While we're waiting...

I'm waiting... for agents to reply, for beta readers to give feedback, for the world to open up and swallow me whole, to eat a chocolate cake. Yea I've got issues.

But while I am waiting I decided to entertain myself and anyone who may care to read over this post (or wants to be mindlessly entertained as well).

And Jenna Marbles will be playing the part of ME!

Lets get this started

 

AND SCENE!


HAVE FUN!

 

 

 

Three birds with one post!

1. Inspiration for the day:

I'm trying, so I at least can at least say I did. I have queried 10 agents so far, but i'm still unsure of my pitch so I'm going to let it percolate in my head for a couple of days and rework it before querying further.

2. A great blog with great books to read, but also resources for authors (or wannabe's like me)
                          NA Alley - All about New Adult books!

3. A sneak peak at some of my book:  This is from early on in the book

My head felt impossibly heavy and pounded as every heart beat squeezed more blood into it. I tried opening one eye and then the other. The muted light creeping through the blinds was dim enough to be tolerable.

The memories from last night hit me like a brick in the face, causing me to groan and bury my head in the closest pillow. The sudden realization that it was not my pillow had the opposite effect, I quickly sat up.

OH SNAP! Someone had a rough night or morning.

HAVE FUN!

Everyones still acting so... NORMAL

AHHHHHH  I am exploding!

People, other than the ones in my imagination, have read my book.

AND

THEY LOVE IT

OK, to be transparent, I've only had 2 readers so far. But it is out there now and I have several more people who will provide feed back.

Its great that they like my book, but that's not really the point right now (Actually its the best thing ever. I love that others love my story). BUT I am just freaking out that people have read it. period.

How has the world not exploded.

Anyways, I guess this is what happens when you face your fear.. it becomes a little less scary and a little more normal.

Except.. Family can still NOT read my book. Not yet anyways. (my heart just skipped a beat thinking about it.)

 

HAVE FUN!!!

I am on a roll!

I AM HAPPY!

 I Accomplished goal number 2:  I condensed my book to a reasonable 105,000 words from 118, 000


YAY!

Now I have to clear my mind (going to watch The Great Gatsby) and then revisit the book and read it from start to end, but it's hard to look at it with fresh eyes.

Next step: I need a beta reader! or several Beta Readers.

Off to Goodreads I go. - in case you don't know that's a site all about books (and they have beta readers)! and if you didn't know that then you need to stop reading this and go there now. Right now.

 

 

Have Fun!

Lets Not Overreact!

I am adjusting my goal... you know the one.

I think I was suppose to finish my book today, well I didn't. So now I am giving myself till Aug 9. 8 more days.

I have to go back to work on the 19th, so it has to be done then, but I hope to spend that last week sending out manuscripts to agents and researching self publishing.

Ok so lets look at what happened for a second.

1. I went camping and to the beach. So basically I let life interfere. If I didn't do those things the book would be done. 
2.  But also a kinda cool thing interfered, inspiration. I realized some of my minor characters had this motivation that didn't match their actions in the beginning of the story. SO I've been adjusting that.

Here's my quote for the day:

 

 

I have to say ^ that has been the best thing about writing. I feel like I am doing what I LOVE and it has made all the difference in my joy and contentment.

 

So back to it:

Still on step 1: Write book (  8 day's left, serious this time.)

Word count: 97, 771( Still revising and cutting past scenes, so I'm not sure how many words total)

HAVE FUN!

 

Music mode

An extra post today, since I'm camping tomorrow and wont be posting ;)

I wanted to start organizing my book playlist. Not all books have one, but it seems to be a growing trend and well my characters seem to be speaking through these songs.

This is just the start:

• Stay- Rihanna Ft. Mikky Ekko 

All of the other songs are equal, but this is the anthem for my book!!!!

• Everything Has Changed- by Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran

 

• Kiss Me- Ed Sheeran

• Let me love you- Ne- Yo

There's more, but this is just off the top of my head. I have to start gathering them all together. I think the rest will be country, since the main character is into that.

Still on step 1: Write book ( 6 day's left- minus one day off for camping, but I'll be planning.)

Word count: 97, 636   ( about  3,000 words to go.... I wrote more than that yesterday alone. I've so got this!)

HAVE FUN!

Jumping the gun, but it's a foregone conclusion.

And that quote belongs with this quote:

And boy do my goals SCARE me!

But you know what? They also excite me. ALOT. In fact I'd say the excitement level is HUGE.

HUGE

Maybe it's because I am on the verge of accomplishing one of my goals that I always had (I've been saying I wanted to write a book since I was in high school) but never truly believed I would do.

Crazy.

The goal wasn't even to be published.. Although that is the next goal on my to do list, it was just to write a book.  And I am almost there (Like 7 days away)

What changed?

I set a deadline, I created  a 30 before 30 list. 30 goals to accomplish before I'm 30.

 And you know what else? A lot of those goals were bull *it. I had trouble creating 30 of them, the only one that mattered, was the writing of this book. I had let the fear of failure keep me from this goal for far to long.

In the beginning the fear was deafening, there was very little excitement.

Once I started writing the fear lessened, and the excitement grew.  Now I am so freaking excited, I've got a perma-smile. NOTHING CAN KILL MY JOY!

and I do mean nothing, I've had a shitty past couple of weeks. But my writing has saved me. I channeled my negative emotions into it, and was left with joy and beauty.

Nothing feels better than reaching a goal you thought you couldn't do!

Still on step 1: Write book ( 6 day's left. Im going camping this weekend, otherwise I would probably reach the goal sooner. )

Word count: 97, 636   ( about  3,000 words to go.... I wrote more than that yesterday alone. I've so got this!)

HAVE FUN!

Family scares the $#!+ out of me!

I have decided that I want it.

I am afraid of pieces of it though... Lets analyze this.

I LOVE the writing, when I'm in the moment and barely feel like I'm thinking. More like translating or what is it called when a medium speaks for a ghost? I don't know, but you get the point. I love that. It's easy and its fun. And I love learning new things about my characters.

So what scares me? Other people reading it. Mainly family and friends. To everyone else I'm faceless author, or they will associate me with the picture on the book (hey I can dream that it will get that far) But I do not want my family reading it.  Then I have to face them.

I took a brave step and told some of them I am writing a book, and it didn't ease my fears. It made it worst. Now they keep teasing that I'm writing about our crazy family and they ask,  what character are they?

I am writing a book, and there are obviously pieces of my personality in it, I mean it's kinda impossible not to do so. But it has nothing to do with my family.

And thats not really my fear, that they see themselves in the book. I cant really pinpoint why them reading  scares me but  I DO NOT WANT THEM TO READ MY BOOK.

Why? I don't know.

I have to get over it though because they could possibly be the only people who read it.

On another note, you might be wondering about my book (I'm gonna go ahead and pretend people read this blog) I am writing a new adult novel. Which I need to get back to, so more details later.

Still on step 1: Write book ( 8 day's left , YIKES)

Word count: 91,768   ( about 8,000 words to go.) 

HAVE FUN!

Do you not realize I'm trying to eat!

^ That really has nothing to do with what I'm gonna write about today.

Except that it has everything to do with life. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but the tortoise and the hare was a load of crap. That turtle may have won the race, but that rabbit was still faster, he was just a lazy, cocky SOB.

Everyone messed up the moral to that story.. It wasn't slow and steady wins, it's cocky douches lose.

Now back to our normally scheduled blog:

Inspiration can hit anywhere, and for me it hits at the most inconvenient time. Always.

When I run, my mind brainstorms, more than that it's a hurricane of ideas. Problem is I don't carry pen and paper, I barely know how to carry my water bottle... but that's a completely different story. I know I've forgotten some good ideas out on the road, but that's ok cause I've come back with some of the best parts of the story.

At least when I run I know what I'm getting into. But when I'm in a crowded room and my characters start going crazy in my head, its pretty inconvenient, not to mention rude to others who are trying to talk to me.

I'm in the middle of dinner last night and my two main characters decide to start arguing, but it's a really interesting argument.

Sorry smalls, mommy can't watch you tie your spaghetti in a knot, I've got to get back to writing.


Still on step 1: Write book ( 9 day's left)

Word count: 91,234  ( That number is amazing.. but crap since it's not much further than yesterday. Picking up speed today, no distractions.) 

HAVE FUN!

I truly want to watch TV!

Many things aren't equal, but everyone gets the same 24 hours a day, 7days a week. We make time for what we truly want.

I read about a self published author who writes her books in 2 weeks. (She probably doesn't have the smalls running around)

I spend too many of those hours, watching TV. All those HBO and Showtime series... Awesome and addicting. (I currently am watching Dexter, as I type this.)   30 minutes down so far today.

I also spend too much time reading, all though it's hard to think of this as wasted, I now consider it research and educational. I can do that now that I'm writing my own book.

Ahh back to my book... I only have 10 days left, so I am banned from reading other books for the next 10 days and I will limit my tv. (Hey Its the middle of Tru blood series, I cant miss what happens to Sookie.)

Now to get back to it.

Still on step 1: Write book (10 day's a way.  I got this)

Word count: 90,746  ( I have to get on this, I have a whole list of things I did instead yesterday, but what I truly want is to get this story out, so I need to prioritize accordingly.)

HAVE FUN!

I do things my way... once I check that your way's not better.

^ My motivation for the day :)


A friend and I were talking about life lessons we have learned, that we really want our smalls to know. (Preferably a lot sooner than when we learned it).

 I told him, I only just fully accepted that there's no directions to life.  In everything I did, school, job, kids, house decorating, etc.. I always googled it, to see how others were doing it.  Well, I finally realized that I wasted a bunch of time. I mean, yes, I still google for inspiration and ideas, but I don't keep going for hours once I have formed an idea in my head.

I wasted a lot of time googling for a picture or directions for how to complete the idea's in my head. Well you know what. They weren't there, because they are my ideas, I needed to create the directions for it.

Same thing with my book. I googled how to write, I was really concerned with the process. Should I write in a linear line or hop around?  how should I organize chapters? Should I write in first person? Should I write in present or past tense?

Well the consensus was develop your idea and then write the way that feels most comfortable for you. The way that your story tells you to write. And it will speak to you ( See my previous post) .

I will stop wasting time being concerned with how others are writing or what they are writing, I need to write my own book, my way.

Still on step 1: Write book (Only 11 days left! EEK)

Word count: 90,438   ( I had to clean yesterday so I only increased 500 words. Ill make it up today ;) )

HAVE FUN!

Bruce Lee told me I could.

" A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at." - Bruce Lee

While I do think this quote is a little bit of a cop out, I'm going with it.

I had a goal: Finish my book.

I think I need to refine it and set a deadline.

New and improved goal: I will finish my book by the end of July.

That is  (checking calendar) 12 day's away, including today.  I estimate that I have about 20,000 words left in me for this book (maybe less). So I need to average (getting calculator) 1,667 words a day....

hmm Thursday night I said I had 87,372 words completed. At the moment I have 89,938 words and I haven't written today yet (hey I've got to put in some quality time with my smalls).  So, anywho, that means I have written 2,566 words in about a day and a half. My goal seems reasonable.  YES, GO ME.

SO I have something to aim at... I think  I can completely hit this target, but if I miss a little and I have to go into August then so be it, Thanks Bruce Lee for forgiving me my failures and letting me procrastinate :)

But I wont. I don't need a failure plan, cause my book will be done in 12 days. Then I will be an official author, weather the world reads it or not.  I will have completed a goal and that's an awesome feeling.

 STEP 1: Finish book - nearly there, 12 days away maximum.

Word count: 89,938

 

HAVE FUN !

Not Stopping - except briefly to write this...

 Found this awesome article:

25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing

If ever you need to refocus and get back on track, go read that^

Ironically, I came across it while doing several of the things I should stop doing.

Namely Number 2: Stop Stopping

quoting the article: " the only way you can finish something is by not stopping. That story isn’t going to unfuck itself."


Yup... so with that piece of advice fresh in my head, let me get back to it.

Still on Step 1: Finish Book

Have Fun!