Leaving Tomorrow!

I leave tomorrow for Cuba. Well actually, I catch a flight to Toronto, then pop over to Montreal (4 hour stop-over there) and then I leave for Cuba. Should be a very, very long day.

Tonight I'm packing, so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to write anything tonight. Here are the rest of the days from this week:

Monday - 0 words
Tuesday - 0 words
Wednesday - 1114 words on WC&S + a bunch plotting/developing a brand new story outline
Thursday (Today) - 0 words

Tomorrow, well you never know. I will be traveling for 14 hours, I might be able to write a few words down. Then when I get back, I get to make a choice... whether to continue to focus my writing on my short story... or to jump back into my Novel and push full steam ahead!

A difficult choice. My short story is coming along nicely, but I still have close to 10,000 words to go before it's done.... I've already realized that short stories really aren't my thing. I like subplots and developing my characters too much to just write a simple story. My novel needs a lot of work, and it's been sitting on the back burner for a while now, but I really feel it's time to finish it up. Well, I guess you'll find out soon enough.

Tips I heard Today:

1) Always Have A Twist!

2) Try writing without the screen turned on, to let your subconscious write for you.

3) Purple Spotted Pink Stamping Elephants (this is more of a reminder to always have fun with your writing - even if you are writing about serious stuff - and to create an image in your readers mind quickly, using the least amount of words. Of course some will argue that you should never use this many descriptive words in one sentence, but that's another tip completely.)

Have a great week, I will!

C

4 more sleeps...

...til I'm in Cuba baby.

But you don't want to hear about that. You want to know how well I've been doing with my word counts. How close I am to having something published so that you can read it?

Tuesday - 1,000 words (approx) (library day)
Wednesday - 0 words
Thursday - 0 words (was home sick and in bed all day)
Friday - 0 words (again with the "in bed all day" thing)
Saturday - 0 words (ok, I'm getting annoyed here too)
Sunday - 0 words (I was busy getting stuff for my vacation)

OK, so I completely failed in getting a DAILY word count going, but at least I wrote something.

- Sigh -

I have more junk to do tonight, in the aim of getting ready for my trip (I leave Friday). Then there is a birthday dinner on Tuesday, and packing on Thursday.... I am planning on going to the library again on Wednesday, so at least I know I'll get some words in this week.

Hope your having a better week then me. If I don't talk to you before I leave, Have a Great Week, and I talk at you in the second week of May.

C. M. Hunt

What happened to my run?

There are many things I wish I knew more about... the one foremost in my mind is why I have dry spells like this:

Saturday - 0 words

Sunday - 0 words

Today, Monday - 0 words (unless you count the ones on this blog and in my journal)

WHY, OH WHY?

OK, now that the I'm finished complaining... I've added some neat little word meters on the side of my blog. They will be tracking how far I am in my current works... which right now are my novel and short story. Looking at those little counters it's easy to feel better about how I'm doing. The little numbers underneath reflect: words written thus far/ total number of words expected. In truth I guess it looks OK, but as you can see from the daily numbers above, I'm not doing so great.

I'm going to the library again tomorrow, and I'm having dinner with some old writing friends of mine afterwards. I really hope to get some words down soon. As much as the pretty meters help me pretend I'm not doing that badly, I know I'm doing doing as well as I could.

I'm going to be digging hard these next two weeks. After that I'm in Cuba for a week, with no access to a computer (how will I survive). I had hoped to be finished my short story - or at least close to finished - before I left, so that I could polish it up and get right into my novel when I come home. That means pushing my daily word counts up into the "existent" numbers.

Smile for my. I need all the encouragement I can get at this point.

C

Saturday

Well, what to say.

I was doing really good... and I'm not doing half bad now... but I could be better.

Monday, April 9 - 0 Words

Tuesday, April 10 - 150 Words on random junk

Wednesday, April 11 - A freakin' lot of words (around 2000) on WC&S

Thursday, April 12 - 0 Words (are you starting to see a pattern here?)

Friday the 13th - 0 Words

Wednesday was the day I went to the Library with one of my fellow writers for some mutually encouraged writing. It was really good, as you can see, that was the day I did most of my writing this week. We are going again on Tuesday right before a Dinner with our old writing group. I really look forward to these day's.

I'm not sure what the problem with me is though. I just wish I had the self discipline to write everyday. I have to admit this is about a million times better then how I was doing a couple of months ago.

Maybe I should stop complaining. At least I'm writing. I could be sitting reading a book telling myself I should really write so that one day I could hold my own book in my hands. At least I'm working towards that goal more than one week out of the month (which is what I was doing before).

I know you're thinking, "hmm sorry but aren't you just working on a short story right now?" Well yes I am, but by being published, and getting my name out there, I have a better chance of getting picked up by a publisher for my novel. That's the general wisdom I keep hearing. I think it's about time I stoped trying to reinvent the wheel and learn from people who have been there.

Speaking of learning, I still havn't completed the next unit in my writing course. It deals with building up your tool box... you know, reference books, dictionary's, stuff directly related to your genre. I also have to build a list of phrase's, descriptions, quirky comments, etc, as a reference book of it's own. To add when I need something when I'm writing. Anyway, It's a little harder then I thought. I know you have to build things up over a longer period of time, but I still have to have a certain number done for this assignment. Meh, I'll come up with something... like my cuss o' matic phrase's, those are fun!

Ok, enough of this. I should get to my writing for the day. I know I don't have as much time today as I'd like but I only spent an hour and 1/2 at the library on Wednesday and look how much I wrote.

Keep writing.

C

The Long Weekend

I love long weekends. I normally get the full four days off, so currently I am sitting here with a full day ahead of me with nothing but what I want to do in front of me. That will be writing.

Update: My mother just called and wants to go for lunch. I also just remembered that I have a doctors appointment this afternoon. So much for the whole day ahead of me. - Sigh- I should be able to get a couple hours in, at least... I hope.

This writing ANY amount every day seems to be working. I've written somewhere between 100 words to 2,000 words everyday and that will get me finished faster than not writing at all. I'm also doing well about the every day thing. I took Friday off from writing but I think that's ok. I've written 5 days out of the last 6 (not counting today yet). Not bad for a starting point.

I'm looking forward to another library meeting, but it looks like it might not be on Wednesday. Silly life things are getting in the way and we might have to shuffle around the days a bit over the next couple of weeks. But I'm ok with it. So long as it in the cards somewhere I know it will help me keep this momentum going... and I'd really like to keep it going.

Haven't done another assignment for my tutor yet. I'm on unit 9 and unit 10 is about actually writing your novel. Since I haven't jumped back into my novel yet, I'm putting this on a slight hold until I get into it again (which should be when I get back from Cuba).

Word Count Update:

April 7th - 2,340 (approx) words on "WC&S"

April 8th - 490 (approx) words on "WC&S"

Theses are approximates because I was writing by hand and just took an average rather then count every word. Once I type them up on the computer I may update the numbers here... but then again, I might not.

Best get on with the day. Have a good one,

C

She Keeps Going...

Here's the break down for the last two days:

April 5th - 106 words on "WC&S" (not much I know but at least it was something)

April 6th - Read through a friends manuscript and critiqued it. No new words on my own stuff.

I don't remember if I mentioned before, but I'm going away to Cuba in three weeks. I think it's about time I had a vacation. Also, It'll give me some real experiences to add to my novel. It is set on an Island. The only islands I've been on were Vancouver and Salt Spring. I think getting a more tropical view will help me out quite a bit in my re-write.

I've broken down my re-write into two parts. Part one- Easy Stuff: The first 5 chapters are basically fine, they only need minor changes. Part Two - Harder Stuff: After chapter 5, I need to add a chapter and re-write chapters 6 through 9 (or 7-10 if you add the new chaper). My current chapter 10 is ok as is but it needs some edits (and to be finished) so it doesn't fall under either parts. It's part of Phase 2: Writing the rest of the novel.

I'm giving myself a break from my novel until I get back from my vacation. Besides, White Cats and Suicide is really coming along. Well, best get back to it.

C

Word Count

Now don't get your hopes up that I'll do this every day, but it feels like the thing to do right now.

April 3rd - 1,167 words on "WC&S"
- 350 (approx) on 1/2 a plot outline for a new (short?) story idea

April 4th - 304 words on "WC&S" on my lunch break
- 1,162 words on "WC&S" at the Library

April 5th - I'll let you know later.

On a side note:

I had a fantastic time at the library. I mean, yes it was an interesting range of clientele they have there, but think of the characters you could watch develop before your very eyes. And it was really great to have a set time with someone else to 'force' you to write. It's not a bad thing, but as my friend said yesterday, "There is always something else that can come up." This was like an appointment, everyone (and everything) else just had to work around it.

I'm going to try and do it again next week. Hurray, for putting pen to paper.

Have a good one,

C

Aw, boff me with a flaming stick 'o dynomite!

I love fun stuff. I just added two more sites in my Fun Stuff section. Random generators are great ways to waste time... I mean, get inspired.

Actually, I found the name generators really help when your in a pinch and you need a name for that character who will be dead in 4 pages. You really don't want to spend a whole lot of time coming up with a really good name only to kill the guy. So, name generators. I don't always use them exactly as them come up. Some of them are odd.

Like Annoi (hehehe Annoy), I would use this as Annie or something. It helps just to get the brain moving.

I also like the cuss-o-matic. That's where I found the title for this post. Others would be; "Flaming mother of a salivating centipede-headed rat!" or "Well, spork me with a broken curtain rod!". Traditional swearing is just so boring, these are much better.

What a great way to spend the day... Ok, so back to reality.

What have I done lately on my writing? I've been writing. Yesterday I wrote about 1,200 words and half an outline for a new short story. Today, I wrote about 400 words and I'm going to the library after work for a couple hours to write some more.

I think my attention span for writing is about a 2 hour block of time. After 2 hours nothings happening. So I wrote for two hours yesterday, cooked and cleaned a bit then went back to writing for another two. It Worked So Well. Today, I only put in one hour at lunch, but then I'll put in another 2 this afternoon. This could really work (knock on cyber-wood).

"White Cats and Suicide" - my short story- is really coming along. It's creepy dark, but soooo much fun. I think I'm getting the hang of this.

Let me ask a question of you readers out there...
- Do you really hate it if you don't know the main characters name for the first 6 pages of a story?
- Or is it OK when on page 3 you realize it's because she doesn't want anyone to know her real name and the name you learn on page 6 is fake?

Let me know. Remember this is a short story I'm talking about. Maybe a 60 pages, 1.5 spaced. It would be interesting to hear your feedback.

Well, I think that's good enough for the moment. I'll try and keep you posted a little more often.

C