Good morning everyone! Are we all having a wonderful week so far? Eh, mine's ok. We're still adjusting to having Dude in school and I'm figuring out how to best use those hours to my advantage. He's in school all day - which we are all loving. He absolutely adores going to school and the routine has made him a much happier boy. Diva is loving having the house and toys to herself without any fights or sneaking or protecting what she's playing with, so she's been quite pleasant lately. And me, well, let's just say that after a month and a half of my kids being sick of each other and fighting constantly, I'm VERY happy that they are happy. Plus, with Diva's naptime, I pretty much get 2-4 hours to myself 5 days a week. It's delicious.
So, while we've been adjusting, I've been thinking about my writing. And I'll be honest guys, I'm a little burned out. I pushed really hard to get Bound in Ink finished by the end of the summer - and finishing it early fried my brain a tad. After having my freakout/panic attack, I was able to simmer down a bit and lose myself in books. And it's been fabulous. I've discovered the heartbreaking amazingness that is Sarah Dessen - I'm now in the process of working my way through her books at my library. And I'm catching up on the books I've purchased over the last 6 months that I haven't had a chance to read yet. And on a particularly lazy day last week, I watched Anne of Green Gables, remembering how much I loved it and deciding to read the books, since I've never read them before. It's been incredibly refreshing, letting myself soak in the incredible writing of others to help get my own creative juices flowing a bit.
Which has led me to the decision I made last night. I'm taking a break from Bound in Ink. I think I've gotten way too obsessed with it to the point that the story isn't fun - it's stressful. I need to write something fun again and then come back to Bound in Ink with fresh eyes and motivation. Because if I'm not having fun and enjoying the story, it will show in my writing, and I don't want that. So, I've had a shiny and intriguing new idea floating around in my head the last week, and I think I'm going to toy around with it for a while, see where it takes me. Already I can feel the stress leaking away and the excitement coming back. And it will be an excellent distraction for me and give my poor wonderful friends a break from my impatience as they read Bound in Ink. ;) Those poor girls, I don't think we realized what a pain I would end up being.
As well as reading and writing something new, I promised Sparky now that Dude is in school and I have more kid-free time, I would work on sprucing up our place. Right now we live in a cute townhouse and since I've always convinced myself it was temporary, it is in quite sad shape. I won't lie - I will use pretty much any excuse to get out of housework. But he wants me to try and do better, since it looks like we'll be here a while longer. So he made me a deal. One new book for each room I get back under control. (Basically, it's my major spring cleaning at the beginning of fall. I'm such a procrastinator.) Since I'm never one to turn down new books, and I promised I wouldn't buy new ones until I read all the unread ones in my possession, this is a good deal.
Well, that's what's up with me now that summer is drawing to a close. School, cleaning, reading, and writing. How about you guys? Anyone going back to school? Working on a new project? And is any0ne besides me suddenly really excited for all the holidays now that it's pretty much September? (I'm already looking at Christmas gifts and watching Halloween movies. Yeah, I know.)
Yep, it's that time again and I have a new short story up on Once Upon a Distraction! I got the idea while I was driving home from my mom's house in Idaho. We had already discussed the theme for the month being music, and this song came on and the story just jumped into my head. I made my poor kids listen to it with me about 5 times while I got the basics solidified in my head and then when I got home I hopped on the computer and punched it out with the song on repeat.
(I love when inspiration like that happens.)
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And please feel free to leave comments here or on OUAD. As I mentioned in my previous post, I LOVE to know what people think. ;)
Yep, you read that right. This week I made a non-discovery discovery. Because it was something I already knew about myself. However, I was unaware of how much this was a part of my personality.
I am not a patient person.
And I'm obessive.
And a *bit* paranoid.
Yeah. All of these things I already knew. But, over the last couple weeks I have realized that they are more dominant qualities than I knew. When I sent Bound in Ink to Aubrey and Andrea a couple weeks ago when I finished it, I was insanely excited. I had finished! It was ready for someone other than me to read it! This was a big deal!
And then time passed. Aubrey is working full time and taking care of 3 small boys. She's a very busy girl. Andrea was on a family vacation in the woods and then returned to find her work was in utter chaos without her. (She's pretty important to the flow and sanity at her work.) So they haven't really had a chance to read it. I understand this. I don't even resent this. They are busy ladies with many things on their plates. However, this does not stop me from having to remind myself on almost an hourly basis to not text them and ask how far along they are in the MS, even though I know they haven't read anything since the last time I asked them. That would be stalkerish and creepy and obsessive. And I am not stalkerish or creepy or obsessive. Of course not.
So, this last week at the weekly family dinner with Sparky's family, I mentioned to one of my SIL's that I had finished my MS. She was super excited for me and asked if she could read it. I said sure, since she's a big reader, and the more constructive criticism, the better. Enter my other two SIL's who also said they would love to read it. I'm thrilled that they want to read it! They seemed genuinely excited and enthusiastic about it. Warm fuzzies filled my heart and that night I send to them.
It has now been 5 days (I know, I can see your eyes rolling at me already) and I haven't heard a word from anyone. Now, a rational and patient person would understand that it takes TIME to read a book that's just over 58k words. Especially when TRIPS and KIDS and JOBS are involved. But I am obviously not a rational or patient person. This is where my thoughts have been for the last 2 days.
"They hate it. It's awful and stupid but they all like me enough that they can't tell me that so they are avoiding me and saying nothing."
"It's boring. No one has been able to get very far into it because it wasn't intersesting enough and so they can't tell me what they think about something they don't even want to read anymore."
*starts obessessing about MS and storyline* "It's cliche. I'm completely unorginal and I have no idea why I thought this was a good story."
*starts zoning out and visualizing future conversations of sadness and failure with said family and friends* "I am so embarrassed! I was proud and excited to share and now they all look at me with pity in their eyes because I'm too blind to see that I have no talent for this! My dream is dead!! I'm a complete hack!!!"
*sits on the couch, eats cookies, and whines on Twitter*
Yeah....pretty pathetic isn't it? I recieved some sweet comments on twitter telling me to hang in there, and Andrea talked me down after I text bombed her hysterically about all my insecurties, which helped me calm down a bit after my 2 days of freaking out. But it gave me a very sad and slightly worrisome picture of the future.
I am so screwed when I end up sending anything in to agents/publishers. To the people in my life, I apologize in advance, because judging from this experience, it's going to be ugly.
Has anyone else suffered from this crisis of self-confidence? Was it bad or do I just have a flair for the dramatic? How did you pull yourself out of the obsession hole and focus on something else?
Well, I've been on vacation at my mom's house the last week and a half and while she's at work and Diva's napping, I have managed to finish my first read through/edits/revisions of Bound in Ink. I must say, I'm pretty proud. It's still rough and needs work, but it feels like a book. It's not just random scenes put together, there's flow to it and it makes sense and has a beginning, and end, and a MIDDLE! The one thing that always stopped me in the past, that blasted middle, and I finally made it through! And it's not bad, if I do say so myself.
So, now that I'm done with that, I'm taking a break. I've sent it to Aubrey and Andrea for them to read, and I'm not going to lie, I am almost sick with anxiety and excitement and plain old nerves. I haven't let them read anything since I went back and practically rewrote the whole first half, so it's like they've never read any of it before. I'm really hoping they like it - maybe even love it. :) And then I'm hoping they edit the crap out of it, because there's nothing like a fresh pair of eyes to catch all the things I missed this time around. While I'm waiting for them to read it (and obsessively checking my phone for texts from them) I'm going to try and work on an outline for Book 2 so I can get an idea of where I'm going in that one and let it sit and stew for a bit. I'll also be doing a bunch of research on agents and query letters so that I can do it a little bit at a time. Last week I started looking, just to see what was out there, and nearly died of a panic attack. Not fun. I'm hoping that smaller steps keeps me from hyperventilating in the corner.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my huge success, because I reached my goal of having it written and ready to send to the girls to read by the end of the summer! I'm even 3 weeks ahead of my deadline! I'm so proud!!
Until next time, happy writing everyone!! And enjoy the rest of your summer!
Good morning everyone! Are we all having a wonderful week so far? Eh, mine's ok. We're still adjusting to having Dude in school and I'm figuring out how to best use those hours to my advantage. He's in school all day - which we are all loving. He absolutely adores going to school and the routine has made him a much happier boy. Diva is loving having the house and toys to herself without any fights or sneaking or protecting what she's playing with, so she's been quite pleasant lately. And me, well, let's just say that after a month and a half of my kids being sick of each other and fighting constantly, I'm VERY happy that they are happy. Plus, with Diva's naptime, I pretty much get 2-4 hours to myself 5 days a week. It's delicious.
So, while we've been adjusting, I've been thinking about my writing. And I'll be honest guys, I'm a little burned out. I pushed really hard to get Bound in Ink finished by the end of the summer - and finishing it early fried my brain a tad. After having my freakout/panic attack, I was able to simmer down a bit and lose myself in books. And it's been fabulous. I've discovered the heartbreaking amazingness that is Sarah Dessen - I'm now in the process of working my way through her books at my library. And I'm catching up on the books I've purchased over the last 6 months that I haven't had a chance to read yet. And on a particularly lazy day last week, I watched Anne of Green Gables, remembering how much I loved it and deciding to read the books, since I've never read them before. It's been incredibly refreshing, letting myself soak in the incredible writing of others to help get my own creative juices flowing a bit.
Which has led me to the decision I made last night. I'm taking a break from Bound in Ink. I think I've gotten way too obsessed with it to the point that the story isn't fun - it's stressful. I need to write something fun again and then come back to Bound in Ink with fresh eyes and motivation. Because if I'm not having fun and enjoying the story, it will show in my writing, and I don't want that. So, I've had a shiny and intriguing new idea floating around in my head the last week, and I think I'm going to toy around with it for a while, see where it takes me. Already I can feel the stress leaking away and the excitement coming back. And it will be an excellent distraction for me and give my poor wonderful friends a break from my impatience as they read Bound in Ink. ;) Those poor girls, I don't think we realized what a pain I would end up being.
As well as reading and writing something new, I promised Sparky now that Dude is in school and I have more kid-free time, I would work on sprucing up our place. Right now we live in a cute townhouse and since I've always convinced myself it was temporary, it is in quite sad shape. I won't lie - I will use pretty much any excuse to get out of housework. But he wants me to try and do better, since it looks like we'll be here a while longer. So he made me a deal. One new book for each room I get back under control. (Basically, it's my major spring cleaning at the beginning of fall. I'm such a procrastinator.) Since I'm never one to turn down new books, and I promised I wouldn't buy new ones until I read all the unread ones in my possession, this is a good deal. 
