Day 19 of 93

Well, I've got to tell you, that today is the first day that I can say I've really done work that I'm halfway pleased with. Over the last week there were days I didn't write, and days I haven't even read.

I do believe however, that I've managed to perfect the art of procrastination. Which is not something I'm terribly proud of at all. In fact, I told my husband to please send me to the kitchen table and to rap my knuckles with one of our old wooden rulers if I even thought of leaving the chair except to go to the bathroom. He, of course in true man style, proceeded to roll his eyes, grab a coke from the fridge and then very promptly deposited his backside on the couch. He then had the audacity to look at me and say "Football's on." How dare he! Right? Here I am having a writing crisis or was rather, and that is the response I get? why I expected a different response from the one I got baffles even me.

Anyway, I've handwritten seven and a half pages of good stuff I think. We'll see what I think tomorrow if I'm brave enough to look at it.

In other news we had a loverly Halloween with the children, not all mine, dressing up as a Vampire, Christine from Phantom of the Opera, and a Cowgirl. Guess whose child was the cow girl? Yep, mine. She looked wonderful though. I knew buying all that horse stuff, aside from actually needing it for the horse, would come in handy some day.

Watched Moonlight tonight, which I like a lot and wasn't real sure that I would. That series is still really growing on me. I can't wait to see what they do with New Amsterdam. I'm really anxious to see that one too.

After Moonlight, I started channel surfing and found that Notting Hill was on. Can I just say that I think that maybe Notting Hill might be in my top ten best movies of all time? Sure I can say that because it is truth. I love that movie. I love the funny lines in the movie. I love Spike even because he is so ugly that he's cute and I love the chemistry between Julia and Hugh.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from "Notting Hill"
[That I of course love]
...................................................................
Bella: Which way are you going?
Max: Down Kensington Church Street, then Knightsbridge, then Hyde Park Corner.
Bella: No, crazy, crazy. Go along Bayswater.
Honey: That's right. Then Park Lane.
Bernie: No, straight down to the Cromwell Road, then left.
Max: [they continue arguing about the best routes to the Ritz, Max finally has enough and screeches to a halt] Stop right there! I will decide the route. All right?
William: Sorry Max.
Honey: Sorry Max.
Max: James Bond never has to put up with this sort of shit.
...................................................................
Bernie: But she said she wanted to go out with you?
William: Yes - sort of...
Bernie: That's nice.
William: What?
Bernie: Well, you know, anybody saying they want to go out with you is... pretty great... isn't it...?
William: It was sort of sweet actually - I mean, I know she's an actress and all that, so she can deliver a line - but she said that she might be as famous as can be - but also... that she was just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.
[pause]
William: Oh, sod a dog. I've made the wrong decision, haven't I?
.................................................................
Honey: Oh God, this is one of those key moments in life, when it's possible you can be really, genuinely cool - and I'm failing 100%. I absolutely and totally and utterly adore you and I think you're the most beautiful woman in the world and more importantly I genuinely believe and have believed for some time now that we can be best friends. What do YOU think?
................................................................
Max: Let's face facts, this was always a no-win situation. Anna's a goddess, you know what happens to mortals who get involved with gods.
William: Buggered, is it?
Max: Every time.
................................................................

Well, I won't bore you with more quotes. So I'm off to continue working on my book while the house is quiet and the dogs are asleep. It's quite chilly here in my part of the hundred acre wood. Hope you all are well, stay safe and warm!

Day 10 and 11 of writing The Novel

The last two days have been good ones and I've gotten a lot of writing done. It's been raining which is great for us here in the Southeastern U.S. Heavens only knows we need it. I woke up this morning and ta da...the grass actually had a tinge of green to it.

Let's see a run down of all that's been going on?
I pulled a muscle in my neck that hurts like the devil. I made baby cupcakes with my daughter today. If you bake mini-cupcakes in tart pans, do you know how many little cupcakes you'll end up with? About a million. But that's okay cause I didn't have to ice them. (grin) She did. And I think she ate about half of them too.

My internet has been in and out. My email is kaput. So if you need me, hit me on my yahoo mail address until RR can figure out what's wrong. (personally, I think they did something to my account or something) Duh!

I've screwed up my word count for the novel and I've got to get that straight cause I ended up writing a couple of scenes that are not in my original plot but that were necessary for me to write and I'm toying with actually using them. I don't know but it would be cool foreshadowing. But I haven't added them to the total word count because I'm going to write this novel as I originally wrote the plot and I'll make notes as I go along because I don't want to get too far off the path because then before I know it I might end up in Charksdale, Mississippi and wonder how I got there. (Sorry Janie, I just had to do that) But anyway. I wrote about a thousand words tonight and got through with chapter two.

Still fighting a bit with personality. Okay, I'm fighting a lot with personality but whether I get 500 words a day or 1000 or 4000 a day. I'm making a concerted effort to put my butt in the chair and write. This is very important to me. I've got to do this if I want to move forward.

The funny thing is nobody in my family except my daughter knows I'm writing. I just am.

Day Nine

I ended up at 4725 total words so far for Day Nine. I'm not sure how many I did because I edited a bunch of them. My internet is going up and down and I'm not sure if that's because of the rain or not. I do know that I have a horrible crick in my neck. (ouch!)

Will be updating hopefully tonight if the internet can manage to remain functioning until later this evening.

Took three advil for the neck and used a heating pad. Hopefully that will help. Pretty painful sitting here at the computer.

Day 7 and Day 8

Day 7 (Sunday) started with a bang. I knew I wouldn't get any writing done in the morning because I had to be over at a different barn by 7:30 in the morning which is a huge stretch for me. I hope my daughter appreciated that it was such a big stretch. The things we do for our children. But she wanted to go to the horse show and take her horse.

It was a big day of firsts. The first for my husband and daughter and I to go to a show on our own, the first time I'd worked the registration desk for a horse show, and the first time our darling horse Thunder had been to a show without a barn mate. [horses are very social creatures and really don't like going new places by themselves. Change=maybe getting eaten for them] So he did really good the first five and half hours we were there waiting for the Western classes to start but after that sixth hour he was pretty much done. I can't say I blame him. I was pretty much done myself. So we ended up loading up and coming home [because he was getting antsy-and we were all hot and tired anyway]

So by the time I got home, I checked emails and posted on Janie's blog and then I went upstairs and passed out cold to wake up this morning after having twelve hours of sleep and having done no writing. {Bad girl! Bad, bad girl}

Day 8: Monday
Today I've done much better. I ended up writing close to 2,000 words! Yippee. I don't think they are wonderful words but at this point I'm not complaining. I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing. I've really struggled with my writing since I quit smoking last year. I used to sit at the computer and write and write but then I quit smoking and it seemed like my ability to write a cohesive paragraph seemed to disappear with it. [not that any of my blog posts ever make any sense or are cohesive]

But today I ended with 1982 words of new text and a great starting place for tomorrow. This makes me a very happy camper even if I am distracted by beautiful people. So onward and upward Sven...kick my tail and make me write!

Day 6

Well, what can I say? It's the truth. I didn't write one word. Will definitely be doing more tomorrow. Also going to make a serious plan for next week. I've got a lot of work to make up for.

Day 4 & 5 of 70/93

Chapter One is finished and I'll be updating the word meter accordingly. I'll probably update the word meter on Fridays unless I hit a really bit writing day. I'm feeling better about the story and with change I've made with it really being "T'S" book everything seems to be flowing. Now I've just got to get butt in chair and work and type and finish the damn thing.

I took a moment today to visit Robert Jordon's blog. I've known of him, but I've never read any of his books. I know, you can go ahead and fall out of your chairs now, but what really struck me is that I never knew he was from my home town of Charleston, SC. In one of the blog posts from the funeral I remember reading someone talking about how lovely his home was and they posted some pictures. There was a cobblestone gate with lovely flowers. The reference was that it didn't surprise the writer of that post that Mr. Jordon would have been able to create his characters in such a beautiful setting. That statement struck a chord with me because Charleston is breathtaking and so steeped in history, granted it's not European old but if you're from Charleston we keep are history close to us. Very close. At any rate, it was very touching to read. I was so sorry to hear that he had passed away.

I'm still writing tonight but as of this point I'm at a total of 2943 words. I'll come back later tonight and update more.

Currently reading: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman specifically "Instructions"
Currently Listening to: Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy

Mood: work minded
*grin*

Day 3 of 70/93

Hrmph. Well, I didn't do as well today. I've really got to get my butt in gear.
Total for the three days is 2692 for three days which means I haven't quite hit my 1000 words per day. But in my defense I have changed a bunch of stuff and I've had to re-outline things. (More like switch pov's) Doesn't matter, I'm going to make up my words by Friday! Darnit! I'm going to do this because I can. Now, I've just got to get rid of this blooming headache!

Day 4 will be much better!!!!!

Day Two of Sweating with Sven

I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted to, because I ended up cutting a good portion of a section because I ended up giving T a pov. At first, when I was plotting this book, I'd decided not to give him a pov thinking that it would make him more mysterious and interesting but that's not what happened when I started writing it. I think that it adds more tension for the reader to see what goes on in his mind, because he is one of those characters that I dearly love. Do love. And while I love M too well T is really the one who grows and has the biggest arc throughout this story. So I ended up with only about 656 words but I'm on the right track which is a good thing.

My MIL came over yesterday and brought me pretty linens for my daughters room and then of course we had to go over to the barn so they could see dd ride and that was a good time too. It's always good to see loved ones.

Oh, and I did my semi-annual mopping of the floors before they got here. That's a big one for me and last night we actually sat down to the table and had dinner. What a concept. Norally we're scattered all over the house because it's late when we get home.

Okay, I'm off to go write! Will check in for Day 3 of 93 tonight! Hope everyone has a great day of writing!

Oh, and I did get to talk to Janie and she read me a little bit of her new story. OMG! All I can say is that when I grow up I wanna be able to write like that. Janie is entirely too clever for me...*grin*

Day One of Sweating with Sven and I made my goal

Wow! I'm really proud of myself. I got up this morning later than I anticipated but still made my page count or word count. Not only that, but I made a list of things I needed to do today and even decided when I was going to do those things and it's worked. It's really worked. We finished school earlier than I thought we would since I really told my daughter that she was going to have to be focused since we are starting school at 10:00 a.m. from now on. Yes, she has a lot of independent study things she has to do, but these are things that do not require me to sit right there beside her. Well, except for science but we're going to do that down at the barn this afternoon when she goes to ride and clean up.

I just cannot believe how wonderful it feels to write and hit my goals first thing in the morning. Yippee! I'll probably revise this afternoon and this evening, but if I didn't, I still got my word count in.

Will update a bit more later!

Day One:
8:00 a.m. until 10:00 1356 words on Chapter one!

Counting down, the ants are back [buggars] and interesting tidbits

I feel a little like Pandora tonight. I have two full days and then I get to write. It's exciting, and nerve wracking. I have been plotting for two straight weeks and while I knew [in my head] what happened with a few exceptions in the middle I didn't realize how wonderful it is to 'hold' off the creative process. It's like poking a finger in a damn and the pressure is getting harder and harder to hold back. But come Monday I'll be writing. I can't wait.

Other items of note would be that: YES, THE FREAKING ANTS ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE CAT FOOD THAT IS NOT THE EUPHORIC NIRVANA FOOD OF THE GODS FOR ANTS??? CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME? BECAUSE, PLEASE, I'LL TAKE SOME HELP HERE. On an interesting note I did find out that windex will kill ants. *grin* And since the ants in my yard think Raid is some kind of pleasure drug I've had to change up on 'em. I'm also trying Ant Terro. We'll see how that works.

Didn't have to shovel horse poop today! And any day that I don't have to shovel out and clean stalls is a good day. I got to play and pet ze horses who are starting to get their winter coat. It was funny. We drove down the driveway of the barn and the horses were out to pasture which means we have to go out to get them but we saw Thunder look up at the sound of the truck and he stared as we slowly went by him. Then he immediately looked at Mr. Big, like mentally saying. "Oh, no. Here they come again. They are so going to make us go in and we just freaking got here." It was kinda funny if you think about it. The drought is killing us on hay. Most of our hay farmers have totally lost their last cut. Last person I talked to was paying over ten dollars a bail. Our last shipment we only paid about 2 something a bail. Yikes! That one is gonna hurt. Not to mention all of my plants have pretty much died. My mums are staying mumm. If things keep going the way they are, we could be in big ouchy trouble. Thinking seriously about doing a rain dance. Couldn't hurt.

Work Related Tasks:
Finished S's character sheet.
Have begun weaving romance into main adventure plot.
Wrote down notes for T
Have given serious thought to the triangle and how to best make that work to no, not the characters advantage but to mine as the writer.

This weekend is going to be full of work, work, work! But I'll be home pretty much all day tomorrow except in the morning!
Hope everyone has a great day!

2 Days and Counting...Almost ready

I'm trying to decide if I'm ready or not. I've got both lead and love interest character sheets done (which took up a better part of this week) and now I'm working on weaving their growing attraction for each into the book. This is a quest book, but a romantic quest. Must go here, accomplish this thing and be back or such and such will happen with less than desirable results if you fail all while falling in love.

This weekend I've got to get my study clean, the house and laundry caught up, really clean study and not just talk about it [I cannot find a blooming thing in here. I've got books piled on top of books and little itsy bits of paper floating around everywhere. It's extremely distracting]cook several meals ahead of time and put them in the freezer. Load up all the water bottles for morning and afternoon trips to the barn, and basically get ready to write.

Inahle and count to ten.

I'm ready.

Seventy days of sweat starts on Monday. I'll be finishing up my plot notes and things Saturday and Sunday in between doing everything else so that come bright and early Monday morning...we begin.

*grin*

I'm really excited. I've been doing a lot of exercises trying to make sure that I don't jump the gun and not letting myself day dream the story and other than a few online friends no one knows I'm doing this. It's kind of a well kept secret.

I'm going to finish this puppy. I've done the prep work, and soon it'll be time to write!