Deadline Approaching

So I set the deadline to have the complete first draft done by July 9th and I'm happy to report that I will meet it. :)

Also I wanted to share a picture of my cork board filled with neon colored index cards of awesomeness.

Yep, there's my master piece. I've heard about this idea of mapping out your story on index cards before but I really like how Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell explained it. So I tried it out and that's what I got. The different colors are different characters. It makes me happy to look at it while I'm working.

So I only have 6 more scenes to write out of 49, that's 87% complete. :D Plus, yesterday, I got a pretty good idea on a second book. I didn't think this would turn into a series, but this idea is too good to pass up.

So that's all folks! Thanks for reading, love you all!

Do You Remember?

So I wrote a poem, shocked I know. It's been soooo long. And really, I wrote two, but the first one was sad and sucked, so I'm only going to post this one. Enjoy!

Do You Remember?

Do you remember

Those short drives

From school to home?

Do you remember

The music

And the laughter?

I remember

The heat

And the smell.

I remember

The feel

Of the seat

Do you remember

The discussions

And their depth?

Do you remember

Our wishes

And dreams?

I remember

That feeling

Of the inevitable.

I remember

Knowing

This would end.

Do you remember?

I hope so,

Because I do.

Back to School and Research

You know, sort of. :) For those of you that have the privilege of knowing me in person, you know that me and school really don't get along. The structure that makes up high school and college did not work for me. It was mostly because of the homework. I hated doing homework, it wasn't fun. There was a whole pile of books I could read instead of doing my homework.

Anyway, I've gotten really lucky and I found an independent study course based on the Writing Great Fiction series. I got a great deal for it. (Should have cost me $560 but I got it for $119) So all the material came in today and I'm super excited. I've been wanting to take some kind of creative writing class for a long time but was unwilling to go back to school and online courses were really expensive. So I'll be working on this for a while.

In other news, I'm currently in a researching stage on my WIP. As I wrote this first (sort of) draft I had an on going list of things and facts I needed to do more research on and now I'm working on that. Research is a fun and not so fun process. You spend a lot of time shifting through a lot of information that you really don't need. It's time consuming, but it's worth it. But I have to say that it feels weird to not actually write right now.

Finished the First Draft?

Yeah.... technically, not really. So I had set my self a deadline of completing my first draft of my current WIP, A White Crow Novel (working lame title), on May 26th. Did I make it? Kind of. Let me explain.

When I first came up with this story I thought I could do the whole thing in third person limited with just one voice. I got about half way through and realized that wouldn't work. So I did a few experimental chapters in another character's voice. Then I thought, "Okay, 2 voices, I can do that." So then I decided to skip some random character building stuff that would happen in the middle of the story and jumped straight to the end.

I finished that ending by May 26th. Then I went and talked to a trusted person who I've mentioned way too many times in my blogs from Absolute Write Forums and he helped me to realize that I have a third and maybe even a fourth voice I should consider using.

So in the end, did I finish the first draft? If by first draft you mean I have a full skeleton of a story with some juicy bits of flesh clinging to it, then yes. But if you mean, do I have a fully fleshed out body that just needs some hair, make up and nice clothes, then no. (by the way, I'm planning on some post in the future that talk more about that fun imagery I just gave you).

Anyway, because of some vacation plans that involved parents visiting and an early celebration of Daniel and mine's third wedding anniversary, I have not looked at my WIP in close to two weeks. I plan on picking it back up again on Monday and starting to revise what I have and add some more juicy flesh to this body of work.

So now's it's time for a new deadline! I will give my self a full month to revise and add what is needed so that I can call this a first real draft. So, I will have a completed first draft done by Saturday, July 9, 2011! Wish me luck!

Critiques

So, I'm not even half way through my WIP, but I decided to have my first chapter critiqued by my sister and my friends at Absolute Write. My sister got the entire chapter, all 3500+ words of it, but I only posted the first 977 words on the forum. You can find that post and all the lovely comments here.

Now this whole critiquing process was both good and bad for me. First we'll talk about the good.

Good Things:

A) It was a great lesson in having a thick skin and thanking people nicely for reading my work and taking the time to comment on it.

B) It showed me some of the very stupid mistakes I had made.

C) It gave me some great ideas/tips on what I could do to make it better.

Bad Thing: (notice I said "Thing" not "Things")

Now I want to go back and re-write the chapter and go a head and edit and re-write all that I have so far. This is not good. I can not afford to think that way. Because if I go back now and start re-working what I have now, I'll never finish the story.

There are people that I know that have been working on the same story for many many years but have never finished it because they've spent so much time editing the little bit that they have. I don't want to be like that. I need to finish telling the story. I need to see a completed first draft, all 70,000+ words that I'm hoping it will be. I need to know I can finish something before I go back and try to fix it.

But that is really hard. The Editor in me is dying to go back and work on that first chapter and make it perfect so that when people read it again they will have nothing to complain about. But i know that if I do, I'll get caught in that vicious little editing cycle and I'll never get back out.

So I must press on. Knowing that 90% of the words I type are total shit. I must keep putting my butt in my chair every morning and trying to finish this story. Because if I don't, my MC will jump out of my head, torture and then kill me in the slowest most painful way possible. And she can do it too, that's kind of her profession.

Oh, and as an ending note, I am not sure I'll make my self appointed deadline of May 26th. That gives me only 23 days to write more than 50,000 words. I'll try though, I'll try really hard.

WIP Going Strong

So I thought I'd pop in here and say that my White Crow WIP is going good. I've got 10k+ words so far and the entire story line pretty much figured out. Now the challenge is finding the time to write. I can usually get a solid hour in while my son is taking his mid morning nap, but that's about it.

And I can do about 1200 words/hour. My word count goal for this project is 70,000 words. So, if you do the math, I have 60,000+ words to go, and if I can do at least 1200 words/day then that means I should have this finished in about 50 days or so. And 50 days from now is *goes off to count little boxes on her calender* May 26. ...Wow, I have never put an actual date on when I will finish a book like this. It's kind of intimidating and exciting all at the same time.

Well, I guess I'll say it, I will have the first draft of this book finished by May 26! It's in writing now, I guess I have to do it.

My Muse Rocks!

So now that I'm a stay-at-home-mom I have lots more time to write. Yay! But, my first week home, I didn't do any writing. Mostly because I was being super lazy, but also because I had no idea what to write about. It's been seriously long.

So yesterday I asked my husband, Daniel, what I should write about. And he quickly responded, "I want a short story about White Crow". Now, White Crow is a character that I've had since I was 13 and I've been struggling with her since then. There was a major plot hole in her back story. It was like a black hole in my mind, so that when ever my mind went in that direction it got sucked away into oblivion. But Daniel managed to come up with an ingenious idea that made all those problems go away.

Thus, Daniel is my new muse, sorry Pip. :(