>Epiphany
>I’m minding my own business, soaking my sore muscles in a hot bath and–boom–Luke and Keira pop into my head.
Keira: “I’m tired of getting blown off rooftops.”
Luke, snaring me with accusing blue eyes: “And if I have to see her,” he tilts his head toward his heroine, “kiss another guy again, you’d better give me a fucking gun so I can blow his head off.”
I’m not the one having the problem with these rewrites. My characters are the ones digging in their heels.
Sorry, guys…I can’t get those chapters back. Thank your local thugs with nothing better to do, probably living off food stamps provided by my taxes. (Not yours, of course, because you’re both fictitious. Neither of you make real money…)
“Fictitious?” Luke swoops a look at Keira. “Did she just call us fictitious?”
Oh. My. God. Now do you see why the rewrites are causing me hell?
Frustrations Abound
>1) My supposed 60 day trial of Office 2007 on my new netbook, locked me out after about 10 days.
2) I don’t have the external drive or the software with me, so I’m writing in Wordpad — a real pain in the ass.
3) I keep trying to use my netbook like a laptop and it keeps freezing up. Not enough compu-neurons to have eight windows open and running at once…ding-dong.
4) I’m so totally fragmented I can’t get in touch with my characters.
5) Everytime I start to write, I get interrupted.
6) Trying to write at work is a complete and total waste of time. There may have been a once-upon-a-time when I was able to do that…not anymore. Just too damned busy.
7) My Twitter acct is posting my tweets to both my personal facebook and my writing-related facebook pages. I can’t figure out why and it’s making me freakin‘ crazy.
8) This week is dddddrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnggggggggggg.
9) My back hurts. My feet hurt. My arms hurt. My legs hurt. I’m exhausted. I don’t want to work anymore.
10) And…drum roll please… I’m PMSing.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
>Frustrations Abound
>1) My supposed 60 day trial of Office 2007 on my new netbook, locked me out after about 10 days.
2) I don’t have the external drive or the software with me, so I’m writing in Wordpad — a real pain in the ass.
3) I keep trying to use my netbook like a laptop and it keeps freezing up. Not enough compu-neurons to have eight windows open and running at once…ding-dong.
4) I’m so totally fragmented I can’t get in touch with my characters.
5) Everytime I start to write, I get interrupted.
6) Trying to write at work is a complete and total waste of time. There may have been a once-upon-a-time when I was able to do that…not anymore. Just too damned busy.
7) My Twitter acct is posting my tweets to both my personal facebook and my writing-related facebook pages. I can’t figure out why and it’s making me freakin‘ crazy.
8) This week is dddddrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnggggggggggg.
9) My back hurts. My feet hurt. My arms hurt. My legs hurt. I’m exhausted. I don’t want to work anymore.
10) And…drum roll please… I’m PMSing.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Staring from scratch
>So,I mentioned on facebook that someone broke into my car while I was on vacation and stole my laptop. And I’m terrible about backing up my work. Like–terrible. Like–I never do it. Like–never.
Well, I paid for it. Lost everything. Everything from 7 years of writing.
On the plus side, I had just sent three manuscripts into the Golden Heart contest and emailed the coordinator to ask if I could get copies of the manuscript files back. (Still waiting on that response). I had also just aquired an agent and the previous day had sent another manuscript to her via email, so she had two of my manuscripts. All in all, I saved the best 5 of my 9.
Anyway…what I did lose that really hurts is the first 6 chapters of my new WIP, the second book in the Rising Phoenix series, Luke and Keira’s book.
I know exactly what I wrote. KNow the plot steps I went through. Even jotted them all down in case I forget further down the line. Only, now, as I’m rewriting…it’s all so different. Same plot, same characters, same writer, same story vision, but it’s just coming out…different.
And I’m finding it amazing how that can happen.
>Staring from scratch
>So,I mentioned on facebook that someone broke into my car while I was on vacation and stole my laptop. And I’m terrible about backing up my work. Like–terrible. Like–I never do it. Like–never.
Well, I paid for it. Lost everything. Everything from 7 years of writing.
On the plus side, I had just sent three manuscripts into the Golden Heart contest and emailed the coordinator to ask if I could get copies of the manuscript files back. (Still waiting on that response). I had also just aquired an agent and the previous day had sent another manuscript to her via email, so she had two of my manuscripts. All in all, I saved the best 5 of my 9.
Anyway…what I did lose that really hurts is the first 6 chapters of my new WIP, the second book in the Rising Phoenix series, Luke and Keira’s book.
I know exactly what I wrote. KNow the plot steps I went through. Even jotted them all down in case I forget further down the line. Only, now, as I’m rewriting…it’s all so different. Same plot, same characters, same writer, same story vision, but it’s just coming out…different.
And I’m finding it amazing how that can happen.
Great News!
>I received a fabulous offer of representation from an awesome agent! I’m really excited. But I still have two full manuscripts out with agents I really want to talk to, so I’ve got to cross some T’s and dot some I’s before I accept. But it should be final by the end of the week. Very exciting!!
Last night I dreamt about my plot, only *I* was the one in the middle of the conspiracy, not my characters. I don’t remember the details, only the sense of feeling totally out of control, at the mercy of others who only wanted to hurt me. I remember the sense that whoever was behind the conspiracy was all-powerful and anything I tried or thought to try were futile. A very vulnerable, powerless sensation.
Then I woke up and it’s all good. Fodder for the work, right?
>Great News!
>I received a fabulous offer of representation from an awesome agent! I’m really excited. But I still have two full manuscripts out with agents I really want to talk to, so I’ve got to cross some T’s and dot some I’s before I accept. But it should be final by the end of the week. Very exciting!!
Last night I dreamt about my plot, only *I* was the one in the middle of the conspiracy, not my characters. I don’t remember the details, only the sense of feeling totally out of control, at the mercy of others who only wanted to hurt me. I remember the sense that whoever was behind the conspiracy was all-powerful and anything I tried or thought to try were futile. A very vulnerable, powerless sensation.
Then I woke up and it’s all good. Fodder for the work, right?
Website Updated
>Finally. Took me forever. And in the end, I found both a website software and an ftp software that were both FREE! Now everything is on my laptop…not the desktop that crashed a while ago.
That’s what I bought on Black Friday…a desktop replacement. Not how I’d planned on spending the Christmas money, but…
http://joanswan.com
>Website Updated
>Finally. Took me forever. And in the end, I found both a website software and an ftp software that were both FREE! Now everything is on my laptop…not the desktop that crashed a while ago.
That’s what I bought on Black Friday…a desktop replacement. Not how I’d planned on spending the Christmas money, but…
http://joanswan.com
Decisions, decisions…
>
So many decisions, so little time. Literally.
I was planning on finishing the first draft of the second book in a trilogy/potential series so I could enter both into the GH this November. My brilliant CP (no I’m not being facetious) suggested adding a paranormal element to my series, as that might make it just different enough to catch an agents eye.
I like the idea. And with her help, I developed a nice para element that could encompass the entire series as well as add another suspense element and sub plot.
Fantastic, right?
Yeah, if I had all the time in the world to write and there were no looming contest deadlines.
**Sigh** What’s a girl to do?