Category: reasons I’m not writing

Spring Fever

I’m ready for spring. I know the weather has been very spring-like for the last few weeks, but I’m ready for full-fledged, official spring. I always get spring fever. Every year. When the weather gets warm, I want to be going somewhere, doing something. It doesn’t even matter what. Just something. I love the Texas wildflowers in springtime, too. The Indian paintbrushes and the bluebonnets that bloom along the roadside are my absolute favorite flowers, and they are one of the things I missed when I lived out of state, so I’m really looking forward to seeing them this year.

Unfortunately, I’m also easily distracted in the springtime. That makes writing a little more difficult. Even sitting here right now, with the window open, I can hear the birds singing, and I find myself listening to that instead of writing. I guess that’s a sign I need to start working on writing discipline a little harder again. My daily word count goal isn’t much, but sometimes it’s a struggle, and sometimes I find myself rambling a bit. Part of that is that I’m down to the last third of the MS. Part of it is I’ve got another story idea growing in my mind, and the lure of something new and shiny is distracting the Muse. (And telling the Muse to focus apparently doesn’t work, either. I’ve tried.) Any suggestions for staying on target are welcome!

Where’d the Week Go?

Seriously. How is already Saturday night? The week’s over, and I’m not really sure what I accomplished this week. Let’s see…I remember doing homework. More homework. And yes, MORE homework. That’s an awful lot of school work, especially since I can’t remember what else I did this week. *thinking….thinking*….Hmm. I wrote two book reviews for Examiner.com. Read a few books (the first four books in Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra series. Really enjoying them.) Ah….what else? I can’t think of anything else. That’s just…ridiculous. Oh! I did get some writing done. Yes. About 3500 words this week. I know it’s not a lot, but it’s steady writing every day, and that’s my main goal.

My Muse is working on a new story idea. I can feel it! I should probably be writing some of the details she throws at me down. Things are coming together. I have a vague idea of a character, well, two, and the main conflict, so that’s cool. The setting is coming together, too, and it should be something radically different than I’ve ever written before. I’m actually starting to get really excited about the idea, but I’m trying not to rush my Muse. Bad idea, that.

No revisions done this week. Which gives me…two days to finish Lesson 4 of HTRYN. Guess I need to get on that, huh? Okay. I’m off to do more homework. Two exams next week, and some essay questions that are waiting for my attention (Not the kind of writing I enjoy. At all.) And I’ll have another book review up tomorrow.

Revision Block

Is there such a thing? If so, I have a raging case of it. It’s worse than staring at a blank page and being unable to think of a single word to write (although that’s pretty bad). A few weeks ago, I started working through HTRYN with Chasing Shadows. Lessons 1 & 2 weren’t bad, but Lesson 3….all I’ve done is read the lesson and punch holes in my index cards. Not exactly a hotbed of revision activity.

I’m not sure why I’m having such trouble getting started on this. Well, I DO tend to have issues with The Sentence, even if it’s The Revision Sentence, so that could be part of it. But that’s the only hazy idea I have for what’s going on mentally. I’d say it’s lack of motivation, but…I’ve been writing every day. Only a bit, but still, daily progress. And I’ve been doing some pre-reading for school. And working out almost every day. So clearly I have some motivation.

I have absolute faith in the HTRYN process. I know what it did for Werewolves for Dummies, and I have every faith it can take Chasing Shadows that much closer to the story I want it to be. Of course, it won’t do that if I don’t actually apply it, so there’s the general problem with that idea. Hmm…Could be fear of failure. Of course, not revising the story at all is even more clearly a failure, so that should be an incentive…

Okay. Tomorrow I intend to work through Lesson 3 of HTRYN. ALL of Lesson 3. And get a few words written, of course. Wish me luck!

Back…Sorta

So, I went on vacation for two weeks last month.  I didn’t go anywhere special, really, just back home to Texas.  I had a fantastic vacation, got to see all of my friends and loved ones, and just generally had a really good time.  But I was super busy the entire time, so when I got home, I felt like I needed another vacation to recover.   And…I’m still not quite recovered, even though I’ve been back about three weeks.

I haven’t done any writing or revising at all.  None.  Zilch.  Nada.  Just…haven’t been in the mood, I guess.  Maybe too much going on mentally, and that, coupled with the physical tiredness, just hasn’t let me be in the mood to work on anything.  Hopefully that will change soon.  Regardless, about the only thing I’ve accomplished lately is reading a lot of books, so I’m planning to post about those this weekend.  ‘Til then…well, here’s to my complete mental recovery…I need all the help I can get.

Bodyslammed By Real Life…

In a BIG way, this week. I’m getting towards the end of the revision for the werewolf story, which means all my scene “revisions”…are writing new scenes from scratch (due to the great computer malfunction, a.k.a. sporadic backup habits). So each scene is requiring a little bit more work than just revising already existing scenes. The good thing is that I have written most of the scenes before, so I have a feel for what needs to happen. The bad things is, well, having to write them again. My own fault, but still annoying.

At this point in the week, I intended to have six new scenes done. How many do I actually have done? Two. Yep. Just two. But I have a plan…I have an appointment for academic advising this morning, then I’m going to the job early, to spend some quality, internet-free time writing before I actually have to BE at work. I’m hoping that will get me another couple of scenes. Then, possibly, I’ll have time to do some extra tomorrow and/or Friday. Which leaves me with Saturday (again, my goal is only two scenes), and Sunday–to finish up all of the “hands-on” part of the revision.

The angel story is languishing a little bit right now, but I’m hoping to get a few lessons in on it this week, too. And I wouldn’t be quite so behind, except I’m baby-sitting a 4-month-old puppy this week. Do you have any idea how hard it is to do ANYTHING when there’s a puppy with severe separation anxiety around, one that insists on being underfoot every second, and whining and howling when he’s crated for the night? NOT EASY, I tell you. So I’m not sleeping much this week, either….

Nothing Doing

Or, to be more accurate, I’m not doing much of anything. The revision is still going. No writing. Making progress on the angel revision as well. Other than that, nada. I haven’t even had time to read! I hope someone out there is making more progress than I am!

Swamped

And not in a good way, either. I had a busy weekend, and I’m still struggling to get caught up. My to-do list is staring at me threateningly. My brain (or possibly my Muse) woke me up WAY early yesterday and today with a list of things I needed to be working on. And I have a lingering sense of guilt. All this means I haven’t been getting done what I need to get done.

The only thing going really well–and that I’m not behind on–is the writing. The “new” story is flying along pretty well, and I’m about 22k in, so it’s over a quarter of the way finished. This draft, anyway. Other than that…I’m behind.

Off to get some work done. I hope everyone else is being much more productive than I am lately.

Procrastination…

I’m so bad at it. Or, really, a little too good. All day today “Finish Zombie Chapter” has been at the top of my to-do list. And still it sits there, with no actual writing being done on said chapter. Why? Because I’ve been chasing pretty lights across the internet, of course. Most of the time, I consider myself fairly disciplined as a writer. Today? Not so much. It’s cold here. Rainy. Taking a nap sounded like a much better idea than writing. And also, checking my email incessantly for no apparent reason. But that’s over with now. I WILL finish this chapter tonight. I’ve sort of lost the feel for this story, but it should be fun anyway. I get to vicariously raid an army base and shoot things. Sounds entertaining, right?

I also need to do some work on the revisions class. Seems I’m having some difficulties pinpointing conflicts in some of my scenes, so I really need to buckle down and focus on this, so I can wrap my brain around it. I can feel a break-through looming on the horizon, but not if I continue to procrastinate. So I’m done with that. Off to work now…Wish me luck.

Playing Catch Up

So, it looks like I can only manage to post here once a week. You’d think that meant I’d been doing a ton of writing, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong. Because I’ve been doing quite a bit of other things that aren’t writing.

Like watching men in kilts throw trees around. Yes, seriously. Why are you looking at me like that? I went to a Celtic Music Festival/Scottish Games. Quite interesting, let me tell you. Men in kilts. Throwing trees. And flinging burlap bags (weighted) into the air with pitchforks. Quite impressive as well. I can only imagine me either hitting myself in the head with the 16-pound hammer, or stabbing myself with the pitchfork. Ah. Good times…The music was excellent, as well. You don’t hear many harps these days, but I listened to one awesome performer. All of which allowed me to successfully procrastinate for almost the entire day Sunday. Yes, I’m behind. No, I’m not giving up. I shall hit my word count goal of 100k for NaNo!

Day 10: 1,772 words (23,085 Total)
Day 11: 60,040 (29,125)
Day 12: 1,009 (30,134)
Day 13: 1,012 (31,146)
Day 14: 3,218 (34,364)
Day 15: 1,205 (35,569)
Day 16: 2,180 (37,749)

And, as a side note: I hit my word count goal for the year today! 300,000 words!

The Prodigal Returns

No, I haven’t actually dropped off the face of the planet. Not that there’s been much evidence to the contrary around here…I’ve been busy. Yeah. That’s it. Busy. Sort of. Or lazy, whichever word you prefer (although the second is probably much nearer the actual truth). Work’s been pretty busy lately, and I’ve been out of town, too, so that’s two excuses I’m using.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of editing on Witches. I’m a little past the halfway point in this pass, and of course, editing eats my brain, so it’s a slow go most of the time. At this point, I’m looking forward to finishing this pass and putting it away for a while.

My crit group has two new members, and is a lot more active lately, so that’s been taking more of my time than it has in roughly a year. It’s all good, though. We needed the new blood, and they seem to be a good fit. They’ve both done really useful crits on my latest chapter, and I’m looking forward to getting into both of their stories.

I haven’t done any writing this month. At all. Might possibly explain my less-than-sunny attitude of late. (Actually, it probably does. I’m always much happier when I’m writing something. Guess that’s a sure sign I was meant to be a writer, huh? Maybe not a good one, but a writer nevertheless.) I’m hoping to get at least a few thousand words in this week so the month won’t be a total bust on the writing front. I think I needed the break from my over-achieving madness, but I can feel the stories starting to nibble at the edge of my brain again. Not to mention that I’m playing catch-up on the HTTS lessons, and that story is starting to take shape as well. Like I need another story in the queue for this year.

Actually, the main reason I haven’t been around lately is that I got sucked into Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander books. Completely consumed. To the point that I find myself talking with a Scottish accent (But only in my head. So far, I’ve managed to keep it from being out loud. The talking-to-myself-in-my-head thing is totally normal for me. I swear.) I absolutely love these books. The world is so realistic I feel like I’m there. I love Jaime and Claire. I think they’re great characters, and so lifelike I feel like I know them. (And, incidentally, could I get a Jaime for myself, please?) I love big books that let me sink into them, and I’ve been totally immersed for the last several weeks, to the point of staying up ’til 3 a.m. on a day I have to work because I had to find out what happens! I just wish I’d read the books before Conestoga last July, when Diana Gabaldon was the Guest of Honor. I did go to several panels she was on, and was very intrigued by her, but I probably would have gotten a lot more out of it if I’d read the series first. Love them. Can’t wait ’til September when the next one comes out. And, strangely enough, I’ve seen three people in the last couple of weeks who have been reading one of the books. Go figure. I’m surrounded.

So, that’s the reason I haven’t been around. I’ve been in Scotland (I wish), and in the 1700s. Good reason, no? But I finished A Breath of Snow and Ashes today (at about 2 a.m.), so I have absolutely no excuses for slacking off. (Like I need an excuse.)