Jan 30, 2009

The Spirit’s Willing . . .

Can’t say as I’ve produced a lot of writing since my last post, but I have been dabbling.

Life is still kind of complicated right now - I’ve been focused on other things but I’ve still found time to stick my toes into the writing pool. The water’s up to about my ankles now.

Surprisingly enough, the WIP I seem to keep gravitating to is Changeling. This is probably the one I’ve been working on the longest, and I think it shows the most promise. Maybe this is because I’ve been taking my time with it, I don’t know. All I know is that I do the least amount of mental cringing any time I go back and read over parts of it.

I made a tentative pledge to give the February faux (it’s not official, just a bunch of us trying to keep the spirit of Nano alive using the honor system) Nano over on Absolute Write a go. Anyone who’s interesting in trying 50,000 words in a month should really join AW and give it a try. There’s no pressure, just lots of encouragement.

When I thought about doing the January faux Nano, I figured I’d spend my word count on finishing up my current WIPs. Since I didn’t participate, I didn’t finish anything. I suppose I could try finishing these stories for February, but it’s a lot easier to start something new. The only question is, what? I have many ideas percolating, it’s a matter of picking just one.

Do I start something new or try to finish what I’ve started first? What to do, what to do. I guess in the end it doesn’t matter which, as long there’s much wordage.

Jan 23, 2009

Where Are Those Buckles?

This is getting ridiculous.

While it's good that I'm at least back to updating my blogs, it's bad that I'm not getting any other writing done. Not even so much as a post on Absolute Write or a letter to my sister.

I may not be thinking much about my current WIPs, but that doesn't mean I'm not still getting ideas. A couple of them are variations on previous ideas, but one is pretty new. It'll need further consideration before it gets committed to paper, but it's coming.

Coming up with a set time to write every day has been problematic lately, and as I've stated previously I have a hard time squeezing in writing in little bits and pieces throughout the day. At least until an idea takes hold and won't leave me alone.

I need to set myself a daily word goal, large enough to make me feel productive, but not so large as to scare me off. It just irritates the crap out of me that I was able to produce two and three thousand words a day during Nano and now . . . nothing. *sigh*

Over on Absolute Write they have a Page-A-Day club. A page is only 250 words. Maybe I could start out with a page a day and then increase until I’m back to where I want to be. A thousand words is only four pages a day. During Nano I was able to do a thousand words in an hour.

Time to buckle down!

Jan 21, 2009

Wednesday

I wish I was the kind of writer who can squeeze in bits of writing here and there in spite of whatever distraction life throws at them. I know other people do this, but right now I’m seriously lacking in that kind of focus.

I lost my writerly mojo when I stopped writing for the holidays and I’m having a hard time getting it back. I guess updating my blogs is a start, but still . . .

Whilst looking for my mojo I decided to check out the document files I had stored on my lap top with the idea of maybe working on one of my abandoned short story ideas. Hmm, four that are more or less finished but I’ve decided need more work (but have not idea what kind of work), one that’s just the bare bones of an idea for a series of stories, and one that I have no idea where I was going with.

Where are the rest of them? They’re not tucked away in a different file. They’re not on my trusty USB key. Hopefully they’re not on the CD I can no longer access . . . Please tell me they’re not still on various floppy disks stacked, hidden, scattered, throughout my office. *sigh* At least I know I have hard copies of them all tucked away in various file folders.

There was a time when I printed a hard copy of every little note and change I made to a story and stuck it in the appropriate file. Of course this was before the Great Purge, the week I went through all the papers in my office in an effort to reduce and ended up with 11 bags of shredded paper for the recycling.

The fact that three out of the four current WIP don’t even have folders tells me I’ve come a long way baby. I have an oversized notebook to work out ideas and everything else is on the computer or USB key.

Looks like today I’m going to check some of my storage CDs for my short story collection. Hopefully I had the brains to transfer the information from my floppy disks to CDs. Checking the floppy disks (if I can even remember where I put them) will first require fixing one of the computers that has a floppy drive.

Wish me luck.

Jan 16, 2009

Interesting

I did a post on my everyday blog about changes, which I find interesting because I’m making a slight change in what I posted here yesterday.

I’m not changing my goals, I still intend to finish all four of my WIP, but instead of working on my Nano novel (which is up past 56K now) I’m going to start off with Magic. The reason for this is because Magic seems to be the one that’s grabbing my attention right now.

I think I’d better change the Zokutou bar for Magic as well. The story’s at 17K right now and I’m pretty sure I don’t have another 60K worth of story left. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if it tops 40K. Which is okay. I already figured I’d be looking at e-publishing for it, and e-publishers seem a lot more forgiving of length. Many e-publishers accept novellas and novelettes as well as full length novels.

Another thing I find interesting, is that I appear to come up with more series ideas than single ideas. Not series as in you have to read them in a particular order for them to make sense, but series as in the subject matter or location is connected some how.

*sigh* Now if I could only just buckle down and get them written.

Jan 15, 2009

I’m Baackk!

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I last posted here.

Holidays are over, it’s back to work . . . hopefully.

I have to admit that I got nothing written while I was on hiatus (unless you count a couple of measly posts on my other blog). No writing, no editing, I didn’t even post on Absolute Write (let alone participate in the erotic writers practice thread). I think it’s time to take a dip back into the writing pool.

I didn’t make any resolutions for the new year - fate always conspires against me keeping them - but I would like to set myself a few writing goals.

1. Finish the first drafts of my current WIPs.

2. Edit these drafts once they’re done.

3. Submit at least one of them for publication.

I’m going to start by finishing my Nano novel since it’s the closest to being done. Then, once I start the edits on it, I can finish one of my other WIPs. Ideally, I’d like to be able to concentrate on one for edits and one for finishing until all four are done.

Of course I’m always open to a new idea if one comes up and starts slapping me on the head until I write it down. Hopefully, this won’t happen until I have at least one finished product under my belt.