Urggg!

I'm getting anxious to spend some real, uninterrupted time on my writing. Okay, I manage to grab an hour here, twenty minutes there, but it's just not cutting it. I spend as much time reviewing where I left off as I do writing. It's frustrating, to say the least.

But for right now, it's what I've got, so I've got to make do. Anyone have any ideas as to how to make the most of sport writing spurts? Do you have a system that works?

Birthday and Progress

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was spoiled rotten over the weekend. Dinner out with DH, breakfast in bed from the kiddies (with Daddy's help, of course), and a lovely cake with my family on Sunday evening. A wonderful weekend like that does help take the sting out of a birthday.

As for the WIP, I shined up my first chapter (with the help of lovely CP, Jude) and entered it in Toronto Romance Writer's Golden Opportunity Contest. Its the first contest I've entered in a very long while, and I'm hoping to get some valuable feedback from it. As for finaling...that'll always be the dream, but I won't hold my breath. I need all my brain cells.

Such is life

Even though my week of uninterrupted writing didn't turn out quite as I'd planned due to DD1's visit from the flu fairy, I still managed to get down 5500 new words. Not bad for a week that was intermixed with sofa snuggles, fetching drinks, and cleaning vomit (yuck).

But the one thing that the week did give me is a new found determination to finish this damn book! Now that I've gotten the partial down on paper, I'm seeing new depth to the story that wasn't there before. I'm getting better at layering in tid bits that reflect the character's personality and conflicts without the back story dump that I'd previously used. I think I'm getting the hang of this!

So rather than going back to polish the partial, as I'd spent so much time doing in the past, I'm charging on. I'm determined to get this story down before my muse flies the coop again.

She's not getting away so easily this time!

Bliss...

I'm spending this week writing. Just me, my laptop and an endless number of empty pages to fill. This is this first time I've had so much consecutive time to write with no kiddies about, so I'm lapping it up. Yesterday was a little less productive than hoped due to a sick kiddo at home, but today there are no excuses.

So what am I doing here?

I'm off to write!

Back at it

After much obsessing I finally gave in and resubmitted my story to Woman's World after waiting 6 1/2 months. I'm pretty such it got lost in the mail somewhere. So now I go back to the bottom of the pile and get ready to wait another couple months. Oh well... at least I'm subbing.

And while I was at it, I also mailed off a children's story that I wrote a few months ago. It's Halloween themed, so I wanted to send it early enough to make it for the Halloween season if they choose to publish it. I only sent it off to one Canadian Publisher. I do want to send it to others but I need to do more research to decide exactly where. I'll get there.

As for the romance MS, I've been doing a lot of work on nailing down the internal conflicts. I really think it's going to pay off in a stronger story. I hope to get some writing time tomorrow to try out my theory.

Hope your writing is going well.

It's been a while

I'm returning from my little blogland hiatus, and guess what...nothing much has changed! Yup, how sad is that? Two months away and I'm still in the same spot. I'm still working on my WIP, and still haven't heard on the story I sent to WW on August 25.

It's been 5 months. At first I thought that was a good sign. Its the longest I've ever had to wait for a response, so maybe that meant it was being passed up the line, I thought. But then I read on a yahoo group for aspiring WW writers that someone else had recently sold her story and she mailed hers in September. So, has it been passed up to a senior editor? Possibly. Has it been lost in the mail? Possibly. Should I stop obsessing about it? Definitely.

Moving on. I've decided to start working on the synopsis for my wip. I know, there are many different schools of thought on when to do the synopsis...before starting, during, when complete. But I was really feeling the need to nail down the story and the conflicts, and writing the synopsis is helping loads. Once I'm done I'll send off to my CP Jude for a quick boo (by the end of the weekend, I've promised) and then it's back to progressing the story.

So what's new with you?

I'm Ba-aaack

Sorry for the long absence, but I just got back from a 10 day vacation comprised of a Disney Cruise (heavenly!) followed by a relaxing stay at a Florida condo. Needless to say, it was a shock to come back to snow so early in the season. Who ordered this white stuff anyway? Definitely not me. I want my palm trees and sun shiny skies back!

So now that I'm back it's nose to the grindstone. No more excuses. Starting today, I'm going to stop worrying so much about what I'm writing and just write...even if it's not romance. Hopefully that will get the juices flowing. I'll let you know.

New blahs

To add to my previous blahs, I got an R on the short story revision that I sent to Woman's World back in July. I was really hoping this would be the one. But at least I've got another story with them. All hope is not lost.

Thanks for the great suggestions on getting rid of my writing blahs. I especially love the day dreaming one, Jude. An excuse to escape into my own head for a while with no expectations...sounds divine!

On the upswing, a cute Halloween story that I wrote and my daughter did the illustrations for won 1st place at the Fall Fair at my daughter's school. I'd feel a lot better if I hadn't beaten out a bunch of 6th graders, LOL.

*Sigh* Has it come down to this?

Feeling blah

What do you do when you're feeling blah and unmotivated to write?

This is my challenge right now. Too busy to write during the day when I'm feeling motivated...but when I finally have some time in the evening after getting the kiddies to bed, my mind draws a blank. My creativity goes out the window.

Any tips on how to get the mojo back into my writing life? What works for you?

Today's the Day...

If you'd like to swing by and have a read, today's the day that my short story, entitled Starting Over, is posted over at Read-a-Romance.com.

There are a lot of other great stories there too. If you've got a few minutes to indulge, you won't be disappointed!

Good News

I just had some good news...one of the shorts that I wrote is going to be featured on the Read-a-Romance website next Monday, October 6th. Read-a-romance.com is the premier online choice for free romantic reads. So please stop by and tell me what you think.

If you forget, don't worry; I'll remind you ; ) !!!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

As I was trying to think of a title for this post, Dory's song from the movie Finding Nemo kept playing in my head. Nothing too exciting to report, but I just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...


The short story has been mailed to Woman's World (on my father's B-Day, so I'll be sure to remember the date), I had a fabulous couple of hours of writing today (during daylight hours, no less) helping the word metre thingy to grow nicely, and DD1 has successfully completed first day of grade 1.

And I'm still swimming.

Here's hoping I'm not in need of any life vests in the coming weeks.

More WW

I'm just finishing offer another short story to send to Woman's World. It's one that I wrote a few month's back and after some feedback from a very wise CP, I decided to take a little space from it until I could sort out the true conflict. Well, I think I cracked it, and it's better than ever... I think. *G*

I haven't heard back yet on the revision that I sent in for the other WW story, but I want to make sure I have something else out there to take the sting off if I get the dreaded R. *shudder*

On the novel writing front, I haven't had much time to get absorbed in Mitch and Cait's journey, but I'm hoping to escape with my mini laptop tomorrow night and get back into it. Oooo...can't wait!

More eye candy

Now that's some serious inspiration!

Now back to bringing Mitch and Cait to their HEA.

Brain Storm

Just had a brain storm with regards to my wip. The H and h dated in highschool but something about their previous relationship didn't sit right with me. I kept assuming that they had been dating for a while, but then why wouldn't he know certain things about her? How could she keep them hidden? Then it dawned on me...it's because they didn't date very long--maybe just a month or two. So she was able to keep things hidden, stay distant. Now it all fits together!

It's funny how on piece of information can make all the difference to your story. So I'll leave you with this scrumptious photo of Mitch Roades, NFL football player and hero of Home to Stay?.

Can you see why I can't get this story out of my head?

Updates

My revised short story is probably already on some one's desk at Woman's World. Yippee! I wrote "Requested Material" on the envelope hoping to hurry things up, but another woman on the WWW writer's loop who had a revision request said that she waited 5 months to hear back. Yikes! Oh well, it takes what it takes.

My other writing is progressing nicely. Each time I sit down to write I try not to stop until I hit 1000 words. It's been working well. If only I had more time to BICHOK. DH and I are on vacation with the kiddies for the next week, so hopefully I'll be able to wrangle some alone time.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Happy Dance!

No, it's not a sale, but the closest I've ever gotten!
Yesterday I got a very thin letter from Woman's World magazine in response to a short romantic story I sent them in March. Assuming it was a rejection, I opened it up with a heavy heart. Imagine my surprise when I saw the words "happy to take another look at it..."!

She was requesting a small change and then suggested she would look at it again! That's a revision request, right? Right?

So off I go to make the small change while cutting back a few words to accommodate the change. I just hope I don't screw it up. Keep your fingers crossed for me...

Ah, Bliss

This afternoon I sat outside on our back deck overlooking the perennial garden and wrote; the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and the words were flowing. I can only imagine how nice it would be if that were my JOB everyday.

I can dream, can't I.

Look at that word metre!

I'm trying not to get too obsessed with word count, but look at that word metre thingy! I'm up to 17.5% complete. Woo hoo!

I refuse to even think about the fact that I have 82.5% left to go. My glass is half full, people. I'm on a roll. I'm gonna nail this sucker while it's still fresh.

Gotta go write (tee hee).

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my thirty--grumble, grumble--th birthday. At least it's a beautiful day here in southern Ontario...helps take some of the sting out. We're having a quiet day here, taking my daughter to a dance recital rehearsal, having a few family members over for dinner, and maybe end the day with a bit of writing. My DH's gift to me was a mini portable PC that I can take to a coffee shop, while waiting for DD at dance class, anywhere really. Hope to try it out at the local Tim Horton's tonight.

Does he know me or what?