Robots Need Love Too

Jen over at unedited is having a fun Friday video contest. This week the topic was tube socks vs. ankle socks. I had never made one of these before and it's so much FUN! I saw the robots and immediately thought of Eva - robots need love too! Here is the silly video I made:


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I won!! I'm so excited! Here is my bling for winning:



Thanks Jen!

Now that both my parents have already checked the blog and watched the video, I can safely post the REAL ankle socks vs. tube socks. This is my parents running a half marathon together. Mom has the ankle socks, which don't even cover the ankles, on over her tights and dad is rocking the tube socks. Notice how carefully he matched his outfit with his head band, but not the tube socks. I guess in the 80s tube socks were versatile and didn't have to match the outfit.

Creating More Work

I started making notes today before I actually dive into the rewrite. I already had a list of changes to be made. In the middle of notes, I had an idea come up...again. This may mean half the book is gone. The main storyline - my characters goal and her journey to get there - won't change. Some of her backstory, however, has changed. It's so hard to blog sometimes when you have to be vague like this. I think it's a good change. It came up about halfway through the zero draft, but I pushed it aside. Then it popped up again three quarters of the way through and again, I bopped it in the head to send it back into the hole. When I told my bestfriend, she loved the idea! My husband, however, shot off with "but aren't just creating more work for yourself." Well, yes. I hadn't thought of it that way. I thought of it as making the story solid. Stronger. I outlined my behind off (oh, if only that would actually work - I think a lot more of us would spend time outlining like crazy) this afternoon and it works! It really works! With a little tweak here and there in some scenes, it's not really going to add that much. Scenes at the beginning need to be cut anyways so that we jump into the action. I'll finish the list tomorrow and dive in to the first third of the script. I'm really looking forward to it! It's the first rewrite so it's almost like a whole new story. We'll see if my enthusiasm is still here at the end of the second rewrite. I'm following Elana Johnson's advice and trying to get it done in 30 days! Ambitious? I think the most ambitious part is finding readers that will get the pages back to me in a timely manner. I'll chunk it as she suggests and see if that helps. Off to bed so I can get up and write more in the morning.

I'll leave you with an adorable picture of Lily (on the right) with her boyfriend Bubba during their playdate. I keep forgetting that the camera automatically date stamps it and is stuck on 2004, but this picture was taken only a few days ago.

Caught in the Middle

I finished my WIP last week. I had to format it and now am ready to dive into the rewrite. While this story captured my imagination and was all I thought about for almost three months, this morning another idea came along. Like the picture (that is Lily as a puppy in one of my favorite pictures of her), I felt it grab hold and tug me along. It came out of nowhere. Completely unexpected. And I love love love it. I'm never sure if it's okay to share my ideas on my blog. Do we worry about people stealing them? Oh, but I love this one. So now I am caught in the middle. Rewriting one and starting another at the same time. I'm like the toys inbetween Lily and her friends in the pictures below.

Pit Bulls don't have locking jaws. It's a myth. BUT they are known for their tenacity (the true reason why it's hard to get them to let go of things unless they are well trained, like my girl who drops things at "RELEASE" immediately). My ideas are both being very tenacious at the moment. They are each pulling me. So what is the write/right thing to do? Do I try to give them both equal time? Or do I need to devote all my attention and time to rewriting my first book before I even think about the second one? My gut tells me to do the former. I can jot down ideas in my notebook (maybe even the one I might win from Elana Johnson here) but the majority of my time and devotion should be to my current WIP, which I don't love any less. It's just a lot more inviting to delve into a new world when you are facing a mountainous rewrite in the old one. Well, maybe saying I have to climb a mountain in that one is being a bit dramatic. The layout is there. I just forgot some characters along the way and need to either pick them and carry them through to the end (likely) or cut them altogether. Lola had an excellent blog on Show, Don't Tell (read it here) complete with examples. There are also a few places where I told rather than showing my readers in the interest of time and plowing through to the end. I will need to go back through to address those parts as well. I am only at 57,500+ words which comes in at 281 pages. That will be expanding. For the moment, I feel caught between the jaws of two very well trained, perfect family pets. One of them will need to "RELEASE". I guess I need to turn to the baby and tell her to let go for now.

Happy Writing everyone!

Midnight Writing and NaNo Lessons

I was scrubbing my face last night, deep in my before bed ritual, when I suddenly had an idea that I needed to add to the story. Exhausted, but hit with inspiration, I lathered on some moisturizer and sat down to write. I didn't go into detail because I still have much rewriting to do. It was important to get that little seed buried in the proper part for watering later on. As I was typing, I thought to myself, THIS is what being a writer is all about. Those ideas that you just have to get onto paper before they disappear into the night and aren't remembered again. I had read on Rebecca Hargreaves blog here that she had done the same thing. Only she got up at 3am to plunk out her pages and flush out a story part! When inspiration strikes, it strikes. We get caught up in it and have to go with it, I guess. Then I remembered a friend who still writes for television telling us all at a dinner party that he has a lighted pen and pad of paper by his bedside. Too many great ideas were escaping while he slept. He would wake up with an idea, whether for the current show he was on or for a future show, but not want to get out of bed. Too lazy to get up, he would lie there in that state just between dreaming and waking as the idea bounced around in his head like a silver ball in a pinball game. He would toss and turn, waking her. Finally, he would drift back to sleep. In the morning, the idea would be gone and he'd have had a terrible nights sleep. Knowing that getting out of bed was not an option for him, his wife had bought him the pen as a present (for both of them). It lit up when you pressed it to the paper. He could roll over, write a few words to remind him of the idea in the morning, then go back to sleep. Problem solved! I know that I have forgotten some gems when I didn't get out of bed or was somewhere without paper to write on. It didn't take long for me to plant the seed, do a little watering and then finish the rest this morning.

This NaNo was so much fun.

1. I can write an entire book from start to finish in less than three months when I put my mind to it.

2. Setting goals helps - whether you set a daily word goal, weekly word goal or just a simple goal of writing daily. I started picking up the pace when I joined other writers and set weekly goals.

3. Some days, no matter how much you love your story and your characters, you have to force yourself to write.

4. I can write in a crowded cafeteria on the back of a teaching schedule.

5. It is easier for me to return to my desk the next day if I have left off in the middle of a scene. I'm more apt to jump out of bed, grab my coffee and get straight to work if I know exactly where I'm going. If it's an action scene, even more exciting. Though, I may have trouble sleeping that night as it whispers to me from the other room.

6. Friends help. There is safety in numbers. It's nice to have people celebrate your small victories, sympathize with the week you struggled and toast you at the end of your journey.

7. Format as you go. I didn't. I started out that way, then got lazy. I just single spaced from Chapter 10 on. No chapter breaks, no formatting. I've spent the better part of the last three days formatting, which leads to rewriting, and I'm not done yet.

8. No writing scenes out by hand. I made this mistake. The point of the Mini NaNo was no rewriting. I do that automatically as I'm transcribing them. This takes more time. Rather than getting new writing done, I'm going over the old scene to perfection. It will not be perfect. This is a Mini NaNo.

9. It doesn't have to be perfect. I am cringing at parts as I format, but that is okay. This is a ZERO draft. There are many drafts and polishes to come! I'm bringing the best out in this wood as I carve it, polish it, paint it.

10. The excitement doesn't end with the NaNo. I still look forward to getting to my writing every morning. It's all I think about when I'm away from it at the moment. Ideas to polish, changes for characters. I love it!


This has been a very rewarding experience. My writing definitely finished stronger than it started. I look forward to tweaking it and then sharing it and then rewriting more as I get the critiques in. At the moment, it's not ready for any eyes by my own. Not even my mother could love it right now, I think (and that woman has loved her some very bad writing of mine in the past). It's okay. It didn't have to be perfect. Progress, not perfection was the goal of the Mini NaNo. Perfection takes time. It takes patience. For now, it's done! The hardest part out of the way. Now comes the fun part - I now have the general piece, but it's time to take the goggles off, put away the chainsaw and get out the carving tools. Time to refine, to get into the details. Hopefully, it will end up the paper version of Tim Racer's piece above.

For more of Tim's amazing work, click on the link below:

Afternoon Naps

If there is one thing my pets excel at it, it's the Afternoon Nap! Sometimes I like to take a page from their book, slow things down and take a snooze with them. Today was one of those days. I had a million things to do, but I set them all aside, found a nice place in the sun and drifted off to sleep. It's so nice to shirk responsibility every so often, to take that time for me!

Sometimes they nap with a buddy!

Sometimes they nap with a toy!

Sometimes they nap IN a toy!

Sometimes they nap alone!

Then they wake with a yawn, well rested, to get on with their day!

Well, maybe they don't get on with the rest of their day. Maybe they just move to their next nap spot. I, on the other hand, get on with MY day!

THE END

There it is in all its glory. I never thought I'd reach it! I started at 11am this morning and 6 hours and 44 minutes later, I reached THE END! It's not perfect. It's not even very pretty - 162 single spaced pages with no chapter breaks. My zero draft is finished, minus the formatting. I'm celebrating by rushing off to my Body Bar Blast class sans my best friend Mel. I will be all alone in the back of the class with no one to goof off with tonight, but I will be blasting this body knowing that my W.I.P. is DONE! I am so proud of myself (and of it). I can hardly wait to share it with everyone...in another draft or two.

Thank you to everyone who went on this journey with me!

Things We Take For Granted

You probably expected this post to be about the usual things we take for granted - the abundance of food in the supermarkets available for us to buy, a roof over our heads, safe place to sleep, water...no. I'm talking about something as basic as a chair and being able to sit down. We participated in a sidewalk sale today to raise money for Paws and Learn (my nonprofit). Disney was beyond kind and donated hundreds of books for all age groups. Street fairs are fun for so many reasons. This particular community is extremely dog friendly and we were set up in front of a dog boutique. It made for a fun day between the kids and the dogs. I particularly enjoy helping the teens finds books that will interest them. I'm not the least bit embarrassed to admit that I read some of the same books that they do. I was surprised that we had a few adults who wanted suggestions as well! The bad thing about sidewalk sales is that, well, they are on the sidewalk. People need room to walk. This means you have room for the table. No chairs. From 9:30 this morning until 4pm this afternoon, I didn't sit down. The bathroom was a four block walk away so I limited myself to one trip (this is a record for me). I never realized that standing can be so tiring. I hike, I take kickboxing, I jog - I'm very active. But just standing? That required different muscles, apparently. I ached my way through the grocery store, a walk with Lily and a bath for her. Now I am blissfully settled into my chair with my cup of tea, my candle burning and that breeze that I love so much. It feels like a little piece of heaven. This may be the best cup of tea I have ever had. Maybe my writing tonight will reflect my newly found joy and the appreciation of a good chair. I can hardly wait to dive right in, even if I have to limp after my characters on these sore feet of mine!