I Am Working... s-l-o-w-l-y

I've been working on edits.. I HAVE. I'm not going to make it through the end of my book by the end of Jan, but I am making progress, which is something.

I also posted my first chapter to my newly organizaed crit group.

Forward movement of any kind is good. :-)

Where I'm At

Utter insanity has been the definition of life the past week or so. The LASR/WC reviewer Yahoo groups somehow picked up a really nasty virus, and after having one of my reviewers computers get fried, I decided we had to move.

So I spent three days moving our groups and getting an entire new system set up. Needless to say, this cut into my writing time a bit. It cut into my EVERYTHING time, actually, and put me well behind on nearly everything.

BUT...

I did get some editing done. Only a few pages, but I was determined to do something. I'm on page 54 of about 150 pages in Stiller Creek. The further in I get, the harder the changes become, and the slower the editing goes ... but slow is okay. It's the dead stop, big zip-zilch-nada that I have to worry about.

This week, with any luck at all, I should have at least a FEW moments to work. I want to get this done so I can work on one of my other pieces, "The Possibility of Forever" (formerly Camilla's Critters) has been calling to me. What's more, I think if I'm careful and really polish that thing until it shines, it'll fit Dorchester.

::::fingers crossed::::

Anyway, that's my week. How are YOU doing?

Increasing Word Count

Yeah yeah yeah.... I'm supposed to be LOPPING OFF words on Forever Home. But today I added nearly 2500 back in. Don't get excited, they weren't new words. I added back in the two scenes I cut out originally (modified a bit).

I have a feeling I won't be able to remove 30k from the story, so I'll just have to look in other directions for a home for the story.

Of course I still have the critique phase to go through. Maybe there'll be suggestions to lose those words.

Now I'm off to the in-laws for the day.

Finally...

I finally managed to sit down and work on edits for "Return to Stiller Creek". I only got through about 8 pages, and then realized it was going to be tougher than I thought.

See... I'm changing the hero from the police chief to the lawyer who handles the heroine's parents' estate (such as it is), but there comes a point where he MUST be the police chief and not a lawyer, and it's a turning point in the emotional relationship between the H/H, so I don't want to cut that scene.

What to do... what to do?

I have several ideas on how to handle it, but it's very important, so I don't want to mess it up... unless....

Oooh.... got another idea!!

::::runs off to work::::

I'm in!

I'll be working on edits, not on something new... Maybe. I'd planned on editing Return to Stiller Creek, but the sequel to Kitchen Matches (working title is Drive Me Crazy) has been banging against my brain the past few days with ideas on how I can make it funnier and better than it was (for a romantic comedy, it was awfully dry and boring).

This is assuming I have power on January 1st (though I suppose I could write on paper -- it's just that Stiller Creek is on my computer in its entirety and Drive Me Crazy is about 13,000 words on my computer).

In any case .... I'M HERE, I'M HERE!

Who else?

Resolution

Well, I think I've come to the decision that I'm going to spend my summer editing.

I've been having some issues with my manuscripts and I really need to get them fixed. Currently I have 7 finished manuscripts. At least. Two of them are submitted to two different publishers, the others need me. Desperately. The past two weeks, except for a few prompts, I've done nothing but edit. Nothing new. So much for my 500 words a day.

Until I have these manuscripts in order I'm going to halt the new writing. I'd like to see a few more submissions go out before I turn to a new project.

Of course this is going to be EXCEEDINGLY difficult because I love to write the new stuff. I generally have several different projects going at any given time, but I have to put on my serious author's hat and get these finished ones done.

But if Marianne posts any more prompts I'll be happy to play with those. I love prompts.

And I'll be checking in.

But my word count will sadly remain at 0 until I'm able to start writing queries and synopsis's.

My Really Bad Week-But A Prompt

I can count the number of new words I wrote this week on one hand and still have 4 fingers and a thumb left over. That's it. A big fat goose egg.

Add to that the fact I got another R this week and a huge workload and that equals blah.

Actually, the R was, as usual, complimentary and encouraging and they said they weren't interested "at this time" which leaves a door open for a someday.

So, what did I do? I queried the same story to Avon. So there. And all week I've been working on the issue the rejecting editor had with the sample I sent. Passive sentences.

So, I have been working, just not on anything new.

I did manage to do the prompt though, which I'll post shortly. Right now I have to head out to pick up my DD who's returning from two days of Special Olympics.

TTFN

Bad Busy Week

Well, it was bad for writing, that is. Seemed like I didn't have one afternoon free all week. Always on the go. So there for I only hit my goal I think 3 out of 4 days. Guess that's good considering.

My weekly goal is 3314 words. I've been working on 2 different wips. Got tired of my new new wip when I started having to force it, so I went back to an "old new" wip and it's a little better. I've also started to edit my "short" story (just over 20K).

Yesterday I spent the day burning my face to a crisp. I forgot my sunscreen and I'm one of those fair skinned kinds of British and Danish decent so now I'm feeling poofy and warm. But had a fun time at the NH Pitch Hit and Run competition my son was involved in. He's never been on a baseball team, never really did any of those things until a few weeks ago and he was up against kids who all play on teams, so even though he didn't qualify to go to the next level, he still did pretty well and we had a good time. Now he wants to work on getting on a team for next year.

Off to write. Need to do better this week!!

Writin? I Don't Know Nuthin' 'Bout No Writin'

Yah, it must've been that kind of week for a lot of people.

I had one day of mediocre writing.

One.

And I only got 334 words down.

It was a week of being sad about my submission to Samhain being rejected, trying to figure out "now what do I do with it?" (it's a sequel to one of my Samhain books), editing it to make it a stand alone (which thankfully wasn't that difficult. It only meant tweaking a few scenes) and hoping that whoever I send it to next will like it better than Samhain.

So, while my new writing was pretty pathetic, at least I got a weency bit of editing down while I wallowed in self pity.

No, kidding, I only allow myself a few hours of wallowing. Then I get back to work.

Anyway, I was digging a garden yesterday and this morning my arms won't move so I'm typing with my nose. Today more of the same. Depending on how I feel when we're done digging I may just have my mom bury me in the newly dug dirt. Sounds pleasant and soft.

If not, I'll be back in action tomorrow. Or tonight. But for now I have to get my manuscript off to someone else. Could be the start of a beautiful new relationship.

My Check-In

My check-in is easy:

0 words

Yep.

I did much editing of "Queen and Assassin" based on suggestions from a friend (who grumbled because it's not done, and I left her hanging). But no new words.

*sigh*

There's a new week starting tomorrow!

new strategies

I'm trying something new--or rather doing something I used to do but stopped doing--this month as I write up my JaNo project. I'm writing each day's "new words" by hand, instead of on the computer, then the first thing I do the following day is type in the previous day's submission. The biggest reason I'm doing this is since I'm a freelance writer I've become addicted to using the Word Recount button--have it firmly available in the middle of my toolbar. This is important when I'm doing articles, so I don't spend more time "editing down" than I did "writing up" the article to begin with; but I've found I get a little too fond now of hitting that button to see "where I am" at the moment.

I used to write every first draft by hand, but changed that tactic as deadlines became more frequent, and writing on the computer became more comfortable. Even as I changed over, I knew I was missing the potential for having that quick edit when I moved my words from pen to keyboard. But I never realized what an addict I was to the Recount key until recently.

This fall, I was watching a morning program while procrastinating on an assignment and checking email instead, and the talking female head (don't remember which on it was) mentioned that during the continuous stock market dive she was continually checking the stock tickers and making herself more and more depressed as the day went on. While I don't get depressed by checking my word count (well, not enough to be concerned about), her words made me realize I was spending time stopping myself from being productive whenever I hit that dastardly little button. Worse, if I was near my daily goal, I would mentally start letting myself "shut down for the day."

Writing by hand also keeps me away from the possibility of checking email--or finding new reasons to research while I write (and become addicted to reading new sites that shift me over to other sites that let me click to other sites, and so on).

While I've always edited by hand (I just don't notice things on the screen that I should, and find things--especially repetitive words and phrases--jump out at me when I read them on paper), I'm finding this low-tech re-habit is kind of comforting right now.

That's not to say I'm writing any better. I've found that as I reread what I've written the day before, as I type, I tend to ax much more than I do when I'm just re-reading a previous day's work on the screen. Guess my fingers don't want to bother typing what I know will go anyway. And while I'm "writing" my 2000 word goal each day, I'm actually typing and keeping something between 500 to 1000. But that's okay. The editing I do now won't have to be done later. And I'm not throwing away these handwritten pages until the project is completed, so if I find I absolutely must have something I didn't give enough credit to during the first readthrough, it will still be accessible--if harder to find.

Best of all, doing the retyping the next day gives another deadline to keep me from straying off track. If I allow myself to only read the previous day's work while I'm typing, I'm not tempted to waste the morning rereading and editing a whole chapter.

It's only day 4, so I don't know if this new habit will be the best thing that ever happened to my fiction; but since my nonfiction has "deadlines", and my fiction has only "wantlines," if I don't find ways to make it have some kind of priority in my day, I just work on assignments instead.

Anyway, that's my life at the moment. Now I'll go back to reading about all of your more interesting lives. Love seeing all the collages, BTW.