First Draft...Coming Right Up?

Well I finally finished editing Genevieve's zero draft which was nice. Now it's on to the first draft, which I realized is going to be way harder than the zero draft. I want to keep the great parts that I've already written and make greater parts, but that means two word docs open at the same time, which is easy at home, but not so much at work (where I wrote a lot of the zero draft). This means I'm really going to have to get my ass in gear and write more at home. Ultimately this is what I want anyway, but that's also easier said than done. I need to just think about how badly I would regret life if I never got to the end of the book. I need to finish at least one book that's worthy of submission. If I don't, I'll hate myself and I never want to do that again.

Knowing that I need to make some changes in my daily life where writing is concerned, I've been keeping a writing diary. Every day I notate what I did writing wise and what my daily distractions and feelings were. There are a lot of days that I did nothing in the month that I've been doing the writing diary and it sucks. A lot of those days seem to be that I was too sick or too tired to bother. But if writing was my day job, it wouldn't matter how tired or sick I was, I'd still have to write. I need to remember that. Although it's hard to do that when I've worked all day at my real day job and all I want to do is sleep or veg out when I get home. I have to find the balance.

Thankfully I have great friends who are encouraging me to do it. They are making me remember that I don't want to have any regrets. Maybe if I can get this writing thing under control I'll consider the other life changing prospect I've been thinking about...dating. A scary concept considering I don't do relationships (I haven't been in a real relationship in something like 13 years) and I'm not 100% sure I'm ready to stop being selfish and share my life with someone else. I guess we'll see. Until then it's writing, writing, writing!!! And a promise to blog more than once every 1-2 months. That's not cool.

And So It Begins...Again

Two months...two freaking months since I last blogged. How incredibly lame. What's even worse is that I have very little to show for those two months of silence. Up until this past Saturday (August 11th) I hadn't touched Genevieve. I have only written an extra 1,000 words on Caitlin and I still have no concrete plans for Grayson. I read 40 books over the last two months which is about average for me anyway. I worked out for about two weeks in there and then stopped right before my vacation (which ended yesterday). I absolutely hate that when I break everything down like this, I have nothing to show for the last two months of my life. Even factoring in hanging out with friends and family, there is still a lot of time that I probably spent sitting on my ass watching tv or spacing out or playing video games.

To make matters a little worse, school supplies are filling up the stores around here and it's making me sad. I actually really miss being in school. I miss the structure and the deadlines. I actually went online the other day to look at continuing education course options, but realized that since I can barely afford food sometimes, that paying to go to school when I'm still paying for my BA would be a dumb idea. So then I went online and looked at syllabi for different classes thinking that maybe if I created my own syllabus for each project I have (writing, reading and working out) then maybe I would actually get stuff done and become a productive person again. I'm seriously considering this, but I'm not sure how yet.

All I know is that I need to get back to how I was when I was in school three years ago. I juggled working full time, taking 2-3 classes a semester and still had a social life. Now I just need to do the same thing and I can't seem to figure out how. I better have it figured out by September 1st though because whether I like it or not things are going to change because they have to. Hopefully though I'll get it figured out soon and then I'll have a soft launch into this new life situation, which is always the best way to go I think.

Bits and Pieces: Sucktastic

Once again I've been pretty lame at remembering to blog. I don't have any really good excuses...not that any excuse is a good excuse. I haven't been particularly busy although I've been trying to keep myself buried in writing. While Genevieve's still titleless story is sitting waiting for me to read and edit the zero draft, I've been trying to figure out where I want to take Caitlin's story. I have 15,000 words written there, but I'm a little stuck and unsure of what I had already plotted out. While I'm stuck with that I've been researching ideas for Grayson's world. I'll definitely be going down the Greek myth road, just not sure how much or what else will be added.

Aside from writing, I've been wasting time playing Castleville. Procrastination and distractions worked wonders while I was in school, so I'm hoping it'll work now. What I really need to do is set up strict deadlines like I had in school. Even though I was up burning the midnight oil more than once I never turned in a paper late and I always got great grades on them.

Last, but definitely not least a friend of mine passed away yesterday and it's been hard to not think about him and start crying. I know that he wouldn't want me to sit around and be sad. Even when he was at his worst and the Leukemia and his cerebral palsy had him down, he was still the most positive and optimistic person I knew. He has inspired me to be a better person, so hopefully I will eventually make him proud whereever he is.

Back to Reality

At the end of every May I take a mental health break from my day job for at least a week. This year I planned on working a lot on Genevieve's story while also recovering from getting a tooth pulled and some other dental work done. But plans always seem to change. I finished Genevieve's zero draft the Friday before my vacation so that took her out of the equation. Thought maybe I'd work on one of my other projects, but then the dental work and subsequent Vicodin pain pills took a lot out of me so I spent a lot of my vacation sleeping or just lounging. I did, however, read 9 books while I was lounging and watched a lot of tv, more specifically a lot of Storage Wars...I can't seem to get enough of that weird show.

Now it's time to get back to reality. Day job comes first and then it's all about the little things. I have 9 book reviews to write, a workout routine to well..workout, I'm gonna let Genevieve sit another week and then it's on to her 1st draft. In the meantime I'll be trying to put stuff together for Grayson's story and maybe working a little on Caitlin's story. And of course on top of all of that I have a ton of books in my TBR pile and WoW characters that need a little playing. I guess it's a good thing that I'm so broke I have no money to do anything but hang out at home.

Now that I'm back, blog schedule will proceed as usual, although Tuesday and Thursday are swapping this week. Bits and Pieces today and book review on Thursday. Here's to getting things rolling.

Bits and Pieces: Big Things

Today I was on a roll, a 3,000 word roll that is. It was by far my best day of writing since I started Genevieve's story both quantity and quality wise. I am finally at the end of the zero draft and now I can print it out and start tearing the draft apart. I have been dying to get to this point and I couldn't have reached it at a better time. Next week I am on vacation from the day job. Although I'll probably be laid up for a couple of days after getting a tooth pulled at the dentist on Monday, I should be able to get a lot of work done as long as I can focus and stay excited like I was today, which I'm sure won't be a problem.

In other news, I'm 79 books into my 200 book reading goal for 2012. Having my Kindle Fire has definitely allowed me to read a lot more and I'm loving it. I've read a bunch of great books (and some not so great) and I hope that someday my book will be on someone's Kindle (someone other than my friend Lauren who actually has Genevieve's zero draft on her Kindle Fire now).

With that I'm off...142 double spaced pages need to be printed out and then I'm gonna relax with some NCIS and the end of the OKC/Lakers game (the Lakers are going down hard).

A Week of Utter Failures

After counting up all of my failures from last week, I'm not really sure I could have possibly failed more....well maybe if I had done nothing for my mom for her birthday and mother's day I would have failed epically. As it is I didn't do anything on my list of goals except for my Tuesday blog and the fun things like dinner with mom, seeing The Avengers for a second time and hanging out with my mom and family on Sunday. I didn't even clear much off of my DVR which is getting close to the 80% mark (most of that is episodes of Lost Girl, one of the best shows on television).

So because I failed and I super hate failure and there is nothing I can do but feel guilty for failing last week, I am going to try and use that guilt to motivate myself for this week. Next week is going to be a crap shoot on what I get done, none of which will be working out, since I'm getting some dental work done, including the pulling of a wisdom tooth. I want to get as much done this week as possible so I don't feel guilty drugging myself up and vegging out next week while my mouth bleeds profusely.

So here is this weeks list of goals...they are very similar to last week:

Monday: Errands + 1 hour of writing at home
Tuesday: 1 hour of working out + blog
Wednesday: 1 hour of writing at home.
Thursday: 1 hour of working out + blog
Friday: Dinner with Taracina to discuss writing...or my failures.
Saturday: 1 hour of working out + 1 hour of writing at home + maybe going to watch some Fastpitch Softball
Sunday: Cleaning house + blog + 1 hour of writing at home

Hopefully by Sunday I'll be done with zero draft and I can print it out, make notes and start the 1st draft rewrite. I keep saying this is going to happen now I need to stop talking about it and actually make it happen.

And this must become my new mantra:

All About Writing

First I have to say that I'm super bummed that I only blogged twice this week. Part of that was my fault, but part of it was also Blogger and/or my day job. I cannot seem to post from work and then for whatever reason I couldn't post from home on Thursday night. Friday, I blame The Avengers and the shear awesomeness of that movie.

Now for the most part I've stuck to this blogging schedule and I feel guilty when I miss a day or I'm late, so I'm hoping that I can transfer that over to the other two things in my life that I need to really get going and that's working out and writing. I need to work on a practical schedule for both things and then start figuring out my goals for them. I think each Sunday when I do my writing blog entry I'll post my goals for the week and what the schedule is.

Because I've had other things going on this week I've had very little time for writing...mostly because I didn't schedule it in. If I schedule it in, like I do hanging out with my friends, then I should finish my WIP in no time. I am so anxious to get writing the next draft, which will likely take me longer, but I can't skip the end so I can start over.

So, because I have very little else to write about, here is my schedule for the week. Time amounts are at minimum.

Monday: Errands + 1 hour of writing at home
Tuesday: 1 hour of working out + blog
Wednesday: 1 hour of writing at home.
Thursday: 1 hour of working out + blog
Friday: Dinner for mom's birthday...most likely ruining any good I did by working out.
Saturday: 1 hour of working out + 1 hour of writing at home + maybe seeing The Avengers again
Sunday: Lunch for mom's birthday/mother's day + 1 hour of writing at home + maybe 1 hour of working out + blog

So I guess next Sunday we'll see whether or not I was able to keep to this schedule. seems pretty simple when I see it in writing, but who knows if it will really be that easy.