I Love a Challenge!

While I was at the lake having my lovely vacation my phone had a rare moment of internet connectivity and I checked my email. Hmm, isn't that a strange thing to do. 

Well, I got a message that the lovely Tristi Pinkston was hosting another of Tristi's challenges!

Woohoo!

Well, I was excited see that email. I had signed up for one before, and then completely lost the site, I couldn't remember my goals, and it was just a complete bust!
This time I was determined to accomplish something and use this challenge to really do what I've been telling myself for the last year+ that I can.

So I signed up, bookmarked the page, and have been writing like a crazy girl, checking in and freaking out every time I hit another word count that I never thought I would make it to.

You know, I learned to speak positively to myself a long time ago, but telling myself something and really believing it is different, and a little tricky.
Now I can see it happening, and by golly I am eating that elephant, one bite at a time! Or in this guys case a giant strawberry larger than half your body, either way, it's goin' down baby!

My goals were to write 1,500 words 5 days a week with a total of 7,500 a week. So, far I've kept up or at least managed to catch up for each weeks goals and last week I hit 40,000 words! 

This week I've made it past 50,000!

I'm so excited!!!

I know it's only a first draft but this is my first first draft that's actually getting completed! And I'm freaking excited! I've already got plans for my first round of edits but I'm holding off till my last few chapters are written and I can officially say, "Why yes, of course I've written a book."

Sluffing The Real Stuff

My toes are buried under a pile of laundry on my unmade bed, there's a stack of papers next to me and what am I doing?

Sitting under it all typing away on my story! What a happy way to start the morning :)

Haha, OK! It would probably be happier with all of it done but it won't last long. I'll sluff it for a moment, then have to get up and take care of things because life happens and has to be dealt with. 

Who's to say I'm really sluffing anyhow?

 It all depends on your frame of mind. There's a story full of very real imagery and experiences to the people inside it. They and I deserve to have that story told! Writing and stories fill my head and for the moment I'm reveling in it. 

So am I sluffing the real stuff, or sluffing what's really the background to living life? 

Yeah, I said it. Laundry is the monotony of a life un-lived.

 Of course nobody wants to live that life naked. 

So, this'll be me later today but for now...

just give me five more minutes... 'kay.

Where's Chloe today: Talkin' with her momma and hoping not to choke mid convo!

Ode to the Pen

I've been struggling with a laptop that doesn't want to cooperate with my on the move style of writing.

• I want to write everywhere. It prefers being plugged into the wall.
• I want to access my work in a more easily view-able format. It doesn't like to save in dropbox. (Or maybe it just refuses to update what it does save. I can't decide)
• I move from one thought to the next very quickly. It thinks I need time. Probably to contemplate the nature of every possible story line before continuing on with the plot. (Jerk. I guess it doesn't trust me.)

Oh well, in any case I was inspired by a post at  QueryTracker Blog by Jane Lebak She wrote about writing in notebooks and after reading it I stared at my stack of neglected notebooks and was kinda surprised at how similar my feelings are about writing in them. 

I still need the computer, obviously, but I really believe I write better when it's come from my brain, to the paper. Like somehow my heart is attached to those tools and when I insert a keyboard between my fingers and the story, I lose feeling. Maybe I think about things to much, or not enough, but in any case I'm pulling out the notebooks and pens and going to work... again :) 

Go check out her post and her friends posts as well if we want to be all unbiased and junk, and get inspired!

If you really want that ode...
Oh the glory of this thine ink!
Why must the words thou holds be hid from me?
Spill them, spill them forth that I might joy in their wonder!
Share thy secrets with us all.
The glory that thou holds.

Hehe, Share an ode with me! I'm totally not being serious in writing that. Honestly...
 I don't even know what an ode really is! So don't think just write and share your ode to writing!

Current WIP - Today I'm hoping to find out some dynamics in the conflict between Chloe and her father. 

Keep movin along :)

So I started this in March, and I have continued to write, slowly.

Flash forward!

6 mo later.

Hmm... sorry, but I'm not finished yet. Oops!

Hehe :)

However, I am further along than the first chapter.

The overflowing amount of advice that is available to anyone wanting to write. Boggles my mind and leaves me in awe of the many talented published and unpublished authors out there striving to tell their story!

Today, I'm feeling the need to just keep going.

The desire to tell my story is overwhelming, but, this first time through the first draft is kinda killing me :) I'm trying to figure out the details of things that I vaguely know and put into words the feelings that express themselves so freely in my minds eye. I think this is why not everyone can be a writer! I just have to make sure I get through it!

Goals for today (or this month) -

Find the time and push through the hard parts so that your story can be told. I'll figure out the fine tuning later but right now it just needs to be told!

The second draft is easier right?

First Chapter... Check!

Welcome to... no one! At this point, and someday maybe, to someone who wants to hear what I have to say!
Congratulations! You of all people have stumbled upon my blog, which is mainly about books and the process of writing one, but seeing as I have no real experience except the one that I am living, I claim only to write what I love and know! And share my successes and mistakes along the way!

Today... Success!

I finished the first chapter of my first draft of my book! Exciting! It's all outlined through to the end and scenes are broken down, but now I've actually finished the first chapter and it feels so good!

Of course a book is much more than it's first chapter (and I already have thoughts about revising it) so my goal is to write 500 words every day and get it done in 6 Months! Woo-Hoo! Here's to goals!