Revelations

There is something fantastic about thinking about lessons learned in Orson Scott Card's SF&F book and listening to the Scissor Sisters 2012 offering "Magic Hour" - all the while mopping.

Bending Before Breaking

It has occured to me that I am not the kind of writer who can dish it out daily which is fine with me. I get a little (hehe, ya, "a little") neurotic during writing and maybe that's just me. Hell, half the time in writing-mode, I'm walking around talking to characters. 

So I was originally thinking 180k words but it's occured to me quite recently that it may end up being longer. And you know what? Really, seriously, do you know what?

It doesn't really matter. It's my picture and I'm painting it, and it will be done when it's done whether it's 120k or 440k. Ultimately, I have to be happy with it. If I had an amazingly huge audience and it wasn't right in my view, then I would have failed it. And I cannot do that. So I get one reader and a solid stack of papers in my view and well, I'm ok with that. 

This was never about anything other than spinning a tale.

If people love it or hate it, well, everyone has an ass. But I have to be responsible to one - mine. My ass. My story. It's all about the story. And my need to tell it. 

So I am embracing my silver threads and letting them lead me wherever they may path. For better or worse. And I will no longer beat myself up about fitting into someone else's box of what a word count should or shouldn't be. It will be as it will be.

So be it.

Peace be with you word count.

Ms. S

Half-Baked

The book sits half-done.

It's been half-done since before Christmas/Holidays/Donutmas/This-Is-Crazy Hit...no offense to anyone here, but it is. Crazy, I mean. Sure I was full of holiday cheer, but by the time it all winds down, the decorations put away (which I am still finding), the leftovers fed out to the chickens, and the gifts sorted out of festive room-dining room, January is HALF-OVER!!!!

Makes a girl think about whipping someone's ass good and red. I jest. Well, yes and no.

I know I am not alone in this. I know that there are legions of you who are of the January-Half-Over club, who are just now settling back into normalcy and getting back to work. Its never really affected me quite like it did this year though, after NaNoWriMo, I had such focus, I was driving it hardcore and am currently sitting at 96,087. 

Of course, now, over the holidays, to fuel the masochist in me - I decide to take a side project. Grrr. 

My mind. My brain. If I am not feeding it (working), then it goes into overdrive and I will end up with SIXTEEN (one for each day of January) "side" projects.

I thrive on chaos. The more the merrier. Great.

But mess with my ~schedule~ and of course, I will say it like a snooty woman, sche-DULE, and I get a little tiffy.

I have been tiffy for WEEKS. 

Until today. Today, I got some shit done.

Today, chaos reigns supreme.

About fucking time.

It has been said in many a blog that people want to know how others write. I am here to give you the down and dirty real of it all. I am not going to give any tips or tricks to anyone. I am fucking psychotic when I am working - screaming, crying, laughing - I am like the friggin Joker on steroids. What I am going to give you is the truth of how I am getting from zero words to (ahem, clears throat) "should come in at" somewhere over 180k. Between diapers and dog pads, car wrecks and birthday cakes. No REAL list of advice here just my take on how I got from there to here. Hopefully, you laugh. Or at least cackle. Maybe a smirk. A finger tap?

Anywho, I am out for the night. Ya, all us vampires say that. 

We never mean it. I'll be up working at 3:34 am.

Love & Light.

k

Scattered

I am having one of those days where there is too much to do and too little time. To and too, ya I mess those up A LOT when my mind and heart are flying faster than my hands can peck. But you know, editing, ya. I have been talking a lot about bones lately to John. Maybe because we have a labrador and there is a giant (assumed) cow bone lying on the floor. But the bones of it are what keep it moving. Just write the bones I have been chanting for weeks now. So I have and I'll go back through clean it up, edit the hell out of it and boom its out there. But these bones I have been speaking of - they are also pertinent to daily existence. Sure, I want to go outside and plant the roses that have been sitting in their pots since June, but the truth is I need to workout, I need to get the bones for Chapter 6. 

Writing has moved from a want to a need. It has re-prioritized itself in my mind and heart. And that is why the laundry is late, the floors are not as clean, and sometimes there are dishes left in the sink, and that is also why I am going to meet the NanoWrMo challenge of 50,000...I should be even coming in early by Sunday.

So needs and wants. 

May you always find yours in the appropriate column.

Love & Light.

k

Unexpected Turns

I think of the most surprising things about what I have learned in the last year is those "unexpected turns" - and they arise their heads (sometimes, all be it nasty) when we least expect it or can welcome it, or in worst case, fight it off. And they toss themselves into life regularly - doubling the fat content in a cake mix, eating healthy when the this-that- and- the other thing sits appetizing in front of you, or even, in working out and glitching up one's knee. But even the characters of great books also have those unexpected turns - the things you don't plot, outline, or map. Sometimes shit just happens in real time and in that precious fiction world.

I have learned though in the last year the best way for me to get through the unexpected turn is to veer into it, accept the challenge and march right back onto to doing what I was doing before the ugly beast arose - hopefully you get through all of your unexpected turns unscathed.

Love. And Light.