Chapter 1

So I have finally gotten moving on my revision process and it is hard! Not only have I struggled to find time to do it with Christmas coming and putting my office together, but I haven't quite gotten back into the rhythm. It took me two weeks just to revise Chapter 1. I'm not fully satisfied with it and there are a few things that will probably need to be tweaked as I move forward.

This pass, I should probably tell you, is mostly about fleshing out the character, setting, plot, etc. I was actually pretty surprised that there weren't as many plot holes as I had originally thought. That made me very happy. This revision is going to be tough however, because I really need to put a lot into this. I have a feeling that it may take me quite a bit longer than I thought to do this. I have to enforce my deadline so that I can scratch at least one thing off my "Things to do before" list (it used to be things to do before I'm 30, but that has come and gone way too quickly for my liking).

Back to Work

So November is (finally) over. I managed to finish NaNo, just barely and very, very poorly. I just couldn't get moving into the story and I struggled through every minute of it. But it is done and I may actually revisit the story some time and see if I can make something of it. But for now, I have bigger things on my plate.

As some of you may know, I am rapidly approaching my 20-11th birthday and I wanted to at least query agents before that date. I'm just over three months away and I still haven't finished revision on my last year's novel. My office is almost set up, so I'm planning on finishing it tomorrow. I'll also need to print a copy of my second draft. I've been reading tips on revision and have a copy of the Writer's Market so I can start looking into agents.

So it is now time to get moving so that I can at least send one letter out before that day in March.

How Did This Happen?

It is 10:59 pm on November 30, 2010 and...








That's all I'm saying! Good night all!

So It Begins...

Today is November 1st and so begins another month of crazy writing hoping to come up with 50,000 words that will string together to make some sort of sense. So far, however, I haven't even come close. I've been attempting to write all day and have come up short. I have a synopsis of what I'd like to write and a good direction of where I want to go with this story. I'm just stuck. I can't get the thoughts from my brain to put together cohesive sentences that I can move from my fingers to my keyboard. It's really quite frustrating.

I've managed to get about 200 words down and only need 1500 more to make quota for the day. That's what it takes to make the 50k in a month. It seems a little daunting to me right now. Maybe something will come up soon, cause it's so disheartening. I know that I have it in me. So I'm going back to staring at a nearly blank screen and hope that it comes together shortly.

It is Almost THAT Time

So, we've passed the mid-point of October and NaNo is right around the corner. My fabulous hubby has been pushing me to start planning for this year's novel. Sadly, creativity is not something that can be planned. I have nothing ready to start writing. I've been thinking about it a lot hoping that some sort of idea will spark something in me. I originally toyed with the idea of writing a sequel to what I wrote last year. Cool, right? Too bad I can't find a direction to go on since I haven't finished editing yet. I keep hoping that maybe I'll get moving on last year's novel and that will push me into either a direction of a sequel or in another direction for a new novel idea. Nothing!

On the other side, I have been leafing through some new editing books for assistance on re-working my current project. I think that the one I'm currently going through is going to be a big help. I would highly recommend it for any aspiring fiction writers out there. It's called Self Editing for Fiction Writers. I'm still early on in the book but there have been quite a few helpful tips in there. I'm hoping that I'll find a lot as I move forward. Lord knows I need the help. I'm also using it as a push to get going on editing again. I haven't re-read what I've written in a couple months (like may authors suggest), so I'm thinking about printing it out and reading it. Maybe then I'll get somewhere. Only time will tell.

Time to Get Back on the Horse

We've finally moved into our own place and my office is mostly set up. I've decided that it's time to stop making excuses and start writing. I've got a month before NaNo starts again and I haven't done any writing in like 3 months. There's no way I'm going to make it if I don't get back into some sort of habit.
I know that I went into last year's writing completely cold and wound up doing all right. But I've heard horror stories of people who won the first time and then haven't been able to repeat the feat. I don't want that happening to me! And one of the ways I can keep that from happening is to start writing again. Unfortunately, I haven't felt very inspired lately. I'm hoping its just because I've taken so much time off.
I'm also really afraid of looking at my work again. I didn't think it was so bad when I made my first revision, but I was still running on the post-NaNo high. I'm really scared that I'm going to get back to it and it's going to be HORRIBLE. But I guess the only way to figure that out is to start looking at it. So, on top of starting to head back to the gym I'm going to start writing again. Wish me luck!

Seriously?! Why Now?

So I finally got a computer a little over a week ago. And I love it! Massive 17" screen, great clarity, lightweight, and perfect for writing. And that's the problem... I haven't written a lick since I got the damn thing. And its not for lack of trying. I've sat down to write on two occasions. I pulled up my draft, I stared at the screen, and then promptly closed it down and wandered around the internet for hours. I had all these ideas, even wrote some of them down, but I can't seem to put it all together.
I'm hoping that once I get my own office (we move into our new place at the end of the week) I'll be able to focus more.
November is coming up quickly and I'd like to focus on NaNo when it comes back around. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave me much time to finish another draft. I really hate to put this one down, but if I can't do some serious revising in the next two months I'm going to have to put it away. A very depressing thought.

Will the Voices in My Head Please SHUT UP!!

Two posts in one week, can you believe it? I can't either. But since I still don't have a computer of my own this is the closest I get to writing down some of my ideas. I guess I could hand write them but it takes me way too long to transcribe them. (my mind rewrites everything as I go along then I get lost or head out on tangents... not very time effective)

I've been talking about my novel to my new co-workers and they're almost as excited about it as my old ones were. That makes me very happy. I know now that I'll have a good support system in place when I go a little crazy come November. That is, if I'm not already insane. You see, talking about my novel makes me think about my novel. That, in turn, makes me have ideas. And while I would normally welcome ideas about where to take my novel or new plot twists I can throw in there when I don't have time or a place to write it just makes me frustrated. I do try to jot down notes but when I'm in the middle of learning how to do something it is really hard to stop and write something down. I only have one more week of training then I'm on my own. I'll start keeping two notebooks by my computer, one for work and one for novel stuff.

Anyway, to get back on track with the title of this post, my characters have been going nuts. They are making it so difficult to concentrate. Where were they three months ago when I wanted to work on this novel? Nowhere! Jerks. I've been trying to appease them and let them know that I promise I will start working as soon as I possibly can but they just don't seem to care. And they don't care if all of them talk at once. How can I understand what they want when I can't figure out who is saying what? Jerks squared. They are so rude!

PS - Its not the best picture, but its a start...

It is Almost Time!

The hubby and I survived the move to Texas and we are settling in. I'm on my second week of work and loving every minute of it. We put a deposit down on an apartment and we should find out our exact move-in date sometime this week. It has a second bedroom so I FINALLY get my own workspace. So fantastic. I'm really lookingforward to just being able to go somewhere and have a little me time to read and write. And I am so ready to start writing again! I didn't realize how much I've missed it these past few, well months if I'm being completely honest.

Unfortunately, we have to replace our computer first, so sad. As much as I want that fancy computer with. The haandwriting software its just not in the budget. Hopefully it won't take too long to get one. I have a lot of work to do and its almost November!

Life and Other Nonsense That Gets In the Way

It has been almost a month since my last post, I apologize. And. I promise I will post pictures of my proof soon. As soon as I get it and my camera in the same place at the same time.

I haven't had much of a chance, meaning none at all, to work on my second rewrite. I had all intentions of doing it when we got back from vacation, which was fabulous, but things have been a little crazy in my house. We made the decision to move to Dallas and the move has been taking up most of my thoughts. I haven't been feeling very creative of late. If I can get the apartment together in a decent amount of time (we have a month) I will try to make time to work on it.

I really miss my characters. They've been talking to me sporadically wanting to know what's going on and, at times, it has been heartbreaking to ignore them. I'm hoping they won't choose to leave me when I finally get a chance to get back to them.

It Finally Came!

Its official, my very first novel is in print. And I promise as soon as I can I'll post a few pics of it. I'm super excited, even if the inside margins are kinda screwed up.

I'm off to vacation next week and as long as my life is not in complete turmoil when I get back I'll be returning to the revision.

And Rest!

I MADE IT! My deadline came and I was on schedule. This deadline was not going to whoosh past me and I just watch it fly by. I have finished revision one of my novel dropping about 40% of the original. It was a little difficult to see my page count go from 106 to only 66 but it means I've cut out a lot of the drivel (I'm hoping). So with that I am proud to say that I made it in time for the NaNoWriMo/CreateSpace deadline and was notified about an hour ago that my proof copy of my FIRST NOVEL EVER has been shipped.

Its probably awful, most likely a little sad, and definitely incoherent at times, but it is MINE!! And it will be in print, with my name on it, my words on the page, and on my bookshelf. And no, you can't read it. Not yet. At least one more revision before I consider beta readers.

I am, however, going to take a little time off before I start looking at a second revision. At least I am going to try. Stephen King says that one should lock it in a drawer and forget about it for six months before picking it up again. I don't have six months if I want to at least query agents before I'm 31. I'm going on vacation in 3 weeks so I figured when I get back I will print it out and start the arduous process all over again.

Oh, and I will post pictures of my proof copy when it comes in. And for those interested, after minutes and minutes of research I realized that my tired imagination actually had the right idea about how to kill demons! Go me.

The Final Week

So it has come down to the final week, well 5 days. And I am surprising moving along rather well. Now that all the wedding stuff is out of the way I can actually concentrate on working. When I can get myself motivated that is!

I actually finished typing up all that I had previously hand-written! I was pretty stoked when I came to that last page and realized I didn't have to lean over my notebook and type, hoping that I would transcribe it properly. And the stress of revising while I typed is over, too. It is really hard to revise a revision as you are going along. But I did it!

I also managed to get in another chapter tonight. And it has a really important scene in it that I (currently) really like how it turned out. Of course this is all subject to change as I go in for revision number dos. But I'm not going to worry about that right now. I'm going to rejoice in the fact that I only have 44 pages of original manuscript left to revise and then I have to figure out how to get it uploaded to the site that allows me a proof copy of my FIRST NOVEL EVER!!! (that warrants a lot more exclamation points, but I'm trying to be modest)

Looming Deadline

So I've been rolling merrily along working on my revisions when I get a chance but not putting in a whole lot of effort. (Shame on me) I figured I would really dig in after all the wedding festivies for my friend. I have until the end of June to get it done. No big rush, right? WRONG!! The deadline is June 1 not 30. Talk about a freak out! Once I regained composure I set out a schedule and as long as I stick to it I should be done by May 28.

I spent an hour last night typing up some stuff that I had hand written and tonight I'm shooting for 2 hours of work. I'm hoping to have everything that's hand written already done by Saturday. That will put me a little over halfway, and back in the writing mindset. I should be able to whip out the ending in no time. That is if there are no major changes to my plot.

I do have some research to do before that... I'm not really sure hbow to kill a demon and that's essential to the climax. And I'm hoping the knowledge will help me figure out a way to write a fight scene, as that is definitely not my strongg point.

Onward!

I Have Been Remiss

I realized today that I haven't posted in two weeks, my apologies. And to be completely honest I have really done much work in that time. After 5 days in Florida and 2 in recovery I joined a gym and have been spending my lunch hour working out instead of writing. I did, however, get my house in some semblance of order so I'm going to start working while at home. I have recruited my husband to make sure I work at least an hour a day on it.

The deadline for the free proof copy is approaching quickly. A lot faster than I thought it would. I have a lot of typing to do and about 6 chapters left to revise. Time to get the creative train back on track. I'm hoping that I will be able to start spending weekends on it since I normally just sit around watching tv. I'm not gping to be able to do the type of revision I want if I'm going to get my free copy but a mostly coherent story is what I'm working towards.

Once I get that finished I'm going to look into getting some beta readers… just throwing that out there!

Lack of Motivation

I haven't done any work for a week. No typing no writing, I don't think I've even taken my binder out of my bag. Bad me! The title might be a little off... I don't think I'm completely lacking motivation maybe more of a lack of energy. The two kind of go hand in hand. I don't have energy cause I don't have motivation and I don't have motivation because I don't have energy. A very vicious circle.

I'm leaving for FL in a couple days (and bringing everything with me) so hopefully it'll give me the recharge that I need. I don't want to go thru another non-writing funk. I'm really starting to enjoy where things are going and I'm curious to see where all my changes lead. Hopefully I can pull myself out of this funk and get back on track.

What a Quandry

I decided the other day that I was going to start typing up th 75+ pages I've hand written only to realize that I wrote quite a bit before the character revolt. Now I'm torn between correcting it as I go along typing or just typing it up and fixing it next draft. Gah! My characters are going to drive me insane. I love (most) of them dearly but I don't know if I can keep my head about me with these changes.

So I'm going to start with the stuff post-revolution and stress about the prior stuff after mu relaxing vacation next week... Maybe.

Just About Halfway

So as my original deadline is fast approaching I decided to take a look at where I stand. I have to say while I'm trucking along with what I've been doing at work, I am definitely far from being where I need to be. I printed out my original writings and put it into a 3-ring binder and it looked like I had done a lot (I did write 50k words, so I guess that is a lot). Then I placed upon myself a crazy ridiculous deadline. Now here I am, 3 days away from that and only about halfway through. At least that's how I felt a little earlier today. And then I realized...

I'm HALFWAY through!!!

Crazy, I know. I know that I've given myself another month in which to finish my first draft and that will come up faster than I would probably like. But for now I'm basking in the glory of HALFWAY. I struggle a lot with the "I should be further along/I can't believe how much I've done" inner monologue and it has been really hard for me. I took quite a few weeks off and I do wonder if I hadn't have taken that time would I be closer to finishing. I am 99% sure I would be but I don't think that I would be as happy with the product as I am now.

I like where the story is heading, I like what I've added, and I'm enjoying getting to know my characters better. Even if they don't like what I originally had planned for them. Writing this has become much more than just a learning experience on writing, it has become a lesson on me. I see so much of myself reflected in my words that it makes me proud that I have taken this on. And so what if it isn't "complete" by the time I turn 30. I wrote a novel, damn it! There are plenty of people who haven't, and a lot of them probably say that one day they will. Well, that one day has come for me.

I have set the goal of finishing by April 23 but I don't think I'm going to set it in stone. If my hiatus taught me anything it's that these little people I have running about in my head are the ones who are controlling the pace, not me. I wish I could give myself over freely to them and not have to work in the real world, but for now that's not an option. So I will listen to them when I can and I'll finish my draft in time to see it in print through the NaNo offer. And that is that!

This Is Mutiny!

So there has been a revolt. I was thinking (just thinking, no writing. My stuff was toi far away and I felt awful) about where my story was heading. You see my main male character (MMC for future reference) has decided there was not enough conflict in my writing. So Andrew has decided that he isn't going to like Vic, my female main character (FMC). And if that wasn't causing enough stress on my revision Andrew's girlfriend (soon to be ex) has decided she is not as dumb as I originally planned for her to be! This is not fair!

I've never been a fan of Kaitlyn (the ex/girlfriend) since the beginning. (And yes, it is very possible to hate your own creations) and I've been tempted to just write her out. She's is having none of that. Instead she decides that she is going to realize there is something different about Vic and threatens to expose her. Stupid Kaitlyn! I tried to tell her that I can't deal with her drama. I have enough on my hands with Andrew but do either of them listen? Of course not.

Oh and Marcus, the instigator of the climax, decided 2 chapters weren't enough for him so he showed up about 10 chapters before he was supposed to be here. I tried to tell him that he'll get his chance in the sequel but he's not having it.

Mutiny I tell you. Mutiny!

Revision or Rewrite?

I'm fully aware that this is supposed to be my journey of novel revision and so on but a random thought struck me as I was doing my hour writing session today at work. Cam it really be called revision if I'm basically writing each chapter as I go using what I wrote during NaNo as a guide?

Any author you talk to (or read blogs of) will tell you that it takes several revisions to get a finished product. Understandable. Right now I'm faced with the feeling that I'm just now writing my first draft working off an outline. There is so much cjaracter development and scene fleshing going on right now that its feeling like I'm writing this for the first time. A lot of things have changed in this first pass and I'm liking the direction that they are taking. My characters feel more real and their lives are becoming more realistic. Which is definitely a good thing. The more like people they become the more fun I'm having writing them. The last couple days of work have beem hard to cut off when I have to go back to my job.

I'm really glad I didn't allow anyone to read what I had "finished" at the end of November because they probably wouldn't recognize it after this pass is done. From here on out I'm considering my work now as my first draft and will keep trucking on!

On Writing

So I finally took the advice of fellow NaNoers and picked up a book to read more about the craft of writing. And it's called "On Writing". Shocking, I know! But it came highly recommended so I thought what the heck. Plus, it's written by Stephen King, arguably one of the best writers of the modern era. I truly love his work. And this turned out to be no exception. He worked off of personal experience and there are some really great words of wisdom in there.

To say that it was inspirational wouldn't be saying enough. There are so many things in there that I related to and he made it seem not quite so difficult. He's straight forward without being in your face and I could take hours of creative writing classes to get what he teaches. I would recommend the book to any aspiring writer out there. Or to anyone who is a fan of Stephen King as it shows a different side of the horror writer.

I'm feeling more confident in what I'm writing and while I still have my reservations about the quality of my writing I know that I'm an adequate writer. And I'm on my way to being a good one. I have a long way to go to get to that point but I will get there.

I even finished Chapter 3 today at lunch. It's all hand-written but someday I'll translate it to Word. I'm just enjoying the connection I have with the pen and the page.

PS - I had actually written a post today at work but I accidentally hit a button on my phone and POOF it was gone. So my excitement on the writing has waned a bit, but it's still there!

I'm Back

Ok so a couple days turned into a couple weeks. Life just kept getting in the way. Things seem to be looking up for my little family and so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Its been slow going and I haven't made much progress, but some is better than none. I'm trying to write a little everyday just to move forward. I'm not pushing too hard as I don't want to burn out again. I think that with everything that was going on in my real life and the giant flashing light of my self imposed deadline I crushed myself under the weight. I've mostly dug out from the pile and starting to feel human again.

All that said I have decided to be prudent and extend my deadline. I'm working on convincing myself that its not a bad thing. I'm not doing well with that talk but I'm trying. Its not a failure on my part and by extending the deadline I'm doing myself a service. So my new deadline is my Mom's birthday, April 23. I know its only a month longer but I think its reasonable. And it is only the first draft; it won't be perfect and it won't be publishable but it'll be a start.

By April 23 I will have most of the content cleaned up, plot holes fixed, continuity issues resolved, and pacing more realistic.

Finally

So I have actually finished chapter 2. And I have to admit that it too long to actually do it. I'm starting to fear that RL is going to take over and not allow me to accomplish what I'm trying to do here. I was so pumped at the first of the year and here we are on February 2 and I haven't gotten anywhere. I have 22 chapters written in total which will probably turn into 15 when I'm done but I am not getting there at near the pace that I need to be.

I think I need to sit down and reevaluate some things. There is just so much going on right now and I don't have the emotional resources to be working on this. So I'm going to take a couple days off, regroup, and come at this with a fresh perspective. Writing is supposed to be fun, but right now its feeling like a chore. A few days, maybe a week, will do me some good.

Ain't That a Kick in the Junk

So a week ago I was so excited. I was making progress typing away feeling pretty good. I was happily ensconced in my little writer's world then BLAM! Life came at me from every possible angle, and none of it good. So needless to say I got a little off from my project and haven't gotten back on track.

I have the house to myself starting Friday for about a week so I plan on taking some me time and hitting the ground running. Lots to do before that fateful day that is coming up waaay too fast for my liking.

Over the Hump

I'm feeling rather technological today so I come to you from my phone. (So please ignore any typos as these buttons are rather small and my fingers aren't) I had all intentions of posting last night but I got a little wrapped up amd lost track of time. Guess what I was doing. Go on, guess. I'll even give you three chances and the first two won't count.

...

I was writing!!! (Excuse the exclamation point overkill but I'm super excited) I seem to have gotten over my slump. It felt good to get moving yesterday. I had hit a wall during my lunch writing section so I didn't go into my night feeling too positive. I had to force myself to type up what I had written but when I was all caught up it just kept coming out of me. So I have almost finished my revision of chapter 2 (I had to go to sleep at some point) and now I need to hit up 3 and 4 to see how I can mash it into one big Chapter 2 instead of three little chapters.

I still haven't gotten my feedback from my Chapter 1 revision but I'm fully aware of my editor's time restraints. I'm thinking I might find an impartial party to critique it. So if anyone knows of someone who would be willing to do it (and preferably someone who doesn't know me so they wouldn't be afraid of hurting my feelings) let me know. Until tjen I'm going to keep trucking along. That fateful day is coming quickly and at the rate I'm going its going to be a rough road.

Almost

So I had an entire day on Saturday to do some work and guess what... I hardly did a thing!!! I don't know what is going on with me, but damn it I need to get motivated. There has just been so much crap going on. I really just need a break from life. Can anyone stop the world for just a little bit? I don't want to get off long, just for a day or two so that I can catch up with everything. I'm trying really hard to be negative but right now I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed.

I have about 1/3 of Chapter 2 revised and I was planning on combining original 2,3, and 4. Working only during my lunch hour is not getting me anywhere. Guess I need to actually do some organizing and cleaning so that I have my work space back. I have to get this done. I just don't feel like I'm going to be able to do it sometimes. I'm feeling a little defeated. My muse has left and I don't know if she is ever going to come back. Life keeps getting in my way. But I guess that's kinda what its there for. So I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and do something. Maybe if I say it enough I'll actually start believing it. Gah!

I Will Get Back on Track

It has been a hectic couple of days. Spend all day shopping on Sunday (which was not planned), big sis's birthday on Monday (it was excellent), then an unplanned family thing yesterday. Three days gone, and as Nancy felt the need to mention only 69 days left til I need to be done. AHHHHHH!!!

Ok I feel better now. And after today I am back to work. I'm almost done with the book I started the other day so I'm going to start working on my revision at lunch. It's going to be a pain to hand write and then re-type but it seems to be the best way for me to get work done. It will probably take twice as much time so hopefully I'll get motivated to work at home. It just gets so difficult to get up off the couch (where my tush is comfortably resting right now) and do something productive. Why not be comfortable and write? you may ask. Well I will answer with a simple "because I tend to be a lazy piece of [fill in your favorite description here] when I'm on the couch." Productive stuff must be done at the desk which is currently covered in papers and nonsense that has nothing to do with my writing. So the desk need to gets cleaned off as well. This really is starting to sound like excuse after excuse. So no more excuses!

Tomorrow is a new day and it will be a new beginning for me! I will work HARD, I will work WELL, and I WILL get this done. By my deadline.

Two Steps Forward

And one giant step back.

I had the house to myself yesterday so I had plenty of time and no distractions to work. So I plugged in my flash drive, opened up a couple of documents, and got to typing. Knowing the propensity for me to lose documents (especially the important ones) I saved as often as I could remember, which gets a little difficult when I'm in a zone. So there I was cruising along fairly happy with the out put when out of nowhere...

BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!!

I was one VERY unhappy camper. But I thought I had saved fairly recently so I wouldn't have lost much of what I was working on. And was I ever wrong. I apparently hadn't saved in at least an hour. Time flies when you're flowing well, I guess. So thanks to that random blue screen I lost about a third of what I had written. Today I was too discouraged to work on it again. I'll try picking it up tomorrow after the proper mourning period has passed.

On the plus side, it did seem to be just a random blue screen. I ran a virus scan and, two hours later, came up empty. The hubs ran another one just to be safe and that came up clean too. All I can blame this hiccup on is the fact that my computer is going to be 5 this summer. I know they don't last forever but I just need this one to get me through revision 1. So please give a little thought to my poor baby and hopefully he'll last me as long as he is needed!

A Step in the Right Direction

So yesterday I decided that my first chapter revision has been completed. So I enlisted the help of my (free) editor and sent off a copy for critique. Unfortunately, she works crazy hours so I'm not sure when I'm going to hear back from her. The deal was I'd pick up her written feedback this weekend. I'm excited to hear what she has to say, but I have to admit I'm really nervous too. This marks the first time that I've let someone read something that I've written and asked for feedback. If all goes well I may look to find someone that I don't know to take a look at it.

Now I just need to find the time to start on Chapter 2. And if my memory serves me correctly it is actually 2, 3, and 4 that I'm going to have to look at and do some combining. At some point I am going to have to turn off the TV and get to work if I am going to finish this draft in 75 days. I'm pretty sure that is how many days left until that magical age of 20-10.

I do have the weekend free for the most part so I'm going to try and block out a couple hours to dedicate directly to the working. I know that to get this done it is going to take discipline and I'm most likely going to have to schedule time to write. When I started the challenge in November there was an excitement pushing me. Was it really possible to write 50,000 words in just 30 days? And I proved to myself that it was! Now is when the real work sets in along with the dread. I've always been good at starting things but have always struggled with that whole finishing aspect of it. But the only way to cross "Publish a Novel" off my to do list I have to just suck it up.

PS - I want this computer!

Moving Forward

Well after a less than productive weekend I finally started to get some work done. I had been rewriting the first chapter by hand while on breaks and lunches at work. During some downtime today I finally got it all typed up. And while it is still quite rough I'm definitely fleshing out the scene a bit more.

I've opened up a few lines of thought that have already come into play in later parts of what was already written. Not so much of a foreshadowing, but more like later information won't be quite so "wow, where did this come from?" type of stuff. Plus it's now all in Word format so my poor hand won't be as tired. I'll be able to go a little bit faster too since I can type much quicker than I can write.

There is something to be said about hand writing a manuscript. There seems to be more of a connection with what I am doing. I've always been a fan of writing out essays and such before a final draft. People in college thought I was nuts, but I am a little bit older than the "tech" generation I took classes with. Maybe someday I'll be able to buy that AWESOME HP laptop with the swivel screen that has handwriting recognition software so I can write it long hand and not have to re-write it (type it) at a later date. Sigh. A girl can dream!

So yeah, that's where I am. Feeling pretty good about the start of the revision. I have quite a long ways to go if the second draft is to be ready be ready by the time I turn 20-10. Scary scary thought. I'll have to ask Nancy how many days I have left til that fateful time.

And so it begins...

I have it set in my mind that 2010 is going to be MY year! There are many things that I want to accomplish and finishing my first novel is one of them. And it is here that you will be able to share in that journey with me.
I've wanted to be a writer for a long time, so I finally stopped talking about it and started doing it back in November when I was a first time participant in NaNoWriMo. I now have a very rough first draft on what has the potential to be a real novel. I have been lacking the motivation to get moving on rewriting and revising. So I'm putting myself out there and inviting you to come along with me as I get to work.
I'll be posting my progress, my complaints, my excitements, and, if you're lucky, excerpts from my novel. Only time will tell what will happen but I am optimistic.