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Posts Tagged ‘writing’

ROW80 Check-In 11/20/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 20, 2013| 10 Comments »

This has been a so-so week.

Writing: I’m still sitting on that last chapter, almost afraid to look at it. One more day. I’ll look at it tomorrow and see if it sounds insane or awesome.

Exercise: I didn’t get back to the gym for my normal Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule because I had to go to the doctor Monday. But he’s very pleased with my blood sugar and me in general. And I’ve lost 2 lbs. this week already. I’m going back to the gym today.

FlyLady: I’ve kept a shiny sink so far this week. I did my 15 minute mission on Monday, and it ended up being more like 25 minutes. When I checked my mission for yesterday, it turns out I did both missions on Monday. LOL. So I felt like I could slack off yesterday. *looks around to see if Susan is seeing this*

I hope to have much more to report on Sunday. Later!

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ROW80 – Writing, Exercise, and FlyLady

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 17, 2013| 14 Comments »

I’ve found that when the rest of my life is organized and NOT in chaos, that my writing goes the same way. I was really sick last week, and I did practically nothing in any category. So today starts a new week, and I want to tweak my goals a bit and really work hard on getting my life in order, especially now that the holidays are coming up.

Writing: I don’t know if I’m going to make my November 30 deadline or not. I don’t know how many of you read my last post, but I felt like my last chapter was out of control, so I want to sit on it a couple of days and see if it’s better than I think. I might still make the deadline, but I’m not going to obsess about it. I would rather the story be good than be done on time.

Exercise: I go back to the doctor for my three month visit tomorrow. I have no idea how my A1C test will look because I haven’t been checking my blood sugar. (bad me) I didn’t exercise last week because I was sick, but I have been exercising. And I have a new incentive to go to the gym. If I go at least 12 days out of the month, my insurance will pay for my membership fees! Who doesn’t want to save money, right? But I’ve gained a few lbs. so I’m not sure what my tests will look like. Today, I’m back on track!

FlyLady: For those of you who don’t know who FlyLady is, she has a website that basically teaches you how to keep your house clean and how to stay organized. My goal is to start back doing the daily missions, which usually take about 15 minutes. But the very first thing she wants everyone to start with is to keep your sink shiny. No dishes in it. Mine is shiny right now, and that’s after I cooked breakfast. 🙂 After you get the daily missions started, you can go on to the detailed cleaning. She encourages you to keep a control journal. Check it out. FlyLady.

That’s all, folks!

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My Ending is Out of Control!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 16, 2013| 9 Comments »

Okay, so I was working on my WIP Thursday night, and I was feeling like a crazy person. For one thing, I’m afraid my WIP is going to be too short, because the ending was coming too fast. I pretty much wrote the climax of my story last night. It needs a denouement, to bring it to a close and to explain a few things. But what is really disturbing me is that I felt kind of out of control while I was writing it. The words were coming and things were going like I wanted…but were those words interesting? Believable? Logical? Or were the words a big jumbled mess of incredible goofiness? I really don’t know! I’m sure my beta readers will tell me, but I like to have something halfway decent before they ever see it.

So here’s what I did. I didn’t write last night. I didn’t even look at my WIP. Because I think it needs to rest a bit before I go back and read that last chapter. I’m not sure what I will find when I do. Will it be the mess I am afraid it is? Or will it be a solid piece of writing? I’ve been told before (by reviewers) that sometimes my endings are too sappy. This one feels almost too much like “the world is saved, all is well, and I have such a warm feeling in my heart”. I kind of like those types of endings. But not everyone does. This is a horror story, after all. So I keep wondering if I should make the ending more angsty. Or maybe make the reader THINK the ending is happy, but then it’s really not. I’ve written the big climax of the horror part of the story. The denouement will wrap up the story, but also have kind of a climax to the romance. (No jokes about the word “climax”, please. You are all English students.) You know, I almost feel like my thoughts here are all over the place, just like my WIP. Anyway, I might go back to it today and see how it looks. Or I might wait until Monday. I just don’t know. I’m almost AFRAID to look at it. Also, I set a deadline for finishing on November 30. I’m afraid I won’t make that if I have to fix this story. We shall see!

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ROW80 Update 11/13/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 13, 2013| 8 Comments »

I don’t update on Wednesdays very often, since I write Thursday-Saturday. I was going to possibly try to write a little on Monday or Tuesday, but this week I have been SICK. I went home from work Monday after only working two hours. I was miserable yesterday, but stuck it out all day. I’m better today, so I’m hoping to be practically well by tomorrow. Because tomorrow is writing day! And I’ve set a deadline to finish my WIP by November 30, so I have to get going. 🙂

By the way, I just gotta ask this. Do you find yourself writing a blog post and realize you’ve used a local colloquialism, so you change it to something else because you’re not sure anyone that’s not from your area will have a clue about what it means? 🙂

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ROW80 Update 11/10/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 10, 2013| 15 Comments »

I feel really good about my progress last week. My word count goal has been 3,000 words per week, but since I set November 30 as the deadline for finishing my WIP, then I realized I had to write more like 5,000 words. The good news is that this week I wrote 5,777 words! I’m really close to finishing this book, and it’s getting exciting. I just wrote, Saturday, an action scene that I’m pretty pleased with. I’m really liking how this book is ending, but I’m almost afraid I’m going to end it a little too early. I need to flesh out some of the scenes, but that can be done during the editing process. I’m glad I’ve finally gotten excited about this book.

My other goal was to visit several of my fellow ROW80er’s blogs. I visited ten last week. I’m glad I got that goal done, too.

I’m really pleased with the way last week went. 🙂

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The Book I’m Working On

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 8, 2013| 6 Comments »

I don’t think I’ve said a WHOLE lot about the book I’m working on. I don’t like to say too much about my WIPs until they’re released. Anya and I sat down at lunch yesterday and worked on some book cover ideas and book titles. Those are the two things that sell a book to me. Although most people look at the cover first. I always look at the title first, the cover second. If the title is catchy, I look further, but if it doesn’t interest me, I don’t usually even look at the cover. The cover is the second step in determining my interest, though, so it’s very important, too.

I think Anya and I have a general idea of what to do with the cover. I think it’s going to look great. But the title is still elusive. I have an idea, but someone else has a title ALMOST exactly like it. I know a lot of books share the same title, but I try not to duplicate unless the title just calls to me. So that’s where I am, thinking of a cover, trying to come up with a title, and about 8,000 words away from finished.

I still don’t know if this will be considered horror or not. We shall see. There’s murder, an evil spirit, and bad people in this book. And a little romance thrown in for good measure. 🙂

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ROW80 Update 11/3/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 3, 2013| 16 Comments »

My goal is to write 3,000 word per week. I did it this week. I wrote 3,875 on my current WIP. It’s getting really complicated and twisty, but I think I’ve got it under control. I think I’m just within a few chapters of finishing this thing, so I’m really hoping I’ll have a release before Christmas. It’s going to depend on beta readers.

My other goal is to visit several of my fellow ROW80ers each week. If any of you saw my apology post recently, you’ll know I’ve been very neglectful of that lately. I don’t know when I’ll get those visits done because I have a full day tomorrow after church. We’re going to a baby shower and to visit our son and his wife, and we’re going to church with them tomorrow night. They live about an hour away, so it will be kind of late when I get back. But I’m going to try to pop in on some people’s blogs Monday while I’m at work.

So how are the rest of you doing? Who’s doing NaNo? Not me! 😉

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Fall is in the Air

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 1, 2013| 12 Comments »

The leaves that I thought would NEVER turn, finally did. It happened in, like, two days. It was so windy last night, and all my windows were open. It seemed like perfect Halloween weather. And I’m feeling a renewed motivation for writing. I want to go into my office, close the door (if I can get the cats in there with me because that’s where their litter box is), and sit down with a cup of hot tea and some snacks, and write, write, write. Maybe iced tea, if it’s too warm in there. But tea. And snacks.

I might run into a small snag because someone might want me to go eat dinner with them. But that’s no excuse. It won’t be all night. And I can stay up late since it’s Friday night. I must write!

Do any of you feel renewed at the change of seasons? What season makes you feel rejuvenated?

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ROW80 Update 10/27/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 27, 2013| 12 Comments »

My goal for each week is 3,000 words. Last week, I only made it to 1,663 words. That was kind of discouraging, especially since I had written well over 4,000 the week before and thought I was on a roll. Anyway, I didn’t quite make my goal this week, but I did write 2,789. That’s pretty close, so I’ll take it. My story is ending up with some more twists I wasn’t expecting. That’s always fun. Even when I have an outline, new ideas keep popping up, so I just change the outline. So I’m still plotting. Just sometimes after the fact. 🙂

Also, I want to mention that I took part in a Halloween anthology, contributing a short story called “The Third Wish”. The anthology is only $1.00, and the proceeds (minus PayPal fees) all go to UNICEF. This anthology was the brain child of Joy Kamen. She remembered that as a child, she Trick or Treated for UNICEF. She thought this would be a good way for adults to do the same. Joy worked really hard on this project. So if you’re interested in downloading the pdf file for $1.00, just click the pretty cover over to the right, which goes to the download page on Joy’s site. Thanks!

So, how did the rest of you do this week?

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ROW80 Update 10/20/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 20, 2013| 14 Comments »

I’m a little disappointed this week. My goal is 3,000 words per week. I only wrote 1,663. And I did it all in one day. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are my writing days. I was all fired up on Thursday when I wrote those words. On Friday, I couldn’t wait to get home from work and get some writing done. But my mom called and wanted me to go out to eat with her, my son, his fiancee, and their little girl. I couldn’t say no because I wanted to spend time with them. When I got home, it was late and I was tired. I don’t know WHY I didn’t write yesterday. I THINK it might be all those spooky Halloween movies I was watching. LOL. I had to go into work for a couple of hours, which kind of ruined my day, but had to be done. Then I went to the grocery store. Spending all that money kind of depressed me because you don’t get many groceries for a huge amount. 😦 But it was mostly the movies.

I’m going to have to rearrange my schedule, I think. I wanted to have those three writing days so I could get other stuff that needed to be done over with at the beginning of the week. But now I’m thinking I might ought to just write when I get a chance, no matter what day it is so I won’t sabotage myself at the end of the week if something comes up. I’m going to try that this week and see what happens.

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