Day Three

Fallen Goal - 60 out of 139 and 0 out of 28

51 / 139 (36.7%)

0 / 28 (0.0%)

Forsaken - goal 9000 word

0 / 65,000 (0.0%)

Day Two

Another snow day and tomorrow is my first day at a part time job, but I've kept up with Fallen's goals and haven't had time to write yet, but I'll catch up.


Fallen Goal - 40 out of 139 and 0 out of 28

41 / 139 (29.5%)

0 / 28 (0.0%)

Forsaken - goal 6000 word

0 / 65,000 (0.0%)

Here We Go - Jan 27 - Day One

Fallen Goal - 20 out of 139 and 0 out of 28

19 / 139 (13.7%)

0 / 28 (0.0%)

Forsaken - goal 3000 word

0 / 65,000 (0.0%)

Kids were home from school, but I would have had to work anyway. Still trying to tie down my cards for nationals too. Will do better tomorrow.

Goal Tickers

Fallen

0 / 139 (0.0%)

0 / 28 (0.0%)

Forsaken

0 / 65,000 (0.0%)

Whisper, Whisper

Fine, I hear your whispering. I acknowledge that you have a story to tell. I also acknowledge that I hate revisions. So your whispering is more than I can take.

Forsaken has finally risen up in me again wanting to be spewed out. (Unnecessary visual, ew) Regardless, I've tried to commit myself to revisions, but I just don't get it. I know I have to go back over and find the problems but if I didn't notice them when I was writing it, how am I supposed to find them now? Besides I haven't finished telling Caleb's, Eli's and Kaitlin's story. I want to tell their story. Get it down on paper and out of my head. But I also want Fallen to be in publish form, which means revisions. Ugh, dilemnas.

So how bout a compromise? If I read through x number of pages of Fallen, I'm allowed to write x number of words on Forsaken. Seems like an easy goal to set. Hmmm, if I want to finish by the end of February. That's 33 days. Page 47 to Page 186 need to be read (It's a screwy format to print on less paper), so 139 pages plus time to go over revisions on the computer and do hunt and kill exercises. 28 chapters. So if I do 20 pages a day, that's 7 days of reading and then 2 chapters a day for revisions would be 14 days, leaving my weekends free still. Okay, so then on Forsaken, I have about 25K written and 90K target, so 65K with technically 24 days of writing (not including weekends) ....about 3000 words a day.

So the goal starting tomorrow is read 20 pages on Fallen and write 3000 words on Forsaken. As a caveat, I am starting a part time job tomorrow for Tuesdays and Thursdays while the kids are in school. But let's give it a shot. Anyone else want a kick in the pants.

Contest Final

I finaled in the OVRW Enchanted Words contest. Woohoo!!! This was with FALLEN. The query, synopsis and first five pages. Now it gets judged by an editor. An actual real live editor. I'm psyched.

Oh, and I'm registered for RWA National Conference too. It's been a great week.

Motherload

Anyone ever want to take a course at MIT. Here ya go.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm

Thanks for finding that goes to Paperback Writer.

Free Contests Abound

So if you've hit the internet lately you know that free contests are happening everywhere. From Miss Snark's First Victim's Secret Agent contest. (currently closed for submission but she has them every other or every month. To Chase the Dream Contest which is once a year and still open by the way, first 1000 words once a week until March. To contests if you were asleep that day you missed it from certain agents. Fortunately, I'm well networked and tend to get a heads up when something is going down. But I also like to spread the news when I find it.

So today was supposed to be about getting two beginnings ready for two different things. The first is Catch a Star for The Marlene Contest. First pages and up to a 4 page synopsis, not to exceed 35 pages. I spent all morning cutting and tweaking and this afternoon cut and tweaked some more. The Marlene is an RWA chapter contest and cost $30 to enter for nonmembers of that chapter. The main reason I wanted to enter was for the final judge, Patience Smith, an editor for Silhouette. The feedback is usually nice if I don't final too.

The second thing I was supposed to do was clean up the new beginning of Fallen and send it to the Firebrand Literary Agency Query Holiday. I decided today not to do this one. Reasons being, the critiques that came back show that it still needs a lot of work, the whole novel needs to be spit shined, and I don't even know if the agent reps Paranormal Romance. They might and when I have a clean copy of Fallen and everything in it is exactly how I envision it or at least close enough that I'm not going to play with it anymore I'll submit it via query letter. I don't mind entering contests when things aren't 100% perfect, but for an agent I want polish. I needed to face the fact that Fallen isn't polished to where it needs to be because of my reluctance to revise.

Both the contest and the query holiday end today. I'm going to sit back and relax. Finish reading my book on revision and then take out the sandpaper. I'll start going through my sci fi writing book as well and if any ideas fall into my lap for shorts I might pursue those, but no serious novel writing until Fallen and Catch a Star are revised. So there.

Wishing They Would Keep it Down in There

Whisper, whisper, whisper. The restaurant is getting quite noisy again. Part of the problem is I've turned off the writer. I'm working on revisions and getting ready for contests and submissions and am not writing new words. It's not like just one book is whispering either. Everyone in the restaurant has decided know would be a great time to whisper to me a little more about their story. So I have a new Silhouette Desire buzzing around my head. Unfortunately, Casanova won't give me his name, but doesn't seem to mind going by Casanova. Hmm, maybe for his last name..... Stop it. I haven't been sleeping well which is part of the problem. I wake up mentally before my body is truly ready to give up the bed and start moving. So I lay there and that's when they whisper. Yesterday it was a whole new idea which could go as a Novella or a Paranormal, they really haven't decided yet. This morning was an idea that's been talking to me for about a month or two. It started with the heroine and apparently the hero is starting to fill out in my mind. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't being so stubborn about not starting anything new until these two novels are revised. Don't worry about me too much, Fallen (one of the revisees) is also whispering to me. The beginning that I wasn't 100% on, filled itself in yesterday.

I love this job, I do, but some real money would be nice for all this work. With all the things I do for my writing, including putting in time on nights and weekends, I work more now than when I actually went to a job. I love it. I can't get enough of it. Even with the whispering. :) I'm grateful I have this opportunity and don't want to blow it, so it's back to the grindstone with me.

Oh, and to anyone else waiting to be served in the restaurant, I will try to get to all of you in good time. Please don't stop whispering because I do enjoy listening to you. Just make sure you wait your turn and I promise to not stop listening.

Feeling Overwhelmed

As my family continues to eat up my writing time and my continued hatred of revisions keep me from going forward. Sigh. I've been MIA due to my two youngsters feeling ill and a two week break in work and school for the whole family. I got a couple of books to go over. One on revisions, the other on writing sci fi and fantasy. I'm still working my way through On Writing by Stephen King. I've got characters brewing in my head, silently stalking me. Whispering me who they are and what they want to do and how they want to do it. But I'm not writing, I'm revising. I'm not writing, I'm revising. I'm not writing, I'm revising. Maybe if I keep writing that I'll believe it.