I'll Bet You Thought I Was a Goner

You know how when things in your life are completely insane (maybe even in a good way) and you tell people "Things here have just been crazy." and they nod enthusiastically and say, "Oh, yeah, things are crazy by us too," and you smile and nod and try not to get really angry at them just because they have no concept of what "crazy" means, at least not compared to your life right now?

Yeah.

We just found out a week ago that we are moving to Ohio.  In two weeks.  The pros are that it's home, and we used to live there, so we know things about the neighborhood we want to live in, where to send the kids to school, where to do our grocery shopping.  The cons are that moving is still one of those situations where you throw all your cards up in the air and hope to God that they all fall into place, and you know they will eventually, but it still makes you really uneasy while those cards are dangling above your head and looking at you, saying things like "homeless."
On a related note, does house-hunting make anyone else totally crazed, and then for a few good minutes consider moving to Mongolia and living in a yurt like that lovely family in "Babies," because hey, they looked pretty happy?

Anyway.  I'll bet you thought I dropped off the face of the Earth and abandoned my sweet little novel, but in fact, I didn't!  I've been writing on it every day, even if that means pecking out a six-word sentence with one hand and wiping snot with the other, then falling face-first onto the keyboard, asleep.  (That has happened at least once, no joke.)  So I have a nine-day word count to share now which would normally be the same as a one-day, but the point of writing is to make progress, and sometimes we can make more progress than others.

Words written: 1789
Total Words: 57,410
Listening to:  My husband's alarm.  He has this terrible habit of never turning it off (NEVER) because he is so tired, so the damn thing just goes off constantly from 5-6 AM every day.  The main reason I'm hurrying to finish this post, actually.
Obsessed with:  "The United States of Tara."  Seriously, this show is INCREDIBLE!

If you're still around, thanks for sticking with me.  It's going to be a bumpy few weeks with possibly only intermittent updates, but I'm still committed to this project.

517 Words and Faling Behind

I'm falling behind!  Its really okay.  I'll explain why later.

Words: 517
Total Words: 56138

sosoSO tired.

255 Words, (a Rough Day,) and Plotting for the First Time Ever

Today was a super-rough day.  I had a phone call today that didn't go the way I had hoped, not even remotely so.  It was one of those, "hey, you should probably examine your self-worth, if you have any left.  Because you totally suck." kinds of calls.  Not in so many words, but at least that's what I took away from it.
So I spent a couple of hours crying.  Then my head hurt and my eyes were all burny and exhausted - you know the feeling.

And- I still hadn't done any writing, because I had been so stressed about the call before it happened! 
I had, however, done my very first bit of outlining for the book EVER!!!  I'm normally a "pantser" (plot/character as I go,) but for this subplot of the book I found that there were so many little pieces and details to get right that I had to sketch it out.  Hopefully I can start writing those bits in in the next few days.  When my eyes aren't so tired.

For a happy post instead of my Debbie-Downerisms, head over here to read the contributions to the  "Just Kiss Already" Event.  Squeeeeeeeeee!!!! You know I love the kissing scenes.

Words written: 255
Total Words: 55621
Listening to: You don't want to know.
Obsessed with: Ohio

775 Words and Homestretch wordle.

Now within 15,000 words of my goal, I've declaring this WIP in the Homestretch!  I did a wordle to celebrate:




It's a good thing that the MC's name is the biggest one - right?

Words Written: 775
Total Words: 55366
Listening to:  "How to Train Your Dragon"  Over and over and over again.
Obsessed with: Ohio.

392 Words and Lost in Action

So I know my antagonist's motivation, and know how my MC stands in the way  of her achieving her goal, but I'm really having trouble writing the steps in between and the action to fill it in.

Any tips for me?

Words Written: 392
*Exhausted*

1272 Words and I'm so spoiled.

I wrote 1272 words today.  It doesn't seem like that big of a deal until you consider that my 10-month-old is sprouting some huuuuge new teeth, and so most of my day was filled with dealing with this, and the piercing sounds that go with it:


On the upside, I am completely and totally spoiled.  Yesterday, I got two incredible presents from two different, awesome, people.  I've been pretty bummed in general lately, Elle knew, and hooked me up with the most incredible tangible and non-human thing about Columbus-Ohio.  Read about it here, you guys.  Incredible, emotional, and fattening.  Perfect.

Also, my husband hooked me up with an early Valentine's Day present.  It is a netbook so I can continue writing long after exhaustion has taken me to a permanently horizontal position each evening, and first thing in the morning for my semi-conscious ramblings.  He shrugs and says, "It's a glorified typewriter."  Which is incredible because that's exactly what I need.   I have never actually uttered the imbecilic words, "Hey honey, I'm writing a novel," but he knows everything about me.  Even the parts I would rather he didn't.  He is like the Jewish, handsome Sherlock Holmes of our relationship.  Yeah.  He even put Scrivener on the thing for me.  Love him.

Words written today: 1272
Total Words: 53022
Listening to: Some basketball game or another.  Not my favorite but he's earned it.
Obsessed with: Salty Caramel.  <3 you, Elle.

1097 Words and Characters Growing Into Themselves

I've been really struggling to develop characters that feel really organic.   Today I was writing a scene where two boys who are interested in my MC in different ways come together to collaborate to save the day (!) when one of my characters began to show an interesting quality - he gets really excited by dangerous situations.  His chest puffs up, and he gets an infusion of energy.  It's actually really annoying to the MC, because all she's really trying to do is save his ass.  This was something I totally didn't think was going to be a quality of his.  I think that it makes him more vulnerable in a way, but also stronger.  I love him more for it.  (In case this draft ever becomes a manuscript, and that manuscript ever makes it into any of your hands, you should know - I'm on his "team."  You heard it here first.)

It's days like these that I'm so, so, SO glad to be a "pantser."

Also, I have to just say "hi" and "OMIGOD I LOVE YOU" to Gina, who doesn't think that I'm dowdy.  I only know her via the blogosphere, but she made me feel good yesterday.  Thanks, Gina.

I also want to give a shoutout to Abbey, who said she'd read my first draft as soon as it is done, it all its frustrating POS glory.  Even though she has no idea what she's getting herself into.  Thanks, dear.

Now, the report.

Words written today: 1097
Total Words: 51750
Listening to: "Ache" by James Carrington (does anyone have the CD?  Because I can't find this on Amazon mp3s and I have to keep going over to Grooveshark to listen.)
Obsessed with: Mr. Darcy. And Ohio.  Ohio a little more.

642 Words, Writing about Dreams, and Oops.

Today I struggled to capture in words that state of super-deep sleep where you are having a dream that you L-O-V-E, and you know it is a dream, but it is so awesome that you kind of hope that it's real, and so you fight to stay in it, and you are totally in denial, but you are so happy to be there.  <--- So, I'd like to say all that without sounding like a rambling idiot.

Also, I ran across this series of xtranormal videos on Youtube, and all I have to say is: Oops.  Oh, and also?  I'm not sorry.



Words written today: 642
Total Words: 50653
Listening to: "Just Say Yes" by Snow Patrol (*sigh*)
Obsessed with: Excedrin Migraine, which is allowing me to hold my head up today.

1487 Words and Looking Forward to Editing

Yes, indeed.  Just glanced back over a page I wrote in a creative frenzy last night and noticed this gem of a sentence beginning:

"Without thinking, she concentrated with all her might......"

Yeah.

I haven't discussed it here yet, but I'm what they call in the writing world a "pantser."  As in, I fly by the seat of my pants.  I got an idea for story, thought up a few names, and got to it.  From those of you who know me from other universes (Professional, Frugal blogosphere, mom stuff,) that is SO not how I usually roll.  I am fighting every natural urge in my body to edit as I go, but I know that would only stress me out.

So...I'm totally looking to finishing this bad boy up so I can start editing it.

Word-count wise, I am totally fist-punching the air.  Can I get a HUGE CHEER from ALL THREE OF YOU READING THIS for passing 50,000 words?!!?!?  If it was November, and in the space of 30 days, I would totally be a winner right now!!!  Really, it's been just under two months.  I am congratulating myself, which isn't something I do often.  Or at all, really.

This novel is for me only, and whomever wants to read it, although not that many people that I've actually met even know about it (hiiii Abbey!).  Still, I have goals, because I'd like to have an acceptable, finished book in front of me when I'm done.  I'm in love with my story and my characters and some small part of me wants other people to be, too.  Oh, yeah - I'm TOTALLY uploading this on the Kindle platform, probably for free, or super-cheap.  Just to see if anyone bites, not to get too invested or base my self-worth on it or anything.  I reserve that for other pursuits.

Words Written Today:  1487
Total Words: 50,011!!!!!
Listening To: "Such Great Heights" by Iron and Wine AND the Postal Service
Obsessed with: Orange Marmalade.  Again.  We were on a break, but now we're back together.  (If anyone would like to address my obvious psychological issues that manifest as referring to my food as a romantic partner, be my guest.  You'd probably save me a trip or ten to the shrink.)

1424 Words and Liking Action More than I thought

I wrote a cool scene this evening that involves my MC totally panicking, plus some action.  I didn't think I would like writing action scenes, but I felt really pulled through the writing of it, and it's actually kind of snappy.  I think. The best thing is that I don't really feel so mired in the middle anymore.

The kids' dinner dishes are still sitting on the table, and the house is a wreck, but I'm proud of what I squeezed in today.  Let's hope for a good week full of long naps. :)

Words written: 1424
Total Words: 48524
Listening to: "How to Train Your Dragon," staving off bedtime for my boys.
Obsessed with: Chipotle.  Mmmmmm

2111 Words and Declaring War on Preschoolers - a Parable

For reasons I'm not going to go into, it's been a rollercoaster of a week. Like any lady, I have my own personal arsenal of coping mechanisms, including but not limited to ice cream, sauna-like showers, extra-strenuous cardio workouts, and perhaps most effective, Jane Austen adaptation movies.

Friday morning I was up at 4:15 with the baby.  I finally got her back down an hour later, which happens to be my workout time.  I stumbled downstairs and, half-blind from weary eyes, managed to get myself a cup of coffee.  If I had to do cardio at this hour in my frigid basement, I wanted Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters to keep me company.
 I got on hands and knees to sort through our disaster of a DVD cabinet.  I slung Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Diego, Shalom Sesame, and Superhero Squad to the side, along with Mansfield Park, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility.  In other words, every other Jane Austen adaptation I own.  But no Pride and Prejudice.  I looked under couch cushions, behind furniture, in toyboxes.  You guys, Pride and Prejudice was NOWHERE.  A memory flashed into my head of my middle kid slinging DVDs over his shoulders and cackling madly.  (A dramatized memory, but still.)  I knew I had seen the movie there sometime in the last three weeks.
Somehow, my children had known I wanted to watch that movie. And they had snatched and stashed it in anticipation.
I clutched Mansfield Park with white knuckles and roused my computer.  I went to Amazon, ordered a new copy, paid through the nose for next-day shipping, and tweeted this:


Then I vowed to charge each of the boys two trips out for ice cream each, and went downstairs to do my cardio, stewing all the while.
This morning, I headed back to Amazon to track shipment of my DVD.  It was then that I saw on the order page, plain as day, that when I ordered the DVD I also bought the right to stream the movie for 30 days afterward.  See where it says "Buy this DVD and watch it instantly?"  In big letters?  Plain as day?  Yeah.

Had I known that, I would have skipped the cardio and spent the hour at my desk grinning like a fool and watching Lizzie and Mr. Darcy screaming at each other in the rain.  (Oh, young love!)

Instead, because I was blinded by my own rage, I had to wait till after shul today to sit and watch.  The good news is that Naptime lasted for three glorious hours and it was just me, Scrivener, and the movie.


And, because I know you were wondering, I watched the second-to-last scene two three four times.  I'm not ashamed.


("Surely you must know, it was all for you."
I know, Mr. Darcy.  I know.

"You have bewitched me, body and soul."
Oh, Mr. Darcy, you have no idea.

Whew!  Is it hot in here?)

Anyway.  Here's the report.

Words Written Today: 2111
Total Words: 47060
Listening to:  Dario Marianelli and Kiera Knightly.  Decadent.
Obsessed with: "In Ohio on Some Steps".  Still homesick.  (Thanks, Elle.)

891 Words and Stream-of-Unconsciousness Writing

Thanks to Gina and her encouragement, plus just being a little kinder to myself, I'm not feeling quite so mired in the middle of the story anymore.  Even though I"m not totally down in the dumps, I'm finding that words aren't pouring out onto the page as they have been known to do.

I had the most vivid dream last night.  It wasn't about my characters, but it was about a woman watching another woman and a man in conversation and feeling intensely jealous.  (I was the woman watching, but I wasn't me, it was like I was playing another character....I didn't know who the other people were either....whatever.)  Anyway, the whole emotion I felt was so specific and so strong that I couldn't go back to sleep, so I tried my best to describe it by typing the notes into Evernote on my phone.  I think I'll be able to transform it into a scene in the book, and it's going to be good.

Words Written: 891
Total Words: 44727
Listening to: "She's Mine" by Brett Dennen
Obsessed with:  Ohio.  Feeling homesick this Shabbat.

1486 Words and Too Much Silliness and Kissing?

So, my book is about a kid in high school who's growing up, trying to figure out who she is, and in the process deals with some pretty stressful sci-fi tinged stuff and falling in love.  Lots of serious stuff, but I'm trying to add some lighthearted moments. I put a scene where two of the characters dance the Lindy Hop today and it made me smile.  But now I realize I have one other scene where my MC is giggling with a girlfriend and another where she laughs so hard she almost cries with another friend.  So is there too much silliness?

Oh, I also wrote some more mushy-gushiness today.  It just makes me happy.  The Authoress' recent Valentine's Day First Kiss Extravaganza (thirty first kisses to read about!  Wheeee!) is only egging me on.

Words Written Today: 1486
Total Words Written: 44085
Listening to: The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - bc my characters are SWING DANCING! :)
Obsessed with: Mr. Darcy.  (I know, who's not?)  More on that later.

Three Days Gone, Still Writing Lovey Stuff

Can I just ask- is there something wrong with me?  Because seriously all I want to write is love scenes.

Here's the thing.  The whole book is about love, okay?  And about whether we choose it, or whether it is predestined for us, and what to do if we find love but it's not at all like we thought it would be, or the crazy shit that love can make us do, whether it's hurting someone we love or breaking the rules we thought were unbreakable.

But then again, I think pretty much every great story is about love.

I'm actually not outwardly a really sentimental person.  But man, you should hear my favorite playlist.

Words over the last three days: 1421 (could be worse)
Total words: 42572
Listening To: "Signal Fire" by Snow Patrol
Obsessed With: my 50mm camera lens.  Put it back on my camera for the first time since my daughter was born, and I don't think it's ever coming off.

923 Words and a Cheese-tastic Scene

My characters are accidental spies of sorts, and I just wrote a scene where they find themselves in a coat closet. To escape notice from some menacing pursuers, they pretend to be making out when the bad guys throw open the closet door.  I told you I was a sucker for those things.  I like to watch them on TV shows and read about them in books.  And apparently write about them too.

No kissing yet. This is YA, folks!

Words Written: 923
Total Words: 41151
Listening to: "On a Night Like This" by Dave Barnes.  Yessss
Obsessed with: Ohio

2176 Words and Mired in the Middle

This entire chapter - these two chapters -  SUCK.  I feel very much like I am just slogging through the middle, uninspired, and struggling for solid plot points.  I know my characters, where they started, and where they're going to end up, and the very most basic of conflicts in the middle, but I hadn't exactly...um...thought through those conflicts, and how they would play out.

To be honest, all I really want to do is write the mushy-gushy scenes.  These practical, 'moving' sections of the story are what are tripping me up.  I just like to write about beautiful people kissing and falling in love.  While I listen to music about beautiful people kissing and falling in love.

But I buckled down, put Scrivener in the distraction free mode, and hit my goal of passing up 40,000 words today.  Rule.  I'm also almost halfway through the draft now, plot-wise.

I want to pause for a moment before the daily wordcount to give a shoutout to two other aspiring novelist bloggers who I think are awesome.  Not that it will help them at all because I have between 0-3 daily readers, but I want to mention them.

First: Gina, for commenting on yesterday's post and encouraging me exactly when and how I need to be encouraged.  Her blog is pretty awesome and actually offers writing tips and book recs as opposed to being 99.8% self-centered like mine.  Which is admirable.  Thanks, Gina!

Second:  The Hack Novelist posts a daily wordcount on his blog, too, which I unabashedly stole for this blog.  Unlike me, though, he actually writes interesting posts.  So, awesome.  Check him out.

Words Written Today: 2176
Total Words: 40228
Listening to: "World Spins Madly On" by the Weepies (Husband is home today and managing the children which means I got to blare my headphones, so even though "Despicable Me" was playing in the undercurrent, my music pretty much blocked out kidsounds.  YAY!)
Obsessed with: Ohio.

Last but not least, here is a photo of my kids splashing in the water yesterday, because the weather was uncharacteristically wonderful.  Yay!

960 Words and Mood Swings

I wrote a bunch of incoherent crap today.
Half sentences, possible plot directions, unpunctuated dialogue.
I blame it on this post by Janice (who rules, by the way) that is supposed to help us by providing a basic plot structure complete with examples.  Which of course made me freak out and (internally) scream OHMYGOD IDON'TTHINK I HAVE A PLOT WHATAMIGONNADO!??!?!?
I went from seriously doubting my ability to write any coherent plot at all to having a soaring self-confidence that this was going to be the best. book. EVER.  The confidence would come from the flashes of insight I would get as to what the plot should be, but I literally can't type quickly enough to get them all out of my head fast enough. I am so type-A that this bothers me.  But one of the things I was loving about this whole project was my ability to just let the story come on out.  Now somehow the need for so much planning is stressing me out.  Only a little, though.  I need to focus on trusting in the length of time it takes to write a coherent draft, and believe that all these important points will come back to me.  Or better ones.

Words Written: 690
Total Words: 38052
Listening to: Iron Man *sigh*
Obsessed with: Ohio.

440 Words and Some Other Stuff Going On

It's funny how hard it is to write amidst the other stuff of life.  We got some news yesterday that, if it pans out, could really change things up around here, and my head has been buzzing about that for the last twelve hours.  I couldn't even sleep last night.  Anyway, it took me a full hour of surfing the net (how's that for anachronistic?) till I got down to writing.

Words Written: 440
Total Words:
Listening to: "Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional
Obsessed with: The Slate XX Gabfest.  Love those ladies.

320 Words on a Tumultous Day

Ugh.  Naptime was curtailed today by two petulant children.  They only were relatively quiet for an hour and fifteen minutes.  I also had an important phone call to prepare for, and then after that phone call, my husband had an IMPORTANT PHONE CALL that may impact our family pretty seriously.  We're still talking about it.  So no real writing today.

Words written: 320
Total Words:36920

88 Words - My First Double Digit Day

Yeah...it was a bad day. Just a bad day.  I'm amazed I wrote that much.  Thanks, Evernote.

Words written: 88
Total Words: 36600
Obsessed with: the minestrone I made for dinner tonight.  So cold outside.

Send me your vibes for a better day tomorrow.
xoxo