| Monday, March 23, 2009 |
| Gauging Progress |
Well, I'm not sure how to go about this.
I've started editing a wip I've had around for a long time. While this will include mainly editing material I've already written, I'm also adding a bunch to it and changing a lot. Doing a lot of cutting and pasting (I think it's easier to do this rather than trying to do the changes/additions within the original document). How in the world am I going to track my daily new word count? I'm sure I'll be able to get in 500 new words a day with this manuscript, but I'm just not sure how to track it.
Oh, and my head aches from all the head hopping in the original manuscript! Who do I think I am, anyway?? I really thought I knew better. Guess not. So that needs to be corrected. I compare this wip to a fixer-upper house. Has a lot of potential, but needs A LOT of work.
Unfortunately it's Monday and my writing time will be sadly minimized.
And it's going to be cold today! What's up with that?? It's spring! Flowers are supposed to be blooming! The sun is supposed to be shining and it's supposed to be warm! But we got snow yesterday. Not a lot, but it was still white and it was still falling from the sky.
Not funny.Labels: editing, fixer uppers, snow again |
posted by Ceri Hebert @ 2:53 AM  |
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| Sunday, March 22, 2009 |
| Time To Move Along |
Okay, so I've gone through my first round of edits on my "No Going Back" (working title, it really has nothing to do with the story), which was my 2008 NaNo project. I'm pretty pleased with it, except for the timeline (which I always have issues with), but it may work. now it's time to send it off to my wonderful critter so she can go through it and ask me her questions and fix my punctuation. She's an awesome partner. The questions are especially helpful because if there's a hole in the story somewhere, she'll find it. Best to find it before I send it off somewhere.
Anyway, now that that's done, I'm not sure what to move on to. I'm still working on my 2007 NaNo, but that is mainly new writing. I like to have two projects going at once. I have "Do Overs" which is my short story that needs editing, but I'm not as confident about the sale-ability of that one. It's not exactly a romance, and there's only one, maybe two kisses. I thought of making that a "free read" on my webpage. I'll see how I feel after I edit.
Then there's my trilogy (or 3 part book) that needs me.
I'm very pleased to be busy!!Labels: finished one project, ready for the next |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 5:27 AM |
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| Thursday, March 19, 2009 |
| NEVER (ASS)(U)(ME) ANYTHING! |
What a waste of a day! Well, at least most of a day and a LOT of gas!!
My oldest DD had an appointment with her cardiologist today. An echo at 11:30 and then at 1pm we meet with the doctor. He's located up in Hanover NH, about a 2 hour trip, depending on traffic etc. We got up there about 40 minutes early so I checked in to see where we were supposed to go (it had been about 4 years since we've been up there).
They couldn't find the appointment for the echo. Well, they said it had been scheduled just not booked. (is there a difference?) So she sent us up to the correct office. They told me the same thing so they got on the phone with the doctor's office.
We were at the WRONG hospital!!!
Yes, folks, that's right. We were supposed to go to Keene, which is only about 30 minutes from home. So, we had to decide whether we wanted to try to get down to Keene in 2 hours or reschedule. For June. I opted to try for Keene. We made it, sort of, got the appointment in, though late, and had a lot of people who'd already heard about my mistake giving me those "oh you poor poor dumb person" looks.
So, I could've gotten away with an hour's worth of driving instead of nearly 4!!
Okay, I shouldn't have assumed that the appointment would be up there, even though THAT'S HIS MAIN OFFICE!
Not like I got any paperwork telling me otherwise.
Okay, I'll stop complaining... for now. Off to do laundry and have a gin n' tonic at my mom's.Labels: oops |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 12:26 PM |
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| Wednesday, March 18, 2009 |
| Editing For Others |
I'm so proud!
My DD and SD have started writing stories. I was about their age when I embarked on this marvelous journey toward being published, so it's kind of neat watching them.
The thing is, they've asked me to correct their work. I'm happy to do it, but how brutal am I supposed to be with them? If I was critting one of these stories for an adult I'd kindly rip it up (I'm not a mean critter). But I can't go that far with a couple kids. Yet I want them to understand what works and what doesn't. I never had any kind of help when I was their age and I'm sure I could've done much better with it.
So, you're faced with a wip from a 12 year old. How much do you change, or "fix"?
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It's going to be a nice day today. Nearly 60 degrees. Spring is coming! I'm thrilled, even if it means that I have to deal with mud and black flies. At least mud and black flies won't knock out electricity. Okay, yah, so we could have another bad storm, but we're getting further and further away from the chances of another ice storm. Please, no more ice storms!!!Labels: crits, spring is coming |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 2:27 AM |
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| Monday, March 16, 2009 |
| Spring Is Thiiiiisss Close |
What a beautiful weekend! I know it wasn't amazingly warm, but after the winter we've had, anything over 35 degrees is a pleasure. And any day that we can turn off the heat and open the windows is definitely a good day.
I was on the run for a good part of the weekend, hitting WallyWorld for some grocery shopping, dropping DD off for her Special Olympic basketball tournament, going to my father in law's. But I managed to get a good deal of new writing done and lots of editing, so it was a good weekend. I'm not pleased about going back to work though. I want to stay home and finish my editing. I'm going to be doing a bit of running around this week, but I'm hoping it won't cut into my normal writing schedule.
Just need to have nice weather. I have to take above mentioned DD up north to the "big" hospital for her cardiologist appointment. It's not a bad ride, but it's a long one.
Okay, I really need to get ready for work. Writing done for the morning, but I hit my goal, so I'm okay.Labels: errands, spring is coming, writing progress |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 2:49 AM |
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| Thursday, March 12, 2009 |
| Warm...Cold...Warm... Cold |
Can the weather please make up its mind??? And preferably stay warm! Despite the rain yesterday, it was actually pretty nice out. Today, we're going back down around freezing. I mean, come on!! Time for us to remain in the fifties and above.
The last few days haven't been very productive, I'm sorry to say. Besides the usual shopping trips and laundry chores, my DD has been luring me away from my writing in favor of Anne Of Green Gables. Over the last four days we've watched the first movie and the sequel. I suppose next we'll be watching the Continuing Story. She's all starry eyed over Gilbert. But it's gotten her interested in the books. So she's taking a break from vampires in favor of Anne. No complaints.
But I haven't gotten enough done on my writing. Maybe today will be different.
And, no, I haven't settled on a manuscript to work on yet. I think I have, but I always cast long looks toward my other projects.
But first, another long day of data entry and other projects at work. Yip. Peeeeee.Labels: Anne Of Green Gables, bad weather |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 2:32 AM |
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| Sunday, March 8, 2009 |
| Don't You Hate... |
When you're lying in bed, or driving in the car, or you're somewhere where you can't write things down and you come up with a great part of your story. It just flows so beautifully and is a scathingly brilliant addition.
Then the next morning, when you settle down at the computer, open the document up and are all ready to go the idea is gone. You have absolutely no idea where you were even going with the idea. You sit there and rack your brain to get just a sliver of that idea that had been so wonderful, so inspiring.
I really need to keep a notebook by my bed so when this happens I can write it down because that happened last night and I have absolutely no idea what I'd come up with.
Maybe it wasn't so brilliant after all.Labels: Lost ideas.. where do they go |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 5:34 AM |
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| Wednesday, March 4, 2009 |
| Feeling So Accomplished |
Do Overs is done. Well, the first draft anyway.
Which made today a very very good writing day. Actually in the last two days I wrote 4976 new words. I had incentive. I really wanted to finish it. Once I go back and edit it and *gack* write up the synopsis and *erp* query I'll send it out to Samhain.
The thing is, it's not steamy. There are two kisses in it. Tops. I don't know if they'd be interested in something that tame. Maybe there'd be a better place for it, but I'd like to build up my "collection" with Samhain. I wonder if there's any way to find out if they have any other tame stories.
So, now the plan is to get back to editing this years NaNo story and work on last year's NaNo story.
I'm on a roll, I'm going to enjoy!Labels: another manuscript done, many more to do |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 12:26 PM |
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| Tuesday, March 3, 2009 |
| Too Many Projects Not Enough Time |
I'm in the mood to write. I have so many projects waiting for me, so many I could easily spend the rest of my day... rest of my week sitting here and I still wouldn't get through them all. But unfortunately I have to give eight hours to my other job. I am very grateful for that other job right now, believe me, but it frustrates me when I want nothing more than to work on a good story when the juices are flowing.
Picking the right project to work on is another tough decision. I always go through this after I complete and submit a manuscript. It takes me a week or two to settle on the next. I'm working on a short story that's going well. I'm about 4K away from being finished with it. Then I have a first draft 0f a full lenght that needs editing and two others that need tlc. The problem is not knowing which one I'd be better off working on. I've been wanting to work on a horse oriented story again, so I think that's the one I'm going to pick up. I'm already 25K into it and it's solid and has potential.
I just hate when I second guess myself.
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My oldest will be back this afternoon so the house will be back to normal with four bouncing kids. I'm back on the house kick. I've requested a showing at a house here in my town. It's small, and with the price as low as it is, there could be some problems with it, but it's here so the kids wouldn't have to switch schools and the monthly mortgage would be less than what we're paying now. I can deal with small if it's mine! It would be a start anyway. I'm so ready to move.Labels: house hunting, which project to choose. |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 2:53 AM |
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| Monday, March 2, 2009 |
| In Like A Lion |
 Here was my walk to work this morning... I didn't drive because my van was under a foot of snow and it would take longer for me to dig it out than to walk down the street to work. So I trudged through the driving snow. Such dedication. We got over a foot here. I'm sick of snow. But my oldest is probably loving it. She's up in Waterville Valley, NH snow shoeing her little heart out. Before I delve into editing I had to show my son the original Land Of The Lost. Man it was bad. I can't believe that it's being remade. Watching a Land of the Lost clip led to Sigmund the Sea Monster which led to H R Puffinstuff.... which led to insanity!!! I can't believe we watched that stuff growing up (not that the shows these days are much better). I won't torture anyone by posting a clip of any of these shows. Bugs Bunny was far superior. Labels: bad kids tv shows, snow snow snow |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 1:04 PM |
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| Sunday, March 1, 2009 |
| How Cool! |
Happy March everyone! Spring is on it's way. Of course we have to get through another 5-12 inches of snow that is scheduled to fall tonight into tomorrow. Great. Kids will probably lose yet another day of school.
Anyway, this morning as I lay in bed, my mind was working on a new story idea. I was mentally going through my flash drive of bits and pieces of stories but couldn't come up with anything that would work. Yesterday my DH reformatted my computer and I saved a bunch of stuff from my hard drive onto my flash drive and this morning, low and behold, I found an entire folder of prompts that I did several years ago. New ideas, fresh for the pickin'! Well, there's no guarantee that the next one is in there, but I'm pleased to have rediscovered them after all this time.
Nice little morning treat.
Don't know how much writing I'll get done today. Must go to my mom's and then take oldest daughter to her bus. She's heading north to the White Mountains for NH Special Olympics. So everyone wish her luck! She always has an awesome time up there. That's the main thing.
Off I go. Need to get breakfast.Labels: Lost and Found |
| posted by Ceri Hebert @ 5:17 AM |
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