mistakes.

So I’ve actually read my WIP 3 times, I’ve been through it 3 times, and that totals out to 6 times!

Also I'd like to note that I've gotten to page 183 of D3 and I've put red ink to paper but still need to put it to D3 on Word up to page 202.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Eye Catching


This is the cover of Need by Carrie Jones. I do intend on reading this, hopefully as a birthday gift ;) Here's the blurb followed by a link to the author's website:

Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.

Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

http://www.carriejonesbooks.com/

Monday, September 13, 2010

Trip

Ok, I've tripped up and slacked off on blogging! I also went on a trip this weekend out of state. It's a 5 hour drive there or back :) but it took longer due to bathroom breaks and because of baby. All in all, baby did great for the ride. Here's some tips: bring lots of snacks and a small cooler with drinks, bring a portable dvd player, bring several movies for said dvd player, bring toys that baby can play with in the car, make sure you let baby down to walk/run(if they're old enough) when you stop for breaks, even if there's no real reason to stop, do it every couple hours anyways, don't forget the pacifier, pack extra diapers and wipes, pack extra clothes in case the ones they're wearing get snacks or juice on them, and be patient! Really, for a 15 month old who has never done this long of a trip, he did great!
I have been working on my book, other than Sat and Sun, despite my lack of blogging. Promising feedback from my first two beta readers :) Have a great week and talk to you soon, I promise!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Quick

I'm up to page 149 :) Tonight I took a glance at what was the next 2 chapters and split them into 4 chapters, tentatively. Basically they were too long as just 2 chapters and it was pretty darn easy to split them up. There was no controversy or agonizing.
Tomorrow I get to see our family pictures and pick which ones we want to buy :) I'm very excited!
No news on the house front. I'm thinking it's a matter of being a lot of paperwork for the mortgage guy, but I'm not completely sure. I'm trying not to be anxious and to leave it to God.
I'm still on a job hunt. I could be substitute teaching right now and in fact have everything done except for turning in the filled out paperwork, but something is holding me back. I'm not sure what's up with that/me *shrugs* Wish me clarity :)
Ok this is a bit longer than I intended, but oh well!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Beta Reader

You better trust them and like who ever they happen to be. I felt a surge of fear and strangely enough, embarrassment, when I found out my first beta reader was reading my chapter 1. This is a new experience for the both of us, added on top of the fact that the type of book my WIP is, isn't quite her cup of tea. So why am I having her read it? I think she can and will be more objective about the whole thing. I have another beta reader whom I plan on giving D4 to that likes the genre I'm writing in. I know that both of them will be able to let me know about the flow and content of the book, but each in their own helpful way. I'm not going to lie, I would be thrilled if my first beta would gush about the book when she's done reading it :) She's very busy with her day time job so this will be a bit of a drawn out process. As for my progress on D3, I am up to page 133. So I have approximately 100 more pages to go.
For all, I have an over active imagination, of your sake's I have decided to forgo a detailed rundown of my weekend. Suffice it to say it was LOVELY! Seriously!
Keep writing, or riding, or editing, or all three! Or what ever it is you're passionate about!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Quick

I intend to go on more, potentially boring you, about my Labor Day weekend, but for now I'd like to quickly update you. I'm up to 118 pages for D3 and I've worked a little on it each day this weekend. I also got the guts to print out c. 1 of D3 and I handed it over to one of my beta readers. *fingers crossed*

Friday, September 3, 2010

Random for Today

I'm addicted to reading blogs and blogging. I also like to change the background of my blog every so often and since I have no tech skills, I stick with the options blogger offers me. *shrugs* Mostly I don't mind, but some day, when I'm published :), it would be fun to have a unique background. I can dream and I do!
I'm not sure if I'll blog much this wknd, since it's Labor Day wknd here in the US. Right now I have no plans for Saturday; Sunday is church and a get together with my dad's side of the family(I"m really looking forward to this since it's been a year since the last one); Monday is the church picnic.
I've had lots of wonderful ideas for what I think will be the next book I write. Can I say, I love research! Or at least the research I'm doing right now. Now the nitty gritty research that is involved when in actual writing process(what does Such City actually look like, how close is the nearest airport...) is not so fun, but the creative before I actually write a book research is lovely. This is despite the fact that I lack the control to stop and stay up much later than I intend!
Ok I'm off to quickly *crosses fingers* compose a birthday wish list and may be a couple future blogs and then work on my WIP :)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Covers I Love

I’d like to start featuring some covers that I adore. Some may all ready be out, some may be future releases, just whatever I feel like. I’d like to start with The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney. This won’t be out until February 2011, when I may bring it up again *g*, but who cares? It’s a lovely cover! And I do intend on reading it.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Inspiration and Decisions

What inspires you? I have a couple objects that I keep near the laptop to help keep me inspired for my current WIP. I also have several pictures I found on the Internet that I keep on working cover page. While I've been editing my brain has been flirting with ideas for my next book. I have found that certain artwork is particularly inspiring to my creative side. So I would like to introduce to you, again, to the website http://www.elfwood.com/ . Should you have any other great websites with artwork or other inspiring things, please let me know!
Now on to decisions... After completing my WIP in full, I'd like to make out a detailed plan for it's sequel. But then I'm wide open to other things. I have two ideas stewing around in my head, one I have a tentative story and a lead female for and one I have a character I really like, but no story. I asked myself, what do I want to write, but I don't have an answer. It's not really a big deal right now because I am determined to finish my current WIP despite reading all over the Internet that most first books don't get published. But still, what do you think? How do you decide which story to write?