Yesterday, I was able to write 2000 words of my NaNo novel. My characters had two near death moments in one chapter. They are young adults and really need to be more careful if they're going to make it to the end of the story.
I have more shenanigans planned for my characters in the chapters I'm going to write today. I just passed 12,000 words. My goal for the day is 3000 more words, although I hope I can do 5K.
I have the whole story planned out in my mind, but have details jotted down for the next fifteen chapters. That's definitely more than 15K words. It would be super if I could power through these fifteen chapters in the next three days and fifteen more next weekend. Who needs Christmas shopping when you have a novel to write?
I also have about eight loads of laundry to do today and even more folded laundry to put away. I am very disciplined on laundry day and always manage to get all of it done if I set my mind to it. Today, my plan is to write a chapter, switch the laundry, write a chapter, switch the laundry. I know my back won't cooperate with me sitting for that many hours, even with a break between chapters, so it may be more like: Load washer, write, stretch, repeat.
It is supposed to rain today and looks very gloomy out the window near my desk. It's a good day to write.
Showing posts with label perseverence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label perseverence. Show all posts
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Inspiration in the Shower
This morning, I have a lot of work to do - writing work, critique work for someone else who is coming over this evening so we can share. And my house is a mess - a mess to the point that it is very distracting. I could take pictures so those of you without kids could have a shocking 'Holy Crap' moment and double up on the birth control. Those of you with kids know it's a fact that toys have a way of spreading out to fill whatever space is available, kind of like a flash flood that never recedes.
I need to get busy finishing up the end of my novel, the part that should be the easiest to finish. But the thing where it's almost done makes it very difficult to physically put my hands on it.
So instead of doing what I planned to do this morning with the only three hours I have to myself this week, I took a shower, a long shower. A shower of procrastination.
Just as I thought about giving up on this writing gig (temporarily at least - just a break, I told myself), the details for a new story I've been thinking about worked itself out in my mind while a 5 minute deep conditioner sat on my head. It's a freaky sci-fi medical horror kind of story with a little romance - a YA story, because that's what you want your teens to read, right?
I can see the characters. The opening scene rolled in my mind like a YouTube video. The resolution (very sad but wonderful), the connection between the first and last chapter, and the details (mostly) of the medical horror aspect as well as the social-political conflict all came to me like I had been working on it in a background process in my mind for months. Very cool.
Now I feel motivated to finish my last chapters (only eight left) of the novel I'm currently editing, so I can write this one maybe next month. It's good to have too many options for NaNoWriMo - and for future work even without that. Very good.
Thank you, Shower Muse.
I need to get busy finishing up the end of my novel, the part that should be the easiest to finish. But the thing where it's almost done makes it very difficult to physically put my hands on it.
So instead of doing what I planned to do this morning with the only three hours I have to myself this week, I took a shower, a long shower. A shower of procrastination.
Just as I thought about giving up on this writing gig (temporarily at least - just a break, I told myself), the details for a new story I've been thinking about worked itself out in my mind while a 5 minute deep conditioner sat on my head. It's a freaky sci-fi medical horror kind of story with a little romance - a YA story, because that's what you want your teens to read, right?
I can see the characters. The opening scene rolled in my mind like a YouTube video. The resolution (very sad but wonderful), the connection between the first and last chapter, and the details (mostly) of the medical horror aspect as well as the social-political conflict all came to me like I had been working on it in a background process in my mind for months. Very cool.
Now I feel motivated to finish my last chapters (only eight left) of the novel I'm currently editing, so I can write this one maybe next month. It's good to have too many options for NaNoWriMo - and for future work even without that. Very good.
Thank you, Shower Muse.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Writing Takes Perseverence
I got a critique yesterday for one of the beta copies of the first third of my first novel. I'm thinking now that maybe I should have given people the whole thing to read instead of only the first third, but the pressure to get the middle section done while the first part was fresh in their minds was enough for me to get it done.
The review was positive but wasn't stellar. I think she would have liked it more if she had the middle section, if she could see where I was going with it. I hope so, but the novel is what it is.
Forgive me while I nerd out for a second, but this morning I was thinking about this one review and about the many software applications I developed in the past over the span of ten years - more than 30 not including the revisions. The first application I wrote was classic ASP, which means the programming language was embedded in the web page - it's as simple as it gets. I had a degree in English and didn't know what the hell I was doing, so I used a co-worker's pages for a different application as an example. The experienced programmers watched from afar, wondering if I was going to be able to pull it off or not. I wrote one page at a time, one button at a time, until it worked. It was ugly; it was unoriginal; and it worked. Success.
The next application I wrote was more complex. I learned every HTML tag, came to understand the underbelly of how these things should work, and I wrote an application that deviated much more from the model I was given. I was my own - and it had 1000 web pages combined together to make it work. Ten years later, probably now even, five years after I resigned, that application was still in use - used every day by thousands of employees. Shortly after I wrote it, I realized 1000 web pages makes for a very badly designed application. Super bad. But it worked. It worked well. It was done and was functional, so I moved on. Live and learn.
Within just a few years, I was designing and developing applications that were much more complex and was mentoring other programmers. The applications were component based - written in pieces that were interconnected. I could write the stuff in my sleep and could come up with a design - even for the underlying database - while in meetings with end users and map the thing out for them like I had been thinking about it for weeks.
To tie this back to the first review I got for my first novel, this novel is a huge success even if everyone doesn't absolutely get it. It is a huge success, even if I don't find a publisher, even if all of my readers aren't thrilled with it. I love my story and am very proud. I understand there's room for improvement. But this one is basically done. Besides small revisions, this is it. I will make small changes when all the critiques are in, will finalize it, and move on to the next project.
I have a stack of outlines, beginning chapters, and ideas at my elbow - literally a project pile six inches high. If I persevere, learn from the one before, and continue to write with the same determination I applied to software development, I will write multiple novels over the next ten years. Everyone may not absolutely love them, but I will.
My financial guy got very excited a couple of months ago when I told him I'm writing novels. He said, "All you need to write is one Hunger Games!" That would be some very good commission for him if that happens, but I expect my success to be smaller than that. Eventually I may write one that's very successful, but that's not the point right now. The point is to write one, then another one that's a little better, and on and on until I can do this in my sleep.
I thought today was going to be a much better day than yesterday...but my little guy just puked in his bed. So I'm back to super bad.
The review was positive but wasn't stellar. I think she would have liked it more if she had the middle section, if she could see where I was going with it. I hope so, but the novel is what it is.
Forgive me while I nerd out for a second, but this morning I was thinking about this one review and about the many software applications I developed in the past over the span of ten years - more than 30 not including the revisions. The first application I wrote was classic ASP, which means the programming language was embedded in the web page - it's as simple as it gets. I had a degree in English and didn't know what the hell I was doing, so I used a co-worker's pages for a different application as an example. The experienced programmers watched from afar, wondering if I was going to be able to pull it off or not. I wrote one page at a time, one button at a time, until it worked. It was ugly; it was unoriginal; and it worked. Success.
The next application I wrote was more complex. I learned every HTML tag, came to understand the underbelly of how these things should work, and I wrote an application that deviated much more from the model I was given. I was my own - and it had 1000 web pages combined together to make it work. Ten years later, probably now even, five years after I resigned, that application was still in use - used every day by thousands of employees. Shortly after I wrote it, I realized 1000 web pages makes for a very badly designed application. Super bad. But it worked. It worked well. It was done and was functional, so I moved on. Live and learn.
Within just a few years, I was designing and developing applications that were much more complex and was mentoring other programmers. The applications were component based - written in pieces that were interconnected. I could write the stuff in my sleep and could come up with a design - even for the underlying database - while in meetings with end users and map the thing out for them like I had been thinking about it for weeks.
To tie this back to the first review I got for my first novel, this novel is a huge success even if everyone doesn't absolutely get it. It is a huge success, even if I don't find a publisher, even if all of my readers aren't thrilled with it. I love my story and am very proud. I understand there's room for improvement. But this one is basically done. Besides small revisions, this is it. I will make small changes when all the critiques are in, will finalize it, and move on to the next project.
I have a stack of outlines, beginning chapters, and ideas at my elbow - literally a project pile six inches high. If I persevere, learn from the one before, and continue to write with the same determination I applied to software development, I will write multiple novels over the next ten years. Everyone may not absolutely love them, but I will.
My financial guy got very excited a couple of months ago when I told him I'm writing novels. He said, "All you need to write is one Hunger Games!" That would be some very good commission for him if that happens, but I expect my success to be smaller than that. Eventually I may write one that's very successful, but that's not the point right now. The point is to write one, then another one that's a little better, and on and on until I can do this in my sleep.
I thought today was going to be a much better day than yesterday...but my little guy just puked in his bed. So I'm back to super bad.
Monday, April 18, 2011
O is for One Percent
A wonderful blog I happened upon that any aspiring writers should check out is Kid In the Front Row.
Kid gives the best, most well-written advice on sticking with it. In one of his posts, maybe a few, he has convinced me to write for the one percent - the people who will get what I have to say - without worrying one second about the other 99%.
Kid perseveres in his convincing argument that we as writers should persevere and understand we are on a long journey.
I am his one percent.
I hope you are mine.
Kid gives the best, most well-written advice on sticking with it. In one of his posts, maybe a few, he has convinced me to write for the one percent - the people who will get what I have to say - without worrying one second about the other 99%.
Kid perseveres in his convincing argument that we as writers should persevere and understand we are on a long journey.
I am his one percent.
I hope you are mine.
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