3-Day Done

I did it!!!

This weekend was intense. I wrote for long hours, had minimal food and sleep, but somehow I completed a 75 page novella that's not that bad. The weekend went something like this:

Saturday - Got up at 8:30 ready to go, but the writing came hard and slow. It started picking up in the afternoon and evening, but my new-old laptop (new for me but actually old) decided to break... yeah, Ok, I broke it accidentally. I finished off the day around 8pm.

Sunday - most of the day was spent looking for, buying, and setting up a new laptop. I didn't get started until around 4:30 in the afternoon. (yikes) So I pushed my sleeping limits and wrote right into the wee hours of the morning.

Monday - Starting writing around 9:30am. By this time my body was sore from sitting, so I tried writing standing up with my laptop on a bookshelf, kneeling on the ground, even on my stomach (which I won't recommend). I wrote for 15 hours in total and came in just under the wire (meaning I wrote right until midnight).

My novella (because it's a bit too short to be called a novel) is called "Beloved Child", and has 6 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue (it's sitting at 19,108 words). And unfortunately, I'm submitting this is unedited, because I pushed the midnight deadline just to finish. I did go through as I was writing to make sure things were spelt correctly and such (and it's very possible I missed some), but I did nothing of real editing.

I read through it last night before bed (yes, between midnight and 3am). There are a couple of choppy bits, some bits that don't seem to make sense, but over all it's not half bad. It's really fast paced, more than I'm used to, but hey... it was written in three days, so of course it's going to be fast paced. I also wrote a little blurb after "THE END" that goes over what I've learnt from this. This truly was an experiment in trying to write an entire story from the bad guy's point of view, and I did that. I also manage to write my very first (and second) fight scene, and I don't think I did too badly.

I must have needed the sleep today though. Yes, I went to bed at 3am, but I slept until 2:30pm this afternoon. I haven't done that since I was 15 years old.

I'm glad it's over. It surprisingly painful to write for that long every day, but at the same time, it was very rewarding. Because this was an experiment for me, I pushed my limits. I got really depressed at one point because writing from the bad guy's point of view doesn't give you a lot of hope. Yet overall, I found a way to push passed it. I think the end result turned out pretty good. (oh, I also found out that I love short sentences right now, and I think I used them a bit too much. Oops)

If you get a chance to do it next year, I would recommend it. I might even join you.... Hmmm, do I really want to do this more than once? Probably :)

Have a good one,

C

My 1st Rejection

Well it finally happened.

Today, it is with great pleasure that I share with you the contents of my very first rejection letter from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It is a standard "thanks but no thanks letter". Not good, but not bad either.

"Dear Ms. Hunter: Thank you for submitting "Freedom Fire," but I'm going to pass on it. This tale didn't grab my interest, I'm afraid. Good luck to you with this one, and thanks again for sending it our way."

I am proud of this letter because it proves that I have jumped into the game, and that I'm ready to play. The best and only way to fight 'Rejection', is to hit it right back with 'Persistence'. Therefore, it's time to file this letter away and send Freedom Fire on to it's next possible home, ON SPEC.

(And as an FYI, I am sending out Pain and Blood, my second short story, to Analog Magazine on Wednesday.)

As a side note: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Conference is on Friday. I'm getting excited. Looks like there will be time to write while I'm there, as well as before and after the conference. There also seems to be lots of interesting sessions taking place. Right now I want to go to all of them, but I'm sure that once I'm there it'll be easier to pick and choose (I hope). I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a good one,

C

Smile

Well, I'm not the happiest person on the planet, but I better off than I was on Friday.

We found a place to live. It's not great, but it's not bad either... and it's a roof over my head.

So now that the chaos has been averted, I thank all of you who helped me out over the last week and an half (was it really that short of a time frame?). All your encouraging words, and emails containing millions of ads, was all very appreciated. Thanks.

Onward and forward. Wednesday is Library day and I'm looking forward to getting some writing done, at last. I did manage to throw some researching into the last week, so that it wasn't a complete loss. I'll do some writing on Wednesday, go to a wedding on Friday, and start packing on the weekend. Busy week ahead of me.

In closing, I'll leave you all with an affirmation. These are helpful phrases to help you through just about anything. Here is the one I used this weekend:

I have the strength and courage to face all of life's challenges!

Have a great day!

C

Job, Homes and Writing?

I haven't written a new post in a while. Shame on me.

I've been trying to do too many things at once, and it's been bogging me down: Write my outline, buy a house, save the world at work, you know that standard BS.

Work I need to relax about. There is no way I can save the world by stressing myself out to the max. In fact, I'll probably just end up with a sick day. Then how much help would I be? Just keep counting... two more years and then no more day job... that's the goal anyway.

Buying a house is just stressful in a normal market, let alone a market that increases 3% between the time I started looking (beginning of may) until last week. That's about $12,000 in a month. I don't know how much longer we'll keep looking before we give up, and/or get priced out of the market entirely. I'm hoping our rent doesn't go up too high next month, or we may be in very big trouble.

Now for the good stuff... I'm almost done unit 9 in my course, after a month of staring at the blank page going, "huh?". It'll be great to get it done finally and out of my hands so I can work on the next unit... which surprisingly is about my novel outline.

My outline is going good. I only have four more chapters left to outline and then I can get into reworking the chapters I've got. It's really nice to be able to work on crafting larger sections of an idea again, to play with the subplots in there entirety rather than one small section of the larger piece. It definitely makes me like my story again, which is one of (if not THE) most important thing about writing. You have to want to write down the story in your head, otherwise why bother?

I've been helping out two of the ladies in my support group. They both finished a novel and sent it to the group to be critiqued (that's different from edited). Their stories were really good, and it was nice to know I helped mold a bit of their stories based on my comments. The two of us left who haven't finished a novel are working harder now that we can see what the end result looks and reads like. The pressure is on. I feel like I need a month of straight writing time, but I'm not going to get it. I'll just have to fit my writing time into this busy life I've built for myself.

Well, I think that's enough rambling on my part. Hope you're having a great day... and if you're a writer, I hope you're having an even better writing day.

C

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