Good morning everyone! How are all of you fine people this morning? Lovely? Excellent! I'm suffering a little from Time Lapse Shock Syndrome. (I totally made that up. But it sounds official, right?) I looked at the calendar and it completely blew my mind that it's August. I can't believe the summer is almost over! Now, if we could just get the heat wave to go away and the heavens burst open with days and days of rain to end the drought, life would be pretty good. Anyway, let's get into this week's three things, shall we?
1. It's ridiculously hard to get back into a decent schedule when it's still technically summer. Dude is naturally an early riser, so I don't really have to worry about him, but Diva and I are night owls who also need lots of sleep, so if we can, we sleep in late. This is not going to work when the school year starts, so all week I've been trying to train myself to wake up at "school time". To say it's not going well is an understatement. Also, no one is dressed until almost noon and there's no structure to our days at all. It's going to be a huge shock when school starts unless I can get us all in a proper groove in the next few weeks.
2. I have rediscovered my appreciation for my local library. I've always enjoyed going and getting books and seeing what they have to offer, but as an adult who has the option of buying my books, the library kind of became my backup. But this summer Dude finally got his own library card and his enthusiasm and awe at being able to go to the library, pick a bunch of books just for himself and take them home is a reminder of how magical the library can be. It's giving me flashbacks to my own first encounters with the library, and the incredible stories just waiting to be found there. It's been so fun seeing what books jump out at him and see his own literary tastes develop.
3. I'm hitting that point in Shiny Idea where it's kind of taking on a life of it's own. I'm definitely a "write without a solid plan" kind of person, so while I start with a decent idea of where it's going, I usually end up having a "well, I didn't see that one coming" moment that changes how my story goes. And it's almost always for the better. I had this moment a few days ago while writing. My MC took the story in a VERY different direction than I had originally planned, but it's actually pretty great. It's adds more layers to the story and the characters, which is always exciting, even though it's going to make the story more challenging to write, which is a little scary. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that as I continue, I'll have the chops to pull it off. :)
Well, that's it for me this week. How have all of you been? Anyone else shocked to see the summer is almost over? Do you remember your first time going to the library? Have you ever had your story veer off in an unexpected direction? Was it a good thing or a bad thing? Feel free to share in the comments, and I'll see you all again next week!
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!
YES!!! It's true, this afternoon after two word wars and a couple hours writing solo, I wrote the very last scene for Bound in Ink.
That means the end. Which means it's done.
No, actually, it doesn't. At least, not really. It's done in the sense that I now have the complete skeleton of the story written. There's a little meat here and there, but for the most part it's pretty rough. Now I'm going to go back through it, from beginning to end, and add scenes here, details there, and tweak some dialogue so that it's better. Because as many wise authors have said, you can always make it better.
So, I'm going to spend the next few weeks really working on Bound in Ink so that I can feel comfortable sending it to my little group of readers. Andrea and Aubrey can hardly wait to read it, and I can't wait for them to read it. I am so excited to hear what they think!
Well, I'm going to give my tired brain a break and watch the next movie in my little Harry Potter mini-marathon as I get ready to see the final film with Sparky on Saturday. (It's like then end of an era, it really is.) And I'm going to reward myself with brownies! Here's to an awesome day!!
2. I have rediscovered my appreciation for my local library. I've always enjoyed going and getting books and seeing what they have to offer, but as an adult who has the option of buying my books, the library kind of became my backup. But this summer Dude finally got his own library card and his enthusiasm and awe at being able to go to the library, pick a bunch of books just for himself and take them home is a reminder of how magical the library can be. It's giving me flashbacks to my own first encounters with the library, and the incredible stories just waiting to be found there. It's been so fun seeing what books jump out at him and see his own literary tastes develop. 
3. I'm hitting that point in Shiny Idea where it's kind of taking on a life of it's own. I'm definitely a "write without a solid plan" kind of person, so while I start with a decent idea of where it's going, I usually end up having a "well, I didn't see that one coming" moment that changes how my story goes. And it's almost always for the better. I had this moment a few days ago while writing. My MC took the story in a VERY different direction than I had originally planned, but it's actually pretty great. It's adds more layers to the story and the characters, which is always exciting, even though it's going to make the story more challenging to write, which is a little scary. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that as I continue, I'll have the chops to pull it off. :) 