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Posts Tagged ‘WIP’

ROW80 Goals for Round 3

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 2, 2012| 20 Comments »

I can’t believe it’s actually that time again! I really meant to finish my WIP in Round 2, but those of you who’ve followed my blog know that I was a slacker. I bounced back the last couple of weeks of the round, but it was way too late. Anyway, here are my goals for Round 3.

1. Finish my WIP by writing one hour per day, five days a week (Sundays and Wednesdays are church days, so I intend to take those days off unless I’m itching to write).

2. Proof Vampires’ Curse a second time, then format it for print.

3. Exercise five days a week.

Some writers have said they only want to post writing goals on their blog, and they won’t talk about anything else, but I’m a firm believer in putting all of myself out there and connecting with people. I also believe that exercise goals HELP with writing goals.

Good luck to everyone this round, and if there’s anything I can ever do to help, please let me know! We are all about support here at ROW80!

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Am I Destined to Write Novellas?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 17, 2012| 14 Comments »

Some of you may remember when I was writing The Gnome, I had intended it to be a novel. As it turned out, it became a longer novella of almost 40,000 words. I went back and read it, added some things that I had thought of along the way, but it was basically still going to be a novella. I went ahead and charged $2.99 for it because it was longer than my novellas that are $1.99. There was just nothing left to add to The Gnome, at least not it my opinion. My beta readers liked it, even though I had worried about writing something in a different genre than I usually write.

So flash forward to the present. I’m working on something right now that I think has a great title, which is weird since I usually can’t think of one. I’ll reveal that title later, but for now I think it would be best to keep it quiet. The story line is good, but when I think of the critical points of the story (kind of like an outline, but not exactly), it looks like this is going to be another novella. I originally thought I wanted it to be a novel, but I don’t think it will be.

This is what I’ve discovered may be the reason I don’t write too many novels. I prefer to READ novellas. When I open a book on my Kindle, if it has too many “locations”, I inwardly groan. Why is this, you might ask? Because I want to hurry and get done so I can read the next thing, and the next thing. Different new things. This is also why I rarely read series (except the awesome ones). I don’t want to get too involved because I might be in the mood for a totally different kind of book the next time. Many times, novellas feel like “a great ride” because they’re usually fast paced and things get done. Now there are some exceptions to this rule I’m currently listening to Stephen King’s 11/22/63 on cd. And it’s LONG. 25 disks. But Stephen King is one of the few authors who make me want to keep reading a book and never stop. I feel sad when it’s over. There are very few authors that can do this for me. There ARE some, both indie and trad, but it’s definitely the exception to the rule.

Does this make me shallow? I hope not. Does it make me restless? Probably. Does it mean I get bored easily? Yep. I might mention I also prefer movies to TV series as a rule. And, no, I don’t have ADHD. I can focus on something intently when I need to (like my job in accounting). I’m just so darn eclectic. Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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ROW80 Check In 5/16/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 16, 2012| 10 Comments »

I know this is a late check in, but I’m trying to be a better employee and not do too much personal stuff at work. And I had church tonight, so this is the first time I’ve really gotten to sit down and do anything.

I finally started back on the writing last night. I only got a little over 400 words down, even though I sat at the computer for almost an hour. This is partly because I changed a couple of things I had written earlier. I know most people think you should write a first draft, then do all the editing later. I work better if I edit as I go, then I have a cleaner first draft when I’m finished. When I think of something I want to add or change, I usually do it right then. Anyway, those changes plus a little snag slowed my word count down. The snag was because I couldn’t figure out what a certain artifact was supposed to do. I’ve done a little brainstorming with hubby, and I think we’ll come up with something. He’s proven to be a lot of help lately. He had a lot of input in The Gnome. One of the major ideas in the book was his. He’s come a long way from back when he was calling my writing a hobby. LOL

On the kitten front. I’ve been letting them come in the house and play some in the afternoons. Monday, instead of staying under the couch like they did the first time, they decided it would be fun to get into my potted plant and fling dirt everywhere. I tried to sweep up all the dirt before my husband saw it, but they can fling faster than I can sweep. 🙂 I just had to wait and clean up later. I WILL eventually get pictures, but right now I can’t get them to slow down enough. They’re just a blur of fur and claws.

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ROW80 Check In 5/6/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 6, 2012| 27 Comments »

Not really much to say about this week. I haven’t touched my WIP since my check in on Wednesday. I’ve had so much going on this past week and still not feeling the best in the world. I’m going to go back to walking on the treadmill early in the mornings. The two weeks I made myself do that, I felt better than I had in a long time. When I’m lying in bed thinking about how much I want to just sleep another hour, I should remember how good I felt when I was exercising. It’s all about motivation. Besides, my husband said something to me that really hit home. My mother is overweight, diabetic, and has arthritis. We went to my daughter-in-law’s graduation, but my mom couldn’t go because it was in a place where there were lots of steps. I told my husband that my mom would never make it up the steps and he made some remark under his breath about how I would be in the same situation in a few years. I was stunned. I think he’s really worried about me getting into the shape my mom is in. So I’m determined not to. I CAN’T.

On a brighter note…I’m getting two kittens tomorrow! I’m so excited! I haven’t been able to have cats because I can’t leave them outside because of coyotes, and my husband won’t let me have them inside because of a bad experience with a cat we had with bladder problems. So my friend suggested a compromise. She had crate trained her cats before and they did really well. So I bought this huge cage that is big enough for the two cats to play in. It has three levels, two of which have little ledges for them to lie on. I’m going to keep the cage out on our deck and make a nice little roof on it for shelter from the elements. When I’m at work, they’ll stay in the cage, and when I’m at home, they can stay in the house with me. The reason I’m getting two is because I don’t want them to be lonely while I’m gone. I’m going to fix up this cage to be a nice little playhouse with toys and stuff. The cage also comes with a little soft bed to put on one of the ledges. This cage is big enough for 2-3 large cats, so two little kittens should have a ball in it. There’s no danger of coyotes coming up on our deck. (They couldn’t get through the cage anyway.) Our dog protects our deck fiercely, and he’s always there at night (and my cats might be able to stay inside with me overnight). So my kitties will be safe, sheltered, and showered with lots of toys. I can’t wait to get them!

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ROW80 Check In 4/29/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on April 29, 2012| 16 Comments »

I realized that I completely forgot my Wednesday check in last week. I posted something else on that day instead of my check in. Oh well, a missed check in every once in awhile won’t kill me.

I only managed to write 1538 words last week. That is NOT acceptable to me! There were a number of factors involved in my lack of productivity. One of them was a migraine that lasted off and on for two days. The off and on was because of taking medicine, then it wearing off. I also have a “bladder irritation”, which I’ve had before. So having those both at the same time, I was torn between taking medicine for one or the other, since neither medicine would work for both, and I shouldn’t take them together. So I decided to take care of both problems with a couple of doses of hydrocodone. LOL. It at least allowed me to get through a function at church Saturday afternoon and a birthday part Saturday night without moaning in pain. Okay, enough about that stuff! Maybe I sort of had excuses for lack of productivity with the health issues and having my son, his girlfriend, and her baby come to visit one night. Come on, who can write when there’s a baby to enjoy? Such a darling little one year old. 🙂

I’m going to have to buckle down and do what I’m supposed to this week. I need to set aside time for my WIP, time for formatting two books for print, and time for exercise. Wednesday and Thursday are both tied up with church classes until at least 8:00 PM. It’s hard to come in and make myself work on days when stuff is going on that late after I’ve worked all day. Maybe on those two nights, I can have abbreviated schedules where I work on each thing for half the time. That’s better than not doing it at all, right?

Are any of the rest of you struggling with juggling writing with other things? (Hey, did you see how I had rhyming words in that sentence???)

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ROW80 Update 4/22/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 22, 2012| 12 Comments »

The Gnome has finally been released on Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Yay!

One of my older books, Starfane, has had a sudden increase in sales. Not a huge increase, but enough to make me wonder what’s going on. I have never understood why certain books sell at certain times. Marketing would be so much easier, wouldn’t it.

Now it’s time to buckle down and work on my WIP that I stopped working on to publish The Gnome. Also, I’ve been abandoning my exercise routine, but I want to get that back on track this week.

How about the rest of you?

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The Gnome-Available on Smashwords

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 20, 2012| 10 Comments »

The Gnome is finally available on Smashwords. The Gnome

Writing and editing this book has been a long and trying process. It was out of my normal genre, but I did it anyway. LOL. One of the things I worried about the most was how I would do on the action scenes. And the funny thing is, one of my beta readers said those were the parts she thought I excelled in. Go figure. I’m still really worried about how this book will be received. My two “author” beta readers both said they were always waiting to see what would happen next, so hopefully I can keep at least some people entertained. An “avid reader” beta reader really liked it, too. My other beta reader…I’m not too sure about. She really doesn’t like horror at all, but agreed to read this one since she’s read the rest of my books. She’s still waiting on the Christian romance I’m going to publish under a different name. That’s the kind of thing she likes. 🙂

Anyway, I’ve already revealed the cover, so I won’t put a huge picture in this post. Hopefully, Amazon will have it on their site tomorrow (they’re a lot faster than they used to be), and who knows about B & N. Now, it’s on to writing more on my WIP!

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Choosing Editing Over Writing

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 16, 2012| 12 Comments »

As much as I would love to get more words written on my WIP, I realize that I need to finish my edits on The Gnome. I added another beta reader for this story, and she’s pretty tough. LOL. She makes some very valid points, though, so I’m trying to edit based on comments from two different beta readers. I’m just going chapter by chapter, first working on one beta’s suggestions, then going back and working on the other one. These two betas are authors. The other two were readers. I love getting four different points of view from four very different people. Neither of the two authors are commenting and suggesting about the same passages. So I really am getting totally different perspectives. I love it. 🙂

Anyway, my whole point is that I need to finish The Gnome before I can get as serious as I like about the other work. So I’m going to devote my writing time tonight on edits. I want to get this thing published this week if possible. I was really worried about this story since it was my first step into horror, although it’s not hard core horror by any means. But I’ve gotten favorable comments from beta readers, so I know that at least it’s not horrible. LOL I was waffling today about whether to go ahead and do a cover reveal or wait until it’s published. What do you all think? Should I go ahead and reveal the cover? And I also wanted to know if any of you have had to lay your WIP aside to finish edits on something else. Feedback, please!

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ROW80 Check In 2/12/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 12, 2012| 20 Comments »

I expected to have the first draft of my WIP finished last night. I really did. But life got in the way. I did more housework than usual because I’ve been feeling bad about not doing much. Especially since this was one of my goals. Then my husband wanted to watch some things we had on the DVR since it’s piling up. Also, my mom needed me to take her somewhere and bring her back because she doesn’t see well enough to drive at night in unfamiliar places. Oh, and then my husband announced that he had rented a movie we needed to watch last night. Scorpion King 3. It wasn’t worth it. So I didn’t get that first draft finished. It’s almost there. It has turned out a little differently than I originally intended. It was going to be more of a slasher horror story with an element of supernatural. It’s ending up being a supernatural story with an element of slasher. If that makes sense. I’m pretty sure it still needs to be labeled as horror, though. Maybe supernatural horror as a sub-genre. I’ll talk that over with the beta readers.

Right now it’s 20 degrees here with a wind chill factor of 13. I knew that warm spell we had was a harbinger of colder things to come! Brrrr. It’s going to be cold going to church this morning.

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ROW80 Check In 2/5/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 5, 2012| 25 Comments »

I feel like I’ve written myself into a corner. The next time I have a bright idea about writing horror, someone just please slap me. I’m coming to the end of my book, and it’s not going to be long enough. But that’s not the end of the world, it will just be a long novella instead of a short novel. My biggest problem is a showdown between two witches. This book wasn’t even supposed to HAVE witches, but somehow they sprang forth into the story. Now I’m trying to figure out the best way to have a weaker witch win over a stronger witch. My husband says it has to be with trickery. That’s probably true. So then I have to figure out the trick. There are some other timing issues that I need to figure out concerning something else that’s happening in the book, because the two scenes have to come together at some point. This is making my head hurt.

I have good things to finally report about exercise. I went bicycle riding Thursday and Friday. By Friday evening, my body was so sore I could barely move. I expected my legs to be sore, but not my back, shoulders, arms, and hands. I had a little trouble getting out of bed Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it rained Saturday and it’s supposed to rain today. So the next time I get to ride, I’ll probably be sore again. We haven’t had more than a couple of sunny days in a row for months! Okay, okay, I know…I can walk on the treadmill when I can’t ride. And I can lift weights. No excuses. LOL

Anybody else having problems with their WIP or is everything going smoothly?

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