In Which I Am Distracted

I'm pretty close to finishing my WIP. Which is awesome. I plan on buying myself a pretty new pen for revisions once it's complete. And even though I'm close, and should be excited and stuff, the ending is just dragging a bit. I never have problems with endings. But this one? Bleh.

Well it's still got some space to shape up, we'll see how it goes.

What I really want to talk about is getting distracted. I'm easily distracted, especially from writing. I'm never going to be one of those writers who LOVES to write, who can't go a day without doing it and all that other stuff. No, I'm one of those writers who find any excuse AT ALL to avoid writing. Spider Solitaire? Just one game...or maybe just until I win a game. Check some blogs? Yeah that won't take long. Oh, I'd better write a blog entry before I get too far behind. Shoot some zombies? Hells yeah I want to shoot some zombies.

I'll shoot zombies with Nick, Ellis Coach and Rochelle any time...

That last one is particularly tricky. There have been a few times where I've turned down the zombie shooting, and then I always regret it. It's not something one can join in the middle of either, since we play online. The few times I've declined, I spend the whole time watching Brother play L4D2, not writing, and wishing I was playing too. At least if i play, well I have some fun.

So I try really hard to get my writing done before anyone else gets home from work. But some days I don't succeed. But then, of course, some days I put in 8K.

So maybe it all balances out? Yeah... let's go with that.

Anyone else find certain things distract them beyond recovery?

In Which I Embarrass Myself A Bit

So during my lunch breaks (you know, when I move from the office to go sit in the living room) I have to find something to watch on TV when I'm eating. Except there's nothing worth watching on at 12 or 1 o'clock during the weekday (and no, Wendy Williams doesn't count).

So I use our lovely DVR to tape shows for me purely to watch during my lunch breaks. Tuesdays are always the best day because Monday evenings are a big DVR night. Intervention? Awesome. Castle? Even more awesome. Because it's about a writer and the writer is Nathan Fillion! If you don't love Nathan Fillion, you are not human.

Adorable!

But lately I've been pushing Castle back a day or two. Why is that you ask? Well I've found a new lunch TV show...

Make It Or Break It

Take it all in. It's as fantastic as it looks.

I mean, what's not to like? For example - On this week's episode, Payson (the blonde in the blue leotard) had to start going to Public Highschool. Last season she broke her back and she's done with gymnastics. FOREVER!

Anyway she goes to gym class and the gym teacher recognizes her (she was headed to the Olympics until her accident). Then typical bitchy popular girl is all "hey everyone watch me do this back handspring I'm a cheerleader blah blah" and she does it and it's crappy.

SO THEN, and you won't believe this, the gym teacher makes Payson tell the popular girl what she did wrong! Awesome.

Later, the popular girl is daring Payson to show them a back handspring (which of course she can't, she's in a back brace) when Payson's gymnast friends (the ones above) show up and put popular girl in her place by doing super back handsprings! YES! Fight bullying with gymnastics!

Seriously I'm not even embarrassed by how much I love this show. It's full of so much melodrama and teen angst, it's impossible not to love it.

Let's see, how can I relate this to writing... hmmm... sleeping with best friend's boyfriend? No... Mom having an affair with gymnastics coach? Definitely not. Ah, here we go.

Nicky, cute boy National Champion is angry because one of the girls is blackmailing him for giving Payson cortisone before she hurt her back.

Anyway, he's actually a nice guy and a good gymnast and he had this to say to Kaylie, the girl National Champion who's kind of in love with her new found fame:

"Imagine if you focused as much on improving yourself as you do selling yourself". Oh ouch.

It's a good point. Yeah this blog post is a stretch in relation to writing, but the reason it is is because I'm still behind from doing all that writing on Sunday. And really, isn't that writing the whole point of being a writer? Though I LOVE this writing and all my blog friends. Which is why I'll always have something, even if it's just a chat about Make It Or Break It (and believe me, there will be more...) or some LOLCats

I gotta go - Lauren is doing a hiphop dance on the balance beam. Classic.

In Which My Query Is Critiqued

Ugh.

You know how when you work out for the first time in a long time, and the next day you're in a lot of pain? But you know it's good for you - it's a good pain - but that still doesn't change the fact that it hurts when you laugh?

That's how I feel.

I submitted my Query to Evil Editor for it to be critiqued (Face-Lift 723). After two weeks of anticipation (and Twin checking every day) it was finally posted. And of course it was posted when I was having a negative attitude day (don't worry, I fixed that by cramming my gullet full of macaroni and cheese and tackling the dishes)(Also by watching Intervention, because it makes me realize things could always be worse...).

I thought my query was pretty strong, and I guess looking back on many of the other Evil Editor Queries (like Face-Lift 721...) I still feel it was pretty strong.

I just need to tighten up some areas, and loosen others.
After all, I do love an excuse to edit and revise things...

Back into the breach!

In Which I Write Too Much

I think I hurt my brain.

Yesterday, Sunday, I planned on writing a lot. I had a specific plot point I wanted to get to in the WIP and I was going to write until I reached there. It was ordained.

I woke up early, I put on pants so I could go grocery shopping right after I dropped Twin off for work (her own truck is banged up and caught up in claims) and I got home before 10. Just had to shower, throw the laundry in the washer and then I was good to go. Yes I had to do dishes, but those could wait. I didn't think it would take me all that long to reach the certain point in the WIP. I had done a little outline the night before.

WRONG.

I wrote from about 11:00 to 4:30, which was when I had to stop to go fetch Twin. I logged a bit over 8,000 words which seems like a lot, but on one of my more prolific nano days I logged close to 8,500 and that didn't leave me feeling exhausted or burned out. This only equalled out to about 1600 words an hour. Good. But not great. At least, not great for me who can often do 2K in an hour if the words are flowing and I'm not distracted.

I think the reason that yesterday's expedition in writing hurt so bad (I could barely see straight when I stopped. Except for the dirty dishes. I could see those fine...) is because I had set a goal for myself and was struggling to reach it.

not my exact dirty dishes. but close...

I really, really thought I would be able to reach this plot point in a couple hours. I thought by 1, maybe 2 o'clock I would be done and could do the dishes, write some blog posts and watch some TV.

In fact, I only stopped writing for a few things:

1. when I absolutely had to go to the bathroom
2. when I realized I was starving and needed to eat my lunch

There were a few mild distractions. Brother turned on The Truman Show for about 20 minutes. But I had my headset on and turned the TV off as soon as he left. Same for when he turned on Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Neither of those should have been enough to slow me down.

When it became apparent that the writing was taking longer than I liked, and then later, when I started to think that I might not make my deadline, well I focused solely on getting through as much plot as possible.

It hurt. And I suspect some of the writing I did was forced and not very good (it's a first draft, though, so who cares).

Did I reach the point I was aiming for? Nope. Not even close. My estimate was way off (also I added a new character who just showed up. Surprised? Me too.)

So, here's how my day went - 5 hours straight of writing.
What I have to show for it:

Dirty Dishes
Dirty Laundry
A headache
0 blog posts written (1 now that this one is complete)

But at least I'm 8K farther along on the WIP. 93K is pretty awesome. I hope it'll end around 110 t0 120K so I have a lot of space to cut.

Well, at the very least I ended the night with a great Lifetime Movie: The Pregnancy Pact.

Awesome Sauce

Friday Fun Words

Here I am, Yvie, and it's Friday again, and you know what that means? That's right! Friday Fun Words! Where I make up definitions for word verification words, in order for you, my readers, to use them in everyday speech.

But, before we get to that, did you know that in some places they eat monkeys? I saw it on a movie once, they ate monkey brains.
Doesn't that make you nervous, ape-friends? That someone could sneak in your ape home, and eat your brains? And none of your monkey screeching or poop throwing would help you at all, I bet.
No? That doesn't bother you?
Well OK then. I was just checking.

It would make me nervous as hell...

On to the words!

Antioto - for those people who hate the star of that classic The Wizard Of Oz. On a side note, the initial casting of the star was a brindle french bulldog named Captain. But instead we got a yappy terrier.

Exila - when Japan's giant lizard is sent to live elsewhere

Moimmic - when you copy yourself

Goningst - when you leave better than anyone else

Ringsica - when your Dring contains poison, or spoiled milk and you still drink it.

Chend - a stopping point for chimps

Proat - a professional grain

Sistor - when your female sibling, is in fact, a robut.

I'll see you next week, ape-friends. On behalf of everyone, please remember to wash your hands after you fling your poo.

Happy Blog Award

Thanks to Karen over at I'm Always Write blog for nominating me for the Happy Blog Award.

Awesome.

So the deal is I list 10 things that make me happy and then pass it on to 10 blogs. However I think I will limit it to 5 blogs because I'm a bit of the same mindset as DL at Cruising Altitude, and ten seems like an awful lot...

Things that make me happy and why, in no particular order:

1. My dogs. Because I love them and they make me laugh

George. AKA Porge

Yvie. AKA Miss B

Tula. AKA Toots

2. My Family. Because I love them and they make me laugh

3. Naruto Shippuden. Because it's a great continuation off the first story line and it makes me want to be a ninja.



4. The weekend. Because, dur, I don't have to work.



5. Shopping. Yay! spending money makes me feel good temporarily!

those bags don't look very full...

6. Food stuff. Because it tastes good.

this is a crappy pic of some of the sushi Twin and I had this last Monday on our day off. mmmmm

6. The MN renfest. Because I get to do #5, #6, bring #1 and #2, all while dressed up.

that's exactly what it looks like. take it all in...

7. Swimming. Because I think it's fun. I wish I lived on a lake or had a pool

little did you know, this is where I actually do my swimming. jealous?

8. Reading. Because it's fun and makes me want to write better.

9. Board games. Because they're fun and I often win

to be fair, I don't know if I've actually won this game yet...

10. Badminton. Again, because it's fun.

myself, Twin and Mom can play for HOURS

And the 5 blogs I will pass this on too (feel free to participate or not)

1. Palindrome at Musings of a Palindrome

2. Teebore at Gentlemen of Leisure

3. Joan Crawford at Things I Yell At You

4. Sandi at It Started With a Ritz Cracker

5. Anne at Piedmont Writer

In Which I Question A Commission

Twin's been harping on me lately about what I should write after I finish the first draft of Foxfire (which should be soon, now. Excitement!).

A few months ago we were on a walk with the dogs and we discussed how the music I listened to when working on Foxfire was the exact same music I used to listen to when I wrote fanfiction in high school (see yesterday)

what kind of fanfiction did I write? here's a hint for you nerdy minded folks

So we started to talk about the fanfiction and how it had been so much fun and that maybe we should re-read some of it again?

Luckily for us, at the end of the fan fiction reign (about four years) we had taken 3 ring binders and saved most of the fanfiction that had been printed (later, upon further inspection, we discovered that most of the stories in the binder were mine, which I have saved on my laptop anyway. But we had a few from other friends as well).

So we re-read the stories.

All.
Of.
Them.

Oh God at first they were HORRIBLE. My writing was so bad and the Mary Sue qualities so terrible it was almost too painful to read. But we pressed on (mostly because we were both in between books at the time)

The writing got much better (though it was a guarantee that at least one character in each story would have a single tear run down their face. (*Sniff* Oh the drama!)) and the Mary Sue tendencies started to take a back seat (but they were never gone...). By the end of our reading stint, well, we were both once again in love with the fanfiction and all it's terrible glory.

Twin pointed out that there were a few stories that I had written that weren't in the books and I found them on my laptop, all unfinished, most of them around 15 pages.
There was one which took place years in the future of the characters. We both read it and both agreed that right when it started to get good, I stopped writing. Who knows why? I was probably distracted by some other story (I'm like that, easily sidetracked by something new, shiny and fresh. Which is why it's important for me that once I start a new piece, I finish it as fast as possible...)

The little half piece was fun, had good characterization (and in these stories there was an absurd amount of characters, around 16-20 depending on which friends at the time wanted to be included) and the plot seemed exciting.

It had been so long since I had looked at these stories or even thought of them that I really had no clue as to what I had planned for this one. What was going to happen? Well, don't ask me...

But Twin did. Twin wanted to know what I had had planned for it all those years ago and so I dug up my old writing journals (Puppy in the Pot I and Puppy in the Pot II (they were the same journal, but one had a blue stripe and one a gray stripe. II was missing until Twin somehow managed to find it a few weeks ago. Which was good because even though it was full of horrible crap that will forever be unusable, it's full of MY crap and it's nice to see how I've grown as a writer)).

I searched through both of them looking for any clues as to the plot for this story. I used to write detailed plot notes for all my fanfiction in those journals, but this piece was towards the end of high school, when I began to become disenfranchised with the whole fanfiction idea and therefore didn't write a lot of notes. I also frequently thought to myself that I wouldn't ever forget the ideas because I have a very good memory (which is true) but clearly 28 year old Sarah has proven 18 year old Sarah a dumbass.

So there was nothing. The story was done where I had left it over ten years earlier: at the end of an action scene, the characters just beginning to come together to discuss what it is they should do (do they give up their normal lives? or do they ignore the threat and continue forward as they are, safe and complacent? ooohh conflict!)

So Twin has requested (Nay, demanded) something she has never done before. She has ordered a commission...
Once I'm done with the first draft of Foxfire, she wants me to finish up the fanfiction piece.

I'm of two minds on the whole idea. I'll need something to write when I'm done with Foxfire. Foxfire will need to be locked away for at least a month before I take it out to look at it again with fresh eyes, but I know I won't want to start another new novel so soon. Nothing's quite ready yet and I don't want to get so excited about a new piece that I stop revising Foxfire. So a stupid little fanfiction piece may actually work well in that sense.

Also I, too, kind of want to know what happens and no one's going to tell me but me. So.

But I really have no excitement for it. And if there's no excitement built up, I don't see it going far. Even if I were to cut more than half of the characters (and I would. Immediately) there's all these children and crap which have to be included because that was the point of the story in the first place. Sigh.

Also I promised both Teebore and Twin that I would finish my previous WIP so they can see what happens. I'd like to think it shouldn't be hard, after all it's already at over 70K and I just have to write a part in the middle and then the end...but that's what I had been saying to myself for awhile before NaNo forced me to take a break from it.

For the commission, I'd almost have to start it over, which might be much easier to do than trying to pick up where I left off a decade ago. And then, if there was anything that I absolutely loved in the first version (and there were a few smile worthy moments) I could just copy and paste them into the new version.

Either way, Twin hasn't forgotten. She brings it up any time I even hint at finishing Foxfire. Sometimes she likes to throw in "you think I've forgotten, but I haven't. I want that commission". So unless I want to live with Twin shooting me disapproving (and dead, dead) eyes, I'll probably have to buck up and just do the damn commission, Mary Sue characters and all.

So anyone else out there ever have to do a commission for a slavemaster loved one? If so, how did it go?