A Day of Firsts

I have had such a good couple days of writing. Well, yesterday was better than today. I put in 7,000 words yesterday before I went to bed completely exhausted. I had one of those days where I didn't even want to stop to eat, shower, walk the dog or take a phone call.

It felt good. That kind of day was truly a first for me. When I woke up this morning, my elbow really hurt from my time at the computer. But in a strange way, I didn't mind the hurt. I finally felt like a put in an honest day's work.

I also shared my work with my Sig Other. He was very enthusiastic and gave me some great tips on areas that needed cleanup. I am going to focus on the edits just as soon as I have gotten through my last 2,000 words that I need to write today. I believe that I will have a complete first draft by the time I close up shop for the day.

This truly is a day of firsts!

I bought my first eBook today

Yeah, I'm a little behind the times. Everyone's got their readers and consumes content voraciously. I'm a bit slower on the uptake on this one but I'm looking forward to trying. I bought a Nocturne Bites title ~ Dreamcatcher by Anna Leonard. I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote this spooky paranormal story that I am going to submit to that line so I thought I'd better read what's actually getting published before I send in my MS.

And ~ if I want to be pubb'ed and sell ebooks, I had better know what they're like to read. I'll let you know. I like the premise for Dreamcatcher so I'm going to read it tonight.

Here's my quandary. I'm not sure if I should submit my MS to the publisher or find an agent for a short novella. I want to just send it away to the publisher because they give a nice little blurb on their site about how they're accepting unsolicited material for the line. But would that be a mistake? Here's the thing, I really love my story. I know that doesn't equal a hill of beans on the adding machines of business-oriented agents and publishers. But I love it and I want to package it up and send it off without have ing to first wait to see if an agent loves it too.

Any advice? Also the publisher says to send the entire MS and not to query but does this mean that I shouldn't write any kind of intro for the piece? I gots some serious questions before I run off halfcocked and get myself rejected.

It's Not About the Word Count

It's about calming that inner voice, that inner liar that is constantly inventing, weaving, fantasizing... Writing is about feeding the muse. She doesn't feed me. She doesn't have to. She would exist no matter what just to make me crazy. Writing is the only way I can put her to bed, shut her up, wrestle her down and get some peace for myself.

So I give her the page or she takes over my thoughts and doesn't let me focus on anything else. It's 2:35 am and I'm sitting at my desk. Couldn't sleep because the muse wanted to chat with me. Usually, I just listen and think, yeah, good one. Now let me get back to sleep and we can take this up at a more decent hour. But tonight, I gave in to her wishes and banged out 6 pages so far. It's now 4:15 am. I think I'll go back to bed now...

Bridge to Nowhere

Have you ever made pretty substantial plot changes and then tried to tie scenes together? I've been working like this for the past couple of weeks and I feel like I'm building a bridge to nowhere. I know, suddenly, all my posts are about Sarah Palin...

But that's exactly how I've been feeling. I've been working on this bridge and I'm not sure how I'm going to get to the other side. I have a vague idea and I keep writing and writing but I'm in uncharted territory here. I hope this works. If not, I have a whole lot of pages that won't stick together. The good news is that I like the changes that I made and I like these bridge pages but if they don't help the story along then I've wasted a lot of time and effort. But I guess that even failed writing experiments are valuable learning lessons for new writers.

It's worth it in the end because I'm starting to have more of a feel for the process and for how stories come together. Now when I read a book or watch a movie, I'm more conscious of the craft behind the writing and I enjoy stories so much more now.

A Romance Hero in the Unlikeliest Place

This is not a political blog at all. I have opinions but I'll keep them to myself.

To me, what has totally been underplayed in all the hoopla over Sarah Palin is her dashing romance hero, the "first dude," Todd Palin. Just from the few tidbits weve learned about his past, I'm already getting the rough sketches for a fantasy romance hero: hunter, oil worker, commercial fisherman, snowmobile racer who marries a beauty queen. This is something straight out of a Diana Palmer novel, reset in Alaska. He's been called a "true Alaskan," part Yupik Eskimo.

He must be that rarest mix of alpha male (all frontiersman, survivalist, manliness) and sensitive male. After all, I've read that he helps take care of their children and cooks!

Yes, there are the ups and downs on the way to love and I'd like to airbrush a few details about these two people but I like the outline so far.

I know one thing, they've got my vote for sexiest backstory of the campaign. We'll see about the rest.

How Can I Thank You?

Putting together a well-written thank you note is a tall order to fill. I mean, those two little words already accomplish so much: thank you.

What remains is the blank inside of a 5x7 note card, or rather, a whole lot of space for me to ramble and go off message. I'm one of those foolish sorts who likes to say only what is necessary and only what I really feel. So, I agonize over every little word.

Here's the scenario: I have to write five personalized thank you notes as a follow up to a marathon two and half hour interview I had yesterday. I've written three and I'm exhausted. I don't want to say the same thing over and over. What if they compare what I've written? I don't want to write something generic. These peeps are really picky and it's for a writing position so I feel like I've got to put forth the effort to win the job. It's a great job, btw. Well, I mean, as far as day jobs go.

I'm wiped. This may be all the writing I get to do today. Yikes!

First Dinner, Then Dessert

I was never any good at abiding by this rule set by most parents. In fact, as soon as I became an adult (which is still debatable), I broke this one all the time. Unfortunately, there is a reason that dinner comes before dessert or that work comes before play... to instill discipline, establish routine. I'm so bad at that still. I want to web surf before writing. I want to eat, check what's on TV. I even go so far as saying that I need to have all the dishes clean before I can get started!

I'm not a neat freak by any stretch.

I'm a born procrastinator and it's become so obvious now that I have long periods of uninterrupted time. I have to fight myself to get things done, to get motivated.

Today's big distractions (in no particular order, of course) have been: returning phone/email for my job search, blog reading/writing, dog walking/vet/dog park, daydreaming up new stories I'd like to write, laundry, eating/thinking about eating.

So ~ I have decided to keep to a more rigorous schedule over the next few days to see if that helps. I am going to try to set time allowances for each of my activities so I can still do everything... just within limits.

I have a big chunk of edits done but I just keep fiddling with it. I'm driving myself slightly insane with this project. I need to read some of the wonderful author blogs on how to edit efficiently... but I have to fit that into my new schedule!