Singing the procrastination song

I’m 200 words from my daily goal, typing quietly beside my son as he goes to sleep.  Finding it very hard today to get a rhythm going.

So far I have looked up natural salt licks, nucleic acid, the origin of ‘philistine’, and, of course Pinterest.  Then I checked my blog stats, and I discovered that someone found my blog by searching for ‘erotic sex fiction with mutant spiders’.

What the hell.

Other winners are ‘how to submit a longhand novel’ (good luck with that!),

I want to rip myself apart and start again (there are less painful roads to self-improvement),

dug her heels into the horse reared (erm…),

plo (I like the surreal overtones),

computer mother flashing nots (This one just begs for a short story),

trampoline newtons laws child adult (I can blame Marcus Chown for that one),

stop procrastinating and start writing (I will…in a minute…),

how to graffiti the word Tyson (Tama, that one is totally your fault),

and ulterior self (which sounds suspicious to me).

Okay.  He’s still not asleep, and I still have 200 words to go.

Grey skies

I normally like grey skies.  In Queensland, traditionally, grey skies are a summer thing, part of suffocating humidity, zithering cicadas and, well, summer.

It’s winter, and it’s been raining for four days. 

What the hell, winter.  This is Queensland!  Winter is a time for sapphire skies and crisp, clear days and being outside without being burned to a crisp.

I object to this miserable cold weather.  We left Perth to get away from this morass, though as my husband reminded me, at least there’s no wind.

Enough!  I call Shenanigans.  Bring back a proper subtropical winter, please.  I need some blue skies.

Wrestling with theme

I am plotting for the Extreme Planets short story, and it’s all going well, except for the theme.

You know when you are trying to remember something, and you just can’t?   That “tip-of-the-tongue” feeling?  That’s what I have with my theme.

Luckily I can still write without having my theme in words.  But still.  The sooner my brain lands on the theme, the better.  I feel incomplete without it.

Musing

It occurs to me that I haven’t really written a post in a while that doesn’t serve a purpose.  No random ramblings.  No thoughts on the state of rockmelon ripeness or the change in the weather.

Truth is, I feel all out of conversation.  When I sit down at the computer these days it’s usually to bash out a couple of hundred words while I have the peace and quiet to do it.  I spend a lot of time chatting to my writing buddy, often while writing.  And now I have nothing left to say.

So what did I do today?  I went to the paying job and had a great day.  My mind also had a great day thinking about writing something for the Extreme Planets Anthology (thanks, Anna!).  I wasn’t planning on writing short stories this year, but this anthology just tickled my fancy.  Actually, Anna is also responsible for me writing a novella for the Winter Well anthology.  Damn you, Anna, you temptress!

Today at work I spent a good deal of time reading the Australian Standard on The Control of Undesirable Static Electricity.  83 pages of time.  And as I was reading I got a spark, and then bam!  An idea for the Extreme Planets anthology bobbed to the surface and stuck around.  I jotted down some quick notes, amused that reading something so boring could stimulate my creative side.  It just goes to show, you never know where ideas will come from.

Other than that, I am still working on The Vessel.  I had to rewrite 10k from the middle, and that’s almost done – 2k to go.  Then I can get back to revising the end.

Unfortunately, Diablo 3 looms on the horizon and I am desperately excited.  I’ve been tinkering with the beta for a couple of weeks now and I am hooked.  This does not bode well for my already limited time.

Oh, and I started reading Graceling by Kristen Cashore.  I love it.  So pleased to have found another author I really enjoy.

That’s about it for me.  How about you?  How are things going?

Whoops…distracted

I’ve been doing…stuff.  Writing is some of that stuff.  I got distracted, sorry.  But hey!  Here’s a snippet from the current WIP to amuse you.

Liz choked back a giggle, feeling oddly unbalanced. Here she was, standing next to a dingo in human form and talking about using cigarette smoke to protect herself from flying snakes while a dead man crawled around inside her head.

Real posts soon.  Possibly. Maybe when this goddamn second draft is done.

Lucky 7 Meme

Dana Mason tagged me for this meme, and since I haven’t done a meme in some time and I have never done a meme for Dana, I thought I’d pitch in.  Dana is about to release her debut novel Dangerous Embrace through Sapphire Star Publishing in October this year.  Congratulations, Dana!

Here are the rules of the game:

1. Go to page 77 of your current manuscript or WIP.
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next 7 sentences and post them as written.
4. Tag 7 authors.
5. Let them know.

The following excerpt is from the urban fantasy novella I am currently revising, The Vessel.

Liz sighed. “Yeah, I can see that. But I’m in real trouble here. They want me dead, and I don’t even know why. If you could just give me a hint, or someone to talk to…please.”

Rinzen looked her over. “Catholic?”

“What? Oh no. Atheist.”

Rinzen chuckled. “Oh, one of those.”

“I wish you people would stop saying that.”

I’m only going to tag three people, all of them debut authors.

1. Christopher Ruz, who has just self-published his fantasy novel Century of Sand
2. Tama Wise, who has just published his coming of age novel Street Dreams through Bold Strokes Books
3. Patty Jansen, who is releasing her science fiction novel Ambassador through Ticonderoga Publications in 2013.

Shot Through The Heart: Your Story’s Throughline

More wisdom from Mr Wendig on the elements of story:

The throughline is an invisible thread that binds your story together. It comprises those elements that are critical to the very heart of your tale — these elements needn’t be the same for every story you tell but should remain the same throughout a given story. You don’t switch horses in midstream, after all. Because that’s just silly. You have a horse. You’re in the middle of a stream. That horse over there, you can’t trust him. He might be a total dick. Plus, if you leave your current horse, you’ll hurt his horsey feelings. Do you want that on your conscience? Can you handle seeing your ex-horse try to drown himself in the very stream you just crossed on another mount? You bastard.

Shot Through The Heart: Your Story’s Throughline.

Just so you know why I’m not posting…

I’m working like mad to catch up.  Rewriting Traitor from scratch and doing the first pass revision on The Vessel.  I don’t have time to waste words at the moment.

Anyway, I’m curious to know who is still in?  I know Cassie, Kerryn and KLC are still going…who else?

Blip

I had great plans for blog posts today.  One on retaining the freshness in your work while you revise and the second on…damnit, something.  Oh yes, how to merge characters and plotlines without going crazy.

But I came home and did my exercises and now I can smell the scent of fresh herbs coming from the kitchen as hubby makes dinner, and I just can’t make my brain cooperate.

So instead, a question, for the 2012 crew and anyone else who wants to play.

What is your favourite aspect of the novel you are currently revising (or writing), and why?  It could be part of the setting, a character, the theme, a particular scene.  What is it that gives you that “yeah” feeling for this particular work?

For my revision WIP, I’m having a great time playing with politics.  They’re an important part of the setting, and really have an impact on the story.  I’ve never written a piece with a political bent before, and it’s fun.

Your turn!  And hopefully a real blog post tomorrow.

It’s the new year

I have a number of goals for this year, but of course the writing one you already know: Project 2012.

I can see my manuscript if I look to the left.  Every time I look, I get a little wriggle of excitement in my gut.

It’s going to be a great year.

How are you feeling?  Ready?  Excited?  Overwhelmed?

Leave a comment with your writing goals for 2012.

Oh, and happy new year!

Fireworks on the Story Bridge, Brisbane.