Sunday Sum-Up: Still

This week has been crazy busy, and the weeks to follow will probably be just as crazy and just as busy.  Therefore, the Sunday blogs are probably going to be lists, rather than actual blogs.
--Still working on the website stuff, slowly, but surely.

--Still working a lot--that never changes.

--Still reading a great book that I will hopefully do a review on soon! (Christian fantasy)

--Still addicted to Pysch reruns and knitting, only I don't have time for THAT either right now.

--Still enjoying this season with all it's wonderfulness and craziness!

--With all the things I'm still doing, it's hard to find time to be still.  So reminding myself (and anyone who reads this) to take time to breathe.  Take time to appreciate the wild wonder of this time.  More importantly, take time to think about the reason why we celebrate Christmas--when we were without hope, God came to dwell with us.

Merry Christmas!

We Interrupt The Regularly Scheduled Life to Bring You an Announcement

I'm going out of town tomorrow.  This means that not only will I probably NOT be doing a Friday or Sunday blog this week, but it also means that my Wednesday blog (this very blog you are reading) is not going to be anything brilliant.

I've been packing and trying to finish a really lame video for my nephew's birthday and watching the Cardinals get their butts kicked (Pull it together, guys.  My nephew's birthday is today and you losing the World Series would be a horrible present!  On the other hand, if you win tonight and tomorrow, I might get home just in time to witness and celebrate your victory with my family), I haven't had time to think about blogging.  Which might explain why I've not updated my socially awkward blog in over two weeks.

So hopefully I will start to get my blogging act together (and all of my other acts together) when I get back from my trip Sunday night.  But...don't hold your breath.

EDIT: So the game for 10/26/11 was postponed b/c of rain, so no matter what, the Cards will NOT be losing the World Series on my nephew's birthday.  They'd still better step it up, cuz I'd like to celebrate their victory with my family!

SEW Sunday: Getting There

The library called today, leaving me an automated message that the book for which I have been anxiously awaiting (Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins) is now available.  The library is also closed on Sunday.  Well played, library.  Well played.

That's okay, because I decided I wanted to reread The Hunger Games anyway, and I won't be done until tonight.  I love rereading a well-written book, which makes me wonder why I hate rereading my own books to edit them.  Does that mean they're not well-written, or does it just mean I hate work.

Hopefully, just the latter, but possibly both.

Anyway, I have nothing to report in editing or querying, except I do plan on getting some things together.  A few weeks ago I felt expectant, but that it wasn't time to move.  The wind was still.  Last night, the wind was anything but still as we had tornadoes and such in the area (my prayers are with those who didn't fare the storm as well as I did).  The weather is just a metaphor, but right I'm very encouraged right now that it's finally getting time to make a move in the publishing world.  For once, I don't have the "this will never work" attitude.  Maybe my attitude is finally shifting from the "this will never work" attitude to the "I'm actually dumb enough to think this will work" attitude.  While that doesn't sound much better, I'm often amazed at how many people in history were too dumb to know that they were attempting the impossible. So they tried anyway.  And they succeeded.

The writing is actually going really well.  I've had some new developments in my current WIP, though there are still several details I need to work out.  I'm kind of taking a step back and letting the characters do what they want to do, because I've learned (once again) that when I try to meddle too much, I stifle them. 

I'm writing this book as a serial novel which I am sharing with a few of my friends (I didn't want to share it with a large number this time--as I did with my second book...it just didn't seem right.  And if you're a good friend and I didn't choose you to read it, please don't be offended.  There were a lot of factors that went into the selection of readers).   There are a lot of issues with this, namely, that if I mess up, there's no way to backtrack.  I have to keep moving forward from where I messed up.  It's very experimental.  It's even a little dangerous because I'm putting my work out there in a very raw form.  But I felt it was time to actually do something with this project, and the best motivation was to have actual readers.  And they're very gracious, by the way.

Anyway, I am really starting to like this project (it's had a rocky start, and is still moving very slowly towards what I want it to become).  Unfortunately, another project is working itself into my mind and I'm wondering if I should be working on it, too.  I went out running this morning and couldn't clear my head of this story, the characters, what will happen to them.  I wish I could just be the sort of writer who focuses on one project at a time (it would make things so much easier).  My head just gets so busy with so many stories that I don't have room for all of them.  And then I need to find time to sell the ones I've already written.  And then I need time to prepare other stories I've written to be ready to try to sell.

But I can't complain too much.  I'm busy, but that's life.  The busyness isn't going to stop, so I'm back to where I started: trying to do all these writer things in the midst of the chaos of life.  When I stop having the mental image of a hamster on a wheel, hanging on for dear life as it spins out of control...I start to feel a lot better about things.

The question is, how do I get that image out of my head?

No NaNo!

It's that time of year again--that time when lots of crazy people who may or may not be writers all decide to attempt to write a 50,000 word book within the span of 30 days. November is National Novel Writing Month or "NaNoWriMo." How cute.

I've never participated in NaNoWriMo, and I'm only fairly certain I won't be participating in it in the future. I joke around a lot about how I'm anti-NaNoWriMo, but I'm not really. I do think it's silly, but there's nothing wrong with being silly. I often enjoy being silly. NaNoWriMo is just not my kind of silliness. If it's your kind of silliness, then have fun with that.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to start and complete a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I think it's an achievable goal, but I don't think that there are a lot of people that can produce quality work under such conditions. I know that no one is going to be able to produce a near-perfect work in that amount of time (that's what editing is for), but I do think that someone who dares to call him/herself a writer should be able to produce something worth reading. As someone who DOES dare to call herself a writer, it does kind of irritate me that there are people who call themselves "novelists" because they once produced a plotless 50,000 words of drivel during NaNoWriMo.

But all in all, I have nothing against NaNo. It's just something fun that some writers like to do, and I know there are some authors who have written great books during NaNo. If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know I wrote a 75,000 word book in less than two weeks (I love to gloat about this to NaNo-ers), and I think it might be one of the best things I've ever written. Good writing CAN and DOES come out of insanity.

The thing is, I WAS pretty much insane for those two weeks, just as I was when I tried to duplicate the insanity over the past three weeks when I was trying to complete another 75,000 word book (in open rebellion against NaNo). I didn't make this goal because I tried to force it. My current book was not like the book I completed in 2 weeks. That book wanted to be written; the main character wanted me to tell her story. It was an amazing, wonderful, completely insane experience. But I have discovered that I can't force it. That writing experience came and passed. I might have a similar experience in the future, but if I do, it won't be of my own volition.

I'm also just not really into this whole, "Let's all write a book in a month at the same time" sort of thing. I get it that other writers want to form NaNo support groups and all be insane together. I guess I'm more of a crazy loner than a crazy socialite. I don't do things just because it's cool to do them, nor do I really get a huge kick out of doing something that a lot of people are a part of. I'd rather do my own thing, and NaNoWriMo is not it.

Also, I have three jobs and so far November has been insane-crazy-busy. Is it only Nov. 3? Seriously? Yeah. So far in this month, I might have written a whole paragraph on my current project.

So, if you're participating in NaNo, more power to you. I hope you write fast AND well. I hope that you produce interesting characters AND a discernable plot. I hope that you find all the support you need AND find time to be alone to write write write. But as for me, I'm going to sit off in my own jokingly anti-NaNo corner and throw paperwads at you.

I Delcare Today Insanidence Day!

Something miraculous happened to me on Friday. I only worked four hours. I had the rest of the blessed day to do whatever I wanted. So what did I do? I went grocery shopping. I took a nap. I (mostly) finished (hopefully for the last time) editing my first book (again). Did that last sentence make sense? Don't know. Don't care.

So then I got to thinking how remarkable it was that I had a WHOLE HALF DAY off to do absolutely anything I wanted to with, even though I'd filled it with various activities (that nap was strenuous, I'm telling you). I mean, this HALF DAY off meant that I wouldn't have ANY right to complain about how busy I am. Those days when I'm working my ten-twelve hours, sometimes at THREE different jobs in one day, only to come home and try to write for an hour or two before falling asleep drooling on the keyboard--pssh! I can't complain about THOSE days anymore, because I had a WHOLE HALF DAY OFF on some random Friday on some random week in October of 2010.

Yes, so the point I'm trying to convey is that I'm pretty dang busy. I'm not a parent, so I'm not as busy as some, but still. I mean, what? Two jobs? No, no. Please. I'm not stressed out enough. Please give me a third job. And let me attempt to write and edit books while working those three jobs, because please, I don't have enough to do.

Unfortunately for me, I am insane.

Example:

Last night the children's director at my church (and also one of my bosses) left a message asking me if I'd sub for preschool Sunday School for this morning. My roommate looked at me and said, "You've been way too busy lately. You've got something tonight and won't get home till late. You're not going to want teach 3 year olds tomorrow. Just tell her no." I said, "You're right. I'm calling her now. I'm going to tell her no."

Here's how the conversation went:

"Hello, A. This is Ruth. I got your message about needing a sub for Sunday School?"
"Hello, Ruth! Can you help us out?"
"SURE, A.! I'd LOVE to help out. I can sub during the early service, no problem."

At this time, my roommate turns to look at me with the LOOK OF DEATH.

I say goodbye to A. and hang up. I ask my roommate to stop giving me the LOOK OF DEATH.

She says, "My look isn't going to be what kills you, you're going to kill yourself with all this stuff you keep doing."


Maybe. Killed by insanity? I'm sure there are worse ways to go. Dying of boredom, for example. But I digress...


My busyness and insanity aren't really the point of this blog entry. I'm rather, writing to inform my readers (you know, all three of them) that I am probably not going to be blogging much for the remainder of October.

I had a goal, and it was a worthy goal, of having a rough draft my fourth book (which is the sequel to my first book, which is completely unrelated to my 2nd and 3rd books, excepting that all of them are about Dragons, if you can follow any of that) completed by the end of 2010. The thing is, I'm a procrastinator. You give me a deadline, and I'll stretch it out for all it's worth. And the result is, I haven't really been working on that book at all.

Now that I've completed the edit (Oh, dear Lord, let it PLEASE be the last edit) of my first book, it's fresh in my mind. I can write that sequel.

And I've decided to move up my deadline. Why? BECAUSE I AM INSANE. THAT'S WHY. I am going to attempt to write this book (of which I've only completed one solid chapter) in what remains of October. You know, I figure I didn't have enough to do, so I thought I'd just attempt to write the VAST MAJORITY a 75,000ish word novel in three weeks. It's kind of my way of saying "HA HA I'M BETTER THAN YOU--IN YOUR FACE" to most of those silly NaNoWriMo fools who think they're awesome because they can write 50,000 words of plotless drivel in a month. BTW, I can say this with so much confidence because about 5 months ago I was posessed by a fictional character and consequently wrote a rough draft of a 75,000 word novel in less than 2 weeks. And it is an awesome book, if I do say so myself. Let's just hope insanity, I mean, brilliance can strike again! If I don't meet my goal, it's no big deal. I am just going to attempt it because I happen to be a crazy person.

Yes, so I'm going to be a little busier than usual for the remainder of this month. I may find some time to blog, but don't count on them--I mean, it's not like any of my readers (all three of them) are sitting on the edge of their seats begging for more blogs or anything, but you know, now you know.

Happy 10-10-10. I will forever remember this day as the day I declared my insanity! Happy Insanidence Day! They should make a movie with Bill Pullman and Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum and Randy Quaid and Brent Spiner about it...only with Dragons instead of aliens.

OH MY GOSH that would be epic.