Book Goals – 2012

Nothing new in my yearly book goal of reading 52 books this year. And nothing really new in that I’m already slightly behind. But with plenty of time to catch up, I’m okay with that. I thought I’d push myself a little more this year since I only made it through 31 books in 2011, but since I still need to edit the rough draft of my novel, I’m not sure I’ll meet my book goal this year. For the record, I’m on book #8.

Additionally, this year, I want to get through every single book I bought at the VNSA book sale 2012 pilgrimage, or at least the 29 books still in my possession after my mom rifled through the stash and absconded with several. (And if I make it through those, I need to get through the backlog from VNSA 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, and so on.)

So, I will read 52 books this year (seven down).

I will read the 29 books I got at the VNSA book sale (two down).

I will edit my novel.

I will also continue to write consistently. Writing is not an option.

So, some writing goals as well as book goals. We’ll see how the year progresses.

When you start hearing voices

I know I’m blogging about writing a lot lately, but it’s on my mind, it’s what I want to do, and I absolutely have to make a go of it. Anyway…

I find other writers interesting and always felt jealous when a writer talked about his/her writing process and how a character started speaking to him/her. I always wanted that for me, but:

I’ve never heard voices.

My process usually starts with a title… Corporate America Stole Another Day of My Life (in progress), Diary of a Recovering Flirt (in progress), Jiggle Hips (not even started)… And with the title comes a very broad idea of what the novel will be about, but nothing specific just yet. A lot of the details that followed the titles of the novels I just mentioned came when I was driving to/from work (the hour commute each way gave me a lot of time to think). The process is somewhat different now that I’m not commuting, but I still think about the details after I think of the title.

However, there is one novel idea that deters from my usual method. A few years ago, I got an idea for a story before the title (in fact, the title still hasn’t come to me). After the idea came the characters. The names of several of the side characters, the stories, but nothing really about the main character. Since I wasn’t ready to work on the story, I wasn’t worried about it. But then I heard her voice. It was yesterday. I was thinking about my mom, and then I heard the character’s voice, heard the first line of the novel, and found her name. It was the craziest thing and really got me excited and eager to start flushing the details out. I have to stem the flow, though. One novel at a time, since I only have a short amount of time to work every day. But:

Finally, I hear voices!

How to write a novel and lose weight

I wasn’t kidding when I tacked a bullet point on my last blog entry about losing five pounds. I really did lose five pounds in November. I was actually down by 10 pounds at one point and attributed it to the copious amounts of green tea I was drinking and some really late night writing sprees.

I wasn’t actually trying to lose weight, but isn’t that a nice bonus?

As I inferred before, my daughter is a very light sleeper. What I didn’t mention is, my office faces my daughter’s room. So, I’d get her to sleep, clean up downstairs, and then I’d head up to my office and close the door most of the way – closing it all the way would wake her up. I could work for an hour or so without interruption, but every night she’d wake up and see my office light on and start calling to me to stop working because she wanted to snuggle. I wasn’t getting quite as much work done as I wanted.

Something had to give, so I gave up my lovely 24 inch monitor and took my laptop downstairs to the kitchen (warmest room in the house!). Since I don’t have a desk in the kitchen, throughout the month of November, I stood at the counter and typed away at my novel. The one to two hours of extra standing and fidgeting (or dancing if the music was right) every night got rid of five pounds I didn’t need.

And drinking copious amounts of green tea helped.

A rough draft, a pitch, and more

I’ve been silent lately. Mostly because I couldn’t justify spending time blogging when I had so many other things to do – mostly working on websites for clients and some writing.

In September, I was reading a lot of blogs from other writers, editors, book reviewers, etc. and saw recurring comments about how people always complain about not having time to read or write. I agree that it can be very hard to find the time to read/write, but really it’s about the motivation. I find it hard to motivate myself when an opening presents itself to me. There are times throughout the day that I feel motivated to write, but that’s usually the time my daughter wants me to read her a story or work on a puzzle. And let’s face it, my daughter is no competition for reading, writing, TV, friends, chocolate, tea, or any other distraction. She wins, hands down. So, I tend to tell myself I’ll write later. Sometimes I jot down a thought, but mostly I just try to remember the thought for later in the day. But then later in the day comes, and I’m exhausted. All I want to do is finish cleaning up and sit in front of the TV or read a book.

To this, some bloggers would say, get up early and write in the morning. I tried this for a while, but it backfired on me because my daughter has an uncanny ability to sense disturbances in the ether – she’d wake up when I woke up, no matter how quiet I tried to be.

Something hit me in September – there had to be more to life than working on a few projects and keeping up with my daughter. Although I enjoyed relaxing in front of the TV and reading at the end of the day, I felt guilty for not making time for my writing dreams. It weighed on me, so I decided to do something about it. I made a conscious effort to:

  • avoid facebook unless I needed to use it for work or something critical
  • stop spending time on my own blogs/sites/twitter
  • stop watching TV at the end of the day
  • ignore my RSS feeds
  • integrate internet browsing (reading mashable, techcrunch) with daytime activities, like reading an article while little J colors

Well, I’m happy to report this combination worked for me. I was able to keep up with projects and work on my outline throughout September and October, and it coincided perfectly with National Novel Writing Month, so on November 1st I started writing, and by November 30th, I had written a very rough draft, finishing at 50,074 words. When I say rough, I really mean rough. It needs a lot of work, but it has promise.

I did start editing the novel, but I hit a wall during December with holidays and family. I still haven’t picked up where I left off, but I feel hope and progress.

To help me get back into editing mode, I wrote and submitted a pitch for an online Pitchapalooza, offered to NaNoWriMo participants by The Book Doctors. I also bought The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published and am eager to start reading it.

So, after cutting extraneous, non-essential, time-sucking activities, I was able to:

  • concentrate on finishing client projects
  • finish an outline for my novel
  • write a rough draft of my novel
  • edit the first 20 pages of my novel
  • write and submit a pitch for my novel
  • lose five pounds (gotcha!)

I’m happy with the results so far, but I know I can’t slack and need to get back to the editing before another novel beckons to be outlined.

They call it BlackBerry Love

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, these should give you an idea of how much I love my BlackBerry:

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Or maybe they just indicate how klutzy I’ve been or that my BlackBerry is one of little J’s favorite toys. A few bumps and bruises never hurt a cell phone, right?

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I’ve been thinking of switching to an iPhone since it came out, but I’ve been reluctant to take the plunge, mostly because of the keyboard (and also that little problem with them not being available on Verizon until recently). There’s definitely something satisfying about clicking away on a BlackBerry, but the coolness factor of the iPhone is beginning to outweigh the BlackBerry love.

The problem I’ve always had with the iPhone is the “should I wait?” question. Should I wait until it’s available on Verizon (I did). Should I wait for them to work out the glitches (I have). Should I wait for the iPhone 5 (I’m not sure I can). The real question I need to ask myself at the moment is: will my trackball last?

We’ll see.

I feel the iPhone Love coming.