Libraries are wonderful things!

I have just re-discovered the wonder that is the public library. All those books ... and they're all FREE!!! Seriously, it's pretty amazing that libraries have all those books and they let people borrow them for free. Anyway, I came home with a pile of books to read. That's the trouble with the library - amazing as it is - with all those books for free it's hard to know when to say when. I have a good mixture of chick lit, young adult, mystery and political thriller. Here's hoping at least one or two of them is readable.

I've been working on Two Seasons in London off and on during my lunch hour. It's very slow going, but I want to at least get all the chapters changed over to first person and then I'll publish the first draft on lulu.com.

Comments
kira_may: hiya babe - i love libraries too, esepcially if you can find a nice quiet spot in the stacks somewhere where there aren't any weird people. i'm glad you're writing - does this mean you're feeling better?
me: Columbia's library is truly amazing. It's big and spacious and doesn't look at all like a library. I'm looking forward to going back when I have more time to spend.

ang: I checked out Helen Felding's (Bridget Jones - did I get the author's name right?) first book and couldn't read three pages of it. So, I returned it and didn't feel at all guilty about not reading it or about returning it! Yay, libraries! Came home with two books from Mom, read one and started another, but my library books were due, so I had to take them back. So, now I have Evanovich's Eight, Nine, and Ten, as well as four other books that were recommended by people who liked The Thirteenth Tale. I'll let you know if they are any good. I still miss Borders, though...
me: Keith sent me a B&N gift card for my birthday. Is it cheating to use a gift card to get a new book if I haven't finished reading all the books I currently own?
ang: Never! Not even if you use your own money! :)

jennifer: I just read this post...got to the title of your story and went "Holy SHIT! Somebody stole the title of Judy's BOOK!" And then realized that this is, in fact, your writing journal. ;) *breathes a sigh of relief*

Originally posted in writing_is_fun on LJ

book titles

I've already thought of a title for next year's Nano novel: My October Obsession.

Just in case I decide I want to write about my (what seems to be) yearly October obsession ...

Originally posted in writing_is_fun on LJ

What now? I know - revise, revise, revise!

So now that I'm a winner and I'm not frantically writing every night, I find myself at a loss as to what to do. Two years ago when I won just the thought of trying to write anything ever again was enough to exhaust me, but that's not the case this year.

So I think I'm going to continue revising my 2005 novel Two Seasons in London. I started revising it in August or September, but I didn't get very far because there's SO much revision to be done. But after I'm done revising I might go ahead and actually print a copy of the book - in real book form - from Lulu. Ang told me that she ordered a copy of her 2005 novel last week and how cool would it be to say to someone: "And here's a copy of my novel" and have it be an actual book?! Of course Two Seasons... needs a LOT of work before I even think about being ready to visit Lulu, not the least of which is fixing my change from first person to third person in the middle of the story.

Comments:
ang: I've already resubmitted and ordered a second edition from Lulu, so I have some basic formatting suggestions before you send it to them - dumb stuff, like leave two blank pages at the beginning and the end to create the illusion of end sheets. :) Can't wait to order the revised and published version of "Two Seasons..."!

Originally posted in writing_is_fun on LJ

I'm a winner!

Though I don't feel much like one.

So I did it. It is by no means a complete story - in fact, I'd be hard pressed to call it a story at all. There are characters, true, but that's about all it has going for it and that's not much. I hate absolutely everything about it and will never let anyone read it. I'm not even sure that I want to be able to read it ever again. In fact, I just might decide to delete the legible copy and keep only the scrambled one. Next year is going to be better!

But at least I did it. And I get to put in my new earring, which after all, was the whole point this year. :)

Originally posted in writing_is_fun on LJ

It's there on the horizon

My plan for the weekend since I wasn't going to be driving to Indiana was to finish by tonight. I hadn't quite reached 30,000 on Tuesday when I decided this, but after spending Wednesday afternoon at the coffee shop writing I hit the 30,000 mark. So of course I thought to myself that writing 5000 words/day over the four day weekend wasn't an impossible goal.

But then I didn't write much of anything on Thursday; I didn't write anything at all on Friday and suddenly I was faced with writing 20,000 words in just two days. Still, that task didn't seem impossible either. I would just take it in stages: write 5,000 words, take a break, write another 5,000 words, take another break, etc. Except, of course, that that didn't happen quite the way it was supposed to. My muse seemed to hit me just an hour or so before I was going to leave to go to Jeff City and watch the Mizzou/Kansas football game at Jennifer's. So I stayed home and watched the game by myself.

I have now managed to write just over 11,000 words in two days. I didn't meet my 10,000 word goal yesterday and have been playing catch-up all day today. Of course I know that I don't have to finish by the end of today - I still have the rest of this week. But I want to wear my new earring dammit! It's been sitting on the floor in the Kay Jewelers bag since Ang and I came home with them two weeks ago. I haven't looked at it since then. Tina suggested that maybe I should take it out and look at it for inspiration. Yesterday I took it out of the Kay Jewelers bag and opened the box up. I touched it, admired it and watched how it sparkled in the light. And then I put it away again.

And so, despite the seemingly insurmountable task of writing another 9,000 words tonight I am going to press on. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel however fuzzy it may be and I am determined to reach it or fall asleep trying.

Originally posted in writing_is_fun on LJ

Tennis elbow sucks!

Just thought I'd mention that. Because it really does. Marathon writing sessions are all well and good except that a few days after they end the gremlins take up residence in my elbow again and start stabbing me with hot pokers. Which is not as much fun as it might sound.

Anywho ... I took a few days off from writing and while my elbow doesn't feel much better, my focus is much improved. I sat down at lunch today and wrote 1000+ words in about 40 minutes, and some of that time was spent eating my lunch so it was actually less than 40 minutes. The words just seemed to flow and if I hadn't had to stop to go back to work I'd probably be done by now. Yeah, right.

Came home tonight and wrote another 1000+ words, although not in 40 minutes or less. (Strange how I seem to write so much faster and better when I'm not at home. Ok, so maybe not so strange.)

Ang and I already bought our congratulatory "You wrote 50,000 words in 30 days!" diamond solitaire earrings so I have to finish. Ang is practically done already (I hate her for that, btw) and here I am slacking at only ~27k. Bad me.

I'm sticking around Columbia for Thanksgiving this year due to a whole number of factors which I won't get into here. We get out of work early on Wednesday and I'm going to park myself at the coffee shop for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening ... until I get hungry, that is. And there will be plenty more opportunity for me to write during the 4 day weekend. I'd like to be done by the end of the weekend. Think I can manage it? I'm at 27,551 so there's only 22,449 more words to go in 4 days. We'll see if my muse (and my elbow) cooperate.

For now though, I think I'll call it a night with what I have. I'm getting distracted very easily and I think it might be time for some more ibuprofin and ice.

Comments:
kira_may: yay! go jude!!!! you'll get there yet. *hands you ice cream with the ice and ibuprofin* need anything massaged?

ang: J. asked me the other day if it was really possible to turn off one's inner editor. Well, my grammar/spelling editor is ALWAYS on (I think I corrected someone's grammar in a dream the other night), but the 'this novel sucks' editor, the 'you're creating another giant plot chasm' editor, the 'your dialogue is trite and stupid' editor, the 'there's too much narration and not enough action' editor, and the 'no one cares about the inner thoughts of your characters' editor - yeah, I cancelled my subscriptions to those editors this month.

Good luck, Judeldoo! You and your tennis elbow can do this! :)

Originally posted in writing_is_fun on LJ

Just over half-way!!

I went to It's A Grind right after work tonight because I knew it would be easier to write here than at home. I wanted to get to at least 25,000 today (which is actually tomorrow's word count goal) and I did it.

I still have no plot. I still don't really like my characters. But I've managed to write just over 25,000 words about them. I'm getting to the point where I need some good inspiration to strike because trying to pull another 25,000 words out about these characters with no storyline is going to be really difficult.

I've been good and have been wearing my elbow brace whether I'm writing or not, but my tennis elbow is acting up anyway. So since my elbow really hurts tonight I'm going to quit earlier than I'd planned and go home, take some ibuprofin and put some ice on it.

Comments
ang: Congrats on the 25k! :) It's good to be caught up. Keep it up!
You don't need a plot... just keep making your characters do stuff. When you get stuck, add a new character. I hear there are plenty o' good specimens at It's a Grind. Then you can pretend that they're all going to come together in the big grand finale scene.

Originally posted in writing_is_fun on LJ