Last Blog Post

This is farewell for now with a side of advice.

Thanks to all of you who have checked in here. I hope some of my experiences, with Dragon Naturally Speaking, etc., might have helped a few of you keep plugging away. 

Writing is Hell and don't you forget it. Yeah, it's a sit-down job, and I've been grateful to be able to get off my feet and make money too. But still, this business is damn hard work. Each separate piece is damn hard. If you're doing all the pieces yourself, you deserve a medal. Or at least some solid sales.

The basics are still the basics.

Keep writing and your craft will improve.

Keep working on your speed and it will pick up.

Keep setting goals you actually have to reach for, and you'll reach some. It doesn't matter what your odds are, or how many you reach, at least you reached. At least you stretched yourself. That makes you...stretchier, if nothing else. That makes you the mouse with his shoes draped over his shoulder, not worrying about who moved the cheese, or where it went, just prepared to find it. Prepared with shoes and attitude.

Take some time to see what works for you. But don't get addicted to analyzing it all. That's just a procrastination tactic. Try to see those for what they are.

Find a friend to lean on and hold up. A writing friend. For this to be a spouse would be rare indeed. Find someone who is at the same stage you're at, or slightly higher. Then do whatever you can to help them. You always get paid back with interest.

If your family hasn't realized you're a writer by now, start dressing all in black. Quoting Poe as you walk down the hall. Scribbling things on the furniture. If they don't create some writing space for you, and insist you use it, you're not trying hard enough.

Embrace the Cray Cray. It will increase the space around you. If you're looking for love and affection, stick to Roses are Red poems and never, ever wear black.

Read. For hellsakes, read. And write something that goes against the rules you've learned. We all need to see more of that. Take a rule. Bend it 'til it breaks. Toss it in a fire and dance around the flames.

I'm going to try for more pithy posts, like Seth Godin. So if you want to follow me, go hit my author page on Facebook. That's where I'll be setting up shop. LL Muir. I'm sure you can find it.

And that's it.

Four books down. Two more to go, in December. Not going to hit 7 like I'd hoped.

26 pounds down. The Diet Pepsi is next on the drop list. I've already started the fitness part. Wish me luck. Leaving for Scotland in T minus...4 and 1/2 months!!!! HOLY CRAP!

And as always, 

Thank you for playing.

Lesli

Word Count and Professional Envy

It's been a productive week, thank heavens.

Saturday was the NaNo write-in. There were around 16 writers attending, with about ten staying the entire time from 10 am to 7 pm. We took an hour off for lunch, a ten minute break every hour, and did 8 solid sessions. And the grand total of all words written...drumroll...was 81.000+!!!!

I got in just over 8,000 myself, all on the sequel to my YA that I plan to finish up in January. With Christmas and the end of the year sliding closer, I have to be a little realistic about what I'm going to be able to get finished in 2013. (6 1/2 weeks left, btw)

I did get the western romance proofread and polished. I also had a friend teach me how to do my own formatting so when errors are brought to my attention, I can go in and fix them myself. YAY! And this is no light accomplishment; I'm not technically gifted and I really doubted I could wrap my old wrinkly mind around it. BUT I DID!

So the book went up yesterday. And just like every other time I've put a book up, 24 hours later, I'm antsy to get the next one out. What can I say. I find relaxing a waste of good writing time. So tomorrow, I'll be working on Kiss This again. I'm going to expand it a little. But I've got some advertising coming up on Christmas Kiss, so I basically have ten days to get this up. I've got a reverse timeline figured out so I can stay on schedule. I LOVE reverse timelines. I have no idea why. Maybe it's a residual thing from running a flower shop and having a hundred steps necessary to pull off wedding productions.

Anyway.
Here's what's new from discussions with Supe.
We are working on professional envy, or rather, resisting it. And the best way to resist it is to stop watching what other writers are doing, what they're accomplishing, and thinking about what we can do to be equally successful. We realize it's something we've spent way too much time on, and it has left us feeling like failures. Which we're not.

For my part, I've just published my tenth book. The third this year. And I've got at least three coming out before the end of the year. Not a bad year.

We're coming into the home stretch. What can you--reasonably--get done before 2014.

NaNo Friday! November 1, 2013

The lapse in posts is one of the drawbacks of having an office with no wifi.

Yes, I've actually been using my office! And being productive again has revived me. It really has. I'm a pretty ambitious person by nature, so when I'm moving and shaking, I'm happy.

Speaking of giggling, I'm still 19 lbs. down despite having pizza for Halloween along with an inch of a KitKat bar and two whoppers. Apparently the world didn't end, since I'm still here, but I don't think that's going to be a temptation again.

I have realized that all my eating--every bite I put in my mouth for the past ten+years, has been driven by emotion. Nothing about the joy of food. All about my entitlement to it.

And now, I'm working toward being entitled to go to Scotland, entitled to wear jeans, entitled to feel good. And boy, do I feel good. Percentage of body weight-wise, 19 lbs. isn't much. But it was an important benchmark. Lots of things have changed. And my energy is AT LEAST ten times what it was.

Since Tuesday, I've gotten two major projects off my to-do list. One project is off to my agent so she can send it on to some interested editors. That has been a dark cloud over my head for two months. Cloud gone.

I have another project I have to finish tonight by midnight and get sent off to an editor. That's what I'll be doing today instead of getting started on NaNo. And, speaking of NaNo, I'll be getting my 1666 words per day written on a new project on top of what I have scheduled for editing. And I'm going to use my dragon to do it. 1666 words can be done in about 45 minutes tops.

Having a NaNo write-in at my house on Saturday. So far, I've got 18 writers coming. If you're interested, let me know. We're in Utah.

I don't know if it's the New Moon coming or what, but Supe has been bitten by the ambition bug again and we're gearing up for another uber productive month like last August was. We're done talking and analyzing. It's time to shut up and get this stuff written. Great stories, buried in one's subconscious, do no one any good. After all, I don't get to read them either--not until they come out of my fingers.

So.
Let's play Michelangelo.
Let's get our chisels and hammers and get to work, setting these works of art free.  Slow does not equal beauty. Let's take advantage of the NaNo energy that's out there, whether or not you're technically participating, and move some earth.

An Experiment in Separation October 23, 2013

Good Morning Campers!

Now that my roller coaster has come to a complete stop...

I woke up this morning with a happy head cold. Happy I was not going to have any babysitting to do today and happy I could take my son to his day program then come back home for a nap. Then I happily trotted off to lunch with my closest friend, Annie Adams.

In the afternoon, I picked up my son then headed over to sign a contract and pick up the keys to my new office. Yippee! Then I went to the phone store and got a new cell. Both the office and the phone are part of my new Experiment in Separation.

I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself from any earlier posts, but there are plenty of reasons to get an away-from-home-office.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but my reasons include:

I've got offspring moving back into my basement. My youngest son and his wife are getting serious about school and until they get some traction, they'll stay here. That takes up all three bedrooms in the basement=basement is no longer an option for office space, even if I were to be able to stand to be below ground. (I hate basements.)

Secondly, my current bedroom office now has a crib in it for the granddaughter. I tried typing while she naps. It did NOT work. And I tried all week, not just one day. This leaves me no room in the house for a private office.

Another reason I want to have my working desk away from the house is Supe's fault. She got an office 20-30 minutes away from her house. She goes there almost daily, gets her writing in, then goes home. SHE LEAVES HER WORK AT THE OFFICE. When she gets home, it's like...like...she gets to RELAX! She gets to stop thinking about work, about the project, about the characters. She doesn't have to think, while cooking dinner, "I could run in there and edit one more page before the chicken is done." She doesn't have to feel guilty about sitting and watching a tv show instead of plotting out her next story. She doesn't have to look at the clock during a family dinner and try to guess how many more words she can get written depending on when her family members head for their cars.

My husband ruled out buying a small shed and finishing as an office. I ruled out getting a camping trailer. I'm a big girl now. My writing is not a hobby. I do not want to be underground OR have a low ceiling. And I don't want my work haunting me from my bedroom.
Am I asking too much?
I think not.

So I'm going for Normal.

I found an office building near my house that gave me a great deal on rent PLUS a window. I was even willing to go without a window, but I lucked out. I have a lovely view of the mountains thanks to a second floor office window facing east. The room is large enough to hold two desks and a love seat. The main desk I'll use for editing. The small one for new words only. Also, Rock Jr. thinks the second desk is for him. And it will be, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

That's right, folks.
I have a schedule. Just like a normal job. Whoohoo!
Instead of thinking about writing 16 hours a day and maybe getting three good hours in (if you add up all the little pecking I do during the day, on a good day) I'm going to spend about five hours at the office Monday through Friday. And three nights a week, I'm going to go back for more. I hope to get around 30 hours in per week. I start on Friday. I'm going to be realistic and not plan to get anything other than organization done tomorrow.

Tonight I drove past the church and got three teens and one Scout leader (friends all) to come help me load up all the furniture and take it to the office. I paid them and took them for shakes and fries when they were done. They more than earned it. I had some heavy stuff.

Tomorrow's going to be sweeeet!

Oh!
And this is why I needed a phone.
As far as cell phones go, mine was so old my kids groan when I pull it out. They're embarrassed.
But no longer. I got a smart phone. Yes. I'll be holding a small rectangular plate up to my face to speak to people, but apparently THAT's not embarrassing. The true reason I got it, however, was so I don't need yet another computer at the house. I can check email, etc., from this fancy phone. And if I want to get any writing done, I'll just have to go to the office, or break out the Alphasmart or Dragon.

So.
I'm separating my home/family life from my work life. Finally.
And starting Friday, I'll even stop talking about it here. And when I come home, I can focus on the people around me, on the household tasks I never seem to have time for because I'm always TRYING to write.

Still, I wouldn't drop by unannounced.
Hah!

FINALLY! October 16, 2013

I finally found an office today. I'll hopefully be signing a contract tomorrow and moving in sometime this weekend. After seeing the place and negotiating a little, I headed home with a heavy load off my shoulders. I am finally going to be able to separate my job/writing from my home/family life. Wheeee!

Maybe you suffer from the same problem I have, no matter what time of day you write.

My computer is up and running all the time, but I'm rarely working.
Even if I manage to remember to open my current wip file, that doesn't mean I get a chance to look at it with true concentration. Supe had this problem. She would always let little chores pull her away from the screen, even though she was home alone most of the day. When she hit a rough stretch, she'd get up and put in a load of laundry, then she'd never get back to the screen. There was always a meal to plan, some quick errand to run, etc. But now she has an office a good distance from home, and there is no running back to the house to put something in the dryer or the oven. And she's getting the work done.

It was October, I think three years ago, when I quit my job to write full time. I was one of the lucky few, I know. But I also had little choice. Our autistic son was finished with all the schooling programs available to him and our youngest wasn't around to watch him after school anymore. He was a senior, with a job and a life. The tending duties were back to me. But ever since then, I've struggled to keep tapping away, throughout the day, with no clear separation between working and relaxing and housekeeping, etc. My kids know to look for me in my office. I'm always in my office. But after spending 3 years in my office, I don't have a heck of a lot to show for it.

Will I be more focused in the office?
How can I not? I won't have the internet. I can't be interrupted by phone calls. Surely that will make me more productive than I have been.
Surely.

It's worth a shot at least.

I've got two parties going on this week. One tomorrow, one Saturday. By the first of next week I hope to have my happy haven up and running, my head in the game, and my hands on the keyboard. I can't wait to see what happens.

No editing again today. Babies, babies, and more babies. The same for the rest of the week. By next Monday, my duties will probably be a little lighter where babies are concerned, but even so, I'll have an office to head to when possible. It's not far away, but far enough. It's about three miles. Maybe I'll start walking to work somedays.

Hah!

So. Tell me. What might you do to fix your own focus?
Are you looking for focus? Or are you looking for a way out of this job because it's just too much work?
Go ahead. Tell me.

Back in the Saddle October 15, 2013`

I'm back. And it just so happens that "back" is the word of the day.

I'm back from the retreat. The Kiss It and Send It Ceremony was a good exercise in silliness, as always. I've handed off the ceremonial God of the Cave to someone else so the tradition can continue without me. I am not sure if I will be participating in the romance association much longer and I wanted to leave it in good hands just in case.

I came back to find that my daughter has recovered enough to move back home. She's able to walk without a walker and even take stairs if there is a railing. I'll still have her and the three wee ones in my care during the day, but she has made incredible progress whilst I was gone. We are all breathing a bit easier. The danger, we believe, has passed.

I'm back to a weight I haven't seen for three years! Not only did I not gain anything back while dining out in Park City, I've lost another pound since returning on Sunday. Down six. Thirteen total since the first of August. I'm pretty excited. Sugar is still foreign food to me. Temptation only comes when I am stressed or not paying attention. So I pay attention, and when I'm stressed, my new policy is that I will not look for food until the stress has passed. So far, that has saved my bacon.

No. Not only did I not get a word, let alone a page, edited during the conference, I only opened my computer once to make sure I wasn't missing any emergency at home. I'd left my phone in the car, in the parking garage, and I felt like I needed to leave it there. If anything important happened, my family could have called the hotel, or the cell of a friend. Once I got up there, I just felt like the best therapy would be to unplug for the weekend. So I did.

There were a couple of great presentations, but for the most part it was a weekend to gather and reconnect with other writers, to be able to look around a large room and see an army of my fellows who are always out there, feeling what I'm feeling, fighting what I fight--people who have my back.

And for the most important "back" of the day, I'm back in the writer's saddle. Real life held me back for a while, but I have to return to production mode. And while I am looking for an office space yet again--my youngest and his wife will be moving in by the end of this month--I'm still going to have to work the work into the cracks of my day.

I guess I say that all the time, don't I?
But at least I'm still trying to claw my way up this muddy hill. I haven't given up.

Don't you give up either.

I CAN SEE!! October 7, 2013

I can't believe I'm about to admit this, but after five days without sugar, I can SEE.

No, I have no vision impairment other than a little bit of dry-eye from my lasik surgery. But apparently I've had a little bit of a brain impairment from my mega doses of sugar.

But every writer has their magic snacks, right? Lots of writers do well on a sugar high. I know of one who must have chocolate covered cinnamon bears when writing new words. I know another who, like me, has to line her M&M's up in rows according to color. I personally need those rows ordered as they would appear in a rainbow. For a while, I was nuking those dark chocolate pomegranate thingees. But no more. I can't handle the hard stuff anymore.

Like everything else, though, the snacking is just a procrastination tool. So now that I've been tough for five days and the headaches are proving it's just about out of my system, I'm going to treat snacking as a procrastination tool and avoid it all I can. Of course a little ritual can go a long way to getting your head in the game, but we can come up with rituals that don't include food, right?

Let me tell you what I can see today that I don't think I've been able to see for a long time...

I can see my characters a little clearer. I can see where I need a lot more emotion, a little more setting. I can see my own words like someone else wrote them and I can see FLAWS. I feel like I did the day I had my eyes done. I could see the pine trees on the mountains! Individual pine trees. And I feel like I haven't been seeing the individual trees in my projects.

Of course this might all be due to the fact I set those stories aside to write a few more before getting back to the editing desk and looking at them again. Time gives you a fresh perspective, yes, but it's never been this fresh before.

And so, with that enthusiasm that is not unlike donning a fresh pair of contacts, I have attacked my Isobelle script with a vengeance. I am determined to make it memorable. I expect to have draft two done by the end of the weekend, even though I'll be at the conference. Drafts three and four should be done by the end of October.

So, writers, are you seeing your material clearly?
Maybe you should take a look at your snackage.

I AM A WRITER! October 4, 2013

Oh my gosh!

Thank goodness I actually got something done today. I was beginning to worry I was never really going to be a writer ever again. Ever.

I forced myself to open up the document and start reading. Editing just kind of kicks in, doesn't it? It's like a florist walking past a vase of disorderly roses--you can't just keep walking. And we can't just ignore the bad sentence that begs to be fixed, not when it's in our power to fix it, right?

So. How to get the editing done: sit down, open the doc, start reading. Following Supe's advice for the week, I did not take the time to do any research on missing information. That can happen in the last version. But for now, I'm just trying to shape the thing into what it's going to be. I did take the time to look up a synonym or two. After all, I might miss that awkward word in the next run through. Best to fix it when I can see it. Terms that need more research I just turned red and moved on.

Six pages. Yep. That's all I got done, but at least I actually DID something for a change instead of just talking about it. It wasn't the twenty pages I was hoping for, but I'm unable to stay up late anymore thanks to my son's new day program that starts at 9 three days a week. And I'm an all or nothing kind of gal. I even had a nap today and it didn't help me stay up later. I'm just going to have to face the fact I'm a morning person now.

Oy. Somewhere, a world might be coming to an end. It might even be this one.

Lots of stuff going on tomorrow. I'm going to make sure editing is part of that stuff.

How did you do?

New Moon Phase--Time for new goals. October 2, 2013

Perhaps, like me, you did not hit your writing goals for the month of September. And perhaps, like me, you hope to do better in October. Maybe you think lowering your goals is the best course of action if you hope to have any success.

But what if you're wrong?

What if there is some magic in the air in the month of October? Don't you want to take advantage?

And don't forget about football.
When it's third-and-five, you pick a play and hope for the best. After all, you can always punt if you fall short of first down.
But when it's third-and-forty, with only enough time on the clock for two more plays, you throw a Hail Mary. Maybe a Flee-flicker, and if that fails, THEN a Hail Mary.

The point is, we're in the last quarter of the year. With the holidays coming, we're getting down to the wire here. If we're going to accomplish great things, we need to get them done now. We're going to have to get tricky. We're going to have to put our weight into it. Not one or the other. We're going to have to do both.

So lets take the energy the crowd is offering and go for it.

Nothing to lose, but the game, maybe the season.

And since this championship game won't require too much physical exertion, I'm all in, baby. I'm asking myself to put a lot of energy into a sit-down job. How hard can that be, really?

I'm going to look around and find the goal post--the end zone for me is to get these five projects up like I had planned to do before.

I'm playing against a lot of big players--my family obligations (caring for my recovering daughter, etc.), some house remodeling, upcoming holidays, excellent TV programs, an overworked husband, etc. And the ringer here is my sudden lack of private office space at home. IN OTHER WORDS, the typical forms of resistance faced by nearly every other writer on any given day.

I refuse to let the opposing team intimidate me. I'm going to keep my eye on the game clock--about a month and a half--and I'm going to face the ugly truth: It's time to stop analyzing and line up for the kick-off.

Tomorrow, I'm going to carve out five hours from my day and edit my brains out. Five hours. Even if I have to take five separate hours, I will make it happen. And by tomorrow night, I'm going to feel like a writer again.

So invite yourself to a bowl game and get on the field. Let me know how it goes.

Wednesday, I'm sure

I know it's Wednesday because I asked people all day long. For the past two days, I've been thinking it was Friday. Not in a hurry for Friday, but just felt all Fridayish.

It was another strangely emotional day today. All my work was editing. No new words, but with my emotions out of control, any new words might have gotten me in trouble, or ended up in the trash.

I am behind schedule by 2 days on both my day book and night book. Somehow, screwing up on both somehow seems okay. Symmetry is always a good thing, right? Well, I am symmetrically behind. But I worked today. For six hours. And I got some edits behind me that I've been putting off for a long time--so long I was beginning to think I might never get them done, that I might be suffering from some editor's block. But it turned out I was just lazy.

Tomorrow, I hope to start edits on Isobelle.

I have a writers retreat Sept 20-23, so I've only got a week to get a lot of stuff out of the way so I can write something big at the retreat. Taking my dragon with me. Plan to write in the hot tub a bit. And I have my own room, so I can also dictate in there. I wonder if it will work in the sauna.

Hah!

Real life has already promised to mess up tomorrow. I am going to need some deep breathing and some happy thoughts to make it through.

Tell me your Thursdays are going to be great days that will make you smile when you look back on them.

Sun/Mon check in--Sept. 8&9 Finish lines!

DISCLAIMER: There may be an uncontrolled number of exclamation points in this post.

I know I wasn't going to check in until after Monday's work, but I couldn't wait.

I finished Mrs. Wiggs! The word count is only about 14k, but I expect it to end about 16k and around 70 pages after the edits. Not bad for a short episode. It will still be standing in line for edits, but I'm thrilled the first draft is done. I hate it when short projects take a freaking long time to write.

Here's the breakdown, then I'm going to share a little helpful advice about the Dragon.

Saturday, I wrote just under 400 words on my Alphasmart while sitting at a restaurant waiting for some friends. That turns out to be around 1100 words per hour. That's about my average on my Alphasmart. I can pretty much bank on it.

Sunday I had to fight tooth and nail to get in front of the computer, then I realized I wasn't going to be able to work well with Football in the background and the phone ringing, even though the Rock said he'd get it. He also cleaned and vowed to let me do nothing but write for the next four years, but it wasn't happening. So I grabbed my headset, my Alphasmart, and my digital recorder, jumped in the car, and drove out by the Great Salt Lake, to a little bend in the road midst acres of farmland, where very very few cars drive by. I like to think of it as my West office.

I opened the top on my car and sat in the cool breeze. I couldn't get comfortable with the Alphasmart and a pillow on my lap, so I pulled out the recorder and went to town. I didn't even walk. I just sat in my car and told the story. OH MY GOSH, I couldn't believe how slowly I was telling it. I was certain I could type faster. I had half sentences, long pauses, and I kept forgetting to say "New Paragraph", etc.

Then I had to pee. An hour or more of good sunlight left and I had to call it quits.

I hurried home and when I transcribed the file, I was shocked. With a file of 1 hour and 37 minutes, I had written 3256. That averages--even stumbling and bumbling around--to be over 2000 words an hour. For me, that's a lot of talking.

I thought I could settle in and do some typing, but after some frustration, which I'll address in a second, I decided I had to get out of the house again. And I still hadn't walked yet. So I took the recorder and headed to the park. It was dark, but the center of the park always has people and has good lighting. The next session wasn't very long because yes, I forgot to pee again before I left the house. This time, I had 47 minutes (which also means 47 minutes of walking!!!!) and I got 1610 words in  (my average was still over 2k per hour!) and I walked 1.12 miles!

This also got me too close to the end to stop. I wrote two sessions on Dr. Wicked for another 2593 and I typed The End at 1:01 am! Perfect timing. And I'm still on schedule with both my day books and night books!

So.
  400 Alphasmart
4866 dictating
2593 Dr. Wicked.
7859 total

Hands down, recording wins. HANDS DOWN. And you know how long it feels like I was writing? 2 1/2 hours--the time I was typing. The time I was recording didn't feel like writing at all, didn't feel like work at all. Subtracting the 400 I wrote on Saturday, I wrote 7459 today. In one day. And it felt like 2 1/2 hours. I had to go back and re-check the math too. I couldn't believe it. I spent 4.7 hours working and got 7859 total. You see how close that is to 8000?!!! Holy crap. (This most productive moon phase will last until the 12th, people! Get crackin'!)

Yeah. Don't hate me.

So this is the help I'd like to share.
After the first session on the recorder, I downloaded it, then thought I'd better do some corrections so the software could see where to improve, etc. I started editing, with my headset, not my hands, and it was like the software stopped speaking English. I was doing everything the way I'd learned before, using the same commands I'd used before, and it was like it didn't hear a word. I was so frustrated I wanted to throw it all out the window.

I called Supe, just to vent, and she suggested I shut the program down then open it again.
I tried it. It worked! It went right back to understanding my commands and editing the way I'd edited before. After coming home with so many new words, I was so glad I didn't have to scrap my Dragon! The only thing I could imagine was that my headset had gotten damaged in my purse, but no. Headset is working fine.

You all tempted to try the Dragon yet?

Almost forgot! Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013

Yes, yes, yes! I am on schedule! I'm even a day ahead of schedule with my day books!

I know it's only been a couple of days, but considering my last week in August, every consecutive day is a big win! Tomorrow I will finish up my current night book. Since I'm ahead of schedule on my day book, I'll probably devote the entire day to finishing up Picklesfork, the first book in my new series called The Ghost and Mrs. Wiggs. Short Western thrillers that should give readers a few laughs and a nice twist.

Get it? The Ghost and Mrs. Wiggs, written by L.L. Muir. Get it? 
Bwahahahahaha!

Then on Saturday I'm going to start on the last scenes of Kiss This, my new Christmas romance.

See a trend here? Lots of projects that were nearly finished when I got distracted by a squirrel, or a new story line. It's just time to clean house, you know?

Something interesting from the day's surfing:
I watched an interview with Diana Gabaldon tonight and she shared some advice she'd given to her writer-son. Besides telling him to never read his Amazon reviews, she also said, "You don't owe the readers anything. Your only loyalty is to the book. There is nothing but you and the book." Then she admitted that there are those who write what the readers want, what they expect, and they make a lot of money doing it. But she writes for herself and her characters.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? I'm really curious. I was a little taken aback by her attitude, but I have to say, the past two books I've written were not intended to make the readers happy, only to tell what really happened to those characters. (And I know that sounds a little crazy, but it's true.) But I can't say I totally disregarded what the readers were expecting. (Both books were sequels. One has yet to come out.)

My question is, do you think such a mindset would be freeing? Or do you think it might get you into trouble? Do you think the quality, the honesty of a book would be better if we all shared that attitude?

Anyway...
I'm headed to bed early. Human hours--again.

Answer this too:
How did you do? And how did you do it? Did you have to hide from the world? Or act crazy so the world would hide from you.
Hm?

Tuesday, September 3, 2013--Out with the old, in with the new...

Hello Campers!

Getting to be like Groundhog Day, isn't it?
Well, let's change it up a bit. Let's move on into this fresh new month and leave August behind us. But before we go, let's take a look at how we did.

First of all, I assume you all increased your goals, or at least wanted to aim higher than usual or you wouldn't have been hanging out here, right? So? How did you do? Did you have a word count to which you could compare your August word count? Did you write down what you accomplished in August at least? After all, if you're serious about improvement, you have to pay attention. You have to write down your numbers. 

If you're keeping track of progress only in your head, it's not nearly as fun. If you really have a great day, you need to celebrate it. You need to at least be able to point to a number scrawled in the corner of a calendar and say, "You see? I AM a writer!"

So. I'm pointing at my August calendar and saying it now. "I wrote 52,878 words for the month. Yes, far fewer than the goal, but I have accomplished so much more than the month before. I kicked butt. And speaking of butts, I also lost 9 pounds. Yes. Yes, I did."

And I will keep the momentum going. I don't just intend to write every day, I will write every day. My goal for the month is...let me count here...five days a week, starting tomorrow...4k per day (not including edits of the projects I have finished...

22 days=88,000 words!
Who's with me???!!!
Come on!

That's not including weekends. We get DAYS off! And September is such a perfect-weather-for-writing month!

One thing Supe and I have been doing for the past few weeks is to keep a running journal of our word counts. We both got calendars with columns that give lines for the hours of a typical work day. They're the kind hair-stylists use for booking appointments. And what we do--or rather, what Supe does and I try to remember to do--is to write what we did with our hours. Did we have a word count? Did we watch TV? Did we veg on Facebook?

We are keeping track. 
Not planning each hour, but giving an accounting for it.
If we're serious about being full time writers, then we need to be putting in 8 productive hours a day on this job, right? And since we are also the business owners, we need to make sure the employees are earning their paychecks. We're making an accounting. We're being accountable.

Some days work better than others. Sometimes I would rather leave it blank than own up to how long my nap was, or my lunch was. But I'm pretty driven to get 8 good, writerly tasks entered each day. And we've agreed to exchange calendars once a month. Shame is a pretty fine motivator. Not guilt. Just plain old shame. I'll let you know how it goes.

As for the holiday weekend, I got nothing writerly done at all. But I had also planned, long ago, that I wouldn't push it. Had a great time with the family. Now I'm ready to get back to work. 

I've got my goal of 88k words.
I'm also going to lose ten more pounds. With the help of my dragon, I'm incredibly optimistic on both counts.

What about you? 

There is nothing in the rules that demand you fall into a deep, punishing depression if you don't reach your goals. And aiming high doesn't mean you're setting yourself up for failure. It just means you're lifting your chin. 

And who among us couldn't use a good chin lift?

Wednesday, August 28, 2013 Kites

You know those manta ray-looking kites we used to get from the cheap toy stores? They never lasted long, but they lasted a lot longer than the traditional diamond-shaped ones that always needed their tails fixed. I'm not an expert, but there was something wrong with that design, because it seemed that every time I really started enjoying myself, that thing would dive bomb, speeding almost intentionally into the ground.

I hate to sound paranoid, but that's what I thought then.
And that's what I'm thinking now.

No matter how perfect I get things lined up, no matter how far off the ground I can get my day, as soon as I have a smile on my face, the day dive bombs. Not dives. Not bombs. But dive bombs. Almost like its intentional.

Remember that lunch with the mystery writer? Ten minutes before Rock Jr. and I are about to walk out the door, the phone rings. Seriously. Ten minutes.

Five hours later, when that crisis has ended, I announced I was going to have a nap. I figured I'd be working late, I'd need more gas in the tank.

Fifteen minutes later, I got a phone call that forced me back to the computer. Seriously? A fifteen minute nap. I know that's pretty whiny of me, but I do work late. Naps can make or break me sometimes. And after emotional stress, I can't live without them.

And so I waited all day long for a chance to play with my dragon, to get some work done, finally. And I kid you not, it took until about 11 pm for me to remember that in fact I COULD sit down at the computer and type the old fashioned way.

Yes, this is how crazy I've gone. I am so wrapped up in the idea of dictating millions of words in the next year or two, that I spaced off the process I was using five days ago. Well, I've got the world worst memory sometimes. Now maybe you'll believe me.

So. I watched a little TV. Fooled around Facebook. Then got to work. I didn't do Dr. Wicked. I used no magic combination of 2 parts Pepsi to 1 part chocolate. No bells and whistles. Just typing. In 1 1/2 hours, I wrote 1321 words on the western thriller. Not what I'm supposed to be working on, but something close to done. I couldn't resist.

So.
Total for the day: 1321
Total for the week: 1772
I think I need a vacation before we leave for vacation.

Oh, and for you burglars out there, yes, we are leaving the pit bull home. In the house. And the only thing worth money, my computer, I'll have with me. Believe me, my neighbors have better stuff.

Tomorrow will be spent preparing for that vacation. If I were a bettin' man...

Tuesday, August 27, Training the Dragon

For those of you not interested in dictating your books, and just want a push to up your word counts, this blog will not be a constant commercial for the dragon software. Just a day or two more, and it will just be part of the routine. I'll be back to getting in my 4000 to 5000 words a day very soon.

I was pretty excited to get started today.
I was all ready to go to the park when I realized the wind was blowing pretty hard, which doesn't work well with microphones, so I ended up going to the basement and using the treadmill instead.

I walked for ten minutes and got a half mile in when the phone rang and my day was lost to TWO family emergencies. But! In between emergencies I worked on my Dragon profile so I it was ready to transcribe the audio file from my recorder. And hours later, I was finally able to see my word count. (Of course I won't have to do this set up again, so next time I'll be able to see my word count as soon as the file is uploaded.)

Drum-roll please...451 words.
Okay, now. Of course it's a small word count, but not for TEN MINUTES! And I was interrupted by a phone call. If I'd have been at the park and done it for 60  minutes straight, and kept up the pace (which seemed mighty slow to me) I might have written nearly 3000 words in my first try ever!

Let me add that I was winging it. I had no idea where the story was going to go, or what the scene would have in it. I was simply picking up at the end of the last scene I remember writing for this book (a sequel to a book I wrote years ago). And I wasn't just spitting gibberish. I actually had IDEAS come to me and spit from my mouth! Real, new ideas.

I mentioned yesterday that I was afraid of trying to edit vocally. Then, when I was forced to do it, I learned it easily. I was just as relieved this time. Deep down I was terrified this wasn't going to work. I was afraid it was just going to be another thing to set on my shelf and say I tried it once. And even though I'd gotten my hopes up, that I might really be able to exercise and lose all this book weight, I was really worried. Determined to give it my best, but worried. I can imagine some of you are feeling the same way too.

I am not surprised so many people give up in the learning phase. It's going to take some time before I'm going to be able to get my punctuation right without it messing up my train of thought. But I'm willing to be patient while the program learns to understand me. I'm going to stick with the headphone I have and hope the machine gets used to it. Then I'll buy a better one if it doesn't.

But if I've figured this out, anyone can. I'm expecting the transition from keyboard to speech will be about the same adjustment was it was to go from pen and paper to keyboard. I thought I'd never ever be able to compose original thoughts without having my hands on the paper, without my thoughts coming out of the end of a pen. But that changed. And I can change again. I'm not too old yet, damn it. Another year, and I might have been iffy, especially if I didn't get in shape.

So.
I expected to be able to walk about half a mile before I gave out. The truth is, if that phone hadn't rang, I probably would have walked for a mile before I was winded. THAT is amazing, since I've not been walking for a long long time. But what was even more amazing was the fact that I was unaware of the fact that I was walking at all.

It was odd. The walking distracted me from listening too closely to myself. The speaking distracted me from the walking. And I didn't feel like I'd gotten much recorded at all. I was SHOCKED there were 451 words on there. Absolutely shocked.

Tomorrow, I have a lunch planned with a mystery writer and Rock Jr. Then Rock Jr. and I will be headed to the park to walk off the lunch! He can play on the splash pad while I walk around. It's going to be great.

And while I was a chicken and used a future book for this experiment, I'm going to get back to my current works in progress. I'll be working on the Western  Thriller. I think a few hours of dictation should finish that puppy up. Then tomorrow night I'll be editing Isobelle.

Since I bore easily (just learning that about myself) I'm going to keep a day book and a night book. The day book will be whatever is still in first draft stage, and the night book will be whatever I'm editing. If that doesn't work, I'll switch them. I can't see my body clock changing any time soon, so I'll edit in the dead of night since I can't walk at the park at that time. I guess I can use the treadmill if it comes to that.

Enough of my dull life.
What are YOU doing?

Monday, August 26, 2013 I'm on a Dragon

Okay, I WAS on a dragon.
In fact, I wrote this whole blog post using the new Dragon, but I lost it. I failed to read up on how to use the little dictation box, or at least the part about having a file open, blahdy blahdy blah blah. Good thing it wasn't a chapter!

So.
What I had written before, ish:

This morning Supe decided to jump right into the dictation thing and recorded and walked, and for her very first hour ever, she got 587 words! I couldn't believe it! (For those of you who don't know who Supe is, she can talk like a semi-automatic at times, but I had no idea she might be able to compose so fast, verbally! And her first hour too! I'm so psyched!

My day has been spent editing and waiting for the teenage cavalry to come to my rescue and install my dragon. When I put the disk in, no prompts came up, and that was where technology can stop me in my tracks. I looked at the files and none of them said "set up." My son walked me through it, however, and the Dragon took off.

The tutorials were very simple. Much easier than learning Scrivener, I promise. And even I was able to learn that. This is a piece of cake.

I thought this was going to be really hard and it wasn't. I could have written a whole lot faster, but I kept finding myself waiting for the program to catch up. I guess it has to take a few seconds to figure a word or two, then it spits out whole sentences. When I looked away from the screen, it just flew.

The only advice I would offer right now is to pay close attention when they tell you to speak in phrases and not single words as much as possible. Phrases help the program figure out what words you really meant. The slower you go, the more mistakes. The more I watched the screen typing things out, the slower I went and the more mistakes were made.

On a positive note, with all those mistakes, I also learned how to edit them. And the editing was the part that intimidated me the most. Now that's all downloaded into my brain. I'm ready to rock and roll.

I have to admit that when those words disappeared I just wasn't up to dictating this post again and correcting all those mistakes again. Correcting verbally was a lot easier than I thought it would be, but I'm mentally exhausted from all this learning. My old brain needs a rest.

Tomorrow, I'm going to enunciate better. I may have to invest in one of those gamer headsets, especially if it's going to save me a lot of time. But for now, there's no pin money attached to my pin.

Oh, yeah. No word count today. Just editing and reading through finished books to keep some facts straight for sequels coming up.

Here's to a mind-blowing word count, and calorie burn, tomorrow.

Sunday, August 25, Writing Partners

All my brownie points go to Supe for today's word count.

She called and said we would be writing for the next four hours. She didn't ask. (Well, she kinda did.) But she didn't intend to let me out easily. She's even got my husband trained. When her phone number shows up on the TV screen, he resigns himself to the fact he's about to be abandoned.

Some days, you need someone to drag you, kicking and screaming, to your computer. Someone to threaten you if you get out of the chair. I wouldn't recommend handing this role to your spouse. Even the best of marriages don't weather nagging very well.

So find someone, if you haven't got one--someone who has the same writing goals as you, who has the same...intensity, for lack of a better word. Supe and I work well together because we are not good friends otherwise. When we get together, we talk writing, not shopping. We're in the same position in life, with grown kids and husbands who don't need their hands held too often. Neither of us are working traditional jobs. All I can suggest is that you find someone like you.

Today, she saved my writer-self-esteem. One of these days, I'm going to get her back--I mean pay her back--I mean do the same for her. But thanks to Supe, I was able to enjoy the rest of the days with the fam and not be consumed with guilt for watching a little TV.

Of course, the whole time I was watching that TV, I half expected her phone number to pop up, and my ring tone to turn into the shark music from Jaws.

So. Thanks to Supe, and four hours of writing on Dr. Wicked (with a few interruptions) I turned in a solid 3105 words!

Of course it's not so impressive when you look at my totals. But I think the moon phase had a little something to do with this past week, as I've mentioned before. According to some theories, this past week, (ECO week), that starts with the full moon, is the one week a month with both low focus and low energy. This coming week should bring high focus at least. I expect to get a lot of fine tuning done.

Totals:
Week: 8926 (I'm shocked it was that much)
Month to date: 51,106

What are the chances I can write 30k in the next four days while packing for a small vacation with 15 people? I don't know. The Dragon might be able to do miracles, right?

What are your totals this week, or this month, compared to the last? Are you headed in the right direction? Or do you think the moon sucked your will to do much.

Saturday, August 24, 2013.

I'll be brief.

Yes, I bought a Dragon today. Can't wait to get started. From what we are reading, it might just double our wildest word count dreams. I hadn't considered that. Wouldn't that be uber cool?

I went walking twice. Blood sugar was a little better than yesterday, but a long way to go still.

Did all my writing sitting down. Got the bulk of that synopsis done. Still a little more tweaking to go. Hopefully tomorrow. I have to figure out a few things.

New words: 1397

Friday, August 23, Dragons and such

After much research, including feedback from authors who use it, I have decided to buy the Dragon Naturally Speaking software. I'll get it tomorrow. (Today didn't go as planned.)

One man I spoke with estimated that it may take a month for me to get a handle on it, since I haven't used any kind of dictation before. A one-month-long learning curve is worth it to me only because I need to lose weight as desperately as I need to get these stories told. So. I'm doing it.

I did not, in fact, get up early to write with Dr. Supe. It sounds like she had a very productive day without my help, thank goodness. I hope you did well. I would hate to think my failure might encourage any slacking on your part. But then, I realize it might well do just that.

Do any of you follow Dean Wesley Smith's blog? 
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com
I read it nearly every day. He's the one who inspired me to start this blog. He's doing a project called Writing in Public. Go read up on it. When I let you down, he won't. Between the two of us, you should be covered.

I take less than modest pleasure in the fact my monthly word count is kicking his arse right now. I'm sure he'll grind me into the floor by the 31st, but I'm not out of the race yet. I've got another week to get some big word counts on the table. And between typing and messing around with the dragon, I may just beat the man. His goal is 100k a month, and he usually hits his mark, even if he's 70k behind. What will surprise me most is if he DOES NOT meet his goal.

Here's my problem now.
I have two full manuscripts that need editing so I can send them off. At least one of them needs to be out of my hands by the end of the month. So why would I keep writing, cranking out another book to add to my to-be-edited pile?

Because writers write. If all I do is edit, I'm an editor. I need that habit of putting words to paper, or words to a digital recorder. (This brings to mind the scene in Roxanne, when the Christian character flubs up and says, "Because I'm afraid of worms, Roxanne." He was supposed to have said words. 

Well, I guess I'm afraid of words too. But I'm more afraid of you people, reading this. So I will endeavor to persevere. Big brownie points to go anyone who can tell me in which movie we see an old Indian saying those three words.

I spent my day finding and booking a cabin for Labor Day Weekend for the family reunion. Not easy at this late notice. Tomorrow, I hope to remember that I can be a writer again. And tomorrow, I'll give you a taste of my evolving theory about productivity and moon phases. How have YOU been performing since the new moon two days ago? Hmm? Be honest. And leave it in the comments.

L

Thursday, August 22, 2013

I have been reminded that I did indeed set a weight loss goal along with my word count goal, and in a [what I thought to be] brilliant bit of thinking, decided that the only way I can get 250 miles in before the Scotland trip in April would be to dictate all my writing.

That's right. I hunted down the best price for Dragon Naturally Speaking software and intended to purchase it. I figured it couldn't have much more of a learning curve than learning Scrivener, Dr. Wicked, or getting used to writing on my Alphasmart.

My husband suggested I do the trial thing. I hate to do the trial thing. It shows a definite lack of faith to do the trial thing and I was ready to commit. I imagined getting so caught up in my stories that I would walk 2 and three miles a day. I imagined Rock Jr. racing his bike around the walking path at the nearest city park that is conveniently a mile in diameter. I tried to remember what it was like to be much smaller than I am now.

I decided to wait until Payday to get the software. But in my excitement, I thought there was no time like the present to get warmed up, to get that training started. So I isolated myself, made sure no one would be listening in, then I opened my mouth and tried to tell a stupid little story. A 'Once upon a  time' story that wasn't exciting at all. But the words did not flow off the end of my tongue like they do from the ends of my fingers.

There is a magic that happens when I type. I think a few words and they appear on the screen as I think them. Sometimes I wonder if they are not popping up there on their own and I'm only reading them as they appear. But that's silly. *ahem* Right?

Now. I've been accused, from time to time throughout my life, that I often speak before thinking. I suppose I was kind of counting on that paying off this week. But it seems as though I'm going to actually have to put a bit of effort into my writing if I'm going to make dictation work.

The scariest part? The fear of Speaker's Block. What if I open my mouth and nothing comes out? Since this is exactly what happened when I first tried to dictate a story, I'm terrified. I'm also terrified of my husband telling me "Didn't I suggest you get a trial copy first?" if I go ahead and buy it and force myself to try harder, only to fail.

Then I realized THIS is what keeps people from writing, even though they want desperately to write. THIS is what keeps some writers from turning in any word count at all. This is what keeps the ambitious from ever leaving the gate, keeps the What-if-I-can't-do-its from sitting down and daring to type crap.

And if we could give the What-if-I-can't-do-its our best advice? Wouldn't it be to forge ahead. Don't give up. It will get easier. Don't be afraid.

So. Here I go, talking myself into trying the dictation thing. I do want to lose the weight. I do want to be able to walk around Scotland--not hike, of course, but walking without the need of being buried overseas.

I'll let you know how it goes.

So. Here's my report for today.
Another human day. Spent 2 1/2 hours in the dentist's chair today. 2 1/2 freaking hours!

On the bright side, I did not waste time watching TV. The kitchen disaster did get cleaned, thanks to the Rock. But hey, it's done. And I didn't waste a lot of time on the internet.

Again, got no work done on the synopsis. I am pretty sure it's my way of putting off the next thing after that, which is to edit Isobelle. But even knowing that's why I'm doing it didn't help me get over it today.

However, Dr. Supe informs me that tomorrow is yet another day. I'm going to bed early so I can get up earlier than usual to get started. Gonna exercise and everything. And maybe I'll amble over to Office Max for a Dragon.