Category: zombie story

Does this count as “work”?

So…after being told repeatedly by several people that I needed to watch The Walking Dead because it is, apparently, the greatest show ever, I finally ordered the first season on DVD. It came in today. Now I’m faced with a conundrum: stare at the blank page of my new story, or this:

like a boss

This is a really tough choice, isn’t it? Yeah, RIGHT. So, since I’m obviously not going to be staring at the blank page, my next question is this: does watching I-don’t-know-how-many-episodes of The Walking Dead count as “writing”? Not actual writing, clearly, but research for writing? I mean, my best friend and I DID write that zombie story. And my new story DOES have zombies in it….So. Clearly this is writing-related. Win!

Maybe the Muse is Here to Stay

I’ve been pretty consistent with the writing the past few weeks. My weekly word count goal has been 10k, and I’ve hit it all but one week out of the last three (and that week I wrote 7k, still not too shabby). I was getting a little off-track with Calder, but I did some brainstorming on Sunday, and I think I have a better grip on where things are going. I haven’t done any more outlining, but I do have a brief synopsis of the rest of the story.

My co-author and I have also started working on the zombie story again. Right now, I’m in the re-reading-because-it’s-been-so-long-I’ve-forgotten-what-we-wrote stage. The story is sitting at around 100k, and it’s all but finished, but it needs a lot of work, I’m not going to lie. We’re currently doing a lot of emailing back and forth about what works and what doesn’t, and I think we’re going to change the whole thing to rotating first-person POV. I’m also going to need someone with some military experience to read over my chapters (while not laughing at what I’m quite sure I got wrong), and give me some feedback. At the very least, killing people/zombies on the page as gruesomely as possible is always entertaining.

I also finally, finally started revising the werewolf story. It’s taken me almost a year to get my head straight enough to revise this story, but I’m so glad I finally got it together. I love this story. I really do. And with my editor’s suggestions, I’m hoping to make it the best I possibly can. And maybe self-publish it…

Too bad I can’t get my “real” life to go so well…

Another Year’s Goals

I don’t do “resolutions” per se, but I do set goals at the beginning of every year. I don’t always reach them, but I strive to do my best to get there. This year, I didn’t set a lot of goals. I know it’s going to be a busy year, what with finding a new job and continuing my back-to-school journey, so I didn’t want to over-reach myself and get distracted. That being said, here are my goals for the year:

1) Revise Chasing Shadows
2) Revise Witches
3) Complete the 2YN2 story (probably about 40k left to write)
4) Completely re-do and finish the sequel to Werewolves for Dummies
5) Do NaNo

As far as non-writing-related goals, I only have two:

6) Complete a half marathon (“complete” meaning some walking is okay)
7) Carry a 4.0 in school

Of course, “revise the zombie story” will hopefully be added in sometime this year. And I should mention that the NaNo story will probably be something new and completely different…NOT a sequel to anything else. I have some ideas percolating…I can feel them. I’m currently querying Werewolves for Dummies, and I’ll start querying Chasing Shadows when I’m done revising it, as well.

So, yeah, those are all my goals for the years. Anyone else setting any for the year?

I Think My Muse Is Out To Get Me

I’ll admit I’m something of an overachiever. Well, maybe it would be better to say that I try to do too much, and when I don’t have 17 things going on, I feel sort of lost. I also feel like I do my best work when I’m on the verge of being overwhelmed. That’s a pretty accurate statement. (And if you’ve seen my goals for the year, you know it’s true.) So, this month my focus was supposed to be on three things:

1) Revise the werewolf story (one lesson per week)
2) Revise the zombie story (one lesson per month)
3) Do four lessons in HTTS and start writing that story.

APPARENTLY, that wasn’t enough for my Muse. Nope. He decided that I ALSO needed to start revising the angel story, because it’s been burning a hole in the back of our brains for a while now, and I haven’t even looked at it since I finished it on November 30th 2008. Clearly, Muse thinks it’s been simmering back there long enough, and it’s time to bring it out, make it look all appetizing, and put it on the menu. (Perhaps I should go eat breakfast. This is making me hungry.) Plus, I’ve seen a lot of angel stuff lately, and that’s got me itching to work on the story even more. So. Here I go. Revising three stories simultaneously (though not all at the same level of frenetic intensity) while writing another one. The goal is to have a complete first draft from HTTS as well as two revised manuscripts by May–when I go on vacation. And boy, am I going to need it…

Goals for 2010

Okay, so you knew this was coming. I can’t help it. I’m OCD about some things. Making lists, especially To-Do Lists, is one of them, and goals for an entire year are like the mother of all To-Do Lists, so here’s mine for the year. Well, some of them. I have a lot of personal goals that aren’t really relevant, and are more like things I want to get done this year (upgrade my computers’ memories, for example), so this is mainly just my writing-related goals.

Write, using HTTS:
2YN 2
Ash’s story

Revise, using HTRYN:
Werewolf story (already in progress)
Tempest
Chasing Shadows
Atlantis
TSS
Zombie story

Other goals:
Go back to school
Start learning Irish
Read 150 books
Blog twice a week
Run a half marathon

Looking back over this list, which is NOT the complete list by any means, I feel I should probably add another one: Learn to function without sleep. So, how about you? What are your goals for the year?

Life After NaNo

Even though it’s no longer November, I’ve still been doing some writing. My goal is to finish up my chapters of the zombie story this month, so I’ll have that behind me. (I’m not trying to rush my co-writer. She has two jobs, two kids, and a husband. She’ll get hers written when she has time. I just want to finish my part so that’s one more thing I don’t have to worry about.) I’ve been away from this story for six months or so, and it’s proving rather difficult to move back into writing from two male POVs (one military). Quite a change from my urban fantasies I’ve been working on.

I’ve also managed, so far, to keep up with Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel class. Okay, so it’s only week two, but still, I’m mostly caught up. I’m planning on finishing up the “Promises” lesson today. This class…is mind-blowing. The way I’m learning to look at some things is just amazing. Currently, I’ve realized that Chance is a little too clothing-obsessed, and that I need to add some more details in to make the reader more grounded. My characters seem to interact in a vacuum a lot, and that won’t do. Plus, it’s boring. So, that’s what I’m up to right now. How’s everyone else?

Why, No, I Don’t Have A Life Outside Of Writing (Why Do You Ask)?

And the results for the first week of June are….Success! Well, partial success, anyway. I hit all my word count goals for the week, in all four stories. The zombie story is going, and that’s about all I can say about that. The sequel to Witches is coming along quite well, and staying mostly true to the outline. The werewolf story is flowing very well, and I have the next two or three scenes outlined (and by “outlined”, I mean I have one sentence for each scene). I started writing the sequel to the 2YN story this weekend. It’s flying along surprisingly well, especially considering I outlined the first two chapters only, and hey, finished those this weekend. Looks like there’s some more outlining in my near future…

The editing? Didn’t go so well. I did get about five chapters edited in Witches. Sigh. It needs a lot of editing. Right now, I’m going through back crits from SG, and seeing what I agree with. Most of the crits are spot-on, and the changes make the story much stronger. So, now all I have to do is follow up with those changes through the rest of the story. Didn’t even get started editing Tempest, but I’ll catch up on that. I’m going to try to re-do the outline for that story before I edit, to help keep me in line. Here are my approximate word counts for the week:

Zombie story: 1,500
Werewolf story: 5,500
Witches sequel: 4,000
2YN sequel: 5,500
Editing: 10,000

May Madness

I knew at the beginning of the year when I set my personal goals that I was being overly ambitions. But it seemed doable. It still seems doable, although my brain does not seem to share my belief. For the last two weeks, I’ve written nothing. Nada. Zilch. On the upside, I did get the 2YN story edited. Again. And I’m happier with this draft. Hoping to start sending it out soon. It’s now tentatively titled Charming Dragons. I wrote about 37,000 words in the first two weeks of the month, so May wasn’t a total bust, but I’d hoped to finish the draft of the Witches sequel this month, and that didn’t happen. It didn’t even come close to happening.

However, I do have a spiffy new plan to finish writing the three stories I’m currently working on (zombie story, Witches sequel, werewolf story), by the end of August, along with the sequel to Charming Dragons. And edit Witches AND Tempest of Angels. So, clearly I haven’t passed the overly-ambitious part of the year yet. 🙂 I do have set word count goals every day, and certain days to work on certain stories. I’m hoping the juggling act will keep me from burning out on any one story. At least, that’s the plan.

Now I’m off to brainstorm the new story. Wish me luck!

The Werewolves are Winning

I’ve been really bad about keeping this blog updated lately. Sorry. On the up side, I have been getting a lot of writing done. A lot. I’m a little over 50k into the sequel to Witches. That’s flowing along pretty well, and the action is heating up. I’m being mean to Bali at the moment, but hey, somebody’s gotta do it, right? She’ll thank me later, when everything blows over. (Probably.)

I’ve been busy killing zombies, too. Being as gross as possible is pretty cool. And I’ve actually really enjoyed writing two military men characters. Most of my characters are normally fairly clean-mouthed. But not Sammy and Luke. Not in this chapter, anyway. But what can you expect when you’re under attack by hordes of flesh-craving zombies? They’re very persistent, I’ll give them that. Sammy, as usual, provides a shot of humor to even the direst situation. I’ll be sorry to finish writing him…

Not to mention getting to know Chance’s new high school in the Werewolf story. Can I just say that she has a really crappy first day at her new school? It’s great, really. For me. Not for her. (She’d probably hate me, and rightly so.) She is so much fun to write. Clearly, I haven’t progressed much (mentally) past my high school days. Or so it seems when I sit down to write her. She practically jumps through the keyboard and onto the page, full of snarky comments and attitude (not to mention her to-die-for wardrobe). Her new friend Benjy has really surprised me, too. I had no idea he was going to turn out quite like he has. Actually, even though the sequel to Witches is coming along so well, and I’m enjoying the zombie story, too, my Muse is itching to play in Chance’s world almost exclusively. I know discipline is good for a writer, but it seems like I get my pages done for Chance in a split second, and sometimes, it’s a whole lot harder to hit my goals on the other stories. I think I’m going to have to devote one day a week completely to Chance’s story. That should satisfy my Muse, and give her incentive to hit my goals on anything else I’m working on. Sounds like a plan.

I probably won’t post here again until sometime late next week. I’ll be flying to Dallas this Thursday, and then my best friend and I are driving to Tulsa for Conestoga. This year should be interesting. It’s in April instead of July this year, so most of the “regular” writers won’t be there. I’m a little disappointed, but I’m looking at it as an opportunity to find new favorites. After all, I didn’t know most of the regulars when I first went to Conestoga in 2007.

No, I Haven’t Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth…

…Why do you ask? I did go on a trip home to Texas at the end of March for a week, so that kind of knocked me out of my routine. But now I’m getting back into the swing of things, and making significant progress.

I’ve finished up this round of edits for the Atlantis story, now tentatively titled Heart of the Sea. I’ll be looking for beta readers for it soon, but I think this draft is stronger than the last one. I’m a little too close to it at this point to be sure, so only time will tell.

The zombie story is actually coming along quite well. The rest of it is completely figured out and outlined. Yay! I think that’s one thing that sort of held me back when I worked on my chapters: not knowing quite how everything would work out. Roughly twelve chapters left, so maybe three months or so until the first draft is finished. The chapter I’m working on now should be fun, lots of zombie blood and guts!

The werewolf story is actually smoothing out now. I went back and wrote a couple of chapters over the main turning point in Chance’s life. I wanted to get the details of what had happened worked out in my mind, and I wanted to see if my first instinct to start in the other spot was correct. It was, but writing those chapters gave me a much better feel for the story itself and what’s going on. Surprisingly, it’s going well, considering I’m working outline-free.

The sequel to Witches is going very well right now. I’m about 30k in, and the characters, my old friends, are still very much alive and breathing for me. I know where this one is going, and I’m having a lot of fun. It’s good to get back to my oldest set of characters. I’m hoping everything keeps coming together like it has been.