Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sinful
Sinful AKA The Next Historical, is done. Emailed to my editor.
Tomorrow I'm going to get a pedicure and a massage.
I will resume more regular blogging soon.
Huzzah!!
Tomorrow I'm going to get a pedicure and a massage.
I will resume more regular blogging soon.
Labels: Sinful, The Next Historical, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/14/2008 09:58:00 PM Permalink
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Fork is Out!
Sinful is pretty much done.
I rewrote my last chapter, finished the major tweaks on the back half and now all that's left is some critique stuff, and deletion of very, pretty, words ending in ly, ing and the like and any last minute panicking that may come up between now and Sunday evening.
Photo by Amodiovalerio Verde
I rewrote my last chapter, finished the major tweaks on the back half and now all that's left is some critique stuff, and deletion of very, pretty, words ending in ly, ing and the like and any last minute panicking that may come up between now and Sunday evening.
Photo by Amodiovalerio Verde
Labels: polishing, The fork is out, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/12/2008 10:49:00 PM Permalink
Getting Down to The Wire
Yup. Down to the Wire. But the fork will be out soon. Standby for that. There will be a wild celebration after that. Which is, admittedly, not quite yet.
In the meantime three pictures I took today when I was out with the camera and said, gee, I wonder what that button does? Oh.
I actually kind of hate this flower for some reason, even though it's pretty. Shrug. It's cute. And I don't like it.
In the meantime three pictures I took today when I was out with the camera and said, gee, I wonder what that button does? Oh.
Sterling Silver Rose
Sterling Silver Rose Again
Snowbells
I actually kind of hate this flower for some reason, even though it's pretty. Shrug. It's cute. And I don't like it.
Labels: pretty pictures, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/12/2008 06:13:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Countdown Pictures While Carolyn is Finishing the Book
Things are going reasonably well. Making progress. It occurs to me I haven't even posted chapter one. I'll have to do that. Later.
Meanwhile, more pictures to entertain you. This one is from last month:
This one is from October. I think the gopher got this rosebush shortly afterward. Frown. There are now two rosebushes to replace.
Meanwhile, more pictures to entertain you. This one is from last month:
Yellow Rose
Red Rose
This one is from October. I think the gopher got this rosebush shortly afterward. Frown. There are now two rosebushes to replace.
Labels: pretty pictures, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/10/2008 07:38:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Hey, Look at the Pretty Pictures!
Deleted 1500+ words today. Sigh. Still, progress is being made, seriously.
Pics to distract you:
Even prettier in real life. This is from last May.
From last April.
Back to work.
Pics to distract you:
Golden Iris
Even prettier in real life. This is from last May.
A purple Iris
From last April.
Back to work.
Labels: pretty pictures, The Next Historical, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/09/2008 05:44:00 PM Permalink
Monday, December 08, 2008
Making Progress!
Still writing, freaking writing.
Also, The Next Historical will, I believe, officially be titled Sinful but that's not official yet. It is, however, more official than The Next Historical.
Here's another pic to look at while I'm busy:
Obviously, I have much more practice in order with respect to raindrops on roses. But still. It's pretty.
Back to work.
Also, The Next Historical will, I believe, officially be titled Sinful but that's not official yet. It is, however, more official than The Next Historical.
Here's another pic to look at while I'm busy:
Obviously, I have much more practice in order with respect to raindrops on roses. But still. It's pretty.
Back to work.
Labels: pretty pictures, The Next Historical, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/08/2008 08:53:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Checking In From the Land of Deadline
Still alive.
Still working madly.
Here's another picture to look at:
Back to work.
Still working madly.
Here's another picture to look at:
Back to work.
Labels: pretty pictures, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/07/2008 10:57:00 AM Permalink
Monday, December 01, 2008
Not Freaking at all. Why do you ask?
Hi. Still writing. There is hope for this.
Here's a picture I took for you to admire or whatever while I'm busy.
I can see already the blogger pic doesn't show the awesomeness of my new macro lens.
So here is a link to the photo on Flickr so you can check out the dewdrops just balancing there on the rose petals.
Back to work.
Here's a picture I took for you to admire or whatever while I'm busy.
I can see already the blogger pic doesn't show the awesomeness of my new macro lens.
So here is a link to the photo on Flickr so you can check out the dewdrops just balancing there on the rose petals.
Back to work.
Labels: writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/01/2008 07:22:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Update with Zombies
Just a quick update. The Next Historical is going along. I've reached a part where I need to do some fixes of chronology and/or geography or risk a ripping massive hole in the time-space continuum. I'm not quite sure what to do, but suspect a very simple solution is out there, just out of reach and if I push too hard, it will blow up. But if I don't push hard enough, well, there goes the universe! You see my dilemma.
If you-all were on Twitter you'd already know about the Regency Zombies storming Almack's and having tea.
No. I am NOT procrastinating. I think I need to make cinnamon rolls today. Back to saving the world!
Oh. I think I thought of the solution. And the crowd goes wild!! Yes, it was simple. I'm still going to make cinnamon rolls though.
If you-all were on Twitter you'd already know about the Regency Zombies storming Almack's and having tea.
No. I am NOT procrastinating. I think I need to make cinnamon rolls today. Back to saving the world!
Oh. I think I thought of the solution. And the crowd goes wild!! Yes, it was simple. I'm still going to make cinnamon rolls though.
Labels: editing, The Next Historical, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/23/2008 10:12:00 AM Permalink
Friday, November 21, 2008
Progress Report and Automotive Excellence
The Next Historical which is going to need a title pretty darn soon, is inching along. Today I deleted a fair amount but managed to break 75K anyway. Yay for Carolyn! I still have to write the last chapter, but I'm pretty sure what that will be. I think. It's slotted for October 2009, by the way, pushed up from November. No pressure! Anyway, I will get something out to readers this weekend. ::shrug:: I'm going to have to take a week off from work the week prior to the due date, so here's praying I can get the time off. Will ask tomorrow.
Title ideas gladly accepted. Right now I'm calling it Ransomed cuz the hero at one point is going to pay one for the heroine. But the other day I thought of something better and then yesterday I forgot it.
If the post options work correctly this entry will post 11/21 at 1:00pm Pacific, at which time I will very likely be sitting in my car working on the dang book.
Friday, I am going to see Twilight. Sorry. But that's a must do, figured into my deadline calculations. I'll get two hours in the car on Saturday because Soccer Boy has a scrimmage. Hopefully it's not too cold. And then after that, more ignoring of laundry, kitchen child family dog and everything else too. I'd ignore the cats too, but they sit on my lap and I pet them from time to time.
Wish me luck.
Be prepared for Blog Silence.
Title ideas gladly accepted. Right now I'm calling it Ransomed cuz the hero at one point is going to pay one for the heroine. But the other day I thought of something better and then yesterday I forgot it.
If the post options work correctly this entry will post 11/21 at 1:00pm Pacific, at which time I will very likely be sitting in my car working on the dang book.
Friday, I am going to see Twilight. Sorry. But that's a must do, figured into my deadline calculations. I'll get two hours in the car on Saturday because Soccer Boy has a scrimmage. Hopefully it's not too cold. And then after that, more ignoring of laundry, kitchen child family dog and everything else too. I'd ignore the cats too, but they sit on my lap and I pet them from time to time.
Wish me luck.
Be prepared for Blog Silence.
Labels: The Next Historical, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/21/2008 01:00:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Memoire of a Plot
Alas poor plot, I knew you well.
But now I've kicked you to the curb in favor of a brighter, shinier plot. A better plot. Sorry. But them's the breaks when you're at the mercy of a professional writer and panster. It's not for the faint of heart, but there you have it.
Today, the machete came out. Maybe not the machete, but for sure it was the weed whacker. First, two or three days ago, I had this big but not enormous refinement which was great and good for more words. But right after I was almost done with that, I had a dream about a marriage under dire circumstances and it is just so way awesome a better plot I could hardly stand it.
Oh, new plot! I still get all shivery and excited just thinking about you.
I love you, brighter shinier plot!
But you are a High Maintenance kind of plot.
Hence, the hacking and replacing. The new plot required that I change the names of some secondary but main characters, and first I changed it to Cartier because, well, it was half the solution to a crossword puzzle I've been working on and so it was on my mind. Only today I realized Ack! that left me with three names that start with C: Camilla, Crosshaven and Cartier.
Sigh.
So I changed that to Brooks becuase, well, confession time here. Meljean Brook's Demon Night was sitting on the top of a pile of stuff I need to do something with (like just about everything in my room) because I want to keep it since it's an awesome story, so I thought, hey, I'll just stick an S on the end of Brook and no one will ever know I stole Meljean's last name for my heroine's cousins. Mwahahahah!
But then the fun part was over and I had to pretty much redo chapter 1 and then I ran out of time. I should be in bed already. Only I'm not.
But I'm about to. Thinking about my shiny new High Maintenance Plot that I still love.
But now I've kicked you to the curb in favor of a brighter, shinier plot. A better plot. Sorry. But them's the breaks when you're at the mercy of a professional writer and panster. It's not for the faint of heart, but there you have it.
Today, the machete came out. Maybe not the machete, but for sure it was the weed whacker. First, two or three days ago, I had this big but not enormous refinement which was great and good for more words. But right after I was almost done with that, I had a dream about a marriage under dire circumstances and it is just so way awesome a better plot I could hardly stand it.
Oh, new plot! I still get all shivery and excited just thinking about you.
I love you, brighter shinier plot!
But you are a High Maintenance kind of plot.
My New Plot is making me pay
Hence, the hacking and replacing. The new plot required that I change the names of some secondary but main characters, and first I changed it to Cartier because, well, it was half the solution to a crossword puzzle I've been working on and so it was on my mind. Only today I realized Ack! that left me with three names that start with C: Camilla, Crosshaven and Cartier.
Sigh.
So I changed that to Brooks becuase, well, confession time here. Meljean Brook's Demon Night was sitting on the top of a pile of stuff I need to do something with (like just about everything in my room) because I want to keep it since it's an awesome story, so I thought, hey, I'll just stick an S on the end of Brook and no one will ever know I stole Meljean's last name for my heroine's cousins. Mwahahahah!
But then the fun part was over and I had to pretty much redo chapter 1 and then I ran out of time. I should be in bed already. Only I'm not.
But I'm about to. Thinking about my shiny new High Maintenance Plot that I still love.
Labels: Names, plotting, writing freaking writing, writing process
posted by Carolyn @ 6/26/2008 10:00:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Is Starbucks Evil? Plus Frisbee Flipping Dog
90,040 words now. Which for anyone who can do the arithmetic means I wrote 2040 words today. Considering how my day went, that's pretty amazing. I spent the morning finalizing some promotional material that's costing me a fair fortune. Got that sent off and I figured I had many hours in front of me to get through chapters 27-29 and fix the ending. Well, rats. The day job intervened and required that I drive into town for the wireless at Starbucks where I discovered that my favorite (least disliked?) local Starbucks had done something either very mean and nasty or very stupid:
They moved all the tables but one away from the power outlets. Yes, that's right. There was only one table and chair near a power outlet, and it was occupied. Along the wall where there used to be three tables by outlets were two big huge chairs and one tiny table too far away to reach the lonely outlets anyway (and occupied). On the other side of the place there were two big chairs by the windows with a little coffee table no one in their right mind would ever use a laptop on because you'd have to hunch over between your legs to reach the keyboard or else sit on the floor. Also occupied. The middle was wide open, but hey, no power! And my laptop for work gets about 45 minutes of battery life. So after realizing this, I left WITHOUT spending any money!! and drove to the Starbucks across town where they did have tables by the outlets. I spent money there. Fixed most of what was wrong at work (in the specific sense of SQL Servers) and then went grocery shopping.
I got home from that about 3:30 absolutely fagged because I am just not a person for heat, and it was 84 degrees. Yuck. I should have spent more time in the freezer section with the doors open. I bought a pineapple plus lot of strawberries because I told The Darling Child I'd make Strawberry shortcake and I've learned if I don't core the fruit right away by the time I get around to it, the fruit is in an advanced state of decay fit only for the compost or the chickens.
Then I had to shred my previous print out of the MS to make room in the binder for the new one I'll be printing out shortly, and that meant emptying the shredder before I could shred and since it's recycling day and the shredder was full again, I had to empty the shredder again.
So, then it was time to take down the garbage and the recycling and on the way back I stopped to talk to the neighbors for a bit, and the Border Collie came after me from the top of our driveway and then got all neurotic. She barks and growls at everybody until they throw a ball for her at which point she is their slave for life. Well, Ed had a frisbee in his garage and the only thing Patch likes better than a ball is a frisbee because she can flip a frisbee on her nose. This is hours of fun for her. She now loves Ed.
At which point it was 5:30 pm and time to start dinner. I called the DC several times only to be ignored so I started the strawberry shortcake without him. By the time he made it out to eat, the biscuits were cooking and he was very upset with me as it turned out he wanted to help make the dessert. Um, Darling Child, if you had come the first time I called you instead of 20 minutes later after the 3rd or 4th time, maybe the outcome would have been different.
So then I felt bad because he was upset enough to actually start crying (silently and trying to hide it) during dinner. Even though he should have come when I called him the first time to tell him I was starting the shortcake. Sigh.
So, I didn't sit down to write until nearly seven. But I doubled my minimum and got to my comfort zone of 90K words with time to spend on having the MS read back to me and some more serious editing.
They moved all the tables but one away from the power outlets. Yes, that's right. There was only one table and chair near a power outlet, and it was occupied. Along the wall where there used to be three tables by outlets were two big huge chairs and one tiny table too far away to reach the lonely outlets anyway (and occupied). On the other side of the place there were two big chairs by the windows with a little coffee table no one in their right mind would ever use a laptop on because you'd have to hunch over between your legs to reach the keyboard or else sit on the floor. Also occupied. The middle was wide open, but hey, no power! And my laptop for work gets about 45 minutes of battery life. So after realizing this, I left WITHOUT spending any money!! and drove to the Starbucks across town where they did have tables by the outlets. I spent money there. Fixed most of what was wrong at work (in the specific sense of SQL Servers) and then went grocery shopping.
I got home from that about 3:30 absolutely fagged because I am just not a person for heat, and it was 84 degrees. Yuck. I should have spent more time in the freezer section with the doors open. I bought a pineapple plus lot of strawberries because I told The Darling Child I'd make Strawberry shortcake and I've learned if I don't core the fruit right away by the time I get around to it, the fruit is in an advanced state of decay fit only for the compost or the chickens.
Then I had to shred my previous print out of the MS to make room in the binder for the new one I'll be printing out shortly, and that meant emptying the shredder before I could shred and since it's recycling day and the shredder was full again, I had to empty the shredder again.
So, then it was time to take down the garbage and the recycling and on the way back I stopped to talk to the neighbors for a bit, and the Border Collie came after me from the top of our driveway and then got all neurotic. She barks and growls at everybody until they throw a ball for her at which point she is their slave for life. Well, Ed had a frisbee in his garage and the only thing Patch likes better than a ball is a frisbee because she can flip a frisbee on her nose. This is hours of fun for her. She now loves Ed.
At which point it was 5:30 pm and time to start dinner. I called the DC several times only to be ignored so I started the strawberry shortcake without him. By the time he made it out to eat, the biscuits were cooking and he was very upset with me as it turned out he wanted to help make the dessert. Um, Darling Child, if you had come the first time I called you instead of 20 minutes later after the 3rd or 4th time, maybe the outcome would have been different.
So then I felt bad because he was upset enough to actually start crying (silently and trying to hide it) during dinner. Even though he should have come when I called him the first time to tell him I was starting the shortcake. Sigh.
So, I didn't sit down to write until nearly seven. But I doubled my minimum and got to my comfort zone of 90K words with time to spend on having the MS read back to me and some more serious editing.
Labels: words on the page, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 4/13/2008 10:18:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Reporting in As ordered
Not really. But I am reporting in. Tonight I'm up to exactly 88,000 words for Xia. I'll feel better when I've cracked 90. That's pretty much done for me, which in this case means ready for more massive editing. The strange thing is I have only 29 chapters, and usually at this point I have 30-33. So I started looking for chapters that were 14 or more pages since for me that's a chapter that's too long. But there weren't any. What I have is a lot of chapters with 11-12 pages. Not long enough to need to chop in half. So, maybe this book will end up with fewer chapters than usual.
What else? I have some writing related have-to-do stuff that I really have to get done tomorrow that isn't writing Xia.
Thursday, I got ZIP writing done. My son fell in P.E. and bloodied himself up enough that he had to come home. My dad went to get him so I didn't have to leave work. But I talked to him on the phone and once I was sure he was mostly OK, told him to work on his English project, which was due Friday. He needed to create a facsimile of a newspaper page containing articles about some short stories they read. When I got home, had he done any of that work? No, he had not. And he's a terrible speller and well, it was 9:30 before the project was done, assembled and mostly error free. Friday, I was going to give him a lecture about how disappointed I was that he hadn't had the time to do his best work. Only he starts telling me how when he turned it in the teacher said that if it didn't contain a lot of spelling errors, it looked like A work to her. Dang you, teacher! And that she would show his to all the students who complained about not getting an A on theirs. So, no lecture.
Any way it's my usual sign off tonight. I'm tired and going to bed.
What else? I have some writing related have-to-do stuff that I really have to get done tomorrow that isn't writing Xia.
Thursday, I got ZIP writing done. My son fell in P.E. and bloodied himself up enough that he had to come home. My dad went to get him so I didn't have to leave work. But I talked to him on the phone and once I was sure he was mostly OK, told him to work on his English project, which was due Friday. He needed to create a facsimile of a newspaper page containing articles about some short stories they read. When I got home, had he done any of that work? No, he had not. And he's a terrible speller and well, it was 9:30 before the project was done, assembled and mostly error free. Friday, I was going to give him a lecture about how disappointed I was that he hadn't had the time to do his best work. Only he starts telling me how when he turned it in the teacher said that if it didn't contain a lot of spelling errors, it looked like A work to her. Dang you, teacher! And that she would show his to all the students who complained about not getting an A on theirs. So, no lecture.
Any way it's my usual sign off tonight. I'm tired and going to bed.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 4/12/2008 10:23:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Still alive, mostly. Rant Alert, too. Sorry.
Still working on Xia. Right now, it's going a bit slower than I'd like. Yesterday I cut some stuff, I think only temporarily, but I haven't found its new home yet, and then rearranged some chapters which worked out really well, actually. I'm always glad (even when I have to remind myself of that) when I cut words that don't pull their weight. I did some of that yesterday and tonight, but wrote a bunch of new ones.
And, let's see, yesterday I tried to buy one of Harlequin's Spice Briefs (sorry, no URL I'm too tired to find it) because my awesome friend Alice Gaines wrote one and I seriously wanted to read it. I couldn't. I had no idea their e-commerce site was so awful. Wow. They're really not doing themselves any favors. Not only do they not take all types of payments (No PayPal? No Discover?? Huh?) but it doesn't work. Limited formats, too. But the part that got me frosted was the DRM. No Printing. What?? If I'd been able to complete the transaction (which I was not) I wouldn't be able to print it, stick it in my binder of ebook goodness and read in bed. OK, so that's pretty dumb, but I don't think your average buyer is going to print it out and then copy it for all their friends. But I get that HQN is dumb about this. Most trad publishers out there are about this. But there's also no reading aloud. WTF!??
So, I assume what they mean is if you're vision impaired and want to have your text reader read it for you, no go. How stupid and anti-Americans With Disabilities is that? Isn't that limitation illegal? That also means I wouldn't be able to invite five friends over and read the story to them. Why not? I can invite those same five friends over to watch a movie. That's not illegal yet. If I want to read a freaking book out loud to my friends, I can. What if I want to read out loud to myself? Like they could stop me. What about people who move their lips when they read? What if they accidentally whisper? Are the HQM DRM police going to come over and put them in jail? Can't we outlaw annoying cell phone conversations first?
In short, HQN has stupid and probably illegal DRM on their ebooks. They only offer three formats. There's about 10 people with Mobi readers. Wouldn't it have been smarter to turn down the marketing bucks from the Mobi people and offer more formats? AND they have a shopping cart application that is flat out broken. AND they only accept two methods of payment.
Ellora's Cave takes PayPal. They offer I think 5-6 formats. No DRM that I've ever seen. I print them out in a two pages per sheet small font, duplex and save them to read in bed. I've probably spent something approaching $100.00 of EC hotness. I have spent $0 on HQN. Which publisher do you think is laughing all the way to the bank?
And worst of all, I couldn't read Alice's story.
I'm tired. off to bed.
And, let's see, yesterday I tried to buy one of Harlequin's Spice Briefs (sorry, no URL I'm too tired to find it) because my awesome friend Alice Gaines wrote one and I seriously wanted to read it. I couldn't. I had no idea their e-commerce site was so awful. Wow. They're really not doing themselves any favors. Not only do they not take all types of payments (No PayPal? No Discover?? Huh?) but it doesn't work. Limited formats, too. But the part that got me frosted was the DRM. No Printing. What?? If I'd been able to complete the transaction (which I was not) I wouldn't be able to print it, stick it in my binder of ebook goodness and read in bed. OK, so that's pretty dumb, but I don't think your average buyer is going to print it out and then copy it for all their friends. But I get that HQN is dumb about this. Most trad publishers out there are about this. But there's also no reading aloud. WTF!??
So, I assume what they mean is if you're vision impaired and want to have your text reader read it for you, no go. How stupid and anti-Americans With Disabilities is that? Isn't that limitation illegal? That also means I wouldn't be able to invite five friends over and read the story to them. Why not? I can invite those same five friends over to watch a movie. That's not illegal yet. If I want to read a freaking book out loud to my friends, I can. What if I want to read out loud to myself? Like they could stop me. What about people who move their lips when they read? What if they accidentally whisper? Are the HQM DRM police going to come over and put them in jail? Can't we outlaw annoying cell phone conversations first?
In short, HQN has stupid and probably illegal DRM on their ebooks. They only offer three formats. There's about 10 people with Mobi readers. Wouldn't it have been smarter to turn down the marketing bucks from the Mobi people and offer more formats? AND they have a shopping cart application that is flat out broken. AND they only accept two methods of payment.
Ellora's Cave takes PayPal. They offer I think 5-6 formats. No DRM that I've ever seen. I print them out in a two pages per sheet small font, duplex and save them to read in bed. I've probably spent something approaching $100.00 of EC hotness. I have spent $0 on HQN. Which publisher do you think is laughing all the way to the bank?
And worst of all, I couldn't read Alice's story.
I'm tired. off to bed.
Labels: Rant, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 4/09/2008 09:41:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, April 05, 2008
The End is Nigh
Did more fixing of chapters 27 and 28. Mostly 28. Tomorrow, I think I'll print it out and start from the beginning.
Tired.
Going to bed.
Tired.
Going to bed.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 4/05/2008 11:09:00 PM Permalink
Friday, April 04, 2008
No fork yet, but....
Today I hit 80,383 words for Xia, after chopping much of the current last chapter and rewriting it completely. (My contract sets out a word count of 85-95K, but I'm never done until I'm between 90 and 95K) All the rest are brand spanking new words. Carolyn like shiny things! For the last four days I've been see-sawing between 78 and 79K. Cut some stuff, write some stuff. Cut more stuff, write more stuff. But tonight I have not only the ending roughed out, but a tentative title in place.
I also substantially redid chapter 27. Mostly it was total carnage. I think there's like 5 words left from the original chapter 28 and 10 left from chapter 27. But they're a really good Five and Dime. (Joke!! I made a joke -- does anybody get that?)
Right. What else?
Um, I signed up for a Twhirl account (what is it with these Web 2.0 names?) and got my twitter stuff on my desktop. And I learned that while I was writing and rewriting, a lot, and I do mean a lot, of people were watching TV. And twittering about it, obviously. Kind of blew my mind. So, right now, every aspiring writer should be swearing off TV. Because while you were doing that instead of writing, I was getting myself inches from meeting my deadline with time to spare.
What do you want? To write the book of your heart (because there's no point to writing any other kind) or know what happens on Battlestar Galactica tonight instead of later after you've hit your minimum? Just pointing that out there.
Of course if you are a writer who is procrastinating, that's a time honored method of building up the appropriate level of panic to get your butt stuck to the chair. By all means, watch TV. But if you don't have a deadline, TV is probably a bad thing for your writing.
Off to bed.
I also substantially redid chapter 27. Mostly it was total carnage. I think there's like 5 words left from the original chapter 28 and 10 left from chapter 27. But they're a really good Five and Dime. (Joke!! I made a joke -- does anybody get that?)
Right. What else?
Um, I signed up for a Twhirl account (what is it with these Web 2.0 names?) and got my twitter stuff on my desktop. And I learned that while I was writing and rewriting, a lot, and I do mean a lot, of people were watching TV. And twittering about it, obviously. Kind of blew my mind. So, right now, every aspiring writer should be swearing off TV. Because while you were doing that instead of writing, I was getting myself inches from meeting my deadline with time to spare.
What do you want? To write the book of your heart (because there's no point to writing any other kind) or know what happens on Battlestar Galactica tonight instead of later after you've hit your minimum? Just pointing that out there.
Of course if you are a writer who is procrastinating, that's a time honored method of building up the appropriate level of panic to get your butt stuck to the chair. By all means, watch TV. But if you don't have a deadline, TV is probably a bad thing for your writing.
Off to bed.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 4/04/2008 10:54:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Chugging Along
Working madly on Xia, of course. Have thought of a possibly lame title. I need to push on, so back to work. Just letting you-all know I'm still alive. Sort of.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 4/03/2008 04:55:00 PM Permalink
Monday, March 31, 2008
Catching up is hard to do
I've been writing madly. The weekend required the machete. Today required the weed whacker. I fixed chapters 21 and 22. Tomorrow I go in after chapter 23, which is either in the wrong place or a mess. I'm not sure which. I have 79.2K words. Close enough to 80K to feel relatively less panic stricken. I still have no last chapter, but then until I finished fixing stuff, I won't know for sure what's right for the last chapter.
I've heard some preliminary feedback from one of the big Chains (starts with a B) on My Wicked Enemy enough to turn my head. So, all good there!
Also in the good news department (bear with me, it doesn't start out that way) last night as I was falling asleep after wrestling with chapter 21, I realized the chapter needed to end a different way. Then, this morning I hauled myself out of bed at 4:25 am, etc, and stopped for gas on my way to the gym. It was then 4:50 am. E.G. Cold and Dark. I did not have my purse with me. This makes it hard to pay for gas. I got home at 5:03 am, changed my shoes and did 30 minutes of driveway torture instead of biking at the gym and writing out my fixes to chapter 21. During said torture, I finally got a glimmer of an idea for the historical due in November. Yay!
At lunch, I worked on it, finished when I got home and then fixed 22.
So, I'm in a pretty okay mood.
Off to bed. Chapter 23 awaits me. I have the machete if needed. Tremble in fear, Chapter 23.
I've heard some preliminary feedback from one of the big Chains (starts with a B) on My Wicked Enemy enough to turn my head. So, all good there!
Also in the good news department (bear with me, it doesn't start out that way) last night as I was falling asleep after wrestling with chapter 21, I realized the chapter needed to end a different way. Then, this morning I hauled myself out of bed at 4:25 am, etc, and stopped for gas on my way to the gym. It was then 4:50 am. E.G. Cold and Dark. I did not have my purse with me. This makes it hard to pay for gas. I got home at 5:03 am, changed my shoes and did 30 minutes of driveway torture instead of biking at the gym and writing out my fixes to chapter 21. During said torture, I finally got a glimmer of an idea for the historical due in November. Yay!
At lunch, I worked on it, finished when I got home and then fixed 22.
So, I'm in a pretty okay mood.
Off to bed. Chapter 23 awaits me. I have the machete if needed. Tremble in fear, Chapter 23.
Labels: historical project, My Wicked Enemy, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/31/2008 09:54:00 PM Permalink
Friday, March 28, 2008
Carolyn Good Faker
Yesterday was a very good day. And today, why, it's Friday, so that's 2 good days in a row. Yowza! Today, I worked and worked on Chapter 16 and at the end, I was only up 400 words. Rats. I'm doing the book trailer plunge with this release, and that revealed a wee problem unrelated to the money I'm spending on it.
Of course I had to write a synopsis in order to sell My Wicked Enemy but other than the protagonists' first names, that synopsis bears no resemblance whatever to the book I actually turned in. I knew that would happen. The whole time during the sale process for this book I knew the synopsis I had to slave over like a dog was written in disappearing ink. I told my agent, when she asked about stupid stuff I put in it, I don't know! I have to write the book first! None of that stuff is going to actually happen. And yet, I had to provide a synopsis anyway, of some other book from some other universe. They gave me money anyway. Carolyn good faker.
So the problem is the book trailer people want a synopsis. And I only have a fake one. And a book trailer based on a fake synopsis? Bad. Bad indeed. But the next book is due May 1. I did not have time to spend 3-4 days bleeding out my eyeballs to write a synopsis. I paid those dues already, Bub! I am not agonizing over this while I pay them. Oh, no never. That's just sick and twisted. So I whipped something together, mostly resisted the urge to edit and sent if off with the last round of edits copy of the book.
Which is most of the reason I'm only up 400 words. That means 1600 words tomorrow.
off to bed.
Of course I had to write a synopsis in order to sell My Wicked Enemy but other than the protagonists' first names, that synopsis bears no resemblance whatever to the book I actually turned in. I knew that would happen. The whole time during the sale process for this book I knew the synopsis I had to slave over like a dog was written in disappearing ink. I told my agent, when she asked about stupid stuff I put in it, I don't know! I have to write the book first! None of that stuff is going to actually happen. And yet, I had to provide a synopsis anyway, of some other book from some other universe. They gave me money anyway. Carolyn good faker.
So the problem is the book trailer people want a synopsis. And I only have a fake one. And a book trailer based on a fake synopsis? Bad. Bad indeed. But the next book is due May 1. I did not have time to spend 3-4 days bleeding out my eyeballs to write a synopsis. I paid those dues already, Bub! I am not agonizing over this while I pay them. Oh, no never. That's just sick and twisted. So I whipped something together, mostly resisted the urge to edit and sent if off with the last round of edits copy of the book.
Which is most of the reason I'm only up 400 words. That means 1600 words tomorrow.
off to bed.
Labels: Book Trailer, Faking It, Synopsis, writing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 3/28/2008 11:07:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Freak Out! Get a Bookmark, too.
I'm writing like mad. Things are going OK with Xia. Doing a combo-read through and edit. So far no disasters. The machete has stayed in the closet. I need a title for the book though. A few ideas have occurred, mostly lame ones. My Wicked Lover, A Wicked Kiss. Good gosh, I need ideas and have none. Help!!!
In other news, I heard from my editor at Berkley on Scandal which I was panicking about since I'm in the home stretch of finishing Which Wicked Witch Kidding!! and was having nightmares about revisions coming at the same time I'm in the last days of finishing the Work In Progress. (WIP). And, yay! She loves Scandal and has no revisions for me.
I got a wonderful cover blurb for My Wicked Enemy from author Lara Adrian who writes the awesome Midnight Breed vampire series. I don't know if it's okay to share the blurb here, but if I find out it is, I will share.
My bookmarks came for My Wicked Enemy. If you want one, and really, how could you live without one? send me an email with your name and mailing address in it.
Back to work.
In other news, I heard from my editor at Berkley on Scandal which I was panicking about since I'm in the home stretch of finishing Which Wicked Witch Kidding!! and was having nightmares about revisions coming at the same time I'm in the last days of finishing the Work In Progress. (WIP). And, yay! She loves Scandal and has no revisions for me.
I got a wonderful cover blurb for My Wicked Enemy from author Lara Adrian who writes the awesome Midnight Breed vampire series. I don't know if it's okay to share the blurb here, but if I find out it is, I will share.
My bookmarks came for My Wicked Enemy. If you want one, and really, how could you live without one? send me an email with your name and mailing address in it.
Back to work.
Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/27/2008 05:11:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, March 23, 2008
I'm baaack!
Back from visiting my brother and his wife in Santa Barbara. We had a great time, even though I did, sadly, lose my camera somewhere in the SB mountains. Rats. So I do not have any great photos of breathtaking views, although we saw many such views and I'm sure at least some of my pictures were great.
Other than that, I cut a chapter of Xia. Sigh And got up to about chapter 8 or 9 I think on a read through. Which considering that I was doing family visiting stuff, isn't too bad. Most of that got done in the car on the way there or the way back.
Had to give the Fudgester a bath when I got home. He'd rolled in something v. smelly. Of the not so recently dead variety. He has forgiven me, I think.
I'm in full freak out mode and tired. Back to work.
Other than that, I cut a chapter of Xia. Sigh And got up to about chapter 8 or 9 I think on a read through. Which considering that I was doing family visiting stuff, isn't too bad. Most of that got done in the car on the way there or the way back.
Had to give the Fudgester a bath when I got home. He'd rolled in something v. smelly. Of the not so recently dead variety. He has forgiven me, I think.
I'm in full freak out mode and tired. Back to work.
Labels: cutting room floor, editing, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/23/2008 06:57:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, March 20, 2008
With a Wave of my Magic Wand...
I would make writing easier, that's what I'd do.
I have a chapter that needs some TLC, so I am fixing it in between finding something, anything! to distract me from actually doing it. Only I am doing it. It hurts. It's agony and then something interesting starts to happen on the page and I conveniently forget all about the mess further down. Fixing fixing fixing.
Tomorrow, my bothers, my sister, me and all the kids are going to visit our other brother and his wife in Santa Barbara. Her mother and brother are here from Denmark, so we'll get to meet them. Hopefully, we won't horrify them too badly. Apparently it's snowing in Denmark and in SB, it's Spring. They're enjoying that. I'm not packed yet, but then I'm waiting for laundry to finish. Speaking of which...
Ahh. I have on my jammies now, still slightly warm from the dryer. I am now partially packed.
Back to work. Then I'm going to print off the MS so I can work in the car on the way down. I am not a primary driver in this escape to the South, I will be in the navigator's seat.
I have a chapter that needs some TLC, so I am fixing it in between finding something, anything! to distract me from actually doing it. Only I am doing it. It hurts. It's agony and then something interesting starts to happen on the page and I conveniently forget all about the mess further down. Fixing fixing fixing.
Tomorrow, my bothers, my sister, me and all the kids are going to visit our other brother and his wife in Santa Barbara. Her mother and brother are here from Denmark, so we'll get to meet them. Hopefully, we won't horrify them too badly. Apparently it's snowing in Denmark and in SB, it's Spring. They're enjoying that. I'm not packed yet, but then I'm waiting for laundry to finish. Speaking of which...
Ahh. I have on my jammies now, still slightly warm from the dryer. I am now partially packed.
Back to work. Then I'm going to print off the MS so I can work in the car on the way down. I am not a primary driver in this escape to the South, I will be in the navigator's seat.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/20/2008 09:29:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Backward Progress Today
Xia is still going well enough. As long as we're all pretending that writing is something that ever goes well enough. It's very hard work, and today I did hard work cleaning up crap. So, although I am down about 150 words to 72.6 something, I am able to see a silver lining to being in the red, word-count wise. Namely, that I have reduced the craposity and increased the goodosity. Aren't we lucky I'm a wordsmith? Oblige me and do not answer that question.
But I'm starting to freak about not being further along. More words. I need more words.
With that, I'm off to bed. Because more words requires enough sleep which I did not get last night.
But I'm starting to freak about not being further along. More words. I need more words.
With that, I'm off to bed. Because more words requires enough sleep which I did not get last night.
Labels: panic, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/18/2008 09:07:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, March 16, 2008
What a load of horse manure!
I'm blogging early because I've been a writing slug today. Which means I will be writing late tonight and that means if I leave the blogging for last, I'll be too tired or else I'll blog anyway and be too tired tomorrow. Take your pick as to which is worse.
Yesterday I had to get new tires on the car. Oy. Money flying out the wallet. So sad. Today I had a flat tire. Sigh. The bright side is I discovered this while I was at home. So I called AAA to make them come and change it -- got my money's worth for the membership at least. The tow truck was so big he almost took out one of the posts down at the gate. The plan was to put on the spare (duh) and then my dad would take the flat NEW tire to the car place tomorrow allowing me to go to work in the morning as per usual and stop off afterward to do the switcheroo. This plan confused the AAA man who was otherwise pleasant and jocular. He tried to put the tire in the back of my car anyway. Then he wanted to put the tire in my dad's car. But, as I said, "My dad's truck is full of horse manure right now, so just leave the tire there (me, pointing) and we'll move it later." Seeing as how he didn't want to go near a truck full of horse manure, he allowed that our plan was okay after all. He moved the tire to the side of the driveway and managed to get his behemoth truck turned around and all the way down the drive without taking out the gate.
That was our big excitement today. AAA man scared by truck full of horse manure.
I have 70K plus words for Xia. I'm working up to the planned 3-way with Kynan, Xia and Alexandrine which I'm quite interested to know how that works out. There's only one way for me to know; write it. Rats.
Off to work.
Yesterday I had to get new tires on the car. Oy. Money flying out the wallet. So sad. Today I had a flat tire. Sigh. The bright side is I discovered this while I was at home. So I called AAA to make them come and change it -- got my money's worth for the membership at least. The tow truck was so big he almost took out one of the posts down at the gate. The plan was to put on the spare (duh) and then my dad would take the flat NEW tire to the car place tomorrow allowing me to go to work in the morning as per usual and stop off afterward to do the switcheroo. This plan confused the AAA man who was otherwise pleasant and jocular. He tried to put the tire in the back of my car anyway. Then he wanted to put the tire in my dad's car. But, as I said, "My dad's truck is full of horse manure right now, so just leave the tire there (me, pointing) and we'll move it later." Seeing as how he didn't want to go near a truck full of horse manure, he allowed that our plan was okay after all. He moved the tire to the side of the driveway and managed to get his behemoth truck turned around and all the way down the drive without taking out the gate.
That was our big excitement today. AAA man scared by truck full of horse manure.
I have 70K plus words for Xia. I'm working up to the planned 3-way with Kynan, Xia and Alexandrine which I'm quite interested to know how that works out. There's only one way for me to know; write it. Rats.
Off to work.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/16/2008 07:00:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Uh oh. I thought I had something to say!
I made back the 1000 words I cut yesterday. I rejiggered chapters 12-15 which were all in the wrong order and started writing the new bits. Alexandrine is turning out to be quite the interesting woman. First off, which I may have mentioned, it turns out she's a former teen drug addict. Second, she has no problem whatever taking action to get what she wants. And she wants Xia. Today at lunch time, she got in the shower with him.
I'm trying to think of a Romance in which the sexually assertive one is the woman. I know there are some. But not so many. Most of those women are Evil Exes or just Evil. That's always bugged me, so I'm happy to be writing a heroine who takes charge of herself without de-alphabetizing the hero, too. (Xia loves it, by the way.) Especially since all my heroines start out their lives as total wimps. This is my writing challenge.
Anyway, I'm in the middle of The Ritual scene which, I am happy to report, does not end at all the way Xia and Alexandrine hope.
I'm trying to think of a Romance in which the sexually assertive one is the woman. I know there are some. But not so many. Most of those women are Evil Exes or just Evil. That's always bugged me, so I'm happy to be writing a heroine who takes charge of herself without de-alphabetizing the hero, too. (Xia loves it, by the way.) Especially since all my heroines start out their lives as total wimps. This is my writing challenge.
Anyway, I'm in the middle of The Ritual scene which, I am happy to report, does not end at all the way Xia and Alexandrine hope.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/11/2008 09:01:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Tomorrow will be heck
I dislike this time change. 'Nuff said.
Today I futzed around with Xia all freaking day and then I ran into two confusing chapters and had to figure out what to do with them. I think I did. I reworked so much stuff my head is spinning. I have 69K which is OK, I guess. I was hoping for more but fixing crap involves the liberal use of the delete key. I'm up to chapter 13 in the fix-fest. Right now I'm re-doing a chapter from Xia's POV because at the moment, there are far too few chapters from his point of view.
What else? Nothing. I still have no title, wicked or otherwise, for this book.
Sorry this post is so dull.
Today I futzed around with Xia all freaking day and then I ran into two confusing chapters and had to figure out what to do with them. I think I did. I reworked so much stuff my head is spinning. I have 69K which is OK, I guess. I was hoping for more but fixing crap involves the liberal use of the delete key. I'm up to chapter 13 in the fix-fest. Right now I'm re-doing a chapter from Xia's POV because at the moment, there are far too few chapters from his point of view.
What else? Nothing. I still have no title, wicked or otherwise, for this book.
Sorry this post is so dull.
Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/09/2008 09:23:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Literary Twister
Last night, this morning at the gym and during various downtimes of the day, I've been mulling over this particular scene that Just Wasn't Working the way it needed to. It involves Xia giving Alexandrine a substance that affects people with magic. Originally, he did it to prove to her she has magic. But the new! Alexandrine already knows that. Obviously, that original scene needed a re-write. While notebooking at the gym, I settled on her taking the pill by accident. I recognized the idea was a wee bit lame, but I thought if I meditated on it some more, I'd see my way to the solution. I am not at my best at 5:00 a.m.
So I sat down to do the work this evening and I was in there with the machete getting things conformed etc and at last I get to the substance scene at the end of chapter 6. How is she going to take this pill?
She's not. It turns out, as I was writing, that, as a former teen runaway (which was previously established) she had issues with drugs and does not take any drugs ever anymore. Color me surprised! But this revelation ended up being a major development in their relationship. Oh! Oh! I get it! Neat-o.
But now I had a chapter 7 of substance-induced events that needed a new home. And I knew the perfect place for it. Between chapters 13 and 14. The beginning of 14 got spliced onto the top of chapter 7 which was renumbered as Chapter 13 (with 8-13 becoming 7-12) Are you following me here? and then about-to-be 13 and 14 were temporarily combined so I could look for the best chapter ending. Found it. Chopped it. And Voila as they say in France. Chapters 7 and 14 were spliced and split and became 13 and 14. It's a bit messy yet but tomorrow I will smooth that out into a scene that has my heroine who is afraid of backsliding on drugs facing the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of taking a drug that humans with magic routinely abuse... See? Much more at stake.
It's like that game Twister. Only with words and paragraphs and my characters and story instead of people.
This sounds like a horror show, I know. I suspect it is, but that's how it's been for all my books so far. I have an advanced case of esprit d'escalier only since these great ideas have to do with a novel which takes a while to put together, I can actually go back with the perfect bon mot and nobody will ever know I didn't think of it until way late.
I have to do this kind of slice and dice very quickly because I often need to have 3 or 4 chapters all in my head as I reassemble and sort out the bits and put the left overs in the right places, and I don't want to forget who's going where. If I go too slow or think too much every thing just goes to heck. It's scary because in the middle every thing's a bit fat mess, and I get in there and muck about and then it's all better. Usually. To be honest, sometimes it's not and I have to start over. But this one feels good.
So I sat down to do the work this evening and I was in there with the machete getting things conformed etc and at last I get to the substance scene at the end of chapter 6. How is she going to take this pill?
She's not. It turns out, as I was writing, that, as a former teen runaway (which was previously established) she had issues with drugs and does not take any drugs ever anymore. Color me surprised! But this revelation ended up being a major development in their relationship. Oh! Oh! I get it! Neat-o.
But now I had a chapter 7 of substance-induced events that needed a new home. And I knew the perfect place for it. Between chapters 13 and 14. The beginning of 14 got spliced onto the top of chapter 7 which was renumbered as Chapter 13 (with 8-13 becoming 7-12) Are you following me here? and then about-to-be 13 and 14 were temporarily combined so I could look for the best chapter ending. Found it. Chopped it. And Voila as they say in France. Chapters 7 and 14 were spliced and split and became 13 and 14. It's a bit messy yet but tomorrow I will smooth that out into a scene that has my heroine who is afraid of backsliding on drugs facing the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of taking a drug that humans with magic routinely abuse... See? Much more at stake.
It's like that game Twister. Only with words and paragraphs and my characters and story instead of people.
This sounds like a horror show, I know. I suspect it is, but that's how it's been for all my books so far. I have an advanced case of esprit d'escalier only since these great ideas have to do with a novel which takes a while to put together, I can actually go back with the perfect bon mot and nobody will ever know I didn't think of it until way late.
I have to do this kind of slice and dice very quickly because I often need to have 3 or 4 chapters all in my head as I reassemble and sort out the bits and put the left overs in the right places, and I don't want to forget who's going where. If I go too slow or think too much every thing just goes to heck. It's scary because in the middle every thing's a bit fat mess, and I get in there and muck about and then it's all better. Usually. To be honest, sometimes it's not and I have to start over. But this one feels good.
Labels: editing, Pantsing, writing freaking writing, writing process, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/04/2008 10:07:00 PM Permalink
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday and Stuff Like That
OK, so I won't bore you with the usual litany about Mondays. Insert our own if you want to.
It was a beautiful day, though. Perfect weather, which was nice after that recent storms. Daffodils! And by the way, I had out go outside in the rain this weekend to get pictures where the light didn't wash out the yellow. I'm still having trouble getting them just right, but, still. They're daffodils!
I'm up to 54.3K on Xia's story. I want to be at 60K by the end of the month. And I want to have a complete draft by end of March so I have April to get it read and massively fixed.
Off to bed.
It was a beautiful day, though. Perfect weather, which was nice after that recent storms. Daffodils! And by the way, I had out go outside in the rain this weekend to get pictures where the light didn't wash out the yellow. I'm still having trouble getting them just right, but, still. They're daffodils!
I'm up to 54.3K on Xia's story. I want to be at 60K by the end of the month. And I want to have a complete draft by end of March so I have April to get it read and massively fixed.
Off to bed.
Labels: flowers, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 2/25/2008 09:20:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Well, golly! Taking a moment to bask
Today I noodled about all day, pretty much, working on chapter 23 of Xia's story. So I was worried that I'd missed my minimum, despite working A LOT on the chapter. But I didn't. In fact, I was only a couple hundred words away from doubling my minimum plus exceeding 50,000 words. So I took a look at chapter 1 and noodled around there long enough to more than double my minimum PLUS discover the chapter rocks. I rewrote the chapter for the new Alexandrine and I have say, it works massively.
So, I'm basking in the glow, insecure in the knowledge that I will be ripping things to shreds shortly and will need to look back at this moment so as not to totally despair.
Also, note to Patti O'Shea: Do NOT stop blogging. I love your blog. I need to hear about your day and your characters talking to you.
Off to bed.
So, I'm basking in the glow, insecure in the knowledge that I will be ripping things to shreds shortly and will need to look back at this moment so as not to totally despair.
Also, note to Patti O'Shea: Do NOT stop blogging. I love your blog. I need to hear about your day and your characters talking to you.
Off to bed.
Labels: Word count, words on the page, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 2/23/2008 10:18:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, February 21, 2008
A lap is only so big, you know...
It's been raining off and on today with the result that my lap has been in high demand. My cat Jasper is small and he fits very nicely on my lap. Jake, however, is big and fluffy and he does not fit so nicely. Plus, he's a pig (not a real one of course, he is a cat.) and when he's curled up behind me, he's always trying to push me off the chair. And then there's the Fudgester who, on nights like this, wants me to hold him. I can only type one-handed for so long. And yet, I managed to double my minimum today.
Xia has been successfully kidnapped and rescued along with another character. I have 23 chapters and and 48,656 thousand words. I think I might actually be at critical mass, except I haven't deleted very many chapters, which is worrying me. I have a lot of cleaning up to do. I have to move one of my hot scenes or maybe write one, to a different spot and then conform my heroine to the character she's becoming. Which means substantially changing another hot scent because, as it turns out, she's more of an adventuress than I originally thought. There's certain things that don't bother her! Anyway, I think the basic story is in place now. The other 10 or so chapters will magically appear (I wish!) when I split off chapters that get too long as I rewrite the heck out of this young puppy. The last scene I save for, well, last. I've learned that for me, it's pointless to write it until after I know everything else. Which comes dead last.
Xia has been successfully kidnapped and rescued along with another character. I have 23 chapters and and 48,656 thousand words. I think I might actually be at critical mass, except I haven't deleted very many chapters, which is worrying me. I have a lot of cleaning up to do. I have to move one of my hot scenes or maybe write one, to a different spot and then conform my heroine to the character she's becoming. Which means substantially changing another hot scent because, as it turns out, she's more of an adventuress than I originally thought. There's certain things that don't bother her! Anyway, I think the basic story is in place now. The other 10 or so chapters will magically appear (I wish!) when I split off chapters that get too long as I rewrite the heck out of this young puppy. The last scene I save for, well, last. I've learned that for me, it's pointless to write it until after I know everything else. Which comes dead last.
Labels: on laps, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 2/21/2008 08:19:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Carolyn Wrote
My sister took my son to the movies and then out for burger tonight. I got to stay home and write. Over 1800 words. Chapter two had some interesting revelations for me, just as did chapter 1. I find that with a full time job and family etc, that I just don't often do much more than 1000 words a day. So that may not seem like so much, except at that rate, in 90 days I'll have 90,000 words. Have to, actually.
Then I ran into some trouble with zipping files. I forgot how much the file zipper program that comes with XP sucks. Awful! I'm not going to deal with WinZip again, though I like it a lot so I ended up downloading 7-zip which is a nice, free little program. Then I re-discovered the fact that the Mac OS assumes a file drag is a file MOVE, where as Windows does a Copy. Oops. So I had to mess around with getting my zip archives (one for the thumb drive, containing only the chapters and a few supporting documents) and a daily zip of everything -- I just add the stuff that's new, and save it with the date name. That way I have a daily archive of my work. And, as happened recently with Scandal, I did have to troll through my archives looking for a certain file in a known state. So, now I have two daily archives and one to transfer to the laptop. Whew! Plus I found a version of 7-zip that works on the Mac, so I think I'm good there.
Then I ran into some trouble with zipping files. I forgot how much the file zipper program that comes with XP sucks. Awful! I'm not going to deal with WinZip again, though I like it a lot so I ended up downloading 7-zip which is a nice, free little program. Then I re-discovered the fact that the Mac OS assumes a file drag is a file MOVE, where as Windows does a Copy. Oops. So I had to mess around with getting my zip archives (one for the thumb drive, containing only the chapters and a few supporting documents) and a daily zip of everything -- I just add the stuff that's new, and save it with the date name. That way I have a daily archive of my work. And, as happened recently with Scandal, I did have to troll through my archives looking for a certain file in a known state. So, now I have two daily archives and one to transfer to the laptop. Whew! Plus I found a version of 7-zip that works on the Mac, so I think I'm good there.
Labels: writing, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 12/27/2007 10:04:00 PM Permalink
Monday, December 10, 2007
Down to the Wire
Today I hit 95,066 words so I'm golden tonight. I'm up to chapter 23 in the final read through. I fixed my two trouble spots and it rocks completely. Put a bit more on the line in a couple chapters tonight. Tomorrow, I'm pushing on.
Tonight, I'm going to bed.
I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt as I finish up. I really love the emotion of his music. Plus sometimes he uses a bad word or two and it's really kind of nice knowing the work wasn't sanitized for consumption. I have three of his CD's now and when I have the money I'll be on a quest for everything else he's done. I can sing along to the music and get myself in a good mood for writing. Which is pretty much the whole point. Yet another artist discovered from MySpace. But not from his profile. From someone else's profile music. So, let's see. Someone has a song of his playing on their profile. Carolyn hears it, and now owns three of his CD's plus an Amazon download of a single he did on some other album. So, why do artists delete their songs from MySpace profiles?
What else? Killer headache. But I can't get sick so I won't. That's it. At my son's soccer practice the temp was 53 with about an hour to go and by the end it was 44. Yeah, people who live with real weather are wondering why I'm complaining about a heat wave but for here, that's just darned cold. I was thinking about putting on my socks.
OK, off to bed.
Tonight, I'm going to bed.
I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt as I finish up. I really love the emotion of his music. Plus sometimes he uses a bad word or two and it's really kind of nice knowing the work wasn't sanitized for consumption. I have three of his CD's now and when I have the money I'll be on a quest for everything else he's done. I can sing along to the music and get myself in a good mood for writing. Which is pretty much the whole point. Yet another artist discovered from MySpace. But not from his profile. From someone else's profile music. So, let's see. Someone has a song of his playing on their profile. Carolyn hears it, and now owns three of his CD's plus an Amazon download of a single he did on some other album. So, why do artists delete their songs from MySpace profiles?
What else? Killer headache. But I can't get sick so I won't. That's it. At my son's soccer practice the temp was 53 with about an hour to go and by the end it was 44. Yeah, people who live with real weather are wondering why I'm complaining about a heat wave but for here, that's just darned cold. I was thinking about putting on my socks.
OK, off to bed.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/10/2007 10:07:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Still working...
I fell asleep this afternoon. I feel a lot better for the nap, but it kinda put a crimp in the reading. I went grocery shopping early today so as to get it out of the way and have my afternoon clear, but a bunch of stuff kept coming up. I washed hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of box elder beetles off the outside of the sliding glass door in my room. After that murderous spree, I admitted I had a couple of rough patches to fix in Scandal and then went and fixed them. I hope. And no I was NOT procrastinating or anything like that. Sheesh! Like I'd ever do that. I just didn't want to stare at all those bugs any more. I didn't. Would you? I wish the peacocks were still here. They ate a lot of box elder beetles.
I had to make two batches of cookies tonight, one for the Darling Child and his lunches for the week, the other for the Cookie Parade at work. Not, as I was hoping, an event where you dress up as your favorite cookie, but one where you bring them to work for every one to enjoy. Can you say good bye diet? I can. Rats.
Anyway, I'm going to read more and hope I find out that I've fixed the problem chapters.
I had to make two batches of cookies tonight, one for the Darling Child and his lunches for the week, the other for the Cookie Parade at work. Not, as I was hoping, an event where you dress up as your favorite cookie, but one where you bring them to work for every one to enjoy. Can you say good bye diet? I can. Rats.
Anyway, I'm going to read more and hope I find out that I've fixed the problem chapters.
Labels: Ack, editing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/09/2007 08:51:00 PM Permalink
Friday, December 07, 2007
Closing in
I think I'm just about done with Scandal. No fork quite yet, but I finished having it read to me. I have a list of action items, going through the MS for phrases I think I've repeated or overused, some continuity etc. There's only 8 things on the list. I'll get through that in the mornning, then print it off and start reading.
At the gym in the AM, I've started blocking out the next paranormal. That's been fun. Sort of.
OK, off to sleep.
At the gym in the AM, I've started blocking out the next paranormal. That's been fun. Sort of.
OK, off to sleep.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/07/2007 11:14:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Typing Typing Typing
Keep those doggies typing
Raw Nerves!
Fix it up
Cut the crap
Add some in
Edit more!
Raw Nerves!
That's me. Working on Scandal. I'm writing a new chapter right now. But I finally got to a spot where I wasn't fixing the crap out of, er, crap and was just fixing typos and polishing, which was SUCH a relief. Then I got to a spot where I realized I needed a new chapter, just to add a certain element of suspense that was missing. But I thought of a good one and after this post I'll be back to it.
What else? In all of November, I think we had exactly 1 day of rain. It's cold (for here) and when I went out this morning to snap some pics, I had to wear shoes instead of my sandals. Geez! My cat Jake finally got tired of trying to push me off my chair and is now back to sleeping on the printer.
Random Pics from this morning:
Raw Nerves!
Fix it up
Cut the crap
Add some in
Edit more!
Raw Nerves!
That's me. Working on Scandal. I'm writing a new chapter right now. But I finally got to a spot where I wasn't fixing the crap out of, er, crap and was just fixing typos and polishing, which was SUCH a relief. Then I got to a spot where I realized I needed a new chapter, just to add a certain element of suspense that was missing. But I thought of a good one and after this post I'll be back to it.
What else? In all of November, I think we had exactly 1 day of rain. It's cold (for here) and when I went out this morning to snap some pics, I had to wear shoes instead of my sandals. Geez! My cat Jake finally got tired of trying to push me off my chair and is now back to sleeping on the printer.
Random Pics from this morning:
The first Snowbells of the Winter
Leaves Frozen In the Birdbath
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/01/2007 08:39:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The draft is complete
I finally pounded out my replacement chapter and despite the original's deletion ended up almost 1200 words ahead. Not to mention at 80K words. Which is within spitting distance of done. Tomorrow, more editing -- or, technically, later today, more editing. No fork yet, but maybe some soft trumpets?
Well, whatever, I'm going to bed on a happier note than I expected.
Well, whatever, I'm going to bed on a happier note than I expected.
Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/25/2007 12:45:00 AM Permalink
Friday, November 16, 2007
Bad Poetry Day (no, there's no meter)
Panic, how do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
You turn my stomach into a rock
When I'm cutting pages.
(Don't worry, that clunk is just the sound of bad writing when it hits the worm hole to the bad writing universe behind my monitor)
You're the ice that runs down my spine
When I play whack a chapter.
(Once yesterday, twice today!
Whack!
Whack! Whack!
At the gym!)
That squiffy feeling in my elbows?
That's you, Panic.
All that writing that came from nowhere
And might even be halfway decent?1
That's from you too.
But I still don't love you.
1. If you're not, you're going into the same black hole you came out of. And yeah, that's a threat and a promise. Try not to Panic about it.
Let me count the ways.
You turn my stomach into a rock
When I'm cutting pages.
(Don't worry, that clunk is just the sound of bad writing when it hits the worm hole to the bad writing universe behind my monitor)
You're the ice that runs down my spine
When I play whack a chapter.
(Once yesterday, twice today!
Whack!
Whack! Whack!
At the gym!)
That squiffy feeling in my elbows?
That's you, Panic.
All that writing that came from nowhere
And might even be halfway decent?1
That's from you too.
But I still don't love you.
1. If you're not, you're going into the same black hole you came out of. And yeah, that's a threat and a promise. Try not to Panic about it.
Labels: Bad Poetry, Scandal, worm holes, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/16/2007 09:10:00 PM Permalink
Monday, November 05, 2007
Reporting In Grumpily
I admit it. I'm grumpy right now. First off, my web host, which hosts two domains of mine, including this one, moved their operations to a new facility. I knew when I heard about it that it would not go smoothly. And it didn't. My writing site was down from Saturday night to some time this morning. There was a brief period when it was up, but mostly, not. My other domain is still down. I'm peeved, but if this site were still down, I'd be transferring to a new host right now, actually, probably I'd be done by now. That's the beauty of separating your domain registration from your web host. I can repoint my name servers any time and be up and running in a new home in about the time it would take me to ftp the files. Anyway, I've been steaming about since Saturday. No fun.
Sigh.
Scandal is torture right now. I'm fixing crap and panicking, too. Oh joy. Not. At the gym this morning, I think I worked out the ending. Back to it.
Sigh.
Scandal is torture right now. I'm fixing crap and panicking, too. Oh joy. Not. At the gym this morning, I think I worked out the ending. Back to it.
Labels: kvetching, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/05/2007 06:22:00 PM Permalink
Friday, November 02, 2007
friday..... at last. But you were late damn you!
Today: Friday aka, the day before the day before Sunday.
Me: Exhausted.
Scandal: Still needs massive editing and lacks an ending.
Tomorrow: Busy. Soccer and writing. That's it.
Sunday: More of the same.
Me: Exhausted.
Scandal: Still needs massive editing and lacks an ending.
Tomorrow: Busy. Soccer and writing. That's it.
Sunday: More of the same.
Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/02/2007 08:28:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Still nervous....
The writing went well tonight, too. Hit my minimum, and now I'm going to bed so I can maybe catch up on my sleep. The dog is asleep on the chair, curled up behind me and the big fluffy cat is on my lap. Kind of nice, but I'm having to sit with a very straight back so as not to disturb any one.
That's it. Kind of boring. Except for my impending sense of doom about the writing. Freaking a bit about deadlines. Urk.
In other news, my website redesign is going along quite well! Can't wait until it's in place.
That's it. Kind of boring. Except for my impending sense of doom about the writing. Freaking a bit about deadlines. Urk.
In other news, my website redesign is going along quite well! Can't wait until it's in place.
Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 10/04/2007 08:47:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Home and Brain Dead
Just got back from the Soccer Tournament. The boys did great. To be honest, all the parents expected we'd be heading home after the 3rd game. They've been on the wrong end of some blow outs in league play. They narrowly lost their first game by a goal, but they won their second game 5-nil, which was a great end to the first day. In order to advance they needed to win game three 1-nil or beat them by three, and against a team that creamed both their previous opponents. They won 1-0. They advanced and took 4th out of 12 teams. Whew! The downside is I didn't get any writing done. Zippo, and I'm exhausted now and going to bed as soon as I have the laundry in the dryer.
I tried to blog this morning but the hotel wireless cut out on me. Frown. I'm feeling kind of incoherent right now. I need sleep.
I tried to blog this morning but the hotel wireless cut out on me. Frown. I'm feeling kind of incoherent right now. I need sleep.
Labels: writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/30/2007 08:12:00 PM Permalink
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday... I love you madly, if only you came after Monday....
What a long week. The happy news is I've hit or exceeded my minimum every day, including today. I'm closing in on the ending for Scandal which is still going well. Only I know I have a lot of fixing to do...
This weekend my son has a soccer tournament in a town far enough away that it's an overnighter for us. So, I'm freaking a bit about whether I'll be able to get enough writing done. The laptop is coming with me, naturally.
I'm going to bed now. One person has requested my patented Vishous Dish, any other takers? Isn't it great there's a book people care about so much? This is me. Waiting for Phury...
This weekend my son has a soccer tournament in a town far enough away that it's an overnighter for us. So, I'm freaking a bit about whether I'll be able to get enough writing done. The laptop is coming with me, naturally.
I'm going to bed now. One person has requested my patented Vishous Dish, any other takers? Isn't it great there's a book people care about so much? This is me. Waiting for Phury...
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/28/2007 09:15:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The hassles of modern life
There are several actually. But the one on my mind right now is Credit Cards. I try never to use them anymore. There are some things, however, for which a credit card is a necessity. Hotel reservations. On line purchases, certain bills. But I have those amounts budgeted and I am working on being debt free ASAP. So, the hassle is that the other day I had to reserve a hotel room for a soccer tournament and my credit card was not in my wallet. Uh-oh! I hadn't shredded the old one and so was able to get the number and reserve the room. But then I had to call and cancel the missing card.
I have no idea where the card might be. I haven't used it for a physical purchase in months and months and months. I don't really know when I saw it last. So today the new card arrived and I had to spend a couple of hours updating my card info everywhere there's a recurring charge. I still don't have them all yet. What a hassle. And the biggest hassle of all turned out to be Amazon! Completely hidden and unintuitive.
Right, so I'm blogging early tonight so I can wrap up the night's work on Scandal and fall straight into bed. Today was a dumb, boring day full of hassles. Blech. Yesterday's work on Scandal went well, but I'm starting to feel panicky about the amount of work that is, or isn't, getting done.
Off to write.
I have no idea where the card might be. I haven't used it for a physical purchase in months and months and months. I don't really know when I saw it last. So today the new card arrived and I had to spend a couple of hours updating my card info everywhere there's a recurring charge. I still don't have them all yet. What a hassle. And the biggest hassle of all turned out to be Amazon! Completely hidden and unintuitive.
Right, so I'm blogging early tonight so I can wrap up the night's work on Scandal and fall straight into bed. Today was a dumb, boring day full of hassles. Blech. Yesterday's work on Scandal went well, but I'm starting to feel panicky about the amount of work that is, or isn't, getting done.
Off to write.
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/18/2007 07:53:00 PM Permalink
Friday, August 24, 2007
Late Night With Carolyn
So all right, it's 9:50pm, but for me that's late. I'm done with my writing day, having hit my minimum, and now I can stay up long enough to blog about it because I don't have to get up at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow. (Can you say Yippers!?) I can.
Took the DC to soccer practice and worked in the car with the headphones on listening to some tunes while I wrote the first of the two scenes I notebooked last night. A few things I intended turned out to be contrary to my characters, so I did it differently. I bought a pizza for dinner, and the DC ate on the way home so all I had to do was start the laundry and procrastinate for a while before I wrote the second scene for the new chapter.
So now the minimum is taken care of and I'm happy and tired. Going to bed now. I was going to write some really amusing text here, but this is the best I can do: Pretend this is really amusing text.
Night!
Took the DC to soccer practice and worked in the car with the headphones on listening to some tunes while I wrote the first of the two scenes I notebooked last night. A few things I intended turned out to be contrary to my characters, so I did it differently. I bought a pizza for dinner, and the DC ate on the way home so all I had to do was start the laundry and procrastinate for a while before I wrote the second scene for the new chapter.
So now the minimum is taken care of and I'm happy and tired. Going to bed now. I was going to write some really amusing text here, but this is the best I can do: Pretend this is really amusing text.
Night!
Labels: Scandal, writing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 8/24/2007 09:49:00 PM Permalink
