Archive for November, 2005

November 30, 2005 | Writing

Well fellow writers, today is the first day of the last month of 2005. This year has gone very fast and there have been events in my life, that have rocked me to my very core. My mother died suddenly in February, fifteen months after the death of my father. I was just coming to terms with the death of Daddy when she passed. To say I’m still in the shock and denial phase of mourning is an understatement. Sloane and Beth have been pillars of support, and the Brazen hussies and other writers were too. So, I’ve thought about and written my goals for 2006, and there’s not one diet goal around.
What are your writing goals for next year? In fact, why wait until January, cheat and get started now. I just finished participating in my first Big Book In A Quarter, sponsored by FF&P. Now the group wants to continue into next year. Works for me.
So, I’m going to post one of my goals each day. I’ve created a spreadsheet with my goals and time lines. I’ve included, the family vacation in June. My goal is survive five days at sea with my husband, 22 year old daughter and 15 year old son, without throwing them all overboard. However, if I went to jail I’d have at least fifteen hours to write on a daily basis without any interruptions. Goal Number One – finish line editing my interracial romance and send to Triskelion by December 12th. In order to meet this goal, I can not play tennis this weekend. I am captain of a women’s team, and we are determined to win our division this year. If I played, I have to dedicate four hours on Sunday to the match, instead of working on the book. I won’t even go and watch. We provide refreshments for both teams after each match. I’m going to set everything up and spend about half an hour with everyone afterwards. If we lose, I’m going to be pissed, but there are more matches. Our season doesn’t end until April, so I’ll have ample time to play.

November 23, 2005 | Family & Life

Well, now that my course is almost over, I’ve been trying to decide where to pick up with my writing. It’s very hard to stop writing for a day, much less several weeks, and then pick up where you left off. I mean, if you’re cleaning the bathrooms and the phone rings, you can pick up where you left off with no problem. Writing, I’ve discovered is not like that. It must be done on a continuous daily basis or you find yourself constantly starting over. So, I decided to start by cleaning my writing space. You know, pick up and FILE all those papers. Ok, they’re in neatly stacked piles waiting to be filed. Then I pulled out my manuscript and read the next chapter that needs to be edited. There’s a lot of tension, a face off between the hero and the heroine’s father, and I want to make sure I get it down. What works best for me, is to see the scene through the character’s eyes, feel what they’re feeling. This is best done at night, when everyone in my house is sleep and I’m talking to my self out loud. Be not afraid to take out words and anything else that doesn’t keep the action moving. I’ll let you know how this turns out. I’m also putting together my writing goals for 2006 with my critique partners, Sloane Taylor and Beth Anderson. I’ll post mine, and you post yours.

November 21, 2005 | Writing

Well as we move towards my site going live, there are still many things that must be done. Right now, I’m trying to finish a real estate appraisal program that will eventually provide an income until I’m published. We have our final exam next Monday and this means I won’t be able to write this weekend. Not happy, but looking forward to Monday evening when I can get back to editing my book.