Outlook: sunny with a chance

Recovery mode: on!
Snark mode: off (mostly)
Health: improving
Word count: better, if only by 600 words
Goal: 500 words/day or 2,500/week

I now return you to your regularly scheduled bloggers.

Charity

Write where you are

One of the things I’ve discovered during JaNo is some of my best writing times are when I sit in the waiting area while:

• My son gets his guitar lesson
• My daughter takes her gymnastics class
• My daughter takes her dance class

I haven’t tried writing at my daughter’s swim lessons. Pen and paper? Or handheld computer? Either way, just add water = instant disaster.

I’m at 15,300 words at the moment, which isn’t even close to 50,000. But it’s a lot closer than zero. And I have JaNo to thank for that.

I’ve also discovered things I never knew that I knew, such as there really is such a thing as a vintage (circa 1983) Star Wars pencil case. A good thing, seeing as I gave one to the chess club president.

Go on. You know you want one.

1,674 and a collage too!

I admit it. I was totally scared to start writing. I have/had my reasons:

1. I'm so not ready. Seriously, prep work, nearly non-existent
2. It's been a long time, like two years, since I've worked on the first, first draft of a novel. I've been doing revisions and editing and polishing. Draft writing? What's that?
3. What if it was all a fluke?
4. Dude, you totally forgot how to write.

And. So. On. I decided (during morning exercise) that each book is different. I'd been "dream-storming" this one a lot (ala Robert Olen Butler). So, with this one, I'll continue to do character work, but I'll start writing it as well.

So I did. And got 1,674 words. Then I made a collage:

Dude, it doesn't get much better than that.

My book is a mistake

Really. It is. I was surfing Amazon one day, looking at books when I stumbled on one called:

Jessica’s Guide for Dating on the Dark Side

Except, that’s not what I saw. For several seconds, I thought it said:

Jessica’s Guide for Dating on the Dork Side

And I was kind of disappointed that it wasn’t called that (although it looks like a fun book). But I couldn’t get the notion of dating on the dork side out of my head. I wondered: How would someone end up dating on the dork side.

Insert light bulb moment here.

So, my work in progress (progress being one of those relative terms) is all due to a mistake. And because I’m all about preparation, I’ve put together the all important playlist. Sure, I could spend my time doing character interviews and storyboards. Or I could mess around for a couple of hours on iTunes. Priorities, people. Priorities.

Dating on the Dork Side

1. War by Bruce Springsteen
2. Lysistrata by Utopia
3. Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Joe Jackson
4. Hate (I Really Don’t Like You) by Plain White T’s
5. Stupid Boy by Gear Daddies
6. She's so High by Tal Bachman
7. So What by P!nk
8. Famous Last Words by My Chemical Romance
9. Read My Mind by The Killers
10. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
11. Heroes by The Wallflowers

Preparation Pie

If preparing for a writing marathon includes much time in the kitchen baking pies and much time in the music room composing, then Groovy is ready to go. I've already got music worked into novel number two. Now I just need to throw LOTS of baking by a dieting pastry chef into the mix!

I'll be working alternately on three projects:

#1. A YA I started in NaNo 2007 called The Molasses Swamp.

#2. A YA I started for this year's NaNo called Linear Equation.

#3. Something really spectacular (*cough*) for this contest.

In between writing I'll be at the piano composing tunes for the songs that go with Linear Equation and homeschooling my girlies and helping Mulletman keep the driveway clear of snow.

My only actual writing prep is researching mental illness. Other than that I am going to use the week after Christmas to eliminate distractions by finishing up a few naggingly incomplete projects and making sure my house is clean.