I could care less that you say "I could care less."

Here's a little yahoo article I saw that I thought was pretty interesting. People that say "I could care less" is one of my biggest pet peeves. Enjoy!

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/24-things-you-might-be-saying-wrong-2338028/

Back at it

I'm still thinking about what I am going to do. The cool weather with the cloudy skies has me thinking Fall and that time of year always puts me in a writing mood.
I did some writing today. I did a little work on a story I had started a while ago, back when I was trying to write a funny science fiction story. Although, I never found a strong market for funny sci-fi, I do think it would work in just sci-fi.
Of course, I haven't found a lot of markets for just humorous short stories, which sucks because it's the direction I always felt pulled in.
Anyway, the short story is about a guy who can't figure out where six weeks of his life went and the only person he has to help him figure it out is his not too intelligent best friend. They compile a list of possible explanations of what could have happened and try to rule out the possibilities one by one.
I don't have strong feelings about this story. I don't love it but I don't hate it. It just feels good to be writing again. I think it's a good place to start off.
Lets see if I can keep up the pace this time.

A Choice

I've been thinking a lot lately. I know that's unusual for me. And I've been thinking a lot about writing. I keep coming up with excuses of why I don't write much anymore. It's always time.
I constantly say I never have enough time.
Yet, I think back to when I was writing the most and it was when my life was full of taking care of people. I had so little spare time then but I still found time to write.
So what is really different now? Well I'm happy. And to be honest I really felt more motivated to write when my life was full of depressing things.
Is my happiness a reason not to write anymore? No, I still like to write. I still wake up with crazy story ideas. I love talking with people about writing. I just don't write as much as I need to.
And there is always going to be excuses. Sure there's the wedding planning right now but after that. Who knows? And there are so many people who juggle full-time jobs and families but they still find time to write.
I guess I'm at a cross roads now. Do I write for a living or do I write as a hobby? I think it's time for me to decide.
If I decide that I want to make being a professional writer my goal, then I need to commit. Otherwise, I need to find some profession that I can actually see myself doing for the rest of my life. Because the only thing in my life that I'm not happy with is my career. I have a job. I want more than that. I want something that makes me feel like I've actually done something with myself.
Now I just have to figure out what that is.

Too long

It's been way too long since I've posted. A lot has happened in the last few months.
I'm engaged, which is super exciting. Since then the wedding planning has been overwhelming. It almost feels like having a second job some days.

Speaking of jobs, I got a new one of those. Yes, that's four different positions with three different companies so far this year. I'm tired. Maybe it's because I didn't take a break from one job to the next or that the last few weeks at my old job kicked my butt.
I think the real truth is that I'm starting to realize that I keep going from job to job and I have yet to find a job I love. I know it's work and I'm not suppose to love it, but I think that's a lie. I've had jobs that I loved. I just need to find one again.
Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful to have a job and I don't hate the job I have. I just think that I really need to start figuring out what it is that I really want to do and find ways to achieve that.

And one final awesome thing, we got a new dog!

Currently reading: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

What's new?

I had writing group last week. We changed our day from Sunday to Saturday. I usually use the Saturday before writing group to cram in my last bits of writing or editing so needless to say I was a little off schedule on Friday. I hurried up and wrote a short scene on my lunch. Normally, I hand write it in a notebook, especially when I'm at work, but time was short. However, I didn't want to save it on the work computer because those IT guys can be pretty crafty and I'm not getting in trouble just because I'm a creative soul. Anyway, I ended up typing it into an e-mail so when I did come home and copy/paste it into a Word document, the format looked a little crazy.
As if that wasn't enough of an issue, we were suppose to meet at 11am and by midnight I hadn't received the other group members stories, which almost had me assuming that we would not meet...so I overslept a little.
Of course, I woke up to find they had sent me work. I hurried to print it and realized I was out of paper. I ended up printing the stories out on the back side of scrap paper. It turned out to be an added bonus because the other writing group members could spend their time registering for charity walks and doing their taxes while I tried to read their work.
I should have already read their stuff before I got there but as I mentioned I was late. And I might have accidentally printed one person's story twice leaving me with no copy of the other person's story.
All madness aside, we managed to have a productive meeting. One of the members is going out of state for a week long writing retreat. Hopefully, he'll have lots of good information and stories to share at the next meeting.

That's what happened last weekend. This weekend I sent out a few submissions for my warrior nun story.
And I still need to type in what I have so far of my humorous sci-fi story and send it to my writing pal. I was suppose to send it at the end of May and still haven't done it. I guess I better get to it.

Blog slacking...again.

Okay, I suck as a blogger. I haven't posted in a while and really I have no excuse for that. I would write a big update on what's been going on but the truth is that nothing noteworthy has happened these past few weeks. I've just been living life and enjoying it for the most part.

This weekend my boyfriend and I went to see Rob Schneider and that was a pretty funny show. His humor was actually pretty intelligent and not just 45 minutes of him yelling "you can do it!" The crowd, however, was a different story.

My hope had been to go to Penguincon at least one day this weekend but money kept me away. Since I've switched jobs and bought a new car, I'm trying to get used to less money and getting paid different days. So right now the budget is tight.

I had writing group today. So I worked on turning another section of comic script into prose and met with my writing group. A lot of the writing this week was humorous and once again I find myself drifting toward writing humor.
And that reminds me that I'm still working on my humor/sci-fi story that I was suppose to have done months ago.

Other than that not much is going on. A few weeks ago I did finally get around to reading Dune. I still couldn't believe I had yet to read it. At least I can now scratch that off my list. Now I'm reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Until next time...( and I make no promises about when that will be)

The Short Version

Okay, aside from meeting with writing group once and writing a few paragraphs of my monthly short story (I'm still working on February's and I don't think it will be done in time for March, yikes!) I haven't done much writing this month.
There's never any excuse not to write but I feel like my life has been crazy the last month. So here's a quick version of what's happened since the end of February.

Last week of February: I applied for a promotion at my job, had surgery on my foot, and sat at home doing absolutely nothing do to combination of crutches, ice outside, pain killers and discomfort.
First week of March: Still sitting at home, getting second hand stories from people at work about how the retail managers are arguing with the processing managers about why I should or should not get the promotion. Apparently, I'm so awesome at my job, everybody wants me!
Mid-way through the first week I am finally able to move around!!! And find out at the end of the week that I got the promotion.
Second week of March: I get the all clear to go back to work but I have to wear an air cast. The company will keep me at my old job until I'm off restriction. The next day the transmission in my car dies. It's blue book value with working transmission=$900. Cost to fix transmission=$1600. All of this adds up to buying a new car. After some rejection and drama from the loan department, I get a 2001 Ford Focus with only 62,000 miles. Previously owned by a little old lady who hardly drove it!
Mid-way through this week I go back to work and they already have my replacement, who was filling in for me while I was on leave, so there's basically nothing for me to do except listen to everybody make me feel bad for wanting to leave.
Third week of March: Working at old job, not as manager but as regular staff. I get assigned to put away all the product, which has me walking 15,000 steps a day (about 6 miles) on a foot that has just been pinned back together. So I spent most of my time coming home and not moving...at all.
Mid-way through this week, I go to a meeting at my new job and find out my cousin works there. I tell my supervisor and they almost don't let me have the promotion. Finally, they work it out and say I can still go. Then I get a phone call from a friend about a job...a good job.
Fourth week of March: I start my new job and even though I'm suppose to be the manager, I am being trained in stuff I've already been doing by the staff. Not by my boss or the person I'm replacing, I'm being trained by the staff, which I think is the worst position you can put a manager in. So the new position starts off really bad. Oh, and did I mention the half hour we spent in a meeting going over how everyone has to wear a bra to work?! The next day, I go to the doctor and can now wear Brooks walking shoes (bye $100)! I go back to work to do more of the same.
Mid-way through the week: I'm still training on hanging clothes and the staff member training me tells me I'm not good at it! Maybe I'm not good at it because I don't want to be. If they knew I was good at it, they would bump me down to minimum wage and make me a full-time hanger!
And that brings us to yesterday, when I found out I for sure got the new job! They want me to start as soon as possible so there wasn't a lot of reason for me to stay two weeks at my other job. What's the point in spending two weeks training me only for me to leave.
I am done and next Monday, I start my new job. Hopefully, a job I will like much better. I guess time will tell.

Post-op update

I had my surgery on Tuesday and it went well. I'm not in any pain and I hope that it stays that way. I'll be out of work until at least the 5th of March and my plan is to get a lot of stuff done in regards to writing. Of course, that plan isn't going incredibly well yet. My mixture of pain killers and anti-biotics is making me nauseous. So I have not been feeling super productive but I guess we'll see how the next few days go.

Hopefully, before I'm back at work I will have sent my recent rejects to some more magazines and will have finished my short story for the month of February that has been bumped to March.

The Three R's

I'm taking a break from working on the list because all it is doing is making my head hurt.
First off, I'm not doing that bad on getting my scene for writing group done. Of course, it's mostly translating from comic script to prose, so really is shouldn't be that hard. I'm confident it will be at least done in long hand before the night is done.
I haven't even begun to find a place for my rejected short story. I've been too busy trying to find a humor literary magazine. I've had no luck, I think that's mostly because it doesn't exist.
As for the rewrite of the First Line story, I'm stuck. I've given it to others to read. I've gotten advice but I don't like the way the story has to change. I have this image in my head of this character and I feel like anything that I do makes her not the person she is. I'm crazy, I know.

I might take a break and read for a few. Right now, I'm currently in the middle of reading Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned. I just recently read the Vampire Lestat and long ago I read the Tale of the Body Thief. Even longer ago I read the Interview with the Vampire. I know I'm reading out of order, but everything still makes sense to me. Anyway, I like Anne Rice but her books can be too descriptive sometimes. It feels like it takes me forever to read them.
When I was on vacation I read Tuesdays With Morrie. That was a great book. It was really short and to the point. And the point was amazing. Live and Love.
After that I read Brian Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius. The book definitely started off strong. I couldn't help but feel awful for the author, but later on his sense of entitlement kind of annoyed me. In my experience personal tragedy never entitles anyone to anything but having to work harder.
The last book I read was a YA book called Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marrs. It's about faeries and it was pretty good. The story was quick moving and an interesting subject. I haven't really read a lot of fiction that deals with fey but the stuff that I have read I like. I've got the next two of the series on hold at the library.

Now I'm off to work on Writing, Reading and Researching submissions.

Where did the time go?

Ah the start of vacation, it seems so long ago. It was the last time I posted. I would like to say that I got everything done that I wanted to but I didn't. It just wasn't long enough. However, I did get some of the stuff done that I wanted to so it wasn't a complete failure.
What's been going on since vacation? Work. There are lots of changes happening at work and most of them involve me having more work to do and not getting compensated for it. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
What else is going on? Two doctors appointments. Don't worry I'm not sick. It's just that after walking up to 13,000 steps everyday I work (yes, I wear a pedometer), I can't step down on my left foot without crying out in pain. Why? Well I have bunions on both sides of both feet and on the outside of the left foot my deformed bone is causing a giant blister inside my foot. I have a shot of cortisone in there right now, which is helping but it's a temporary fix. The only permanent solution is surgery. They want to straighten the bone. Sounds delightful! The only bright side is that I'll get medical leave from work if I do end up having surgery.

I have the next two days off and I have a To Do List for those days.
-Finish editing my story for First Line. I'm struggling with this real bad and I'm not sure what to do.
-Finish my scene for writing group next week.
-Find a humor literary magazine that is currently accepting open submissions and preferably pays.
-Find somewhere else to submit my story that got rejected from Apex Magazine

I guess I better get started.

Vacation

Now that the busy season is over and done with at work, I have decided to take a break. Do I wish I was somewhere warm and sunny right now? Heck yes but I'm not. Instead I'm just taking a vacation from my stressful and time consuming job.
I don't have any definite plans for this week other than catching up with a few people. Aside from that, I plan to just get stuff done. I need to finish taking down the Christmas decorations, clean the house and work on posting more books on half.com and eBay.
What I really want to get done is lots of writing. I have to work on the story that I need to send to The First Line by the end of the month and I have a few other things to work on, like my next section of story for my writing group. We just met last night and normally wouldn't meet again until the first Sunday in February but due to birthdays, the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day, we wouldn't be able to meet at least until the 3rd Sunday so instead we're aiming for January 31st.
I also hope to get some reading done. I started the year out with Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which was good but long and slow moving, thus making it the only book I've read this year. If I'm trying to keep on schedule for 50 books a year, I'll need to read two books this week to catch up. A book a week is my usual goal. So now I need something short and light to read. Maybe my week off will include a trip to the library.

Christmas Wrap Up

Christmas was pretty awesome this year. Well, except for the part where I scratched my eye and I couldn't keep it open, be in really bright light or keep it from spraying out tears. Fortunately, that's better now.

I had a lot of fun spending time with friends and family and I got some pretty awesome stuff. I think the best part about this year was that my two favorite gifts weren't even new but just really thoughtful.

The first gift was a giraffe necklace that Ed got me when we went to the zoo and fed the giraffe's this summer. I broke the string and bead necklace it was on and then when I went to put the charm on a new chain I broke the loop off the charm. When I opened my gift on Christmas it was my giraffe charm with a new loop and a beautiful silver chain.

My other awesome gift was from my boyfriends parent's. They saw our new place earlier this year and noted our large office with little furniture. We have a computer desk but I mentioned that I had no where to write long hand, which I actually prefer to do. (I know. I'm crazy.) So they got me an antique writing desk, which has a really cool story to it that is worthy of it's own post. Perhaps tomorrow. At this moment I'm still trying to figure out how to get it home.

Right now I'm rockin' out to a stack of 80's CD's and my eye is better today so I can actually enjoy my disco ball. Two more of my awesome Christmas gifts!

I also got a really cool purse that's big enough for a notebook and/or book but isn't one of those fashionably obnoxious things. And I got my traditional dog calendar and lotion basket. My dad also added a Snuggy/Slanket to my pile of gifts. And I got Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince...on BluRay but I exchanged it for regular DVD. Of course Ed thought the more sensible thing to have done would have been to buy a PlayStation 3 since those play BluRay.

Tomorrow I go back to work after 4 days off. And the last week of the year is the busiest week of the year for donations. People want to get their 2009 tax receipt so our donors will be quadruple the usual for the rest of the year. Sounds fun, huh?

Christmas is near!!!

It's here and in a few hours I will start participating in events with friends and family that will keep me running until next Monday.
I'm having my Christmas Eve party tonight. Then tomorrow morning Christmas breakfast with my family. After that Christmas dinner with my boyfriend's family. Saturday I drive to West Bloomfield to see my best bud, Jenni. Then Sunday we have lunch with my boyfriend's dad's family and then dinner with his siblings for his sister's birthday.

It should be fun and festive!

On the writing side, I've submitted my short story to Apex Magazine and am brainstorming my next story. We're trying to write for a magazine called the First Line. They give a first line and then let writers run with it. I have a few ideas but I'm not sure what to write about yet. My boyfriend is routing for warrior nuns. Something to think about but for now I'm off to enjoy the time I get to spend with family and friends. That's the best part of the year. I hope that everyone else is able to do the same. Stay safe and enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Ashley

Good tidings to you!

Happy Holidays! So where have I been since falling off the NaBloPoMo wagon? I've been around. The holiday season has started and unfortunately for me holiday cheer doesn't fall from the sky. There are select people, or a person, in every family that make the holidays happen. Sure everyone pitches in to some extent. They buy a few gifts, bring a dish to pass or sometimes they just show up. But, there are those special people who make everything come together.

About ten years ago my grandma stepped down from that job and it was passed onto me. So at this time my life is consumed with shopping, decorating, baking, cooking, cleaning, wrapping, Christmas cards, organizing, planning, and doing my absolute best to make everyone as happy as they possibly can. It's almost like managing a business.

Is it worth putting my entire life on hold to make sure that everyone else enjoys themselves while I run around exhausted only to end up with generic gifts, a messy house and a fridge full of leftovers? It must be. Why else do I keep doing it?


Well I have made a few minutes for writing among all of this chaos. I met with my writing group Sunday. Sure I printed out the wrong parts of their stories so my critiques were formed in ten minutes but I guess it's better than nothing.


By the end of the week I should have the final touches done on the story that I was suppose to submit at the beginning of December. Then I'm starting my next story and that has to be ready by February 1st. No exceptions.

What's missing?

I missed a few days on the blogging. So NaBloPoMo is basically done for me. I could have posted something quick and pointless but didn't want to. I didn't want to force myself to write something just for the sake of writing something. Yes, sometimes you have to push through and just write. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not. I do it with fiction all the time. But the stuff that sucks, I put aside and work on it another day. Sometimes I make it into something that's not too bad. Other times it gets worse. I just can't do that with blog posts. Well I could but putting them aside for later wouldn't get them posted that very day, so I would still be missing a post right now. So instead I didn't post at all because I didn't want to post the same thing over and over or something pointless just for the sake of posting.
Sure I had a few topics listed that I could have wrote about but once again I didn't want to write them in haste just to make sure I posted for the day. They deserve better than that and so do the few of the people who actually read these posts.
Instead I used the little time that I had to work on my fiction. And that went okay. I'm still behind on NaNoWriMo but even if I don't write another word on that story this month, I still have over 10,000 words of a new story, which I know is way more than I would have had I not joined NaNoWriMo.
The month's not over yet and I haven't given up on my writing goals. I'm just reassessing them and being more realistic about what I have time for given the fact that I have a job, errands, chores and most importantly, people that I have to make time for. If that means not putting up a lame post every now and again, that's okay. Just as long as it doesn't become a habit...again.

Another day wasted.

I just got back from a mandatory meeting at work. As if I'm not there enough. Tonight I had to go back just a few hours after leaving and sit there while I could have been home watching The Office or 30 Rock. By the time I got home from my day shift and ate dinner it was time to head out again. I just got in about ten minutes ago and I have to work in the morning also.
After my day shift tomorrow, I'm off for the weekend so here's everything I need to get done.
-Finish my short story, send it out to be critiqued.
-Finish making comments on friend's short story.
-Finish scene for writing group, read others stuff for writing group and then go to writing group.
-Catch up on NaNoWriMo, if that's possible.
-Post once daily.
Simple enough, right?

Stunted

When I used to be a waitress, I carried around a notebook to write large orders on or notes about things I needed to stock. Most restaurants have gone to computers and gotten rid of the old school tickets. And when the crowd was slow or any of my tables didn't need anything, I would write notes or parts of stories, or really good lines that I heard or thought of.
That's just one example of how I've been able to fit writing into the jobs that I've had, even if it was just on my breaks.
At my current job there aren't any moments to jot something down. And I try to read and write on my breaks and lunch but since I'm only one of two people that could do certain things, I'm constantly interrupted. It doesn't really make it easy to get anything written down.
And then there's the people around me. The people who don't know what the word 'discrepancy' means. The people who don't read books. The people who say things such as "you so..." instead of "you are so..."
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if there were ever a job that stunted a writer, this is it. The only good thing is the really crazy things that the customers and the employees do. They could all make for good stories one day. I'll just try not to use words with more than two syllables.

... until tomorrow

It's my week to work five days straight and today was my first of two nights to close. Before work I had to go grocery shopping and check on my sister's dog. After work I ate dinner and answered some e-mails. Now I'm posting before going to bed. And the whole point of this post is to say that I got absolutely nothing done today. I've fallen even further behind.

On the bright side last night I finished the book I've been reading. It's called "The City and the City" by China Mieville. When I first started reading it it took me a while to remember who was who because all of the names were unique to me. The story is an interesting idea but it takes a lot of thought to follow what's going on, especially in the beginning. It gets easier to understand further in when the writer has revealed more about how this particular society works but once I got to the end I felt a little let down. It's a murder mystery and the whole murder revolves around this huge and complicated idea but ends with such a simple explanation.
Although, to be fair I think I might have scanned over the last few pages a little too quickly. I was trying to finish it before falling asleep. Either way I finished.
Now I'm starting a new book by an author that's had work published in the magazine that I'm writing my story for. Hopefully, it will help with some insight.
Here's hoping tomorrow is more productive.

Just too nice outside

It was 60 degrees here today, which is pretty awesome for November in Michigan. I've been getting a headache from staring at the computer screen too much this past week and it was too gorgeous to be inside. So I took my notebook outside, sat on the porch next to my dog and wrote part of my short story. It's always hard to say how much I got done since long hand and computer typing is quite different when you're counting pages but I got something done. Now I just have to take the time to type what I wrote.
I just got done reading a short story that my friend wrote and now I'm thinking over what I read. I'll probably reread it again tomorrow and then write down my thoughts.
Right now, I'm getting ready to watch Castle. The awesome TV show about a murder mystery writer.
Then it will probably be off to bed. I'll read first and I think tonight I'll finish the book I'm reading.

Week one ends; week two begins

Today was my day off and it was a busy day. We had breakfast with my dad and my dad's dad. Then I got the yard raked. After that, I went to an exhibition game for the MSU women's basketball team. (They won by 35 points!) and I actually got some writing done too. Not as much as I'd like considering that tomorrow I go back to work for five days in a row. Two of those days will be closing shifts. My goal is to write, even if it's not a lot, every little bit helps me from falling behind.
This week my plan is to finish my first draft of my short story. Try to catch up on my NaNo novel and finish a section for writing group, which should meet next Sunday. And of course, make a post everyday.
And I'd like to finish the book I'm reading. It's been a hard book for me to read. The more I read it the more I understand what's going on but still it's taking me a really long time to get through it. Once again, I can't give up.
So that's the plan for the week. I think the first week of November went pretty well. I have over 11,000 words on my NaNo novel. That's not right on track but much closer than 0. I've posted everyday. I've started another story that at first I wasn't sure I could do anything with and now I have a lot of ideas. It's all progress, even if it's slight.

Cool moment

*For the record, I am post dating this entry. I tried to post it last night but blogger was not having it. However, it was posted on my livejournal

I got my laundry done tonight but I didn't get much else done at the laundromat. I usually go with my sister so that neither one of us has to face the potential creepiness alone. Too many weird old guys have it in their brain that the laundromat is a good place to pick up ladies. Yikes.
Anyway, the only thing really productive that came from the laundromat was that my sister actually had a cool moment. She's been reading the Twilight saga because every one of the grown women in her department has fallen in love with it and won't stop talking about it. My sister's a moderate reader. She doesn't read a lot but she does read. So she decided that she would try these books so she'd know what the heck everyone was talking about.
I'll admit I've read all four but regardless of whether I like something or not, I will struggle through it. I tell myself it could get better or I could think on it a while and realize that maybe it was good. If neither of those things happen I call it a learning experience.
I'm not trying to rip on Twilight. It's got the young people reading instead of watching TV, which is good, but Harry Potter it is not. And if one more person calls it that I will scream.
The books are okay and I can see why young girls fall in love with them. But the last one was the hardest for me to read (*spoiler alert*) because it was completely boring and unrealistic. The main character ends up with everything. She's immortal but gets to keep her mortal family. She's rich, well-dressed, beautiful, has a child (half mortal/half vampire) and despite the fact that she's only been a vampire for mere months she manages to stand up to an entire coven of the world's oldest and strongest vampires and, surprise, she has a super power that protects her family and friends from them. Oh and she doesn't lose her best bud/other love interest because she's going to let him marry her daughter. So they all just live happily ever after. There isn't even a cool battle in the end. They all show up to fight and then talk it out. LAME!
To me it was too perfect. Real life has tragedy and if a writer completely avoids that I think it makes a book pointless. There's has to be downs for there to be ups.
I could really go on in a bit more detail abou the book and what I didn't care for but it's not really something I feel I have to do.
Now back to my original story. So my sister's cool moment came when she was in the middle of Breaking Dawn, the final book, she drops it to the ground and says, "will you just tell me how this crap ends because I can't stand to read it any longer?"
Of course, when you don't read all that much, you probably don't want to waste your time on a novel you don't really like. Regardless, she had the power to walk away and for that I commend her because it is not something that I can do.

Delayed

Oh man. It's the day I was talking about when I close tonight and then open tomorrow. So the words that I'm writing right now are about all that I will be writing today.
Today is the first day that I feel I'm falling behind on my goals. I'm not getting any NaNoWriMo written and I'm not getting any of my short story written. I almost forgot to write this post.
Also today we decided that our writing group, which is suppose to meet on Sunday, will probably have to wait until next Sunday. That's almost a good thing as much as it is a bad thing. I wasn't quite finished with my section of Incognito, my comic turned prose, that I had intended on sending. I had put off rewriting that because I've been so focused on my NaNo and short story goal.
Well I open at work tomorrow, so the plan is to come home from work and write. I have to go to the laundromat sometime this weekend but that's what notebooks are for. So instead of watching my clothes whirl around in the dryer, I'm going to be productive.

The closing shift

Today was my first day working the closing shift since November started. I feel that the days I close at work are the days I'm least productive at home. I like to sleep late and by the time I get up and get ready it's time for work. Once I get home, it's late. I eat, check my Internet stuff and then read until I fall asleep. It just seems the whole day is wasted.
So I was worried that today would be the day I started to fall behind on my grand writing plan. That didn't happen though, I just finished a part of my NaNoWriMo novel. It wasn't a full 1667 words but it was enough to keep me in the game.
And while I didn't do much writing on my project story, I did give the first little part to someone to read and got a lot of feedback. We discussed a lot of ideas today and if I weren't about to fall asleep right now, I'd probably stay up and write some more.
Tomorrow I have another closing shift but it's the worse kind. The kind where I have to open the next day so staying up late to write isn't an option(well not a sensible one). I hope I can manage to hang in there. Once I get behind on anything I fear that I'll get too far to catch up.

The Notebook

I'm going to take a break from talking about my current projects and talk about my notebook.
Three years ago I bought a red three subject notebook with the intent of writing a story in it. Then I had a tiny notebook I would carry around for ideas. The only problem was that the tiny notebook wasn't good enough. It was too small. I would get inspired to write a scene and would struggle to fit it in the little notebook. That's when I decided the giant red notebook would go everywhere with me.
And over the last three years I have filled it with story notes, blog ideas, pieces of fiction, random lines, doodles, play lists, song lyrics and to do list. Then last week I noticed it was full. I went through and pulled out pages that went with certain stories and filed them away with my notes for each story. I went through to find anything I might need in the near future and then I filed the notebook away in my filing cabinet.
Two days ago, I started a new notebook. It's just one subject, not nearly as big as the old one but that's okay. I really don't think I need to be carrying around three years of notes anymore.
It's kind of fitting that it should be full now because I feel like I'm starting a new chapter in my writing endeavors. Over the past year or so I've put very little effort into my writing. But now I'm trying to get back on track and I think starting fresh with ideas and notes is just another thing that needed to change.

A new way

The next project that's on my list is a little different from my usual thing. I don't really have a title for it and the idea was not my own.
It all started when I bought a Writer's Market. Yes, last Sunday I went out and bought the new Writer's Market. I didn't buy one in 2009 but I bought one in 2006, 2007 and 2008. And in those years I took all the short stories that I had completed at the time and went through every magazine listed to see if it was a match. I then sent each story to every place it seemed to fit. Obviously, this didn't have a lot of success.
So I took this new Writer's Market with my when I went to meet a friend and he had an idea. What if, instead of trying to find a magazine to fit the story, we each write a story to fit a magazine. And that is the plan.
We went through the Writer's Market and found a magazine that we both were interested in and decided that would be our first goal. We are giving ourselves a month to write a short story that fits all the guidelines of the magazine. Then we're going to send it in and start another story for another magazine. If we get a rejection letter than we'll send the story somewhere else that it might fit but the idea is to write it with a specific place in mind.
My old way never worked so I'm hoping this goes better. It's also good because it makes me have to write. I have a deadline and a general idea of what I need to write. I know the genre and how long it has to be. It's kind of like being back in class with a writing assignment.
For this month I have to write a dark science fiction story that's around 4,000 words. Right now I have an idea. It's more dark than science fiction and I'm trying to think of a way to make it more science fiction otherwise I might need a new idea.

While I took a breather between meeting my daily word count on NaNoWriMo and working on my sub story, I added my NaNoWriMo profile link to the sidebar. I'm at 3680 in case anyone is wondering and is too lazy to click the link.



I get the next two days off from work so I'm going to be a writing machine. Bam!

NaNoWriMo 2009

My goal for the next few posts is to write a greater explanation for each one of the writing projects I am working on this month.

First up is NaNoWriMo. I've participated in it two previous years, 2005 and 2006. I did sign up in 2007 but decided that the novel I started was something that meant too much to me to try and rush it.

This year, like all other years, I don't expect to write an entire novel in one month. 50,000 words isn't a novel and I'm not even sure I'll get that many words done.

In 2005 I had over 40,000 words by the end of the month and in 2006 I was just shy of the 30,000 word mark. In both cases it took me several months longer to finish the actual story.

And I'll admit that both of those novels were awful, but it was cool to say that I wrote a novel. I was no longer the person 'writing a novel' or with 'an idea for a really cool novel.' I was a novel writer even if it sucked.

Both of those years I had strict outlines and new exactly where I was going and what I had to do. I think a lot of the reason the novels didn't turn out so well was that I forced my story from one point on the outline to the next.

This year I'm doing things a little differently. I started with an idea. Just a scene that is kind of a vision I had one day. And I'm going to try and make it up as I go along.

I have a few ideas in my head of where it's going but what's going to happen and how it all ends is a mystery to even me. The only thing I know for sure is that it's a horror story.

Maybe it will be good. Maybe it will be bad. Either way the goal is to average 1667 words a day. It's day one and I've written 1499.

NOVEMBER!

It's November and I'm insane. There is so much going on with writing this month. And I can't make any excuses to not get it done because I've committed to a lot of people.

First off, I committed to NaNoWriMo. I'm doing this along with my writing group so I can't let them down.

Second off, I committed to NaBloPoMo. I'm doing this with my Ms. Jenni so I can't let her or my blog/livejournal readers down. (Especially D.B. Echo who has probably given up on my ever posting.)

Then there's my writing group. Aside from NaNoWriMo, I probably need to work on another section of my current story that I've been taking.

And there's this new thing I've got going on. I've met with a friend and we came up with a plan for actually submitting writing. But first, we must write a story. It's a great plan that I will explain much more thoroughly in a post coming soon!

Oh and did I mention that Jenni and I have actually been working on Behind the Naugahyde. She sent me a big section last month. I sent notes back. And now it's up to me to write the next part.



That's all the projects I've gotten on the burners. (I need two stoves!) But I've been making excuses for too long and I've got a lot of wasted time to make up for.

Two Become One

Yesterday, I met with a friend of mine, who also happens to be a writer. We talked about many things such as finishing what we started, finding time to write and the list goes on. It was a really good conversation and we're going to try to meet more often either to talk about writing, submitting and our work. I think it will be very productive.

One of the other things we talked about was this blog and my livejournal. I have both and I have always kept them separate. I started this blog first about my writing and later started the livejournal so that I could friend my friends. The livejournal has always just been personal posts. Occasionally, I have posted the same stuff both places. I've often wondered what would be the easiest way to get people who read the livejournal to read blogger and people who read blogger to read my livejournal. And not everyone has both so if they follow me on blogspot or livejournal they may never get the other one. I've tried links but that's still a hassle. I thought about giving one up but either way it would be inconvenient for one set of "friends."
After talking about it I'll keep them both but start posting the same thing on each. I mostly post about writing anyway and have seriously neglected the livejournal. I think there was a whole year on livejournal where I posted maybe five times so I'm clearly not writing many personal things that don't link to writing somehow. So now Ink On Paper and Babbling On are the same. I might change them to the same name. I haven't decided which one or maybe just a new name altogether. I also have to decide whether or not to transfer posts from one to the other. Lots to think about but for now I post the same thing on both. So no need to click the link anymore. I'll try it for awhile and we'll see how it goes.

Also, our conversation also came around to Castle the awesome TV show I recently posted about (ABC Monday nights @ 10pm). The book that the character wrote is a real book on the New York Times Bestseller List. I saw the advertisement for it and thought it was a fake to promote the show but it's a real book. How cool is that?

It sounds good in theory

I must be crazy. Our writing group finally met yesterday. We're suppose to meet the first Sunday every month but we kept putting off this month because it's been super busy for all of us. We got around to yesterday and we had a discussion about NaNoWriMo. Yep, I said it.
These two insanely busy people are going to do it. Naturally I started thinking that I should do it.
At first I thought it would be nuts to do it. I've been so busy I've barely been able to write a scene once a month for writing group. But have I really been that busy? I can think of lots of things, like T.V. and Internet, that I have constantly wasted my time on. Maybe I need NaNoWriMo to force me to write. Of course, it can't force me. I have to do that myself but maybe this commitment to my writing group and myself, is exactly what I need.
So I'm doing it. I signed up this morning. I'm doing NaNoWriMo.
I'll try to put the link to my profile in the sidebar but for now check it out here. And if anyone reading this is daring to do NaNoWriMo be sure to friend me.

Making it "fair"

I'm converting my old comic book story, Incognito, into prose and have been giving it to my writing group for suggestions. I just finished rewriting the last scene of what would have been issue one and now I'm onto issue two. And I have to say that I absolutely hate what I wrote. There is one scene that makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm not even sure how to fill the void. Maybe I need to read further on to get an idea of what I can do to fix it but I feel like I put my character into a dangerous situation and got them out too easily.
It's kind of like in Stephen King's Misery, when Annie says the way he brings Misery back to life isn't realistic or fair. It's kind of like that, except not as extreme. I'm not trying to bring some back to life or rescue someone from going over a cliff in car. I'm really just trying to get someone, undercover as a prostitute, out of a room before they actually have to get to work. Right now, she sneaks into the bathroom and calls in a bomb threat but realistically how long would it take the cops to get there? And everyone still sees her leaving the building, which I want people to see her but I don't want it be that obvious. I'm just not sure it's the best way to get what I want in the story. But on the other hand I do want her to seem like an amateur at crime fighting so maybe that is why originally wrote such a sloppy and poorly planned escape?

Thank goodness writing group decided to postpone a week other wise I'd only have two pages to take. And if I can't break through this funk I will only have two pages to take on Sunday.
I'll work on it for a few more minutes tonight but then I must be off. Pam and Jim are getting married on the Office tonight. I can't miss it!