Category: reasons I’m not writing

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.)

Interference

Why is it, when you have things all planned out, that something has to come along and interfere with your plans? I had a ton of stuff I needed/planned to do this weekend, and most of it has gone undone. Thankfully, I’m off again tomorrow, so it’s not the end of the world. But still. If I didn’t have to do things tomorrow that I planned to do today, I’d get a lot more done (Was that confusing?).

I’m a compulsive list-maker, and I always fill out my planner on Sunday night for the week ahead. And then highlight it in specific colors for specific projects (Did I mention I tend to be anal about organization, too?). I love being able to mark things off when I get them done, and it drives me crazy seeing things not marked off my list. So, today? Not looking so good. I still haven’t even finished all the things from yesterday I was supposed to do. But I will…eventually. If not tonight, then tomorrow for sure.

So, I’m still working on my projects for this year. Most of them, anyway. Still haven’t done any work for the werewolf story outside of the HTTS class, but I’m letting it stew in my mind. I have a feeling that will work out pretty well for me. I hope everyone else is making progress on their goals for the year. Apparently, I should have added “Be more disciplined” to my own goals.

Slowly But Surely

I’m slacking off on posting again, aren’t I? Well, I have a good excuse, I mean reason. Yeah. A good reason. Now what was it again? Oh yeah, I remember. I’ve been busy. Sort of. Or procrastinating. One of the two. Probably the latter.

So, I’m down to eight goals left on my writing goal list. I’ve really only worked on three of them lately. I’ve gotten a few hundred new words written in my 2YN story, so I’m at 52,129 words written for the year. Not great, I know, but I’m not actively writing anything right now, either, and haven’t been since March. Editing is much harder for me to do. But I’ve finished my re-read of Witches, and I have my “notes” in some semblance of order (and I use the word order loosely). I’m going to be working on the first two chapters (yes, again) this week. Hopefully this version will make me happier. And…that’s about all.

Progress Update

Long time, no update. Oops. Procrastination is my downfall. I’ve been working on my goals, I just haven’t been posting about them. I’ll do better. I promise. Well, I’ll try to do better.

Out of my ten writing-related goals for the year, I’ve completed two of them: finishing the first draft of my NaNo 2007 story, and starting to submit Through Shadowed Stone. I’m up to four rejections out of my first batch of five on TSS, and I’ll be sending out the next batch of queries tomorrow.

I still haven’t worked on the zombie story. Not for months. It’s horrible. We’re (my writing partner and I) really going to have to get on the ball with this story so it doesn’t completely lose all its momentum. Re-reading the last few chapters of the story is on my to-do list for today, and I’m planning on working on the next chapter on Monday.

I am working on editing Witches. I’ve been going back through the chapters and highlighting the important things: information, dialogue, description, etc. I’m planning on basically rewriting most of the story, cutting the extra things out, and just tightening it in general. I’m mostly happy with the chapters I’ve edited so far, but I want to be able to continue to juggle all of those balls in the later chapters as well.

I’m still working on the 2YN class. I haven’t started editing it yet. I have re-read the manuscript and made notes in the margins, just little comments to myself. I’ve done Zette’s assignments, including making a timeline in Excel. I’ve never worked much in Excel, so that was an interesting assignment. I’ve found several places where I could add scenes and tension in, so it was definitely a worthwhile assignment.

I have a couple of new story ideas percolating in my mind that I’m getting pretty excited about writing. Both of them are urban fantasy, which I’ve never written before, and I’m eager to start. But I have too much else going on right now to start a new story (much less two). I’m saving one of them for NaNo, although I’m not quite sure which one. The other one, well, if it’s ready in a couple of months, I may start dabbling with it.

Non-Progress

Confession time: I haven’t been very productive this week. Not at all. I haven’t done any work on the 2YN story. None. Shadows is in limbo right now. Witches, well, I hope to do a little something with it this weekend.

The Atlantis story is the only thing I’ve worked on at all this week. I’ve done a little bit of outlining. Then I hit a wall, with no motivation or reason for my character to be doing what she was doing. But then I had an idea that would solve the whole issue. So now I just have to do some more research. Anyone know which god would be jealous of Poseidon?

Oh, I did do a tiny bit of work on the zombie story. I fixed a couple of things in my chapter. We decided that I needed another chapter to show how nasty one of the males in my original chapter is, so I’ll be working on that tonight.

And that’s all I’ve done this week. Sad, really. I think I needed a mental break.

Also posted to: A Figment of My Imagination.