Update

Wow, I guess I haven't updated in a while. Not such a big problem when you only have one or two readers. Actually, I think that might be an overestimation.

In any case, I'm here to use the blog for the purpose it was created. UPDATES! Yay.

I'm now at 23,000 words in my WIP. Sadly, I'm already nearing the end. It might make 30,000 by the time it's finished. Of course, finished is such a relative term. It will expand in the rewrite, at least double, judging by the amount of things I need to fix. I'm not to worried about it though. This story will likely be filed under writing practice and never see the light of day. I'm glad I'm writing it, regardless of whether it ever gets published. Writing this story has given me such an indepth understanding of the world my characters live in, it's been wonderful. Who knows, a few stories from now and I might be ready to come back to this one and turn it into something people will want to read.

In the meantime, I'm just happy to be writing.

Writing vs real life

It can be hard, finding a balance between writing and living life. Real life has an obnoxious tendency to intrude on valuable writing time.

But don't be fooled into thinking that it's a bad thing.

If you go out and have experiences, yes your word count might be smaller than it would otherwise have been, but you're gaining something so much more valuable. Knowledge. If you spend all of your time in your fantasy world spinning stories, and you never wander into the real world and interact with real people, what are you going to draw on for inspiration?

Life experiences are a huge part of your writer's toolbox. Don't shy away from them. Try to live as full a life as you possibly can, let yourself experience both good things and bad, and then put them on paper.

GAH!

Bad writing week. I'm glad that I've met my goal for the week already, because my daily goals have gone through the floor.

Last night=0 words.
Tonight=0 words.
Tomorrow, I'm just guessing=0 words. I never write on Fridays, and tomorrow is going to be even more busy than usual.

I did actually write today, but the computer ate my words when it lost power. I saved everything I lost before the power went out, I know I did. But my computer had some sort of massive brain rupture and left my word count for the day somewhere in the great abyss.

I am now far to cranky and too tired to rewrite the words. I hate not making my goals, but I do need sleep. Ever try speaking a foreign language when you're overtired? It ain't pretty.

On the plus side, I did watch an excellent movie. Neil Gaiman's Stardust. If you haven't seen it you really should run out and buy it. Or rent it.

G'night.

Lovely distractions

I spent the better part of my day watching HBO's Rome. It's a great show. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

I watched nine of the fifty minute episodes today, and enjoyed every second.

Needless to say, I didn't get any excess writing done. I'm amazed that I made my goal. I did though--1500 words. I might have a harder time tomorrow. I have more social engagements than I'd care to have, as well as my film class homework, which isn't due until Tuesday but I'd prefer to have it finished before Monday.

I'll also have to go to bed at a decent hour, since Monday mornings are hard enough without depriving myself needlessly of sleep.

Here's hoping I wake up more motivated tomorrow than I did today and I get the writing done first thing.

The story's lagging a bit. Laynie is busy trying to seduce Henri, and he's not at all interested. I have no idea how to realistically bring him around, nor how quickly I want that to happen. And to top it all off, he's a two dimensional character I don't find interesting at all. I hope I can fix that somehow, because he is going to be an important character in the book.

I've hit the 10,000 word duldrums, in which I decide every word is utter crap and I'm wasting my time. It makes meeting daily goals hard, but I'm dedicated to seeing this one through to the end.

Update

I didn't write last night. Fridays are always super busy socially, and yesterday was no exception. I've decided that I'm going to let myself have Fridays off from writing, and give myself a goal of 1500 words on Saturdays and Sundays, as opposed to 1000 like Monday-Thursday.

We'll see how it goes.

Update Jan 8

I didn't think I would get any writing done today. Our new grammar professor has given us quite a bit of homework. She's also our francophone film class prof, so she's given us some homework for that class as well.

I managed to finish all of the grammar homework, both what is due tomorrow and what is due Monday. Hopefully the film class work won't take too much time and I can devote the rest of my weekend to catching up on sleep and writing.

The sleep is hard to catch up on. I keep having stressful dreams. The night before last I dreamed I was heading off to war. It was odd. All of us soldiers were women, and we didn't like it much. I think in the milieu of my dream only men were soldiers. We dressed as many women as possible as men. I couldn't be a man, because I'm too curvy. So they handed me a sword and told me not to worry. As a woman I was scarier than anything else a man could face.

I'm not sure what my subconscious was getting at with that one, but I've decided the safest course is to ignore it.

Oh yes, writing update. I did actually manage to meet my goal tonight. It's getting easier and easier to slip into writing mode, no matter how I'm feeling. And the writing is coming quicker too. I finished my 1000 words in less than forty minutes.

I am awesome.

Update Jan 7

Hit my goal at exactly 1000 words. Yorick seems to be very interested in killing Laynie, even though I won't let him. Silver, as it turns out, is Cree, which I think is really cool. My maternal great-grandmother was Cree. She is also a lot smarter than me, because she came up with a really good plan that is going to screw with Alaric's pea brain.

Have I mentioned recently that I love my characters?

Unmotivated Update

I did not feel like writing tonight. It was painful. I checked the word count every other sentence to see if I'd made my quota yet. I made it, eventually, by throwing in a character who I adore and is fun to write no matter how bad a mood I'm in. He's a good character.

I'm proud of myself for sticking to it and pounding out the words until I reached my daily goal of 1000. That brings me to 8000 words so far for this book. 8000 words in 5 days isn't too bad. Not as much as I'd have liked, but hey, at least I make progress every day.

Yay me.

Writing update

I've decided to put writing updates on this blog. Between that and Twitter it should keep me motivated to write.

I started writing prose in this story "Bluebeard's Key" on friday. I've got about 7000 words, and I'm just starting chapter four. If it seems a bit soon to be into chapter four, that's because I write very short first drafts. They're all tell. In the rewrite I take my time and show as much as needed, but my goal with the first draft is to get the story down.

So far so good. I've started strong, let's hope I can keep it going. No more fixations on newness. I think that should be my New Year's resolution, at least in writing matters. It gets hard when I'm in classes, especially because the program I'm taking is so intensive. Though we were told today that this semester would be set up like a normal one--one set of finals per class, versus three midterms, three major assignments and three finals--one of each every month--like last semester. Things should be a bit more relaxed, and not as exhausting. We know the language, now we're just improving it, not getting overloaded with information like last semester.

Huzzah. The end is in sight. I'm starting to see myself being bilingual as promised. Last semester I thought they were on crack when they told us we would be.

The Newness Obsession

I've never been good at keeping a journal.

When I was younger, I would always get new journals, and add one or two "Dear Diary" entries--just like little girls in books and TV always did--put the journal aside, and forget about it.

Sometimes, blogging goes the same way. I start a new blog. I add an entry or two, realize no one in their right mind is reading it (apologies to the two of you who are following my other blog), and delete it.

I always start a new blog.

See, I have a newness obsession, and it doesn't stop with journals and blogging. I replace notebooks with too much scribbled in them. I can't stand using an old notebook. Trees should hiss and spit at me when I walk through the forest. I like getting new pens. An old pen that wrote smoothly yesterday can suddenly seem scratchy, and I get the itch for something new. A new color. Gel instead of ballpoint. And occasionally, I'll get a hankering for a mechanical pencil.

I've even been known to buy a new computer when I have the money. There's rarely a problem with the current computer, I just feel the need for something new.

I'm worse than a self-absorbed millionaire cycling through trophy wives.

My worst offense in the quest for newness is in writing. It hits me hard, somewhere in the midst of the Great Swampy Middle.

A new character with an interesting story will whisper to my muse.

A new world with interesting new places to explore will appear to me.

A new plot, with surprising twists and exciting developments will hit me over the head and scream at me to write it.

It's always just an idea. Never anything fully fledged that requires my immediate attention. Something for the next, far off novel. And yet I grab onto it, a flimsy excuse to stop writing and go back to dreaming. A chance to do something new.

I realized recently that it isn't newness that I want. Desire isn't controlling my actions. Well, okay, desire and newness may motivate my consumerism, but when it comes to my writing I'm like that trophy wife hunting millionaire. I'm afraid.

My current story, like his current wife, is good. I like it. Probably even love it. And yellow-bellied coward that I am, that terrifies me. I'm putting all of my energy into a project that could fail. My story might not sell. To make it work, I have to expose a deep, private piece of myself to someone, an agent, an editor, *gulp* an audience. That is the most terrifying thing anyone could ever do.

My newness obsession allows me to avoid the hurt of rejection. Unfortunately, if I don't learn to deal with my fear, to face it, to overcome it, I'll never know success either. Every time I stop writing a project, I'm rejecting myself.

That is the first thing any new writer needs to learn. Forget being able to tell a _good_ story. The first thing you need to do is complete a story. Rinse and repeat. If you keep writing, and editing, the good stuff will come. But an unfinished story will never be a good story.

And as for the abandoned blog, I like this one. I think I'll stick around for a while.