For the record, the next time I ask someone to read my pitiful 2 pages of output, just pat me on the head and send me on my way. I haven't even heard back from WesTexGirl, and I am already revising what I sent her, so the whole issue of feedback is a moot point. GAHHH!

I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. 'The first thing,' I said, 'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.' -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

Sorry to miss a post for last week. I haven't gotten back to my story. Which I think is okay because I am looking for that perspective that only being away from it awhile will give me.

And I have been busy getting ready for, going on, and recuperating from my shopping trip with Anna and Lisa. That said....Christmas is done!!! Nanny Nanny Boo Boo, Stick your head in ... well you get the idea that I'm rubbing my greatness in your face. Sorry about that. But shopping early for Christmas is my 'thing' that I get to brag on.

But I plan to get back to some writing. And reading. I'd love to read what you have done.

Oh, I've also got to decide on taking a job. I went on an interview for a part-time/seasonal tax accountant. And they recently found they need some part-time bookkeeping work too. They sound really family friendly. But when they checked my references, the firm I used to work for here in town called me and said, "If you're wanting to go back to work, come work for us." So as of right now, I have two offers on the table because the interview one called and wanted to make sure I was still interested in coming to work for them and offered me a position-without specifics yet.

But whatever I do...I have to keep time for writing.

Wish me luck.

I typed up what I had written on Godred and ended up with 509 words. It was a lot more than I expected. It is pretty different from earlier attempts, but I am having a hard time telling if the changes are an improvement. Maybe someone would like to volunteer to read my 509 words (hint, hint)?

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Despite having an ass of fire, I have managed to do some writing on Godred and my Cinderella story. It feels good to put words on paper, but who knows how long it will last. So says the Realist Nee.

Words of wisdom from Miss Snark:

The Daily Tao of Snark

1. You are not your work

2. An agent is not a dream

3. The SASE is the path to bewilderment; as is no SASE

4. There is no why in no, there is only no

5. There is more than one path to yes, all obscure; all dangerous.

6. Nitwittery abounds.

7. The end is only the beginning.

I want to say that I am very proud of Kee for getting back in the swing. It can be hard after an extended absence, but I am glad that her writing was calling to her again.

Which is a bit of hand-waving to draw attention away from the fact that I am not managing any writing myself. It is kind of frustrating, because I actually have some time for it, but I can't seem to get past certain scenes, or more than a line here and there of a story. Oh well. It's not my career, at least.

Here's my sporadic post as promised.

Since last week I have completed my review of chapter one. Reworking has put a new spin on it somewhat, but not as much as an earlier attempt to make it more chick-lit like. I think it makes it a bit more modern and takes out some of the woe-is-me feelings for Breck. And it gives it more of a hook.

I have let it set for a few days and want to re-read what I've done over the weekend to see how I feel about it.

I have been skimming my outline and trying to find a good place to add some Dusti scenes. Hopefully that will gain me some ground on feeling like it's up to par.

I've sent in an email to Miss Snark asking her opinion on the Harlequin submission process stating that they take unagented submissions. Maybe she'll have something positive to say and I can take that route.

We'll see.

I opened the Ransom file last night and just started writing new stuff after the "Chapter One" heading. Then I reworked the first meeting to the this new beginning so that it is more of my "hook". A lot of the other background stuff is getting killed so that I can get right to more action stuff.

When I re-read what I had done last night, I didn't cringe too much so I guess I'll keep it for now.

The plan is just to get it out there and not worry about sending it through an agent. I can do that by going the fluff route. Which, I'm convincing myself, is fine by me. As long as it no longer lives in the bowels of my computer.

Not sure how much more I'll be able to fit in soon. My schedule has stuff everyday until Wednesday. That will be Veg for Me Day. I'll try to squeeze a bit of work in at night before then but may only post lump work.

I have been writing and rewriting the beginning of Godred so often that I think I am losing my perspective on it. I still feel I don't quite have down the voice, or the pacing, or *something* I can't quite put my finger on.

I want to work on LNR, but it is just not coming to me. Hannah is at a bday party this evening, so I think I will sit in our comfy chair and try to hammer out the missing section.

Wish me luck!

Hello to the lost land of the living.

There is no excuse as to my absence. None at all. Except for the fact that I have been having a mid-life crisis. Or a breakdown. Whatever terminology you favor is fine with me.

I know, you scoff. I'm too young you say. Well, there is that. But I'd rather classify the last several months into the mid-life thing so that I can pretend that I won't be going through all of this again in the future. You're only supposed to have one mid-life crisis per lifetime, right?

Don't tell me if I'm wrong.

Anyways.

While I've floated in a sea of lost goals, misplaced dreams, and wandering purpose, I have discovered I few unflattering truths about myself. The worst of which is that I'm selfish. Probably always have been. I can see it too. Can see how I've constantly sucked the attention for myself out of other people without returning my attention to them. To their lives, to their problems-good or bad.

I'm probably most at fault with my family. With my friends next in line. How I have managed to maintain any relationships throughout my life, I really don't know. What I also don't know is why no one has ever told me this before. It can't possibly be a secret to anyone who has spent anytime in my company.

For the life of me, though, I don't know if it's something I'm capable of changing. But I hope I can try.

Another truth. I'm lazy. Which goes soooo nicely with the selfish thing, don't you think? So with the lazy realization comes the fact that I like to veg out-mentally-for like a day or so at a time. I don't mind hard work. But I want a reward for it. Like only reading smutty romance books for a whole day while only taking breaks to pee and eat chocolate.

So we can extrapolate from my ramblings that I may have been indulging in the vegging out thing a little too much recently-which I could have rationalized as okay at some point if I had actually EARNED it, but since I hadn't...oh, well. We can also extrapolate that I fully intend, barring any wayward selfish and lazy tendencies, to begin a moderate foray back into my writing. Of course, I will have to schedule in some veg time.

But I will be happy to post whatever progress is made, or at least attempted. Well, maybe just thought about. Veg time may prove hard to surrender to this change.

There was some weirdness with school (see my other blog for details) that had me totally freaked out all day Wednesday. I got it sorted out, though, and Thursday I felt almost manically up. You will pee your pants when you hear, especially after all my recent moaning and carrying on, but I sat down and hand-wrote 6-1/2 pages on Godred. Six and a half pages! (Of course I had to mark out about half. *sigh*) Something has always felt off on this story, and I recently realized what it was. It should be in first person! I have a great fear of first person, but I think it is really making a big difference. I might change my mind when I read over it later, but for now, good thoughts.

My dear friend, WesTexGirl, was talking recently about how she sets priorities in her life, and that made me start thinking. I haven't made writing a priority in my life, and I'm not sure that I will be able to so for quite a while.

Let me back up. On my other blog, I just posted about my need for and love of lists. It has occurred to me since reading WesTexGirl's post that writing never makes it on my to-do list. It is not scheduled on my calendar. I do not go behind closed doors and tell my family not to knock for X number of minutes because I am writing. These things are all cluing me in that I am not making writing a priority.

Going back to the list-making tangent, I realized that there are many other things I want and need to do, and most of them have some kind of deadline. I have 2 projects started that I fully intend to have done by xmas. I WILL finish my master's degree in two semesters. This semester I am taking 4 classes, 3 of which are definitely going to be ass-kickers. I will also be teaching 2 sessions of the same course topic (for a total of 3 hours in the classroom per week) and tutoring for another hour a week. Plus running a household and taking care of my child, blah blah family-cakes.

BUT, this does not mean that I am going to give up on writing or on this blog. It just means that I am no longer going to pull a hare-brained stunt like challenging myself to 100 words a day, because it's just not going to happen. Recently I have had a lot of mental activity on at least 4 of my stories, and I am trying to 1. sort out what I have, and 2. write down what comes out of it. That means I am getting a sentence here, or a phone conversation there, but I have to be satisfied with that. And I'm not dissatisfied at this point. I guess I will have to reset my priorities if it ever gets to the point where thinking and jotting just isn't enough.

Here is an article from 2002 in Salon about the bookselling and publishing businesses, and how the prices of books are determined, plus a little history about pricing. Even though it is 4 years old, it is still a useful read.

No new words. Don't ask.

I'm looking for more new links for the sidebar. Feel free to browse.

Date: 5 October 2006

New words: 109

Story: Godred

Words edited out: 3

Words in limbo: 37

Words left: 69

Comments: Ok, the end count wasn’t 100, but for my current intents and purposes, I am going to be satisfied with 109 on the page, pre-chopping.

Godred is also not a story that is going to be complete and marketable for a while, but that’s what I had, so that’s what I wrote. Maybe I can mentally direct myself toward working on LNR tonight.

Today I am feeling like a fraud.

I haven't been on any kind of schedule during the semester break, and today was even more schedule-free. John had to catch a commuter train to a near-by town to catch an Inter-City train (the fast bullet trains) to Berlin, except we were running a little behind, so I drove him to the nearby town with just a few minutes to spare. Unfortunately, I couldn't stick around to see if he made it, because I had to rush back home to pick Hannah up from school. So I am hoping my husband is now comfortably in Berlin, checked into his room and enjoying some dinner.

But this threw me off the hint of a schedule I had been working on to write my paper. Instead, I found myself going through all my Favorites and surfing blogs by agents, editors, and writers. And that is when I realized I am a fraud.

I think about writing, and yet I never do. And the only way to be a writer is to write. Duh!

When I first had the urge to write, I worried about getting ideas. Now I realize that it's not the ideas (as Miss Snark said: "Ideas are a dime a dozen, great ideas only slightly more expensive. Getting something down on paper is a lot harder than people think."), it's the sitting down and doing it (Neil Gaiman on writing:"This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard.").

So with that in mind, I have made a resolution. 100 words a day. Of fiction. Blogging, school, email--they do not add to the tally. 100 words is pitiful, really, but it is a goal, and that is something I have lacked for a while. Check back here for updates.

I don't know if Kee will decide to come back to us to report on her writing status. She is working part time now, but I know that she is actually working on a new novel, but I am not sure if it is *writing*-working, or *planning/plotting*-working, if you get the difference. Anyhow, I hope she decides to come back when she's ready.

I have a binder and a bookbag full of stories and story ideas, but up until now, only one of them has been a novel idea. I say up until now, because now there are *zero* novel ideas. That idea has been transformed into a short story, and I actually sat down and hand-wrote 3-1/2 pages on it this morning. I couldn't sleep last night, and I got to thinking about it, and I managed to flesh out quite a bit before I finally fell asleep. So Vale is now Valerie, and a medical thingie I was pestering people about a while back is going to go into the file for use some other time.

Yay me!

(And I am making some progress on my paper. It's not close to done, but at least it has a direction now.)

Ok, I've had lots and lots floating around in my head about my Cinderella story, but no words.

Also, I am *late* on my literature paper. Not only did I start late, but I got stuck, so I am on a self-imposed blog exile until it is done (hopefully on Monday).

Sayonara!

Yesterday I revised on LNR some more. I am down to revising one more caller and the ending, and writing one more caller's segment, so there is an end in sight.

Except now I'm not sure if anyone but me wants to read it. I think the writing is ok, but the premise of the story? I don't know. That's one reason why I am leaning toward joining the critique group, to get that kind of feedback from other people who read in the genre I write in. But I want to have something in hand before joining.

I also dug out the Dragon story I started back in March and started typing it up. It is not too bad, and I had managed to hand-write about 7 pages. But once again, a crisis of confidence struck before I could finish typing up zhe whole thing, so I saved what I had and went to bed.

"There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting."
-Gustave Flaubert

"I try to leave out the parts that readers skip."
-Elmore Leonard

"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it--wholeheartedly--and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."
-Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

"We are in the deep cack. It couldn't be worse if was raining arseholes."
-Sergeant Jackrum to troops, Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett

Sometimes I try to think about and pin down how I come up with story ideas—like now when I’m trying to avoid actual writing. (Actually, I did do some revising yesterday, and I felt quite satisfied with the results.) One thing I’ve noticed is that I typically start with a character. Once I know what his or her “deal” is—a little history, a little personality—I start thinking of scenarios, and what would happen if I plonk this person down in this situation. This method seems to have worked ok for my short stories so far.

[I had this whole equation-thing going on to explain, but it seemed to introduce more problems than it explained.]

The problem I am encountering in working on a novel that has been stewing in my brain for ages is that when I adjust one thing, that throws everything else in the story out of whack, and I have to figure out how to tweak everything back into line, or even worse, have to decide what is unsalvageable. I realize that is vague enough to be unenlightening to anyone else, but it is helping me just to formulate what areas are causing me problems.

When I began the sorting project over the weekend, LNR didn’t look too bad: there weren’t a million scraps of paper with notes that I had to sort, so I was pleased to be past that stage. (I didn’t open the envelope with the previous drafts and notes and scraps.) Since I had just written something that goes with the novel story (which I will call VALE for shorthand), I had to make a place for that in the binder. Oh. My. Dwarf. I can still vaguely remember the original premise for the story, but it has gone through at least one distinct version for every 3 pages of notes, and there was a good ½-inch pile of pages. This project may end up being an exercise in futility, but it is keeping me from going mad in my spare time, so it’s all good.

More linkage:

Articles on writing by Marion Zimmer Bradley, of Mists of Avalon fame

Particularly
“Why did my [short] story get rejected?”

I have been in full-on domestic mode recently, so there hasn't been a lot of writing. I cleaned Hannah's room (a 3-day undertaking), baked banana bread and plum cake, cleaned the kitchen, washed curtains, scrubbed the new sunroom, repotted some plants, cleaned my plant stand so I could move it and the newly repotted plants into the sunroom, crocheted a new border for our bathroom curtain, reorganized my recipe binder, and basically avoided writing on my short story and my term paper, both of which will come back to bite me in the butt, I know.

The funny thing is that I have actually had a lot of mental activity on several stories, but I just can't seem to bring myself to sit down for the 5 minutes it would take to jot down the ideas and bits of dialogue that are bubbling up. Why the reluctance? No one else is reading any of it (yet), so why be shy? I'm thinking that maybe it's a control thing. I don't like doing something if I can't do it perfectly or excellently, and writing just doesn't work that way. And I worry that in my reluctance, I'm going to let the interesting little bits slip through my fingers; I mean, they are not going to stick verbatim in my mind indefinitely, right?

I find that when I am changing gears to work on a project, I often need to get organized first. My school supplies are usually toted around in a jumble in my backpack, always on the verge of composting, until it is time to start studying for a test or doing research for a paper or an assignment. Then I drag everything out and sort it into piles, which I then hole-punch and put into binders, or file, or recycle, or shred, depending on what it is. This morning I hauled out my compost pile for LNR and a fresh new binder and the hole-puncher, so I hope this is a step in the right direction, that is, toward writing again.

Another new link: an article at Strange Horizons by Debbie Notkin.

I've been working (in dribs and drabs) on LNR, but just on revising, no new words really. I still have one section to add. I worry that I'm making it worse, but when I've looked at it, I can't believe I had let certain things slide before. So maybe it will be an improvement. I can't say just yet.

Kee? Are you out there? Please check in, even if it's just to say, "I thought about writing today."

I added a couple of new links under Writing and Publishing. Kit Whitfield has a couple of pages on her web site that are funny but useful.

Enjoy.

I have managed to sit down at the computer and work on LNR the last couple of days. The amount of progress hasn't been huge, but it has been progress. I feel really good about the changes I've made and have some ideas about additional changes (some of which I wasn't previously aware that I needed). I have a term paper to write this next week, so I don't know how that will impinge on my creativity concerning LNR, but I am going to try to not let it get in my way.

Ok, so I lied--this will be my last post before vacation.

While waiting for the washing machine to finish its spin cycle, I clicked on a few of my bookmarks that I hadn't visited in a while, and I found some excellent advice on publishing at Jane Yolen's site:

http://www.janeyolen.com/forwrtrs.html
Getting Published:

Know this about being published: it is out of your hands.

Even if you do everything you can think of to affect that outcome, you can not make an editor take your work.

You can go to conferences. You can take creative writing classes (though I have always wanted to see if it were possible to teach a course in non-creative writing!) You can read books about writing. You can set a work schedule on your computer and make a special place and space for your writing like my Aerie. You can travel to Yaddo and make friends there with peformance artists. You can subscribe to PW and The Writer and Poets&Writers. You can get a BA, or an MFA or a PHD in Medieval Lit. You can work as a day laborer, having heard that it will ready you for writing the great American novel. Or you can work as a librarian, because someone tells you that is the way to learn to write children's books. You can walk around Lower Slobovia for a year, sail across the Atlantic in a water closet, become Arnold Swartzenegger's personal amanuensis, have intercourse with bug-eyed aliens, manage to marry a mass murderer or to murder a mass marrier. Or get thrown off the jury at the next OJ retrial. You can even--God help us--sleep with an editor. It does not--alas-- guarantee a thing. Though all of those are probably more effective than merely having talent or writing well!

Julian Gloag has written rather sarcastically that "If I were to shoot my publisher in some nice public place with plenty of blood, I guarantee my novels would be back in print in plenty of time for the trial. . . and the world would be a lot better off."

So, once you have committed any words to the page and have sent your manuscript off to the publisher, it is truly beyond your capacity to make anything happen in re the publishing of your work. Besides, as Emily Dickinson pointed out, "Publication is the Auction of the Mind of Man." (Are you cynical enough to remember that she wrote that after unsuccessfully trying to market her poems?)

Therefore, once the book is in the mail--relax. Read a good book. Or read a bad book. Just don't worry about it. Better yet--get busy writing something new.

I have been ruminating on LNR and have even written a few words on it, but I wouldn't really call it progress as such just yet. But in good news, I will be dragging it (as well as a few other items that have been lying around under my bed) along on vacation starting tomorrow. So check back here after Sept. 4 for an action-packed account of long walks and lying around at the lake.

In case you are looking for something to do while I am gone, Kee, here are a couple of 15-minute challenge ideas (off the top of my head):

Rewrite the earlier scene (from Aug. 9) from the other character's point of view.

Describe a setting, but no people in it.

See you in a week-and-a-half!

"From my close observation of writers... they fall into two groups: those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review."
--Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

Two votes for "It sucks."

On a whim, and while waiting for more rejects, I decided to play out some ideas about the first chapter that I had.

It seemed an even better idea when I was reading the first few pages sent off with queries and realized even I didn't want to request to see more.

So with that...I redid Chapter one. Not to worry. The original is still whole and safe in another file. But I did want to see if I could carry the few thoughts through more than just a line or two.

And I could. Without screwing up my word count. That is to say without losing word count. It looks like I could continue and increase my much agonized about might-be-word-shortage.

If I get decent feedback on this end, I'll send it to you for commentary.

Still sick. I can hardly string two thoughts together, so here's another quote:

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit."
Richard Bach, author (1936-)

I have a cold and feel too crappy to post a challenge. So here's a quote instead:

"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork."
-Peter DeVries, editor, novelist (1910-1993)

I wanted to meet the "challenge" but my brain couldn't settle enough to focus.

I'm in the middle of reworking the first of RANSOM. And I can't get out exactly what's floating around so that it makes sense so I must conserve all brain function towards that end.

FYI: 2 more rejections.

Hence the rework. Wish me luck.

Challenge 2

My last batch of cookies is in the oven, and I’ve read all my bookmarked blogs, so it’s time for me to get on with it.

17:38
“Brrr. You don’t want to go out there. It’s colder than a wizard’s heart.”

“I wasn’t planning on it. You want a slug of this?”

“Hit me....More....More...There.”

“Would you prefer a bucket?”

“Ha ha. First I’ve got to warm up, then I’ve got to face *him*.”

“Right. I see your point. What’s he got you doing now?”

“Don’t ask. You really don’t want to know. *I* don’t even want to think about it.”

“How much longer you got?”

“Five months, 17 days. And then I’m getting the hell out of here.”

“Where you going?”

“No idea. Just as far away from here as I can. What’s on the other side of the world from here?”

“I don’t know...ocean?”

“Well, even if I have to live on a boat, I’m putting as much distance as I can between me and him. What about you?”

“A lifetime of servitude, man. Fucking *rules*. I don’t know who came up with this one, but I hope he chokes.”

“Bummer.”
17:46
Oops. Originally forgot to say who was speaking: Godred and Rafnar's watch-dragon

Challenge!

Every day I do not get my shit together and actually work on a story, I will post a short challenge here, just as a way of keeping my hand in. Kee (and anyone else who wants to play) is free to ignore this and just post an update on her work, but if there is no update, I hope she'll join in.

On to the challenge:
Write a dialogue between two characters from one of your current WIPs, but *do not* use dialogue tags ("he said") or any narrative between the bits--just dialogue. Then let us know at the end who your two characters were. Again, this is just a quick 15-minute exercise.

I'm off to cook dinner, then I'll come up with something to post.

Gah! Kee beat me at my own game!

Ok. Here goes mine:

9:46

Gloria chopped up pieces of raw meat and placed them in a large bowl. She tilted her head and listened to the shower running down the hall, then glanced up at the kitchen clock. She was going to be late for lock-down if Pamela didn’t hurry. Well, late to be early, because she never took chances.

“Pamela! Your dinner is almost ready!” Gloria opened the oven door slightly and let the smell of baking chicken waft out. There would be plenty for leftovers for her tomorrow.

She heard the water turn off.

She set the table in the kitchen for one, adding a small vase of carnations, Pamela’s favorite. Gloria always tried to do a little something extra for Pamela right before lock-down. She felt guilty about leaving her alone overnight, but it was for her own safety, and the safety of their little family.

Fucking Michael. He hadn’t bothered to stick around when he found out. Even the news that she was pregnant didn’t bring a response from him.

But now it was the two of them, Pamela and Gloria, and Gloria was going to do her damnedest to make sure Pamela had as normal an upbringing as possible.

“Mom!” Gloria could hear something wasn’t right in Pamela’s voice and headed down the hall. She tapped on the bathroom door.

“Is everything all right?”

“No!” Gloria pushed open the door to find Pamela standing in front of the mirror, wrapped in a towel. Pamela turned to her. “There’s some ... hair!”

Gloria relaxed. “That’s normal at your age, honey. Remember? We talked about it.”

“No! I mean hair!” Pamela tilted her chin up to show a patch of fur on her neck under her ear.

10:00

You asked for it. I didn't even think. I just wrote the first thing that came to me.

Fifteen Minutes: Go 4:42

The couch was not near as comfortable as the bed in their bedroom, but Breck didn’t think she had the energy to make it that far. The baby had kept her up the last two nights with a cough, and Breck really just wanted to lie still long enough to enjoy the quietness of the baby’s medicine induced sleep.

So flopping belly side down on the couch and snuggling down into the warmth of her body heat, Breck listened to the soft breathing coming through the baby monitor and swiftly fell asleep.

The smell of c-o-w-b-o-y soon drifted in with arrival of Dylan. The love in her heart for all the things he had given to her felt like the pleasant weight of the beloved and much requested full body hug he promptly gave her as he sprawled his hunky self lengthwise to join her on the couch for a nap.

Done. 4:59

Challenge!

I was talking to Kee recently, and I think we have both reached the "bored" stage in our current works in progress. I was thinking about this afterward, and it occurred to me that maybe there is a way to work around or out of this funk.

So I challenge you, Kee, to sit down for 15 minutes and write a short scene with any 2 characters from a work in progress (WIP), *but* it cannot take place during the action of your WIP. And no editing.

I'll post what I write up this evening or tomorrow morning, and you do the same.

Miss Snark had much the same thing to say last year as I just did in my last post:

"...Books are not products. Books are not sweaters or chocolates. They are not created with patterns or by following a recipe. I don't mean this literally either. I understand your point and I'm saying books are not fungible. One book is not another, whereas one Hershey kiss is another.

Books are not products. They are art. Even Bridges of Madison County. A person cannot reproduce that book (even if they wanted to), like they can a chocolate or a sweater. One sweater or another will keep you warm, and one chocolate or another will woo your true love, but one thriller is not the same as another."

When I was pregnant with Hannah, I went to a birthday party where I loaded up at the buffet and washed it all down with a big ol’ glass of OJ. Which I promptly barfed up; I’ve had an aversion to OJ ever since. That’s pretty much how I have felt about LNR the last couple of days. I tried to go through the first part to just mark the places that need work, but even that was like inspecting all of your dog’s poop, looking for the wedding ring he swallowed: it is necessary, but you *really* don’t want to.

The writing seemed too dry or dull or something; I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I was very dissatisfied. I still think the premise of the story is good, but my execution of it leaves something to be desired. I’m afraid I’ve carried over my special brand of perfectionism from sewing. I’ve been known to undo half a cross-stitch, or unravel an entire baby sweater *twice*, to fix a mistake. The problem with writing is that there is no pattern to show you where you made your mistakes.

I used to think of writing as putting together a giant puzzle with no box, but also without all the pieces you need, and some pieces you don’t need. The writer’s job would be to sort out the useless pieces, find the missing pieces, and put it all together properly.

But that’s not quite it, either. It’s more like knitting a sweater that you make up as you go along. You have taken your measurements, chosen a color, bought some yarn, and you’re off. You knit and knit and knit, and one day you have a finished cardigan that you are very proud of. But then you look it over carefully and discover that you messed up the stitch pattern halfway through, and now the top and bottom halves don’t match. One sleeve is slightly, but noticeably, longer than the other, and you forgot to put in button-holes. And the color looks truly awful in cardigan-form. You are no longer quite so pleased with the mess on your hands. You could try to pawn it off on someone, but that would be just too embarrassing for you. So you hide it in a drawer until thinking about it no longer makes you want to weep and pull out your hair. When that day comes, you pull it back out and start methodically noting where it went wrong and what you need to do to fix it, even if that means ripping the whole thing apart and starting over. This will of course require a lot of work since you didn’t use a pattern, but when you are done you will have created a truly one-of-a-kind sweater.

That’s what keeps me coming back to writing, even when I want to run screaming in the other direction from my stories.

We've made it over 100 posts! Hooray!

I haven't looked over "Late Night Radio" in a while, so I decided that I would read it at bedtime last night to give myself a jump start on working on it today. I have never been so horrified. Maybe I was more tired than I thought, but it seemed just awful. I only made it through the first scene with Steve in the hallway before I threw it on the floor and turned off the light. Now I am scared to pick it up again. But pick it up I must. *groan*

Okay, I hadn't realized how long it had been since I last posted. Thanks for the reminder, Nee.
And congrats on all the good grades!

I have been working diligently but have been reluctant to admit to not taking big sis' advice. I know we talked about mutiple submissions, and them not being favored by some, but I couldn't stand waiting for the two weeks to go by and not do anything. SO. I did some more research and landed in a blog for a Miss Snark-an anonymous agent. And the conversations there lead me to believe that people are throwing out tons of queries at one time. Some are talking 100+. I want to know where they got all of those for their particular genre, but oh well. I have been pretty choosy on who I send to.

So far I have sent out two more batches of three each. And have gotten only one response-a rejection, of course. But at least it beats waiting on nothing.

So my rationalization -which seems to be working to soothe my nerves and make me more cohabitable (?word) with my family- is to thinking that I am trying to rack up as many rejects as I can.

For the record:
8 queries, 2 rejects, 6 unanswered to date

Found out another grade. I got an A in my upper-division English linguistics class. Still waiting on the other 2 parts of the qualifying exam, but I have to go into town tomorrow to pick up a library book, so I'll look again.

I spent part of the morning doing errands and research for my paper on Underworld and paranoia in postmodern literature. I'm worried that I may have bitten off more than I can cram into 20 pages, because my professor asked me if I wouldn't like to do it as a Master's thesis. As if! I'm not even studying literature this time around. Sheesh!

When I got home I took the most-important first step in writing: organizing. I dug out all the pieces of paper and notebooks and notecards and post-its and sorted them. So now I have a stack of 8-by-11 envelopes and folders and notebooks, each containing one and only one story. There is a surprisingly big stack, so I guess I have been kicking around more stories than I remembered. Oh my. But I fully intend to finish 2 of them, and to tweak on my project-story, over the summer vacation. The others will still be in the compost pile when I feel like getting around to them. Or glancing at them today will force them to start bubbling in my subconscious, and they will start jumping out at me when I am doing mindless things like washing the dishes and showering. Which is par for the course.

I guess I have been tweaking "Late Night Radio" more than I had realized, because I had several printed drafts sitting in the pile. So I stapled them together and crammed them in an envelope. I am not a nostalgic person and will probably shred the whole thing when I am done. There is something so wonderfully final about shredding. Except Hannah broke the shredder. But I will score a new one soon enough.

Once everything was sorted to my satisfaction, I found myself unwilling to sit down and work. I guess I know in a kind of academic way what I would like to do with "LNR" next, but actually doing it takes a level of bravery that I don't seem to have today. I haven't quite managed to put into words why, but maybe writing about it here today, even in abbreviated form, will help me open up and write on "LNR" tomorrow. At least I hope so.

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
--Pearl S. Buck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1892-1973)

WesTexGirl commented:
"I swear this blog inspires me to write. I remember the poetry class where it first became apparent to me that maybe I could write at least as well as those english majors, and then I think... only memoires, or fiction based loosely on reality. I can tell stories, but not make them up. "

Since her comment set off a whole deluge of writing-related navel-gazing, I thought I would work it into an actual post. So thanks for the spark!

That's how I felt in the first stage of wanting to write. I tried working on something when we were in Sweden, and John liked the writing, but the story was pretty cliched. When we got back to the States, I started lurking on an unofficial email list that accompanies an online writing critique circle. That group has a monthly writing challenge, where someone suggests a topic, so one month I gave it a go. That was the birth of my Godred story, which may not ever make it to published-story status, but that has been a good experience for me none-the-less. I think the pressure was off to [yadda yadda yadda Kilroy was here]<---(had to get up to go to the bathroom and John paid my open window a visit *g*) come up with something "original", so I was finally able to start teasing out some of my own creativity.

The writing list has been discussing recently whether one can be taught creativity. This came up in the context of university writing programs. It has been an interesting discussion. Pretty much everyone agrees that mechanics can be taught, but then there is a split over whether creativity is an inherent talent or a teachable skill. Someone brought up an interesting point, that creativity is basically a different way of looking at the world. I think I would agree with that, and that your way of looking at the world can change depending on your experiences. I don’t really like the phrase “expanding your horizons”, but that is exactly what teachers can help students do, especially if they didn’t actually notice or care that their horizons were narrow to start with.

You would be surprised at the things that pop into my head as fodder for stories. For instance, the idea behind the children’s book I mentioned was Hannah crawling into bed with us one night. Something that simple, and a whole story came out of it. Whether it is an *interesting* story or not...

But in the end, if you can’t sit down and put in the effort, it doesn’t really matter how creative you are, because you will not end up with a finished work. This is the part I am having the most difficulty with currently. Kee has the drive to put butt to chair and fingers to keys, and I am hoping to get a little of that in during the summer break (or pen to paper, in my case). I don't delude myself that I will make a living from writing, but I am itching to see my name in print (and not just something I printed out, ha ha), so maybe that will give me the impetus to put in the work necessary to get there.

Right in the middle of studying for my last 2 exams, an idea for a children's book popped into my head. So I have 2 note cards (my preference for middle-of-the-night jotting) and a line or two in my school notebook with notes/text. I told John about it, and he says it sounds didactic, but 1. he can bite me, and 2. children's books often are.

I got a B+ on my oral exam (in German, on linguistics). Yay me!

There was a lot of straightening up today and no writing, but I feel very satisfied anyway. This weekend I must tackle Hannah's bedroom, or it may devour the rest of our house, but on Monday I hope to work in the library for a bit on school stuff and writing stuff.

"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket."
--Charles Peguy, poet and essayist (1873-1914)

Still waiting on rejection. One week and one day left.

At least I'm not studying for a test. *cringe*

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., jurist (1841-1935)

"A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit."

-Samuel Johnson,lexicographer (1709-1784)

"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place. "

-William Strunk and E.B. White, authors of The Elements of Style

and a rebuttal from Geoff Pullum, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Cruz:

"Look, you don't get good at writing by deleting adjectives. Writing is difficult and demanding; you can learn to get moderately good at it through decades of practice writing millions of words and critiquing what you've written or having others critique it. About 6 percent of those words will be adjectives, whether you write novels or news stories."

I sent off another query-not to the one who I needed the paper for. This one took email submissions. He gave a two-week deadline. If I don't hear back, he's not interested. Kinda crappy, but I already have two more lined up and ready to go behind him.

No kidding. All I have to do is change the dates.

So I have got two weeks to work on new writing. I can't wait. My fingers are itching to get back to the creative part.

Keep studying. I'd much rather face the trials of the agent/author world than be studying for a test. Eeewwww. That gave me chills just thinking about it.

Can't write now. Studying.

"Good prose is like a windowpane. "
-George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

I have to go to the store and buy more paper because I already have another one lined up. Actually, I hadn't looked at this one before, but it was on the opposite page in the Writer's Market of one I had marked but decided against sending to. When I looked it up on the web, it's very 'unknown writer' friendly.

But it wants all snail mail submissions. Hence the need for more paper. I've altered the synopsis a bit, printed out the first chapter, and only need a stroke of genius to finish off the letter itself before I can print it and send it on its way.

For a three week wait.

FYI:

It only takes 24 hours and 32 minutes to get a rejection.

I submitted an email query to an agent for RANSOM this afternoon. The only contact information she wanted was my email address, which after hitting the submit button I immediately freaked out thinking I might have mistyped it. Since the website didn't list a response time for email submissions, and since I have the insane fear about the mistyping, I'll probably be glad whenever I receive the rejection notice because at least then I'll know they got it.

I'll keep you posted.

I AM DONE

Smell my stinky feet!

RANSOM is done, all 64, 219 words. Now I have to condense it into a 250 word synopsis to see if an agent wants to pick it up.

It'll probably take me as long to do 250 as it did the whole thing. Yikes.

But on I go.

Here's two of the three I sent in.

Suzanne groaned as Julio pressed her against the wall, intimately gyrating in expectation, realizing too late into her foray of the wild world of janitor dalliance that it was not a notable Latin endowment that was pleasuring her but his sizeable collection of janitor’s keys stuffed into his pant pocket.

Maybelle gasped, like the deep gasp that involuntarily escapes after sitting on a leather car seat that has baked in the Texas heat on a long July afternoon, at the unexpected surprise at seeing her lover in her husband’s arms, her surprise a lot like the pleasure/pain of remaining seated once the outer layer of skin has been seared.

The last one is still on the fried laptop. Maybe I can retrieve it later.

I've got hubby reading the *final* version of RANSOM.

Since I stayed home sick today (glad to have a toilet nearby), I might be able to send you something soon.

That's only if I can keep my dry toast and flat 7-UP down.

Well, the Bulwer-Lytton results are in, and neither Kee nor I placed. *sob*

So I'm going to post my entries here for your enjoyment and horrification.

Drachensson grew up listening to his grandfather’s stories about the good old days, when princes were chivalrous and brave, treasure flowed, and princesses practically grew on trees, but as he got older, he was disappointed to find that as often as not, a prince’s life ambition was to be a tampon, the DOW was taking a beating, and a princess turned out to be no more than a spoiled rich girl with a poodle in her purse and a sex video on the Internet.

Sir William viewed the wasteland before him, the barren expanse, the charred landscape, the blighted countryside, the desolation, the sea of ash—well, you get the drift—and knew he had found the dragon’s cave, but as he prepared to enter its den, he realized he had left his housewarming present back at the castle.

I wanted to be done by now, but at least I'm still highly motivated. I've hit a snag in the next couple of chapters (That's why I can't put Ch x,y,z and done next to them) since I posted last. My scenes and chapter breaks aren't grouped right. Technically, I am at 9 3/4. But I need to go a bit further before I backtrack and break it up right.

But I'm proud to say that the plot twists I've come up with seem to flow much better than what I had before. It's such a big change, though, that I'm having to go real slow to make sure I carry it through correctly.

So on I go. So glad that I don't have a term paper to write. Hee Hee Nee!

Sorry to say, Kee has left me in the dust. I still only have about 2 pages of actual text on my Term Paper, but my professor has not complained; as a matter of fact, he praised my improvements and basically told me to carry on, so that was a load off my shoulders. I actually have pages and pages of notes as I sort out what will go where (my bibliography has about 20 items, so it takes a little effort to find something I remember reading previously), but I should be able to translate all those notes into text pretty soon. At least I hope so.

I've been itching to post my triumphs. I've worked steadily since the computer problems over the weekend and feel closer to my goal than ever. Only problem with that, along with extreme sleep deprivation, is that I can't stand being in my own skin at my job. The brain has completely redirected itself to focus on writing.

With that said, here's what I've been up to.

RANSOM----
Reviewed, Edited, and Completed to my satisfaction:
Chapter 1 5,581 wds
Chapter 2 4,353 wds
Chapter 3 5,427 wds
Chapter 4 5,942 wds
Chapter 5 2,914 wds
Chapter 6 4,673 wds
Chapter 7 only partially done

I think I'm about half-way done and should end up around 60,000 wds.

I'll keep at it and keep you posted.

"Language is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines."
--Bill Bryson, author(1951- )

Woo hoo! Way to go, Kee!

I just cut several paragraphs out of my Term Paper, and it almost killed me to have to do it, but they were useless, so they had to go. I'm following the Kee rule of writing: slash and burn, Baby! But that means I still have exactly as many pages as when I started this morning. I think I will kill myself.

I LOVE the last two quotes posted.

I purposefully have waited to post until I have blocks of positive info to pass along. Right now I have re-read the first 81 pages. They seem, with some ruthless slashing and a few minor tweaks, to be right where I want them.

From that I was feeling kinda cocky and thought I'd prepare an email query to an agent that I think will be a good fit for me. But trying to condense the book into a 250 word synopsis has pointed out to me that I have forgotten exactly what happens after page 81. oops.

So back to the mines. But with a happy face, not grumpy. The end is in sight.

GOAL: (Don't laugh because I have the weird feeling it will happen) By next Friday, all re-reading done, all slashing done, all tweaks done, synopsis done, email query ready to send.

SLEEPING: Minimal to none.

EATING: Enough to keep me from passing out.

HOUSEWORK: I just stocked up on paper plates and plastic cups.

POSTING: Will check in when I need a boost.

In Kee's honor:
"Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence." -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)

John turned off the computer before I could post a quote yesterday, but that was all I had.
Damned samurai-level Sudoku! But I managed to get it right this morning (on about the *cough* fifth try), so now it is onward and upward!

Although the last bit of Late Night Radio is tantalizingly close, I realize that I just can't do it right now. My brain is spread perilously thin as it is, so I am taking my piles of writing notebooks and folders and putting them away until July 29, the day after classes are over. Then I will pull them back out and work feverishly on finishing and polishing LNR.

But until then, I'll be writing on my paper, translating homework assignments, and studying for 2 exams. I'll keep you posted here of my progress on those things.

It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one.
-Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)

Back on track....

While trying to assume a former career-due to monetary needs and the need to eat-I discovered one very important thing about myself. I was born to write. More than that. I was meant to be a writer.

That said...I'm quitting my job. Easy enough to say right now since said boss is out of the country on a three week European vacation. I'd love to include in one of his "Fax Updates" that, by the way, your bills are paid, your deposits are made, and I quit. But rest assured on said return that I will be leaving his employ.

Let's just leave the matter as one big life lesson and enough material to keep me writing for years.

But ....the point of all that is to get across that I can't go back to my former life and I don't want to. Monetary concerns aside, I really can't live like that anymore. I like how writing everyday makes me feel. I like it too much to give it up again. So I've got three weeks to get to a point where I am submitting FINISHED work.

I will be ruthless in editing. I will be unstoppable with the keyboard. And I will probably have to hire a housekeeper to keep us from living in filth. But oh well.

Watch my smoke. And smell my stinky feet.

No Relation
6-14 words #1824
Total chapters 3 1/2
Total words 12, 565

Ransom
Not sure on specifics. Cutting anything that slows me down.

"Learn to write well, or not to write at all."
--John Dryden (1631-1700), Essay on Satire

"If you take the hyphen seriously, you will surely go mad."
--Oxford University Press

One of my teachers was out sick today, so I spent all that extra time working and working and working on my Term Paper until my body called out for cookies. So I took a break and ate a cookie on the way to my next class. (Hey, I ate half my body weight in fruit today, so I deserve a cookie to wash down all that healthy.) But the work work work paid off. I have most of a page typed up, which I have to remember to print out to take with me tomorrow for more work^3, because I can hardly even follow all the handwritten pages of crossings-out, cross-references, and lines from here to there.

As I was sitting in the study hall working working working, my Term Paper advisor waylaid me. He had someone scheduled to come talk to him about her paper right after that, so he asked me to go ahead and come by as second in line (instead of waiting for his office hour tomorrow). So now he knows that I have sorted out more that should have gone in my original sorry-ass outline, and that I am more or less on the right track. Of course, I'll still have to look him up next week, and send on anything I complete between now and then, but I don't want this paper looming over me for weeks on end, so I am going to work during every spare moment while I am still on a roll.

When I needed a brain break (just before the call of the cookies), I tried to write on the Godred story, and I came up with three horrifically awful starting sentences that I will be burning in offering to the writing gods later. Oh, well.

I managed to complete a 3-paragraph translation for class and get it turned in this morning. Progress! Of sorts.

Between classes I sat in the library and wrestled with my Term Paper. I love that library, because there's a section where there are 3 tables lined up end to end between each of the stacks, so I could spread out all my papers and dictionaries and pencil case. I like to be able to see everything at once. I think I'll be able to make my self-imposed schedule for Wednesday. Go me!

Except for the part where I got totally frustrated trying to translate *one measly sentence* that I wanted to quote in my paper. I looked in several dictionaries (mono- and bi-lingual) and thesauri (including my beloved Roget's and the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, the Hummer limo of the dictionary world), and I came up with nothing. I got home and looked in my ratty old German-English dictionary (the one I had to hole-punch and put in binders because the binding had come off), and poof! Exactly what I was looking for. *grumble, grumble*

"I am still studying verbs and the mystery of how they connect nouns. I am more suspicious of adjectives than at any other time in my born days."
--Carl Sandburg

I have been completely useless writing-wise for the last 2 days. John finally pointed out that I don't have to let myself be paralyzed by the work ahead of me for the semester. I just need to come up with a schedule. Why didn't I think of that? You know I am a list-making fool, so that was just what I needed to get the ball rolling.

I didn't actually make a complete, detailed schedule, but I did come up with a do-able amount to take to my advisor's office hour on Wednesday. And that spurred some notes on the back of the outline I sent him.

I even sat down and wrote out almost a page of notes on the section I want to insert into Late Night Radio. I haven't quite figured out the new character's voice, not even his name, but I can see more where he's coming from, so it is just a matter of time.

I'm trying to spiff the place up around here, so check out the new links to the left. There'll be more when I have time (or when I need a break from the paper).

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.
-Giorgos Seferis, writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate (1900-1971)

I finally put words to paper. It was only the roughest sort of outline, and incomplete, to boot, but I have words that relate to my Term Paper. AND I emailed them to my advisor. Who knows what he will say to them, but it is a start.

Since I got that far, and John needed to work on the computer last night, I gave myself the evening off. I tried to work on some creative writing, but it just wasn't there. Sadly, it was like trying to eject a bone from my throat. There is nothing creative or interesting about that.

But once I finish some photo-loading and blog-posting, I am getting back to work on the TP. (hee! TP!)

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
--Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

There has been a parting of the ways over the translation project, so that is no longer hanging over my head.

I tried to work on Late Night Radio, but it just wasn't coming together. I know what I want to stick in there, but it hasn't really taken shape in my head yet as a conversation. *poke*

If you happen to have a copy of my Godred story, feel free to deep-6 it. I have the feeling that it is going to be my project story, where I work on it forever trying out different things. Sort of like a sewing project where you rip it apart and put it back together 5 times before giving up on it, or realizing that the skills you learned in the process would be better used on something new. The idea doesn't pain me too much, but who knows? What started out as a dish-towel may end up as an evening gown.

Paper status report: chugging along, but still reading. I hope to have an outline done today.

Bits and pieces of other writing projects have been flitting into my brain, but I haven't taken the time to jot them down. I may regret that later, but for now I have to concentrate on the paper. urgh.

Neil Gaiman on writing:
"This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard."

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning,and took out a comma. in the afternoon I put it back again.
--Oscar Wilde

In lieu of real content, I will post quotes about writing, one a day until I have something else to say.

"Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you'rea writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, withoutpity, and destroy most of it."
-Colette, writer (1873-1954)

Oh, the shame! I haven't been posting here, because there hasn't really been anything to post. I've been reading my way through the stack of articles for my Term Paper (I think of it in all caps, you know), because I'm pretty sure my advisor would like to see something from me in writing soon, only I've been avoiding him. aaack!

I have a presentation to give as part of a group of 3 on Monday, and I have to give all my materials to the guy who is going to mush it all into a handout by Friday.

And just otherwise keeping up with my classes.

So that means very minimal translating (2 pages in about 2 weeks), and absolutely no creative writing, and very little blogging.

But I hope once my presentation is done, I'll have a few stats to throw up here, either of the creative or academic variety.

For Saturday, May 6

I finished 3.2.1 of the piano book! Woot! I only had 1 column to go, but I had been stuck on it for a while. I already got several lines of my next section down while I was cooking dinner last night, so hopefully getting started on that this morning will be somewhat less daunting.

I also worked on revising Late Night Radio and am pretty happy with what I got down. I sent it off to Kee like a good girl so she can advise me whether I managed to do 1) what she thought it needed, and 2) what I thought I had done. That second one is not so easy to see when you are looking at your own work. I have an idea for another small section to add later, but I think I'll have to let that stew in the back of my mind for a while before I can write it.

Stewing Godred (heh) has resulted in a little more toward the beginning of the second half (mostly in note form, but still). Thanks to John's helpful commentary, I know I need to flesh out the very opening bit of the first half, but I am still trying to work out how. Usually these things just come to me, but I have to give them enough time to stew properly with the occasional stir or poke to keep things cooking along. I *heart* my subconscious!

I feel like I'm getting the hang of the semester, so I hope to have some translating stats to post here soon. I guess I can also add progress on my term paper now that I have started actually reading for it. *shame*

Kee gave me some really good feedback on Late Night Radio, so I am trying to figure out the best way to incorporate it into my story. I tend to be laconic in a story, partly because I don't want to dump everything in the reader's lap; I think it's more fun to have to work *a little* when reading. But laconic can easily become opaque, so it helps to get a fresh pair of eyes.

I know it's been a little while since I posted here (on second look, only since Sunday, whew!). School just started, so I've been busily scurrying from class to class with not a lot of time for translating or writing. Kee has her mitts on Late Night Radio, and I hope she has an idea for a couple of lines to make an ending. I could possibly end it as is, but I think it needs something.

Anyhoo, not dead, but not writing either.

Let's just pretend that the piano book no longer exists, shall we? I'll update you on it if and when I ever spend more than 1 hour a day on it. *shame*

I figured out a direction for the end of "Late Night Radio" to take, but I'm no good at actual last lines (as anyone who has ever read my other blog will attest to). So I'm still struggling with that. But I'm amazingly satisfied with even that progress. Yay me!

For Monday, April 17

Paid Work in Progress: piano book
I managed to squeak out about 1-1/2 book pages, but most of that was musical notes, so no biscuit for me.

Creative Work in Progress: Late Night Radio (short story)
I forced myself to ignore that horrible, cringe-inducing moment when I pick up something I've written by hand and type it into the computer. I made a lot of changes (improvements, I hope) to the couple of pages that I'd previously typed up, and was adding my written additions, but then Hannah wanted to play a CD-ROM game, so I graciously helped her get it set up. Now that I'm about done farting around, I mean, doing important work on the computer, I guess I will try to finish up.

On Wednesday, I took names and kicked ass on the translation job. I translated *7* book pages (thank the 7 dwarves for all the sheet music included in this thing).

In the meanwhile, I had a meeting with my co-instructor for the class I will be teaching this summer semester (starting in a week). It seems easy enough.

I have also started the first of three novels that are required reading for a class I am taking. I am 650 pages in; only 150 to go on this one. The other 2 are shorter, fortunately, so I will probably go back to translating during the day and reading in the evening, but I couldn't afford not to finish this really big one, so I've been reading practically straight through (when we're not watching horrible translated American movies, like something with John Ritter and a live-action Jungle Book something or other.)

Creative writing? Not so much, but still swishing around in my head, like the literary contents of a Slurpe machine.

For ...All the days since my last post...Yeah, I know, Nee.

Creative Juices: At an all time low.

Guilt factor at my laziness: At an all time high.

Pride in my highly accomlished sister's sick-too-it-iveness: Ditto.

I have been hiding myself in books lately. The reading of, not the writing of (Yeah, I know, Nee). It's my escapism factor. I have been going through a book a day since I started working. It seems to keep my stress level relatively low, considering. And then, about the time that I think I've got it in me to get some work done on the writing, SOMEONE is hogging the computer.

No more empty promises. I'll get back when I can.

Work in Progress: piano translation

It is not even worth trying to tally up the amount of work I accomplished today. Let us never speak of it again.

My creative writing projects are probably on hold due to a big chunk of my brain (and time) being taken up with reading 3 novels in preparation for the upcoming semester. But I'm still leaving my pile of notebooks and a pen next to the bed, since I seem to get into writing/creative mode around bedtime.

Work in Progress: piano translation, Part 3, Section 2

I finished 3-1/2 book columns today. Not bad considering what a hard time I had concentrating.

In other news, I sent off a second entry to the Bulwer-Lytton contest. It's basically the plot of my dragon short story in one sentence, but oh well. It works as both.

Sunday was mostly taken up with organizing the mounds of papers floating around our office and my side of the bed (i.e., my study area)--but still no taxes done!

At bedtime, I sat up and hand-wrote 4 pages on "Late-Night Radio." I crossed out half of one page and started over, but still. Those 4 pages are the complete "transcript" of one caller to the advice line. Two down, one to go.

For Saturday, April 8:

Work in Progress: piano book, Part 3, Section 2

I managed to do exactly as much work as on Friday (2-1/2 book columns=8 hand-written pages). Go me! I probably would have managed a little more on both days, but I got bogged down in searching for some terms online. It's not as easy as you might think, but there's not always a one-to-one correlation in terms, even technical terms. And also, I am not a pianist, so my years of clarinette-playing are only taking me so far music-terminology-wise. Oh, well. Onward and upward!

Creative Writing Progress: It's a little odd right now. Several of my darlings are suddenly popping up: "Look at me! Look at me!" Kind of like a room full of 4-year-olds wanting attention. Except when I turn to look at one, it hides, or runs away. But I have managed to jot down a few things on one of the kid books and on the short stories "Late Night Radio" and "Dirty Work", so I'll just have to take it as it comes to me. I'm not too fussed. Yet.

Work in Progress: piano book translation

Started Part 3, Section 2
Finished 2-1/2 book columns (= 8 hand-written pages)--not too bad!
I may work on it some more this evening, and definitely over the weekend.

I sent in my ONE entry (read 'em and weep!) to the Bulwer Lytton contest. Here's your reminder (*cough* Kee *cough*) if you're planning on entering. I probably will be late with my U.S. taxes, but I know where my priorities are, people!

Speaking of Kee, I know you have that big meeting out of the way now, so I want to hear about your blazing writing progress this weekend! (Consider yourself kicked in the butt!)

The Catch-All Post for Wednesday, April 5, and Thursday, April 6

I proofread 39 pages of our translation on Wed., then the other 54 today, and John emailed it to the author. Tomorrow: back to the mines! (i.e., Part 3, Section 2)

I hand-wrote about a page on the second half of Dirty Work while Hannah was at ballet. I got some feedback on it from Kee, so I'm adding that to the pot to let it stew for part 2 and final revisions.

In a bout of anxiety about the upcoming semester, I've been a posting fool at my other blog, mostly photos and captions, though. When I get nervous, I tend to get a bit manic, but I don't manage to harness all that extra energy for anything useful, like writing or working. Rats.

Hello? Kee? Where are yooouuu?

I got very little (work- or writing-related) accomplished today. bleh.

I spent all weekend rereading the two articles my 2-page homework assignment was based on, then today writing, and after John gives it a quick proofread, I'll send it off to my teacher. Only 3 days late! It's my second-best time!

Tomorrow I have English tutoring in the morning, then piano proofreading in the afternoon. woo

For Friday, March 31

Paid Work in Progress: piano translation
Status: Part 3, Section 1
Start Date: March 10

Section 1 is FINISHED! Well, the translation. John is typing in my work, and then I will proofread the whole section, then we will send it off to the author for review. Only 150+ pages to go!


Creative Work in Progress: Dirty Work (aka Godred story)
Status: FINISHED! the first half and sent it off to my "reviewers" (i.e., guinea pigs--if they don't fall down foaming at the mouth, then I will consider the first half a success).