Pretty Green

This is day three without upload ability to my journal. And not only that, I can't upload the agenda I did for the county, either. Very annoying.

On the good side, I have written over 3000 words today, which means that I wrote over 3000 words every day this month. For the most part, it got easier toward the end of the month. It also put a good dent in the Farstep Station story so that I will likely have the first draft one very soon.

I am still, however, playing around with the ideas for the submission package, and I want it to go out on Monday. So that's what I'm going to be doing for the next two days. I do not have a good feeling about it, to be honest. When I put Honor Bound together, I had a nice feeling toward it. I can't seem to find that combination of stories for this one.

But that's what I'm going to be working on for the rest of the night and likely tomorrow, too. I'm going to believe that somewhere in these files of stories I have the right material for this submission.

3100

I am going to spend a couple hours relaxing again. Go watch some shows before midnight.

I have about 370 words to go to reach 3000. Nice!


Russ is home, though, and we're heading out in a moment. But you know -- this has beena very good way to start the writing day.

I'll be back later!

56,753 which puts me just a little over 1500. Half way through my count for the day. That's not too bad at all!

I do need to take a little break, though.

56, 251

That's just a bit over 1000 words. Good. If I can get the 3000 done quickly, then I can look at the editing of other things.

My cats are nuts for some reason. I don't know what's brought this latest surge of insanity on, but they're racing through the house and leaping all over, including across my desk and down the other side.

There are days when you have to wonder what is going on in their little furry brains....

Top of bank in Neligh, Nebraska

I cannot upload to my journal, which is why it's not updated.

I am late getting started on my writing today, so I have a lot to do in the next couple hours.

I still haven't quite decided which stories I'm putting together for the submission, and that's due.

My brain seems to have taken a slight vacation again. I'm hoping to lure it back with work on Farstep Station, which it has mostly liked this month. I can't believe that I would suddenly run out of steam on the last two days of the month.

Actually, use I can belive it. It seems typical of things for me.

My starting count is 55,249. It's about a quarter to three. I have to go grab a Diet Pepsi and then I'm ready to go!

More Turtles

Today's mail brought this:

Wonderful concept for a story, and your writing is excellent.  However, the story just moves too slowly....

Lovely Woods

I'm ready to go back to the mountains now.

That's not really a big surprise, of course.  I love the mountains.

And I have no real complaints.  I finally have gotten past the worst of my back problems.  I washed some floors yesterday, did the dishes today, and I've only suffered through little twinges -- nothing serious at all.

The writing is going very well. Farstep Station is very nearly up to 50,000 words and looks like it has another 70,000 or so in this draft.  I'm amazed at how well this work with the outline has been going, since I didn't think it was one of my better outlines when I did it. And the editing of Mirrors is also going well.  I should probably put a little more effort into it and push to have it done in the next two weeks. A goal like that wouldn't be too bad.

I'm putting together a new chapbook submission, too.  I need to go back and check out the guidelines for it.  And make a final decision on the material to include.  Right now I have almost exactly DOUBLE the amount of material than I can use.

And no, I can't do two submissions.

There is really nothing else going on around here. The weather has been so incredibly nice that it borders on boring.  I shouldn't wish for bad weather, of course -- but I do like an occasional nice flashy storm.  According to Weatherbug, I might get my wish on Wednesday.

Right now, though... off to get some rest, I think!

I haven't really gotten very far with that submission problem.  One idea and I have to build around it -- and that's not getting very far in the last couple days!

 

On the other hand, the writing is still going very well.  And the editing of Mirrors.  I also got a nice idea for an article and wrote most of it.  A person can't really complain about stuff like this.  I just need to get my mind around the idea of the submission and start putting that together.

 

Okay, I printed out the list of material I have to work with.  I really should do this via Access or even Excel -- be able to pull up stuff by genre and length. (grin)  Not that I'm looking for a way to avoid the real work.

 

And looking at the list just gave me a couple ideas, so there's a chance here!  (grin)

 

I also need about five other individual short pieces for another project. This is actually getting difficult!  I never thought I'd have trouble finding stories for stuff!

 

Beyond that there's really not much going on.  I need to go write....

 

 

Another Turtle
 

Writing is going well.  Really very well.  I have done quite a bit of work on Farstep Station in the last two days, mostly by converting my outline into a sort of 'Phase Outline' type.  It's looser than most phase outlines I do, but if I can get 750-1000 words per section, I'll have a good sized first draft.  It's up to 32,000 words already.

 

I do have some other things to consider, though.  An important submission is coming up in August, and I have only a faint idea of what I want to try.  My mind is working that out while I write other things.  It's a matter of sorting out the proper stories.

 

What else today?  It's hot, though not as humid as yesterday.  Still have a heat index of 100f though.  I think we have finally found summer.  I'll avoid it as much as possible.

 

I think that's about it for today.  I have work to get done, and I'm boring myself with this update, let alone the rest of you!

 

 

 
Turtle Pond
 

I finished the first book of Sooma last night.  It was unexpected.  But I got to the end of a section and realized that I had reached a break point in the MCs lives.  And that a great deal of what I had typed had been 'tell' not 'show.'  My first drafts often come in short and this one is at 50,000 words already.  I looked at it, and looked at it... and decided that I could make something serious out of it, but I had to take it seriously now.  If I kept typing I would have a first draft of 150,000 words and still have to rewrite and expand huge sections.

 

I'm going to do an outline for the next part and I might not get to it until next year.  I will be taking chapters from this one and expanding them out as I feel like it.

 

At any rate, for a YA novel first draft, this is about the right length for me.

 

We are having horrendous hot weather today.  I'm not leaving my house until the storms hit later.  And I suspect that they'll hit very well since we're under a tornado watch for the next four hours.  I checked the radar and the storms are starting to line up to the west.  Hard to say if they will get this far or not, though.  At the moment we're right on the edge of the watch.

 

So, now with Sooma done, what am I going to work on?  Farstep Station has taken off, and I would like to have that first draft done soon.  The editing on Mirrors is going very well, too.  I'm almost half way through this draft -- but I want to completely rewrite the ending battle so that's going to take a little extra time.  I think I can see a better battle than the one I have, and my MC standing with people who had previously shunned him.

 

Beyond that... time to get back to work on writing and doing little tiny things around the house.  I woke up with a backache again, but not as bad as it has been.  The problem is clearing up.  I just have to be patient.

 

And write a lot because that keeps my mind off of everything else.

 

 

 
Pretty ferns
 

Despite some back problems (stress fractures), I have managed close to 4000 words a day this month.  Yay!  Yesterday I opened up Farstep Station and went back to work on it, and I'm really happy with how well it's moving along at 26,000 words exactly.    Sooma is well over 44,000 words.  The material for the Only a Novel book is over 85,000.  Overall, I'd say I'm doing quite well.

 

The house is suffering for the back problems, but we're getting there.  And we're finally sorting out the 'House 1' and 'House 2' stuff.  We haven't done any book shelves over there yet, but Russ has moved his office over, along with his boardgames and a table.  Now his friends can come and play Terrible Swift Sword or Advanced Squad Leader and leave everything up and ready for the next time they get together.  Amazing what having a house without cats will do for you. (grin)

 

I have a feeling that Maynard and Nazir are going to become outdoor cats soon.  They are ganging up on the older cats and I just can't let that go on.  I think they'll do all right anyway. We have a nice garage that we've turned completely over to cats already.  And they don't starve.  LOL.  We'll see how the two continue to do, but I just can't let the poor 14  and 12 year olds suffer through this.  At least Wind is completely laid back, and Willow is pretty calm, though she may join them if she shows much more of the same tendency.

 

We'll see.  You never know -- they may figure out that going outside is not such a good thing (they both go to the window and scream -- but won't let me open it without jumping down and I'm certainly not going to leave it open.  There's no telling what else might come waltzing in here!

 

Part of the problem is also back related, of course.  I can hardly move, let alone go charging in and break up their little tiffs.  Sigh.

 

But anyway, we'll see.

 

At least the writing is still going well.  And Russ read a story I had up  to edit and said I should just print it off and send it -- he thought it was great.  There is very few times that a story passes muster that well on the first reading.  Although later, talking at dinner, we both agreed that it needs just a line or two more to make the death of a character more deserving.

 

I'll do that tomorrow and print it off -- and off it goes on Monday.  Wish the poor thing luck. 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
Lovely sunset!
 

Today's work includes massive clean up at FM.  If you were a Breakout Novel particpant, please see the notice on the side of this blog.

Beyond that, I'm doing well.  We've had some lovely weather -- gorgeous storms, and while it has been hot and uncomfortable the last couple days, I'm still happy to see summer here.  But then, I always love the summer.  And the autumn, winter and spring.  Just watching it all change year-to-year, and knowing that each day is going to be somehting different -- either subtle changes or drastic -- makes me want to grab the camera and just wait.

And while I wait, I write.  (grin)  Work is going pretty well.  I've picked up Farstep Station again and managed quite a bit of work on it.  It's almost up to 30,000 words.  I also found the outline I'd printed out with a few notes, so that helps.  I knew where I was going, but I didn't have all the particulars for the steps.  I'm betting I'm going to have another short first draft.  Most of mine are since I concentrate on the main story line and really don't see the subthreads and where they work in until I'm finished with main story.  Sometimes I see them when I do the outlines and plotting, but sometimes they aren't apparent until I have the other work done.

What else?  Doing a little bit of house work today.  I didn't need any meds at all yesterday for my back.  I'm not doing a lot of work today because I don't want to find myself back in the same trouble, but it is good to be able to pick some stuff up and do a little sweeping.  I have one room completely torn up and it has been that way for a couple weeks now.  I'll get it put back together soon.

Right now, though, I think it's time to get back to work.  I have a bit over 1000 words for the day so far.

 

And Sooma has just hit the 40,000 word mark and is officially a novel by SFWA standards.  Not a very long novel, and it has a hell of a long ways to go still... but it is now a novel and if I found a convenient place to break it up into multiple books in the next 40,000 to 50,000 words I could do it.

 

You never know.

 

I'm at about 1500 words for the day so far. That's not bad, either.  Russ should be home soon.  I'm not certain what we need to do tonight.  Except celebrate Pip's Day.

 

 

 
Today is Pip's tenth 'home day.'  I'm not sure how we'll celebrate, but I think there might be a fish dinner in the fridge that he and his companions might share.  I'm sure he'd rather not share, of course, but by ten he should be used to it.
 
Writing work is going well.  My back is much better than it has been all week, but Russ said to rest for a couple more days before I do any of the house work.  I've been sweeping up, but even that pulls at the muscles that are now very sore.
 
Russ's aunt died yesterday and the funeral is Saturday morning about 80 miles from here.  I really didn't know her or her family, so I suspect that I'll just stay home while Russ goes.  His brother will drive down and they can spend some time together, too.  I can't stand for very long, and it's hard for me to sit in one place for very long, either, so that would be a problem, too.
 
Although I am very comfortable in the car.  The seat there is just perfect against my back.  Go figure.
 
Still, it's taken me a couple walking around trips and a hunt for the aspirin just to write this little bit, so I don't need to put myself into a position where I couldn't get up and do something to improve my back.
 
I'm lucky, really, that this didn't hit before our nice little trip to the Rockies.  So I'm not complaining!  (Much.)
 
Oh!  I've been typing this up on Word and just opened the page for Blog.  It looks different again!  What fun! (grin)  Yes, I am easily amused.
 
Which reminds me -- time to get back to writing.  I'm going to be through the easy stuff for Sooma soon and then I'll be back to the old handwritten version.  I can't say I'm looking forward to that part as much as I should be.
 
On the other hand, I'm averaging over 3000 words a day so far this month, and after two weeks of Sooma, I am ready to get back to work on other things again.  The copyediting on Mirrors is going very well.  I'm over 120 pages into that one, just doing about 5 pages a day.  Lately I've felt the urge to do more, so that's good, too.  I might have a rush of work on it and get this draft done.  I think it will need one more after that because I keep noticing that some of the details of the world around my MC are sketchy. 
 
I have two other unfinished novels right now -- Farstep Station and The Wind and the Sand.  Farstep has a completed outline and I scraped much of The Wind and the Sand and I'm reworking the outline for it.  I've been doing that on the Sony Clie, though, so I need to get it copied over, cleaned up and added to (it's always light from the Clie) and do the word count on it soon.
 
I also have ongoing outlines for my 2YN novels and I have another one I want to start mostly to begin organizing the background material for it since the three characters (two main, one secondary) are finally starting to fall into place, and I don't want to forget the stuff Russ and I have talked about.
 
I've already done a thousand words on Sooma for today.  Maybe it's time to go to work on the other stuff this afternoon and start breaking away from the solid work on that novel.  While it's been fun, I think I should maybe get back to work on the serious stuff again. 
 
What's really happened is I took a couple weeks and let the other stories gather their forces and stort themselves out while I did something fun.  I think they're ready for the assault again. 

And yes, I'm just having far too much fun with the formating tools here.  Time to get to work, though!

I'm over half a year into the Only a Novel course (AKA 2YN). I'm amazed at the really fantastic novels that these people are coming up with -- and the speed at which some of them are attacking the actual idea of writing the manuscripts. In my opinion, the people at Forward Motion are among the best, most dedicated and imaginative writers you'll find anywhere. They know what they want, and they apply themselves to the work and art of writing, at least when they're at the site. I am really amazed at the incredible amount of energy and determination they've brought to this class. It's also been very interesting to see which parts of the presentations they've said have helped the most. It's not the same for everyone, of course, so I find it interesting to see when some part draws more attention than others.

This class was not just a sudden fly-by-night idea for me. I had suggested it years ago to Holly, but we were in the midst of one of the site's many moves, and neither of us had time to go on. When I decided to resurrect the idea, I spent half a year preparing the general outline and basic materials -- long before the first class in January. I did not, however, try to write everything ahead of time because I knew that I would have to change and adapt to the needs of the writers. This first run through 2YN is the shake down, and I hope that by January I'll have it better ready for the second group.

I knew that the people signing up were not going to work like I do and I couldn't anticipate all of what would help them. The things that are obvious to me won't be to others. I also found that there were things people asked about that had never even occurred to me in the context that they asked. There has been a lot of things I have had to sit back and figure out how to explain in terms that would make sense to anyone other than me.

There is something else that I did with this class. It is not based only on what I know about writing. Nor did I choose one book to base the class on, because quite honestly I don't think there is any one writer who has all the answers for everyone. I also made certain that I had read and carefully studied all the sections of the books that I did work with and did my best to correlate the material and offer as many different aspects of certain areas as possible.

A couple weeks ago people began to work on their novels. Since then I've been dropping in rather haphazard entries of a thousand words or so highlighting different aspects of writing, from grammar problems to specific plotting situations. I will likely reorganize them before I do the class again to make them a little more coherent in presentation, though maybe this way does work best so that no one topic takes over for long stretches.

I have written over 80,000 words for this class. I can see it going for another 80,000 once I get into material like rewrite, submissions and marketing. And that doesn't count anything I've written for individuals when they've come to me and asked specific questions about their material.

It's been interesting. I expect it to continue to be so. Yes, it has played havoc with my writing this year, including material that I've been contracted for. I have decided that I cannot possibly write on the novels I've been using as examples for this year's 2YN course this year. Maybe when I start the next class and have the material already written, then I'll take one of the two and do it. I have been working on the outlines, and it will be fun to go the next step in the course as well.

But for now... well, I'll just stand back and watch this batch of amazing of manuscripts that everyone is turning out now. Damn, it's great to be part of something like this!

"

My back is still giving me problems. I thought it was mostly cleared up yesterday, but by today it had started causing me trouble again. Sigh.

Sooma is up to 26,090 words and still moving pretty well, though it lost ground yesterday to the new 2YN class. That's gone very well, too. And the editing of Mirrors is almost one-third completed. I'm really happy with how well everything is going for the writing, even if I'm not really working on anything

Other problems are silly things at FM with people getting worked up over a post, but I think once people look at the post they'll realize it should be laughed about rather than taken seriously. With luck, people will stop being rude and consider what they're posting.

Well, these things are bound to happen, though.

And right now I'm going to either write or rest.

The day before Russ came home I was sitting at the desk working (and chatting) when I felt a sharp pain in my back. For the next two days I could barely move from one room to the next, and last night was the first night I got more than a couple hours sleep at a time. It's not cleared up yet, but I'm able to sit a little better now.

This has been especially annoying because I was in the midst of cleaning out a bunch of junk from various corners of the house. I never got it all done, and now the place looks worse than it did when I started. I've begun getting a few of the things put away again --little stuff, though. The big things are going to have to wait another week or so.

I'm also faced with the problem of actually writing when it's painful to sit here for any length of time. I've done reasonably well there, though I have to get up often and walk around. Sooma has turned out to be a great idea after all since it's been so much fun and relatively easy to work with.

Princess Cricket came home yesterday and is quite happy, and quite talkative, telling me about the horrid time she had and how could we do that to her?

The weather here is positivle cool for a change. It's very odd. We're barely hitting the 70's and we've had rain for several days in a row. This is summer, right? I'm sure the real stuff will sneak in soon -- Temps in the 100's, heat index up around 115. We still have the rest of July and August to go, after all.

I'm not complaining about the current weather. It just makes me nervous. (grin)

I'm editing Mirrors. It's going fairly quickly, and may mean I'll have something for submission soon. Then it will be back to the next book in the series.

Sooma total so far: 20,047

Well, both blogger and my journal are working now. Good.

Russ should be home sometime in the next few hours, I think. Or possibly he's just getting on the plane in New York right now. I can never remember how it is supposed to go. At any rate, he'll be home before too long.

I did very well, both house and writing, until about 1:30 am. That's when I suddenly had a horrid sharp pain through my back, and have been in misery ever since. I've spent more time in bed than out of it.

Sooma is up to 12,033 words. I'm still having fun and going to keep working. I'm also editing Mirrors at a few pages a day -- five is my goal.

I'm less than 1000 words from having written 20,000 so far this month. That makes me feel much better.

Just wish the back would stop giving me trouble so I could sit long enough to do some real writing again.

Happy 4th to those of you who celebrate!

I am going to be doing housecleaning today. And writing. I made lovely in roads on a pile of junk in the corner of the library, and I'm going to keep at it today.

This is Lady Jane and Princess Cricket's birthday, by the way. They're twelve. I feel badly that Princess is in the kitty hospital, but she'll be coming home on Tuesday, and she should be much better. I'll buy her a piece of fish or something to make up for it.

My office is looking much better. The bedroom has clothes all over that I'm sorting out. And the bathroom is filled with 40 year old dolls and doll clothing that I washed out. They were in the library and they're moving to the bedroom as soon as I get those clothes sorted.

In the personal stuff, I have a cold, sore throat and all. Which is making the prospect of doing any of the rest of this... annoying.

Russ comes home sometime tomorrow.

I think I'll go write for a while.

The place where I have my regular journal is not allowing me to upload. Now this one doesn't appear to want to upload either. Sigh....

I am fairly certain this is not a good blogging day for me...

Ah there. The nine or so copies of the previous entry are gone. The blog even came back again this time.

I think I'll go have lunch now, and then I'll do some writing. Maybe.

Odd things you find on old back up disks...

Sing, O Goddess Bast, the hissing of Pudge, daughter of Zelda, the cat who brought countless ills upon sweet Pip. Many a brave cat did she send hurrying down the hall, and many a kitten did she yield a prey to dogs and robins, for so were the counsels of Garfield fulfilled from the day on which the descendent of Kato, king of cats, and the great Pudge first fell out with one another.

Half makes me want to pull out the Illiad and do more -- but no. I'm not that crazy. Mostly. But I could, really. It might be fun to do the kitty Trojan War. Oh, and I just got the dvd version of In Search of the Trojan War. I love the book, or just about anything written by Micheal Wood. His show, In the Footsteps of Alexander, was excellent. I intend to watch at least part of the Troy show today.

Writing is going well. I'm over 4000 words on the new version. I have most of the class done to post tonight. I have even cleaned part of the house.

And some disks that would not play on the last cdrom drive now play on this one, so all my lost backups have a chance of recovery. This is great! I recently had a group I used to do a web site for ask me to recreate for them on a new location, since the old server is gone. I might actually be able to make some money on it again!

Overall, despite waking up with a horrible cold, it's looking good.

2046 -- about a quarter of the way back, at least in word count. I like it. Of course I liked the last one, too. But still, this is going well. Definintely more fun than the previous copy. This one, by the way, is not handwritten. It's from a very old, fading dot matrix printer. I suspect I must have done it on one of the old Atari computers. Not the TRS80. That one ate every story I ever fed it.

Is it silly to be doing this with a story I really can't see a publishing future for? Maybe. But it's been fun so far, and I might even end up with it on my site. A first novel might be fun to share.

We'll see.

AAAAIIIIEEEE.

I'm starting over.

I was cleaning out some boxes today and I found something odd. A slightly newer version of the story. It is dated two years later, and the difference is amazing. I used to do that, by the way -- every year or so I would rewrite this entire series until I finally stopped myself and moved on to new things.

I'm taking some of what I did and reworking it into a new version. I got through the first section of the book -- about 8,000 words -- and knew that I wanted something different anyway.

I already have nearly 1000 words on it. Added with the previous work (which I am taking as worldbuilding and counting it, since I'm going to use parts of it again), I have done nearly 3000 words today.

So not a complete loss, and I like the new version better already.

I am not going to redo it again, no matter what I find in boxes.

Time to work, though. I'm betting I can get back up to the 8,000 mark in a couple days, so it's not all that bad.

The first 1000 words done for the day. I've had to play hopscotch with the story, leaping back toward the beginning and back to the current spot, filling in and changing a few points. I'm up to page 80 of the handwritten material, and about 7000 words typed. I've skipped a few passages.

Still having fun, though I think I'll stop and fix a quick lunch. Maybe some fish to drive the cats mad. Seems only fair.

I love this picture with the small tree nestled in among the big ones. What a lovely spot!

With Vision posted and the novel done, I found myself suddenly drained last night. But I needed to get some work done. I wanted something that I would not have to think too much about for a couple days.

And I remembered that I had started typing in Sooma I and needed to get back to work on it.

4000 and some words later I finally went to bed.

It's not a horrible story, really. Not bad for something I wrote at thirteen, and my first really totally mine story. Prior to this I had written a lot of fanfic and then shared universe stories with a friend. Sooma, though the characters often echoed those shared universe characters, were mine alone.

I'll get more done on it over this holiday weekend, and then get back to real work. It's a nice break, and a nice reminder of how I started in this madness.

DONE! DID IT! AND BEFORE MIDNIGHT!

So, what do I work on now?

Vision is now posted. All is well with the world... at least for a week or so before I start leaping into the next issue.

I spent part of today adding a much needed scene to Eliora's World. I still have the damned 17 pages left to edit. I'm beginning to feel like one of those people in a story who start for home and keep finding themselves back at the starting spot.

Okay. I have every intention of being done tonight. I believe that I have done all the work I need to do elsewhere -- July/August dare listed at FM, July Challenge and TAC listed at FM, and Vision done. I'm sure something else will turn up.

But right now, I'm going back to work on the novel.

Okay! I'm working on Eliora's World. I have heard from Victoria Strauss and the Interview should be here this afternoon or evening, so all is well there! As soon as I get done with it, I'll post Vision. Yay!

Last month was truly pitiful for word count, what with all the work on everything but writing. Less than 40,000 words. I intend to make a lot of that up this month. Whether I actually do or not is questionable, but I am going to try.

Time to work now!

Russ just left for his trip to New York. Actually, he left for work, and he'll leave work for New York later this afternoon --via Omaha and a plane. He took Princess Cricket with him, though she only gets to travel across town and is not very happy about it. We decided that she would do best in the care of the vet for the next five days, though, since I cannot give her the pills she needs. She's small, but she's extremely tought to hold down. Russ almost couldn't get her in the cat carrier.

He won't be home until late the 5th or early the 6th.

I don't think I'm going to stay up this morning. I was up until about three this morning getting things done for July, though I haven't posted Vision yet. I do have a placeholder put in for the Interview, so if there is nothing on hand by this afternoon, I'll go ahead and post. I hate to do that because I fear people won't come back to see the interview later.

A quick question for those who know anything about these blogs....

I want to change the template to one that has the built in comments. I don't want to lose the comments already posted from my old add-in, and I'm not sure how I should handle that. Just leave the old comment program link where it is? Will it disappear when I do the new blog template?

Time to get some rest.