Tired but Accomplished

Yesterday I wrote just over 9K and I "put a finish on it." The novel is done.

I said I was going to finish the first rough draft of it before the 28th or the end of this month at least. Well, I did just what I set out to do, even though I struggled through a few days of absolute silence as the story fell away from me and refused to come back, but when it did, it was with a rejuvenated determination to see it through to the end.

I went to bed last night talking my hubby's ear off. I couldn't stop talking. Not just about the story and my characters, but just anything and everything that came to mind. The cricket I had to rescue from inside the washing machine- Don't know HOW he got in there...the silly things our daughter had said the other day, etc. I was awash in the rush of finishing another first draft manuscript.

Of course, after I finally shut up, my mind kept racing through the story, trying to make sure that I hadn't forgotten something I should have put in it. This morning I'm doing laundry and have to pack a suitcase each for me and my daughter before hubby takes us up to my parents tomorrow for a week. I have to get the dishes washed up and figure out what I'm going to do about the menu for next week when I'm not going to be here as well as possibly making the following week's menu, too, so I don't have to worry about it before I get back home.

My body and mind are still buzzing from the accomplishment. My next goal is to write the 4th and most likely final installment to the series about the sisters. After that one, I'm not sure what I'll work on next. So far this year I've finished 3. My plan was to write at least 4 this year, but if I start working on the last one in this series after I get back from my visit with my family and friends in my hometown, I will still have the next 6 months of this year to work on more, including one I will write during my 3rd NaNoWriMo.

Depending on what I decide to write, I may attempt a few more, or I may start polishing the four book series so I can ship it out in hopes of finding it a home. We'll see.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and I'll try to post while I'm up for my visit. Have a great weekend and if I don't post before then- Happy 4th of July!

So Much For Not Procrastinating...

For a week I dawdled some more...I know I know...I said I was done with dawdling and procrastinating...and then I let it rule over my thoughts and I shut down my desire to write.

I hit 21K and stalled out...And then this week got off to an okay start. I wrote 1,639 words on Monday...followed by a very poor word count on Tuesday (barely over 400). Yesterday was my saving grace. I wrote 4,891 words! I went to bed thinking about the story, playing out scenes in my head and thinking about what will happen next. That makes it hard to go to sleep, but filled me with a wonderful sense of accomplishment and the desire to keep pushing forward.

After allowing myself a week of procrastination...having no desire to write...I realized that in order to finish this book by the end of the month I was going to have to buckle down...I figured it up and realized that I need to write AT LEAST 4K a day or better to accomplish the goal I've set before me.

Last night I pushed through and got a lot written. The good, the bad and the ugly of it. The story does seem to be coming to life more in my mind's eye, so, THAT MUCH I have going for me. I can see the setting- the cabin near the lake, the high open beamed ceilings, the large living room and kitchen area, the bedrooms, the layout of the house. I can see the snow falling outside, and the lake from the kitchen windows where a private stretch of beach rolls out to meet the water. I can see the tall pines, the blanket of snow...The wilderness and the white capped mountains in the distance. I'd LOVE to go to this place...the feeling of serenity and peace.....even though its all in my head..Well, Lake Tahoe exists, as does Zephyr Cove, NV, but the actually cabin/chalet/chateau/lodge, or what-have-you, is all up here (points to temple) in the good old noggin.

My characters are coming to life and struggling with their apparent attraction though they shouldn't really act on it. They're snowed in together, the only two people there, getting to know each other with all the time in the world on their hands, and yet they have to fight their growing desires for one another. Tension builds as the game of cat and mouse plays out. They're destined....it just seems an unlikelihood at the moment...considering he's the physical therapist and she's the patient. It'll all come out in the wash though....It has to...it's meant to be.

And it's meant to be that I need to get my rear in gear and start writing some more today. Laterz!

The RITA Awards 2008 Special Report

Amazing What a Little Determination Can Do..

A few days ago I would never have guessed how much writing I'd have done by now. On June 1st I decided that dawdling and procrastinating would no longer work for me. I had written 5,640 words on my current WIP. That was over the previous month or so...Not a great start to getting this novel written.

I don't know if I was burnt out or had writer's block or if I just lost my desire to write for a while. But June 1st rolled around and that was enough for me. Since then, I've written everyday. Yesterday was a fine day..and wrote 5,801 words. My new total is just over 20K. Makes me feel good...renewed, redefined as a writer.

The hardest thing for me as a writer is to find that life itself overpowers my desire to write sometimes. Things get too busy or emotionally I find myself in a place that doesn't inspire writing. Now's the time for me to find a way to balance life and writing. A new lesson to learn, a new path to take to make it work for me and not against me.

Have a great weekend!

Hit a Milestone

I crossed over the 10K mark yesterday and ended up writing just over 3K, even though the day seemed to drag out and I rather doubted I'd get much written at all.

I heard of a death of someone I knew, my old landlord from when I lived on my own a little over a decade ago, and I heard about a friend who's had a breakdown and has been hospitalized. I had been thinking and worrying about this friend for several months now...just that gut instinct, my extra sensory perception, kicking in. I KNEW it, I FELT it, but I only now found out.

So needless to say, yesterday started off on pretty sad footing and it followed me the rest of the day. I hadn't hoped to even write as much as I did yesterday, but there it was. I didn't really want to stop writing when I did last night, but I knew bedtime was rolling around.

I know it's summer vacation now, so its not like I have to get up and make sure everyone's ready to get going, but I'm so used to going to bed with hubby that I just don't want to change the routine. I would stay up later, but hubby wouldn't know what to make of me staying up at odd hours to write. I've never done that before, even though there are times I just can't sleep that it's crossed my mind.

I can write during the day, even with all the noise around me. I just plop on my headphones and go to town, but writing in the peace and quiet would be nice, too. I'm contemplating staying up a couple of extra hours, or until my eyes can't stay open any longer and my wrists tell me to stop.

Who knows...old habits are hard to break, so I may just stick with what I'm doing now.

Well, I'm off. Going to write some and then doing my exercise and see what else happens today.

Less than 2k from 10k

Well, here's hoping that my determination will see me through writing this current WIP. Yesterday I wrote just a little over 2K and it put me just under 2K away from hitting the first milestone- 10K. Yay!

The writing is probably crap, but I decided to try to push down my internal editor and just get this one pumped out and get it finished. It's taken long enough to get into it and if I'm going to get it done, at least the first rough draft, I have to ignore what's awful and just get into the flow again.

I feel good though. I've actually WRITTEN more! LOL I feel like I'm getting back to "me," especially since I haven't really felt like me for a while now. Not since I ran out of writing fuel. I'm filling back up though and rearing to go.

Have a great day, writing or otherwise!

Setting Goals and Accomplishing Them

My blog today is inspired by Maggie Shayne of the Witchy Chicks.

http://witchychicks.blogspot.com/

Her blog about goal setting yesterday reminded me that I can do all the talking I want in regard to writing my novel, but if I don't believe I'm going to finish it soon, I won't. It gets me no where to talk about it if I'm resisting or procrastinating on it.

I need to dream, believe and WRITE, not just hope its going to happen. It won't happen if I don't actually do something about it and believe with all my heart that I will and HAVE accomplished it. Like she said, you have to pre-celebrate your inevitable triumph. So that's what I'm going to do, in regard to my writing, and all other aspects of my life.

I decided this yesterday after I read her blog. And I ended up writing 600 words on my WIP last night. That might not seem like a lot, but it is considering I haven't been continuously invested in my new novel for a while now.

So here's what my goals are for the beginning of summer-

I'm going to continue doing my Gazelle exercise, as I have been doing since April because it energizes me, makes me feel better and I'm seeing small, but significant changes in my body and health.

I'm going to buckle down and stop procrastinating on my next WIP. I've taken a month or so off from really writing after I finished my 6th and yes, the break has been nice, but I don't feel like "me" when I'm not writing.

Spend time cleaning house and decluttering, but more importantly, spending time with my kids and hubby now that summer vacation has started.

My thanks goes to Maggie and her blog. It was short and sweet, but to the point and it gave me a swift little kick to remind me that you have to set goals and believe in them in order to accomplish the things you desire and set out to do. I've been floating along in limbo for a bit too long and I don't like it.

I've also decided that my main goal, in regard to writing, is to have the rough draft of this novel finished by June 28th,(or the end of June at the latest) just in time for me to take a break and enjoy myself the week I'll be up visiting in my hometown.

Do you have any goals you'd like to share? Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what your goals for this first month of summer are.