#ROW80 Check-in May 15th

I’m still making glacier-slow progress on Ever Touched dictating. I guess it’s just going to be slow while my wrist heals. Very frustrating, but it is what it is.

Also I’ve been fighting exhaustion again, so there’s so much I wanted to do that didn’t get done. Apparently I’m not anemic, so it must be the fibromyalgia. I’ve been meaning to get back into my darkroom to print, but I’ve had to put it off for the past few weeks. Hopefully, I can soon.

I also participated in #PitDark on Thursday (a twitter pitch thing where you pitch a book in a tweet to agents and publishers). I got two really good agents who are interested in my book (Pirouette/Death Dancer – the same one I sent off to a different publisher in January) so for the past few days I’ve been working on a query letter. Distilling a 121k novel down into what feels like haiku is not only really hard, but exhausting. I’ve been getting good feedback on a forum I’m on, so I think I’m on the right track. One of today’s tasks is to do another revision. Cross your fingers and toes that this works! I would love to get an agent out of this. If anything else, it’s great practice for the future.

Okay, on to the rundown:

Ever Touched – up to 87k (approximately 4,000 words written since the last check-in. More than I thought, actually! Maybe it just feels like it’s going slow?)

Covenant – Nada. I really feel awful about this. 😦

Water – Every day except two.

Exercise – 3 times – 2 walks, 1 bike (up to 6 minutes now!)

Elysium – Nada. Wanted to do something on it yesterday but the wrist wasn’t cooperating. Does planning on doing it, even if it doesn’t get done, count? (Just kidding!)

Darkroom – As mentioned above, this has been put off due to exhaustion.

Chocolate consumption – Oreos. Lots of Oreos. WW Sundaes. WW chocolate caramels.. Ice cream Twix bars. Did I mention Oreos? 😉

Annnnd that’s it for me. How about you?

 

 

 

#ROW80 Check-in May 1st

This week has been tough because my wrist tendonitis came back and I had to take a break from writing. Yesterday, I started using voice recognition again, and it has been a bit frustrating. But I’m glad to have the option of doing it.

(Handwriting actually hurts more due to an old hand injury, so that was out.)

Actually, it went pretty smooth, all things considered. I ended up dictating a total of 800 words. It felt like it took forever, but it was only a few hours. I’ve been spoiled — I can bang out 1,000 words in 20-30 minutes. But it did the job which was the most important thing.

(I also had to stop periodically and transfer the words from the clipboard thingy and reformat. Also, Dragon didn’t recognize the names, so I ended up using placeholder names, which was okay…as long as I remembered to change them!)

So how did I do?

Ever Touched – 1000 words. Better than I could have hoped. 🙂 Now at 81k.

Covenant – 200 words. Finally!

Exercise -2 times this week

AprilLove2016 – I managed 14 days out of 30. I was running behind, and then my wrist tendonitis popped up, and handwriting just made it worse. But I’m happy with what I got, and the experience was enlightening. Will definitely do that again. 🙂

Water – only three days this week.

Elysium – I worked on the outline some more. Making slow progress.

Chocolate consumption: WW sundaes, Twix bars, and hot chocolate.

So, all in all, I did pretty well considering. I’m hoping to give my wrist time to heal and soon hopefully I’ll be typing again.

How did you do?

 

 

#ROW80 Check-in 11/18/15

It’s already Wednesday, and a week till Thanksgiving! Holy crap, time is flying!

I’ve broken 20k on Nano (Ever Touched). The decision to start over was a good one. It’s going well. I’m roughly 8k in, and around 10-11k counting the scenes I will be keeping from the original. 10k to go to make my goal.

I’ve also written 1k or more every day this month except one (931). It is the most I’ve written ALL YEAR. I am usually more productive than that, but I’ve had a lot going on that contributed to having less words. The important thing is that I kept writing, even if it was a little.

(Part of me is hoping I can continue writing 1k a day consistently — but I worry about my wrists. Been feeling a bit of twinging for the past 2 days).

Physical activity – 3 times, 15 minutes each (or more in one case)

Darkroom – I started cleaning it this past weekend. I also put together a wish list for what chemicals I need.

Stats!
Words written: 20,552
Words remaining: 9,448
Word wars: 11
Word wars with myself: 5
Chapters written: 3
What’s happening: Another uncomfortable conversation
What’s next: Brianna needs to chill
Feeling: Better!

Chocolate consumption: Not a lot? Dang I’m completely falling down on the chocolate train. Yikes.

#ROW80 Check-in 1/28/15 and Conversations with the Muse

You get a two-fer today.

Before I dive into the ROW80 portion of things, I wanted to talk about talking to the muse (or, subconscious, or writer-brain, or whatever label you give it).  My muse is a unicorn who sits on my shelf and whispers twisty plots and intriguing characters in my ear.  Holly Lisle says you can learn how to listen to your muse, work with it, and ultimately become a better, more efficient writer.  Cool, huh?

I know this from experience.  My muse, 95% of time, is murmuring in the background, telling me all kinds of fun, twisted things.  Or dialogue.  Or actual images (which I call “movie flashes” because they remind me of the previews at the theater).  Or a cool new way to work something out with a project…

Which leads me to my point (long-winded am I!).  I was on the bus this morning, tired as all hell, and had literally nothing to do.  Could have read, but didn’t feel up to it (read: sleepy).  Sooooo with nothing to occupy my thoughts, they turned to Ever Touched, book 3 of the Fey Touched series, and my current problem child.

I had an idea early on but scrapped it.  Then I had another, more promising idea.  But it was horribly lacking a villain (or antagonist in writer-speak).  BEWARE POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR EVER TOUCHED.  SERIOUSLY.  I MAY USE THESE IDEAS OR SOME VERSION THEREOF.  BACK AWAY SLOWLY.  THAT’S IT.  JUST, SKIP DOWN TO THE ROW80 PART IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILERED.

OKAY.

OKAY.

So yesterday (backing up a bit here), I did a little musing and came up with: First Fey/holographic wings/angels/old but new.
I let that kinda simmer until this morning.  Here’s how it went:

ME: I love the idea of First Fey and…holographic wings?
MUSE: What about actual fairies?
ME: Eh…kinda weakens the whole genetic engineered Fey premise.  Try again.
MUSE: Okay, what if they were the first Fey Touched?
ME: Eh, I think they need to be more powerful than current Fey Touched.  Getting warmer.
MUSE:  *sighs* Okaaaay.  How about beings made of pure energy who are trapped in cybernetic bodies?
ME: *does a double take* *almost falls over* Wut. Is. That.
MUSE: Say these evil people trapped the all powerful First Fey, who are so ascended (angels!) that they no longer have a physical form and they were tricked into it somehow.  Fits your idea of the Fey and Fey Touched joining together against a common enemy.
ME: *blinks* Yeeaaahhhh.  But who’d be stupid enough to do something like that?
MUSE: A scientist.  A brilliant one.  One who wants to rule the Fey world, that’s who.
ME: But how?  They are energy.  No form.
MUSE: I’m not quite sure, but it sounds promising, right?
ME: Awesome.  Let’s go get our souls sucked out, shall we? (Work.  Day job)

Annnd that was how the idea was born.  Still noodling, naturally, and I’m sure I’ll tweak it some, but I am fascinated by a race of beings made of energy who somehow allowed themselves to be trapped.  And cybernetics?  Sign me the eff up.

Okay, now ROW80.

I’ve had to take a little break from typing due to wrists of suck.  I have the Grave Touched edits hitting my inbox on Sunday, and there may be some serious rewriting happening.  So, since they are already twinge-y, I don’t want to push my luck.  So I’m probably done on Fireborn until edits are done on Grave Touched.  I am *thisclose* to 15k, so I may slip in a bit here and there, and my deadline on the edits is March 1st, so Fireborn will definitely get my attention then.  (I’d like to release it sometime before Grave Touched release on May 1st, but we’ll see).

I finally broke down and ordered a Bluetooth headset, for HALF the price of what Amazon is charging.  WIN.

Stats!

Fireborn
Words written since last check-in: 1,850 words (14,339 total!)
Words remaining: 661 words, so CLOSE!
What’s happening: Leliel and Rick are putting the pieces together.
What’s next: A red herring.

Ever Touched
As above.  Getting close to something I can use. Most of it has been mental, naturally.

Survivor
Nothing on paper but the wheels are turning.  I might be ready to start drafting again soon.

Feeling: Stressed out with several things.
Eye report: Very minor twinges.
Back report: Still not happy.  Need to do more stretching.
Chocolate consumption since last check-in: chocolate zucchini bread, WW snacks, hot chocolate.
Soundtrack: Nightwish and Queensryche

#ROW80 Check-in 5/21/14 – Voice Recognition fun

Here we are with another check-in. I am using voice recognition to type this post. It has been so far somewhat frustrating, but necessary as my wrist hasn’t felt any better. The last time I used voice recognition was six years ago. I wrote 57k of a novel for Nano. It was quite difficult, as I suffered from frequent migraines from the headset. This is a bit easier, using Windows speech-to-text and not needing a headset. However, I am planning on buying a headset that is less heavy once I have the money. I do prefer Dragon, but at this point, I’ll do anything to continue writing.

So far, I’ve written 179 words on the resurrected version of Soulfire. I’m hoping to speed up a bit as I go. Currently, I’m spending most of my time correcting mistakes. But it is getting easier. And it does learn as you go.

Stats!

Words written: 179 words / 5,880 words total
Words remaining: 29,120 words
What’s happening: It’s the first scene. The main character is being interviewed.
What’s next: I’m not sure. I think she will be discovered by her own kind (she’s not human).
Feeling: slightly frustrated, but it should pass.
Eye report: totally fine.
Chocolate consumption: Heh, heh, heh. Way too much (just today = A chocolate ice cream bar and a WW chocolate bar….)
Mood music: Silence for now. Voice recognition more or less requires that.

#ROW80 Check-in 5/14/14

I was doing really well until my wrist started bothering me. I think I may need more time to rest it, so I’m not sure how much writing I’ll get done between now and Sunday. I won’t push it.

So, Awaken Me is almost to 5k. It’s going pretty well, and I’m happy with it so far. I think adding the cat shifters was a good move. I wanted to try to write something I would be intrigued by — while still keeping it erotica. Hopefully, this is a good thing and my muse isn’t messing with me. 😉 (She does that sometimes).

On the HDR front, I have pics! Beautiful pics, actually! And I’ve been playing with them digitally, but unfortunately I don’t have enough bracketed ones to make a good practice set for this method. So I need to take more bracketed pictures. (I didn’t want to get too bogged down in method while I was shooting on Saturday — I wanted to be carefree and not worry much, but still have a few possibilities for HDR.) I’m not very happy with the HDR results, but I suppose I just need practice. It will come. But either way, I love the pictures I got and enjoyed shooting them immensely. They are of a beautiful Catholic church near us that’s always lit up at night. I’d tried, unsuccessfully, to do night shots of it before, but that’s when I was using a manual 35mm camera. Many, many moons ago. Now it’s a ton easier, although in some ways I miss the old days of having to figure it all out on my own.

I started photography in 1996 or so. (This isn’t counting my childhood, where I took a ton of pictures just for fun using one of those cassette cameras – god, I feel old!) And I’ve done so much since then, it’s not even funny. But every shoot is a new experience, and I learn so much. And it has never lost its magic. Need to do more. The muse is begging me.

So, stats!

Words written: 2,090 on Awaken Me / 4,600 words total
Words remaining: 30,400 words
What’s happening: The MC, Beth, is in major shock.
What’s next: Her initiation, I believe
Feeling: Crappy. Wrist + migraine no worky
Eye report: Ugh, not good!
Chocolate consumption: A lot. I stopped counting.
Mood music: Within Temptation – Hydra album

#ROW80 Check-in 5/11/14

First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there! Especially my own Mother and my Mother-in-Law. Two amazing, wonderful women that I’m so lucky to have in my life.

I’ve got some more words on Awaken Me but I’ve had to slow down to due to my wrist. I also am finding myself stuck on where to go next. That’s one of the issues with pantsing. Sometimes, the road ahead isn’t always clear.

I also wrote a few poems this week to get myself into the rhythm again. And I did my first photo shoot in forever! I even got a few potential HDR pictures (High Dynamic Range — a really neat effect that makes the pictures look otherworldly) – I’m dying to play with them digitally but today is too jam-packed to do anything. Soon. Very soon.

And that’s it for today.

Stats!

Words written: 2,510 on Awaken Me
Words remaining: 32,490 words
What’s happening: The MC has agreed to join the club.
What’s next: Something. I don’t know yet.
Feeling: Would like to write but can’t because wrists. 😦
Eye report: Twinge-y.
Chocolate consumption: Too much. Way to much. And donut holes, but those don’t count.
Mood music: Mostly Adam Lambert these days. Oh, and Def Leppard.