New week, new plan

Sometimes I do think I come up with a new plan every week on how to get stuff done and use my time wisely. Anyway, last week ended with me not wanting to do anything and playing too much EQ. This week, I hope to finally crack the code to my own brain and figure out how I work.

I did about 200 words last week, and about 1k words today - that's an improvement - hehe. Well, this is what I'm doing. I made my usual big huge list of things that need to get done. Now, every night before I go to bed, I plan out on a schedule what I'm going to do when (generalities, that is - like I mark down writing, and that could encompass many different writing things I need to do on my main list). It worked out well today. I actually woke up at 10am, and even though I have been running on four hours of sleep all day, I feel like I got everything done that I wanted to accomplish for the day. Yay!

Oh, I received two story rejections this past weekend, so I should resubmit those stories somewhere this week. I also hope to get the rough draft of the novella done. One of my main POVs has a stick up her ass, as I discovered today, but I think it will all fall into place nicely as I continue to write it. I will still add the word count I get done in my novella to the NaNoWriMo meter, but Shepherd is on hold until I finish the novella. I should also submit a couple more agent queries. And add to that chain story. Plus a crit. Those are my main goals this week, at least, among the other stuff I have on my writing to do list. One thing at a time. :)

I'll try to update during the week how my "new" plan is going. Wish me luck, and happy writing!

Forget Days

Yesterday, I again was feeling like dung. And then everything else I needed to get done trumped writing. I know, it's NaNo month, and all other things should be lower priority than NaNo. I can't do that. I'm the only one that cleans the house, otherwise it smells bad, and when I have a dirty, messy house, I can't write, or keep my mind on the writing. Not to mention dealing with student loans and house hunting (still - I haven't heard back from our realtor either...she might have forgotten we exist). All those little things that needed to get done, and when I finish them I look at the clock and the day is over.

I do want to catch up with NaNo, I do want to hit 50k this month, but I might have to be realistic. November sucks for NaNo. The only worst month that could have been chosen for this crazy feat would have been Decemeber. WFC in November, Thanksgiving in November. Why not June or August for NaNo? Not to mention daylight savings time has shifted, and it gets dark earlier, and with it being colder out, I'm more lethargic (as I think I've stated before - I swear I have SAD - I so need out of Wisconsin).

So, today my stomach and the gray sky outside say, go back to sleep. I won't go back to sleep, per se, but I will take it easy, and I won't push myself to get thousands upon thousands of words done just so I can catch up. I'm a loser, I'll accept that, but I won't stop writing. I will be shifting gears to that novella I need to get the rough draft done of. And yes, I will be counting any words I complete for that toward NaNo. Right now, my goal is to make sure I write a little bit each day, even if it's just 100 words. Tonight around 6, when I'm not too tired yet and when my husband will be leveling my enchanter on EQ, I will work on that novella for at least an hour. Then I will increase my writing time everyday. Baby steps to get back into the heavy word counts. I also plan to handwrite the next novella scene - something I haven't done in a long while.

Have I babbled? Yes. Have I made excuses? A few. Will I find my writing pace and pull myself out of my stress-funk soon? I damn well better.

Good luck to those that are on track to completing NaNo. I give you props for being able to do what I can't seem to do. :) Heck, I'll still try again next year because I am a masochist at heart, and torturing myself with things like NaNo is a hobby. :p

NaNo - Days 12 and 13

Writing in the car is not a possiblity for me - too scrunched in. So, I didn't get any words done for these two days. Not to mention, I am still not feeling well. I think I was sick all last November, too. You think it might be psychological, or just the crappy shift in Wisconsin weather?

Okay, short blog, since I need to get 3k done today before I sleep (among cleaning fish tanks, going on a raid for EQ - probably the only EQ I'll do all week - taking clothes to the laundromat because our landlord is too damn lazy and cheap to replace the broken 15-year-old washer, and other cleaning things...). Happy writing...kind of...bleh.

NaNo - Days 10 and 11

This will be a quick post. I have lots to do.

Day 10 I got about 1k done. Day 11, nothing at all - I still haven't been feeling well. Had to get up early this morning because we need to get the kitten from the vet, then we are heading up north. So, I will not be updating on the blog tonight, since I will be at the in-laws. I'll be back tomorrow evening. Hopefully I'll get some writing done on the four hour trip there and back.

Happy NaNoing!

NaNo - Day 9 - sick

Yesterday, I felt like utter crap. So, I didn't get any writing done. I still feel horrible today, but I hope I can get some writing done. The kitten is being super crazy again though (I can't say I will not welcome the two nights of peace when she goes to the vet tonight).

Okay, short blog. I'll catch up, really I will.

NaNo - Day 8

I swear I got some type of bug from the convention - I feel more lethargic than usual. Ah, well. I knew I'd get sick.

I did get 1200 words done today. Small steps - I intend for my word count to grow exponentially. I doubled it from the day before, which is a great feat. :)

Otherwise, nothing to report. Oh, accept that I have a more in depth sex scene in this novel than I did in The Mind Behind the Mind. This one isn't even romance sub-genre fantasy, at all. I didn't even know it was coming until I realized it was the perfect way to get inside Lazarus's head and show why he does what he does. I'm liking that character too much now, which I'm scared will make me be too nice to him and give him the benefit of the doubt - he needs to be an asshole through most of the novel, damn it!

Okay, bedtime. Sweet, precious, sleep. :)

Errors

Yes, I see all the grammar errors I made in my last post - that just shows how tired I am. And being too lazy to go edit them all shows it even more. :)

Still tired

WFC wiped me out. I slept lots last night and I still feel like I need even more sleep. *sigh* I will post some stuff I heard on the panels later this week. it won't be nearly as much as I posted for WisCon - hehe.

So, time to cover goals. Last week I managed to write 2.2k for NaNo and have a good time at WFC (even though it exhausted me).

This weeks goals are:

- 14-21k of NaNo novel
- 5-10k of novella
- 1 crit
- still need to add to that chain story (I swear it's been a year since I was supposed to add to it last)
- update website
- 2-3 queries to agents
- post some tidbits from WFC

That's a full plate, to use a cliche. I've already done about 600 words for NaNo today, I just don't want to edit my tracking bar until I am done for the day. So, later you'll either just see the bar updated, or you might get a NaNo comment from me, too - depends on how tired I am and how late I get to the at least 3k goal I want to get to today. This week will be better - no conventions, no guests (sent Chun off on the bus a couple hours ago). I will be visiting in-laws on the weekend, but a 4 hour trip there and back with the husband driving will likely be good for getting writing done (that is if my laptop cooperates with me - it was such a pain over the convention).

That's all for now...I'm tempted to take a nap. :) Happy writing!

NaNo - Days 5 and 6...

Tired. Zero words.

Tomorrow.

NaNo - Day 4

No cute title today. I'm too darn tired for cute and witty. Note: today still means Friday, no matter what my time stamps says. It's my brains clock that counts.

Okay, if I can't get this crappy internet connection and blogger to cooperate in sync to get my template updated - the bar should be at 2,245/50,000 (4.5%). Yay, I got some done!

Yes, this means that I figured out most of the Lazarus stuff - well, the main stuff that I needed to get my rolling at least. He surprised me with a nasty secret already while I was just writing. Love it when they do that. But, yes, when I was trying to get to sleep, I thought on it, and it clicked. Muse likes to kick in when I'm almost aleep because she hopes I'll forget in the morning and get frustrated. Sometimes I think my writing troubles only exist to amuse her. I swear she laughs every time I receive a rejection.

Now I'm rambling about crap. Oh, am I exhausted. Here's hoping I get some decent sleep and that I can write another 1k at least tomorrow. I might not hit 10k by the time I go to bed on Sunday, but I'll just have to play catch up next week then. :) Fun, fun. Night all, and happy writing!

NaNo Day 3 - No words

Okay, WFC started today. Unfortunately, that's not the reason why I didn't get any words for NaNo done. It's one of my main characters that has me stumped right now. I know, this is where people tell me I should plan things out further ahead of time. This writer can't do that! So, instead I will vent and think things through out on here. Sometimes if I actually talk about the problem, a solution will pop in my head.

I can see the Shepherd of Dreams - she was the one who led me to this novel to begin with, and I even have developed a few more ideas concerning her and the plot. Well, I also have a male POV. The first scene with him is only currently a page long. I don't know very much about him, though. His name is Lazarus. The name was pulled from the ether when I started his scene - it felt right (hell, I never thought I'd be using a name from the bible). Anyway, when I came back from the panels today and started my comp, I at least looked up Lazarus to refresh my memory on the biblical story. Okay, he was the dude raised from the dead. So, I think, it would be cool to have him be involved with death, perhaps something like a necromancer. This is where I freeze up. It sounds right - dreams and death is a good pairing, but I can't even begin to see how any necromancer-like thing could be intertwined with the Shepherd of Dreams. I also don't want to be cliche. There needs to be something different, and he needs to have a reason to use necromantic power. It feels lke one of those things where I'm so close to the answer, but my muse is currently unwilling to bonk me over the head with the connections. I do know, Lazarus is one sick fuck. I hope he doesn't turn into a second villain - the poor Shepherd would have her hands full. From how I feel, he might be one of those anti-heroes.

Perhaps I'll get some ideas from the zombie panel on Saturday - lol - Chun would love it if I wrote something with zombies in it. Heck, maybe my husband would actually read some of my writing then.

Why must I be cursed with having a brain that needs to write scenes in order? Here's hoping if I sleep on it, it'll all come together, so I can squeeze in 2k words on Friday, sometime between everything else going on. I might be going the handwritting route so I don't have to drag my laptop around (which takes like 15 minutes to boot up anyhow).

Lazarus - let me in your head! Muse - start talking, and stop smirking! Sleep time. :)

NaNo Day 2 - The Hits Keep Coming

Well, my hamster girl died today. :( She was a year and a half old. For the last few days I knew she wasn't looking good, but I'm still uber sad that she's gone. The picture is of her from a few days ago - my little Cliona of the Fair Hair. I had realized that I had taken no pictures of her before (stupid me). Two good memories of the hamster girl: unlike most hamsters, she didn't pick one corner to sleep in - she switched it up during the week, sometimes even in one day - and my husband and I would sing the "Run to the Hills" song when she was zooming in her wheel.

Needless to say, this dampened much NaNo progress. I was emotionally worn out for most of the day (for those people that say she was just a hamster, don't say it to me, otherwise I will likely snap - she was family). I did get more done than yesterday at least. WFC starts tomorrow, so the NaNo word count will have to be made up mostly next week.

That's all for now. *Mourns her hamster girl*

NaNo Day 1 Blahs

This is not starting out well at all. I got five hours of sleep last night, so I am exhausted to begin with (I would have slept longer, but my eyes didn;t want to stay shut). When I finally get into my study to start my word count, Amara, the calico kitten from hell, is an utter pain in the ass. I am the type that can really only have the music as background and no other type of interruptions. Here, I posted a rant to the NaNo forums, and I will repost it here.

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Look at me - I was stupid enough to get a new kitten about three weeks ago!

I know you might think, okay, I'm too busy having fun and playing with the kitten.

It's quite the contrary. She is a terror with four paws and a tail. So, you say, shut her out of the room. Well, she is stuck in my study because she has an upper respiratory infection and would get my other cats sick. And if I left her in any other room alone, she would destroy it.

I admit, this is just a vent post because the kitten has been such a brat that I was only able to get a paragraph done in 45 minutes. People like to make lists, and so do I. Here are a few reasons why Amara (unfading - gods why did I pick a name that means unfading) won't let me write:

1. Instead of eating her food, she tries to knock it over so she can bat around the pieces.
2. Instead of drinking her water, she tries to knock it over so she can amuse herself while I'm wiping it up.
3. She jumps up and pulls at my hair when I am in the middle of taking a sip of soda, so my hand jerks and I get soda all over me and my keyboard (this was the incident that made me start this post).
4. She jumps from the loveseat straight onto the keyboard while I'm typing (you should have seen the Yahoo search she attempted last night).
5. She chews mouse cords, among other cords. Yes, she shorted out my nice mouse this past week and I was forced to buy a wireless.
6. When I pick her up when she's going absolutely bonkers running around the room, there are moments she goes schitzy and decides biting is a great option - ow says my left hand right now.
7. She likes to eat paper - I'm a writer, and I get a cat the chews paper.
8. She will crawl in anything and everything that she is not supposed to be in or on, and she does it because she knows it will get my attention.

Okay, eight is enough. There are more, trust me. *sigh*

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So, in an hour, I managed to write 218 words. Yippee! Did I spell yippee right? Yipee? Bleh. I was tired to begin with, and I am exhausted now. I hope to write more tonight, but I just might do one of the things I hate doing right now. Nap. She wore me out that much. Of course, now she's sleeping, so when I get back in here to try again, she'll be bouncing off the walls again...