Category Archives: Writing

Friday!

Not that my weeks are such that Fridays are any better or worse than the other days, but old habits die hard.

Cello lesson went well. I’m definitely getting a handle on the bow hold, and on how the weight of the bow arm evolves as the bow is drawn across the string in order to maintain an even sound with the same power at the tip as at the frog. Now we’re finessing the elbow leading thing, and left-hand finger movement within the same position as well as properly shifting from first (and second and third and fourth) to fifth. (Because of the body of the cello being in the way, you see. Here is a classic example of How Things Will Be Easier With A 7/8.) And either my teacher is being extremely enthusiastic in order to be encouraging and supportive, or I’m genuinely making progress. I’ll assume the latter and be happy, as there have only been three lessons so far.

There was no traffic on the way home. None. Zero. Either there was some sort of holiday I’m unaware of, or everything was just going right. I ended up not taking the 13 sud, as when I took it north at 3:30 the lines to access the 13 from the 40 est were backed up halfway to blvd. des Sources, and it would only get worse as rush hour progressed. I ended up taking des Sources sud to the 20 and there wasn’t even a slowdown where the 13 sud joins it. Mysterious.

The barbecue pulled pork was a huge success last night, so huge that I would seriously be considering doing it again tonight if it wasn’t pizza night. And I love my homemade pizza with much love.

So overall it was as good a day as the previous Thursday had been horrible. Very nice indeed.

Today: More writing. What else? This is what work means. I’m taking a couple of weeks off from the freelance evaluation thing; I need to recover and get some serious progress made on my own stuff.

ETA: Spoke too soon; an assignment just landed in my inbox. It’s a second evaluation for a new draft of a manuscript I evaluated earlier this summer, and the first draft was decent, so it shouldn’t be too harrowing.

Orchestrated Update

It was good to focus. Must flee now to brush my teeth and pack up to head out for the cello lesson.

Orchestrated:
New words today: 1,439
Total word count, Orchestrated: 36,090

Reconciliation with the best friend, tutoring set up with new guy. Excellent. The plot proceeds apace. I suspect there is a chance meeting coming up with the nemesis.

I fly!

Orchestrated Update

Took the morning and the first half of the afternoon off. Did me good, too. Took those Tylenol and lay down for an hour. Played a lot of cello, finished reading a book. Made dinner and didn’t screw it up.

Orchestrated:
New words today: 1,776
Total word count, Orchestrated: 34,683

And evidently wrote, too. Yay me.

Yes, I Worked…

Because if I don’t I get down on myself to do it I think I’m awful and it just perpetuates, making the next round of work even harder. I try to avoid making things harder than they need to be when it comes to getting myself to write. (How long did it take for me to learn this? I’m not completely sure I have learned it yet, to be honest. But at least I say it to myself a lot, which must count for something.)

Swan Sister:
New words today: 1,059
Total word count, Swan Sister: 35,252

I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to work on Swan Sister. The stuff I’ve outlined doesn’t have enough of the detail I need. More spadework before it’s properly ready, I guess. There’s two storylines, and the one I’ve been working on is the less-developed of the two; maybe when I switch to the other tomorrow, as I’d planned, things will be easier.

Orchestrated:
New words today: 2,154
Total word count, Orchestrated: 32,876

Yup. Took the protagonist’s reason for living away. She’ll survive, of course.

Today’s total: 3,213

… and one pot of burned soup. Yes, after blenderizing it and adding chicken stock and putting it on the lowest of low heats to simmer, I forgot to go back and stir the damn thing after I sat down to work on Orchestrated. So instead of a nicely mellowed soup, I have a thick brown burnt mess. And I just realized that House isn’t going to be on tonight because of the US election coverage. I was really, really looking forward to a night of TV.

Argh.

Today’s Writing

Here we go again with the multiple projects in a single post. I have icon schizophrenia. Hurrah for plot bunnies to the rescue. (Something that’s not often said, really. Usually plot bunnies are roundly cursed as distracting.)

Orchestrated:
New words today: 1,964
Total word count, Orchestrated: 30,716

And yay, things begin to fall apart. In the plot and for the protagonist, I mean, not for me doing the plotting/writing thing. Yay for outlines. Next time I get to take away the thing that my protagonist has fought so hard to regain. Muah hah hah hah.

Swan Sister:
New words today: 1,739
Total word count, Swan Sister: 34,030

Again, yay for outlines and story cards that have notes on them and have been ordered into writable sequence. And here’s me throwing stuff in, too. Which may mess up the story cards and the sequence, who knows? We’ll see when we get there.

And the grand total for the day: 3,703.

Cage Match Between Ongoing YA and Undead Swan Novels!

For some reason Swan Sister decided to drag itself out of the undead novel closet. This is not what I need. I’m trying to have Orchestrated finished by the end of the year so I can send queries out to agents. I do not need an undead swan novel battering at my brain.

Yeah, have fun with that imagery, zombie fans.

What I suspect my subconscious might be doing (other than attempting to sabotage me, but I’m so wise to that tactic by now) is offering me an alternate way to warm up. When I have two things to work on at once I can use A as an excuse to avoid work on B, and work in general gets done. (Or vice versa.) My overall productivity goes up.

What do I get at the end of all this? Well, theoretically I’m just aiming to have one novel complete. But Swan Sister is half-written and the second half of it does exist in plotted-out story cards. If using it to warm up for Orchestrated also manages to get it closer to being a complete first draft, that’s fine by me.

I found those twelve handwritten Swan Sister pages I scribbled out six months ago in the associated notebook, too. Haven’t transcribed them yet though. First of all, I’m saving it for when I need a gratifying word count boost, and second of all the bit I wrote hasn’t arrived in the plot yet, and I kind of want to bridge the characters from where they are now to where they need to be for the handwritten stuff to be added.

Finally, I had a candy-making day with Ceri this past Saturday (yes, because by the day after Halloween we obviously hadn’t been exposed to enough sugar) and she dropped three containers of the finished product off while we were grocery shopping yesterday. I have consumed more sugar today than I did all last month, which is saying something. Evidently I have zero self-control because I just keep wandering into the kitchen, popping open one of the containers, pulling a piece or two out and wandering back into my office.

Time to switch to the iBook in the living room. Or maybe I’ll try working in the reading chair here in my office. So long as it’s not the desktop I’m using, I think I’ll be okay. (Do not ask me why Orchestrated does not work on the desktop. I do not know. Keyboard? The Mac layout/design/screen? It’s a mystery. I’m not going to mess with the vibe.)