#ROW80 Check-in 6/21/15

Annnd here we are again with another check-in. I’ve been more productive, which is really good. 🙂

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there!

I’m still going slowly wordcount-wise so my muse doesn’t get spooked. I haven’t been able to work on both main WIPs every day, although I think I managed it once. So maybe it’ll end up being a back-and-forth thing, and that’s totally okay. I’m being gentle with myself because things have been rough on me as of late, and I don’t need to hear my Inner Slave Driver screaming at me about low wordcounts. Nope, my ears are plugged.

Here’s the run down:

Survivor – Worked on it today and last Sunday. I’m on page 10 of 831 (!!) but I realized that I messed up a few scenes. Oh, yes. It would have helped to take a glance at my outline and notes beforehand, but now I’ve got it straight. It is SO overwhelming, rewriting this book. But it will be better for it, and I still believe it is worth the work to make it saleable. I also need to distill some of these scenes into the core idea, because I can see how little some of them accomplish story-wise. I’ve learned how to identify that kind of stuff, whereas 11 years ago, I knew nothing. So, progress.

Ever Touched – More work in Hiveword (it is Hiveword, not Hivemind! I frantically searched for it last night — didn’t bookmark the site, duh — and discovered this. Oops? But now I’m straight.) Got some characters named and identified, got a few scenes added to the outline. It’s coming along.

Fireborn – No new words here. I got a bit stuck on where to go next. I know the what, just not the how. I thought about it and I think I have a direction now.

Covenant – 646 more words for a total of 4,810 in draft.

Changeling part 2 – I got feedback and have revised/edited it. One more pass for typos and such, and it’ll be done.

I think that’s it for today. Going to try to get more work done today if I can, in between Father’s Day stuff.

As for the chocolate consumption report, been craving it MADLY and have been eating ALL THE THINGS which is really bad for the waistline. I may need to cut back at some point. 😦

How are you doing on your goals?

#ROW80 Check-in 3/8/15

I’ve been busy proofreading and haven’t had the time to do a proper ROW80 post, so please forgive me. I did finish the proofreading, but I was a few days late. I’m having some stress/eye pain issues that have made it tough to concentrate. My editor was okay with it (I’d worried about that). But now it’s done and I can breathe again.

My #1 goal is to RELAX. So I haven’t done anything writing-wise. It seems my brain and body need a break after intense writing/editing/deadlines and the last thing I want to do is stress myself out too much. So yesterday was a “free” day. I worked on Grave Touched’s cover because I need to give myself enough time to get it done properly (first time doing a cover! Wish me luck!) and I binge watched Game of Thrones. I also ran a backup, which I promised myself I’d do once the book was sent off to my editor. (I’m very OCD about my backups).

So…what is on the horizon?

~Today I will poke a bit at Survivor. I was rewriting the first chapter when I started the edits on Grave Touched, and I don’t want that to be left hanging.

~Some point soon, I will get back to Fireborn and write those 661 words I need to make my goal before the end of this round.

~Ever Touched plotting

~Poetry. I have several poem drafts to weed through, and some old ones I discovered by accident, so that should be fun. (And maybe some more #badpoetry. *winks.*)

As for when, just gonna say soon. I have a really hard time taking breaks (as much as I need them) because my brain is ALWAYS spinning with ideas and I feel a desperate need to get them down. And, I’m just used to writing every day. The last day I wrote anything was January 27th. Yikes! Two months ago. Granted, I was editing and proofreading, but that doesn’t count. My Inner Slave Driver has to relax. *rolls eyes*

So that’s what’s going on. I hope to make some progress, even a bit, before the end of the round.

Also, chocolate consumption: through the roof. Stress = stress eating. Enough said.

2014 Year-End Review and 2015 Goals

 

2014 was a busy, productive year for me.  It was also my (first) Year of No Fear, which went pretty well.  I know I’m slightly late with this, but hey — better late than never, right?

So, first up: Year of No Fear.  I did a review on the Turtleduck Press blog recently and rather than repeat myself, I will point you to that post here. In summary, I did pretty well.  A lot got crossed of the list, and other things weren’t done.  But overall, I’m happy with my progress and will be carrying it forward this year (*points to 2015 Manifesto above*).  As always, you’re welcome to join me. *grin*

Okay, next up: 2014 goals.  How did I do on them?

~Rewrite and revise Grave Touched by deadline (Sept/Oct – we’re not sure yet) ~It turned out to be January 1st and I’m happy to report that I’ve turned it in to my editor and am (*twitches*) waiting to hear what she thinks.
~Continue working on another draft of something (Flamebound is the top contender) if it doesn’t interfere with GT ~This did not happen as such.  I ended up starting an erotica novella as part of my Year of No Fear, which is on the backburner for now, and also wrote a novella for a TDP anthology.  So, yes, new drafts, but nothing from the revision pile yet.
~Continue the Flamebound revision (ties into the draft above) ~Not done for the above reasons.  But I have been doing a massive amount of thinking about it and that is progress. *fierce look*
~Make some type of ruling on Survivor – when to work on it and COMMIT to it ~Yes!  I’ve decided to poke at it on Sundays, which is what I did back in 2004 when I started the draft.  I can probably handle another book on one day, and this gives it a separation so I don’t mess myself up.  It’ll be slow, for now, but I hope to increase the pace sometime soon.
~Plan/plot/figure out Ever Touched ~ Eh, been working on this.  I’m sure of a few things, but not of others.  The main players have changed, however.
~Write more flash stories/poetry ~Done.  Wrote 10 poems and edited 2 drafts.  On flash – wrote and posted to TDP this year: Changeling, part 1: The Faerie Lights, Warped, The Contract, and The Penitent. More to come!

And now, finally, 2015 goals.  I have so much I want to accomplish this year, but don’t want to put myself under too much pressure.  So, here goes:

~Publish Grave Touched, pending approval, in May (tentative)
~Write Fireborn, Reaper Girl novella
~Figure out a plot for Ever Touched
~Start writing Ever Touched
~Poke at Survivor (my book, not the TV show) on Sundays
~Start rewrite of Flamebound
~Write 1 poem per week minimum
~Do something with darkroom

Annnd I’m stopping there, as that’s enough to wrap my head around.  I’m hoping to do some of that writing stuff simultaneously so it doesn’t look so daunting…yeah, I will be busy!

Your turn!  What are your goals for 2015?

 

 

In the home stretch

I’ve been writing a lot since I last posted.  Something like 30k or so.  My drop-dead deadline is April 1st to get it to my Turtleduck Press editor.  And that is a polished, publication-ready manuscript…not the mess it is currently.

The first half of the book needs to match the second half.  I changed quite a few things.  And it needs some smoothing.  That’s the only problem with completely pantsing it (that is, writing without an outline) — you end up with a lot of things to rewrite or clean up.  But it works.  I haven’t written a book this fast in a long, long time.  And the kicker is that I haven’t written down any of my plans.  I’ve let things happen organically.  I’ve followed my muse wherever she’s led me, and I believe the finished product will be awesome for it.

I’ve had a few setbacks, though, like migraines and wrist issues.  I’ve been careful, but unfortunately, my left wrist is soooo sensitive.  So I’ve been taking care not to overdo it.  And if I do, I usually skip the next day’s writing session to compensate.

My original goal was to have the draft done by mid-month.  That’s not happening.  The draft is at 108k now, and I anticipate at least another 5k to wrap things up.  I’ll be cutting some things so I hope to have it end up around 100k when I’m done.

My new deadline is to finish the draft this weekend, but I’m not sure if I can do it.  I’ll try like hell, though, because that will give me more time to revise, edit, and polish.

I also have decided on book 2, both the name (Grave Touched) and the main “problem.”   So that’s good.  I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in between edits, but I’ve considered starting book 2.

I also wanted to get some work done on the Flamebound revision and the Survivor Rewrite.

Recently, I sat down and put all the Survivor files together into a master document.  Then I can just move stuff around, cut, add, etc.  It came in at around 300k and 800+ pages!  This will be a big job, but I want to try to get it traditionally published.  Same with Flamebound.  We’ll see how it all shakes out.

So. Back to writing.

68k on Fey Touched

I just hit 68k on Fey Touched.  I can hardly believe it because I started in on October 31st, writing roughly 30k a month.  I haven’t stopped to plot ahead (just what’s in front of me currently – the “headlight method”) and I haven’t really stopped to analyze much of anything.

Normally — or what’s been normal — for the past few years, I’d work myself up into a frenzy about how awful my writing was, and naturally the muse would disappear.  I’d get depressed, and I wouldn’t make my words for the day.  I’d get more depressed, and on and on.  Yeah, there are flaws in Fey Touched.  There is an entire thread that might need to be reworked.  There are some worldbuilding things that need to be tweaked.  There’s a telepathic dog named Pixie that needs to play a larger role in the first third.

But, I also had a few surprises: a potential romance between the MC and someone I didn’t expect, the plague angle which I believe rocks, and the telepathic dog thing.  Oddly enough, I’m not a dog person at all, but I have a soft spot for my sister’s boyfriend’s German Shepard/Ridgeback mix.  And so Pixie was born.

Writing this way takes me back to the old days, when I felt free.  When I wasn’t so worried about getting published.  I just wrote.

So Fey Touched has brought the joy back.  It wasn’t even planned — it was a stray thought I had while filing one day at work and it grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go.  I had to write this book.  And while the revision might be intensive, as I suspect it will be, I’m very happy with it overall.

I also have not a single thing written down in the way of plot, not even for memory purposes.  I do have a great memory, but since I hit 30, it’s been slipping a bit.  Normally I would write things down.  But having it in my head playing like a movie works.  Writing this quickly (and for me, this is very fast) keeps the story in my head and it’s flowing, changing, mutating.  I have ideas all the time, but one or two will stand out.  And that’s my next direction.  That’s how I’ve managed to write so much in going on 3 months.  It’s just there.  I don’t have to even think much.  It’s pretty amazing.  And exhilarating.  This is what I meant by writing with joy.  It’s amazing.  I feel better.

I have gotten stuck a couple of times, but each and every time (with the exception of the 11k start that needed to be trashed in the beginning), it’s been only for about a day.  I’d get into my writing headspace and brainstorm and poof!  It’s there.  It’s always there.  Pretty damn amazing.

I’ve got ideas for books 2 and 3.  Book 2 deals with the fallout of book 1, and book 3 introduces a new character who switches sides.  It’ll be cool.

Still on track to be done around February.

And I need an ending.  Currently it’s nebulous, but I trust my muse to figure it out and hopefully share.  Soon.

Update

Things are finally rolling along with writing.  I floundered and flailed a lot, and got hit with an idea that grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go.  It’s actually the project formally known as Surrender, which was originally The Sacrifice, my first finished novel evah written in November for NanoWriMo.  My first time.  Ah, the memories.

So now it’s a science fantasy that basically has the Fey rooted in science, not myth.  Sound interesting?  It’s a million shades of cool, and I’ve been majorly jazzed.  I am beginning to enjoy writing again.  I still feel the need to rewrite stuff, but so far, I’m winning the argument.  First draft, baby.  Rewrites will come.

I’m hoping — if my wrists hold — to get a good chunk of this done by the end of the year.  I’m most likely going to publish it with Turtleduck Press, and my deadline is April 1st.  Kind of scary, but good practice, too.  So, this is my unoffical NanoWriMo novel.  It’s called Fey Touched.  The name Surrender didn’t fit as well as Fey Touched did.  I’m hoping to make this into a series.

Darklight has been put aside.  I thought I could do both, but I really work better with one project.  I need to get immersed into the story, and I can’t do that if I’m thinking about another story.

I’m still going to try to work on the Alpha Female revision as planned, after my words are done for the day.  I still believe in it and think I could make it so much better. I’d love to be able to submit it soon.

As for Pirouette, it’s with critiquers.  Until I get more feedback, I can’t make any decisions on whether or not to work on it more.  I’m guessing yes, but we will see.

I’m also writing more poetry for Turtleduck Press.  It’s been eye-opening so far.  I seem to have changed a bit, and I hope for the best.

What else?  Something huge recently happened that shook things up at home.  For awhile I couldn’t write, but now I’m finding it a comfort.  And that’s a good thing.

Oh yeah — I guest blogged on my friend Ana Ramsey’s blog.  I talked about my crazy muse and I.  Go read it.  It’s cool.  Linky: http://anaquana.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/guest-post-5-erin-kendall-surviving-my-muse/ .

 

Perfect is the enemy of the good.

This is one of Holly Lisle’s concepts in her How to Think Sideways class.  Something I seem to have forgotten in my quest to get published.

Lately I’ve been feeling out of sorts and frustrated with my writing.  Darklight has been stalled, the poems I wrote for Turtleduck Press were like pulling teeth, and every time I sat down to write I was paralyzed by the fear that whatever I write won’t be good enough.  That anything I wrote would be crap and no one would want to publish any of it.  That everyone else would be successful but I wouldn’t be because my writing sucked and wasn’t publishable.

Talk about a head case.  I started thinking more positively, that no, my stuff didn’t suck and yes, I would be published someday, and that was that.  And I remembered how I used to write when I first started 10 years ago (!)  : I wrote with joy.  I didn’t worry about anything on the page.  I kept moving forward.  I didn’t analyze anything to death and I rarely, if ever, rewrote anything during drafting.  But as time went on, this perfectionism crept in through the cracks.  It was insidious.  Just a “that first scene isn’t right.  Maybe you should rewrite it?”  became “wow, that whole first chapter sucks.  Let’s start again.  And again. And again.”  And this is why Darklight‘s first two chapters have been rewritten no less than 5 times.  Head. Desk.

I worried too much about making it perfect — the mood, the hook, the main character — and I completely derailed myself.  I’m not even supposed to rewrite while drafting.  It used to be an ironclad rule.  Now it’s more of an afterthought.

So I decided to bring the love back.  I will write and not worry about anything anymore.  I’ll let the story unfold the way it’s going to unfold, and I will follow my muse.  NO REWRITES.  I can make notes.  But that’s it.

And I will continue to work at getting published.  I’ll edit and revise and rewrite when it’s time.

And lastly, I won’t ever tell myself that I’m not good enough, because I AM.  And I know that deep down.  Sometimes it gets lost in the daily shuffle.  No more.

As Holly Lisle says, write with joy.

It’s going….kind of.

It’s been slow.  Darklight is just shy of 5k, after rewriting the opening scene 3 times.  I also discovered a better way to bring out the creepy so things have changed a bit plot-wise and Ellya might have a brother who becomes very important later.  I think.  The muse and I are still working on that.

I had oral surgery one week ago to remove a wire from my jaw surgery 20 years ago (!) that my body decided to reject.  I’d been feeling like utter crap, dizzy as hell, and a bit spacey, and that is why.  So no writing occurred because I couldn’t fathom it.  So I took a bit of a break, but spent most of my time either reading or thinking about writing, which was actually quite productive.  So now I’m back at it, but slowly, because my muse is still a bit gun-shy.  My quota is 100 words a day and I’m aiming low.  I have the time, and pushing myself or pressuring myself isn’t gonna work this time.  So going slow and building up to more.

I’ve approached Darklight very differently than I’ve approached other novels.  I’ve never tried to write a straight-up horror novel, and I suspect this one will end up with psychological horrors as well.  I can’t help it.  It’s my inner psychologist working on me.  But I am trying for more horror too, so we’ll see.

I’m also telling this story differently.  First person present, a first for me.  Also there will be some journal entries by Ellya, the main character, in this novel and they will take place in a different location than the main action (her relationship with her love interest I think will be told in the journal entries, at least for part of it).  And finally, the chapters have names.  They will all use the format “[something] and the [something].”  And I’m letting my muse come up with them ahead of time and I will try to pull out what I think should go in that chapter based on the limited “plotting” (if you could call it that) I did.  Totally random, totally muse-directed, and I think it’ll be good. This is thanks to Holly Lisle, who has a class (How to Think Sideways) which I took and graduated from where she demo’d a plotting technique.  I sort of adapted it for my chapters.

So I’m living the muse for now, and it’s been enlightening.

I’ve also decided that once I get the comments back on Pirouette, I’ll make a ruling on whether or not I want to pursue getting an agent with it.  And after that is decided, I’ve also decided to tackle Alpha Female again.  Going with my goal of submitting something this year, I think AF is the logical choice as it needs a bit of work and then it might be ready for critique.  We shall see.

On the back burner (can you tell I’ve been thinking a lot about this?) are Darkweaver, which was supposed to be my Nano novel for this year, and my Fae-war romance inspired by my grandparents that suddenly bopped me over the head about a week ago.  Tentatively titled Pixie Queen, but that’s subject to change.

Ugh.  Want to move forward.  And I am, just slowly.

Missing: One Muse

I’ve got a big problem.  My muse has up and disappeared.  I’ve been working on stuff for Darklight, waiting to start until I felt like I had enough done, and I  feel that I do.  Except my muse has been absent.  And I’m getting to the point where I need to either start this thing or go off in another direction.

Darklight hits a lot of my buttons: conspiracy, the dark side, mind control, an alternate reality, memory loss, possession, a dead goddess, love between enemies to name a few.  So I’m jazzed about this.  I’ve even got a hint of a voice for the main character.  I have an idea of the first scene and the 3 “disasters” that will help move the plot forward.  I’m struggling with finding the right name for my MC. I need to have it at least sorta right before I start, or it won’t work.  (Survivor, oddly enough, is the exception.  I slapped two names out of thin air for the twin MCs and they grew into their names).  This feels really important to me.  I’ve gone through so many names: Tempest, Dasia, Annalisse, Terlyn, Emiliana, Elizabeth, and now Ellia.  I think Ellia might be it, but I’m going to let that settle a bit before making the decision.  It’s like naming a baby: it needs to be right.  It needs to invoke what I need to invoke.  As an aside, I am using the name Tempest for another character, and it fits perfectly.  I’m also considering Velia.  There’s a cool meaning there that I can’t quite remember, but I do remember when I read up on it, something clicked.

As for my muse…well, I suspect she’s feeling a little intimidated.  This would be my first serious foray into the horror genre and if I offer it up to Turtleduck Press, I’m going to have a tight deadline.  I believe I can do it, but it’s a bit scary nonetheless.  But I need the practice writing to a deadline so I think it would be good for me.  If I can just start the thing.

So I’ve decided that if she doesn’t come back by the end of this weekend, I’m using brute force.  Gonna put whatever on the page.  She’ll want to poke at it, and that should get her interested.

But if you see her laying on a beach sipping pina coladas, tell her that she’s urgently needed.  I need her back like yesterday.

Decisions, decisions.

I just got back from vacation.  We camped up North at a beautiful campground.  It was, for the most part, nice.  Unfortunately, it rained a lot, so we spent more time in the tent than out of it.  But hey, a week off work was wonderful.

I go back tomorrow.  Not looking forward to that.

I had decided to try to finish Pirouette this weekend.  No crazy pressure, just a goal to keep me motivated.  I had something like 30 pages to edit, so it was doable.  And I did!  I have a few minor things to fix (a few continuity things) but it’s pretty much done!  Yay!  And I made my goal of finishing it by the end of the month — a week early, no less.  I’ll need to run it through a quick edit, then it’s off to critiquers!

Kind of exciting and kind of scary all at once.

So I’m starting to think about my next project.  I would like to get back to writing.  I’ve done very little all year, and my muse needs something new, fun, and most of all, not editing.

So at first I was thinking Darklight.  I’m pretty excited about it, but I need to nail down a few things first.  I also need to brainstorm a plot — even just something to get me started.  I don’t necessarily need the whole thing, just a springboard to jump off of.  I know that my main character is going to escape her confinement, but that’s it.  I need more than that.

Then I remembered Broken (to be re-titled Oubliette) from last year.  My supernatural thriller thing.  I read it over last night and fell back in love. It’s 12k at the moment, and I have scene cards already made for it.  No actual plot, just ideas.  But that can definitely work.  Both are possibilities for Turtleduck Press, so working on either one will get me closer to self-pubbing.

So….which one?  I’m very excited about both, and considered doing both at the same time, but that’s crazy.  I’ve tried drafting up to 4 (yes, you read that right) novels at once and it was….chaotic.  I don’t doubt my ability to keep things separate, but I’d like to focus on one project.  I think my energy would be better spent working on one.

My gut is saying Oubliette, because it’s already started and I’m really excited about it.  But I suppose I can wait a bit and see..still have that edit to do and 2 critiques I owe some writer friends.  So we’ll see.  Nothing’s in stone yet, but I’m leaning toward Oubliette.

Stay tuned.  The epic battle begins now.