Saturday, August 28, 2010

Progress Report

I promised to give weekly updates on my WIP, as I've set a break-neck word count goal in order to whip my WIP in shape for the RWA Golden Heart Contest. The result? Since my last post, I added 10k words to my manuscript, for a total of about 14.5k words. While it falls short of my goal of 2166 words a day, you must take into consideration that Mockingjay came out Tuesday. 'Nuff said.

I will say that the more I write, the more I enjoy my story, and well, the more I write. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some dialogue that's screaming to be written!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Countdown: A Procrastinator's Motivation

Well, I've set an idiotic goal for myself. And now I'm telling people about the goal, so there's no backing out. I've decided I want to enter my YA romance in the RWA Golden Heart Contest this year. Thing is, I only have about 5K words into it right now, at 6:53 am on August 21st. And entries open in exactly one month.

I've entered the figures on my dollar-store calculator: 2,166.66 words a day for the next 30 days.

Here are the Cons: I work full time. I have a family. I will probably need to eat and sleep at some point. We're also moving in the next month. The finished product will not have a whole lot of time for editing before I enter it.

Here are the Pros: I've cleared it with my boss to use my work computer at lunch to write. I already know how my story is going to go. I have the most awesome critique partner on the planet who said, "Go for it, and send me chapters as you finish them and I will edit/critique and get them back to you quickly." My husband has agreed to give me as much writing time as humanly possible.

So, can this be done? Any tips on how to do it?

I will post weekly to update work count progress.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Outlines and Stilettos

I know writers who plot every twist and turn in their story. Who can write from a synopsis. I admire this kind of writer. I am not this kind of writer. Which surprises me. Every other aspect of my life is done by schedule. I pre-plan what I will eat for the week, when I will workout. I pre-plan my savings to accommodate big purchases. If I have a problem, I devise a plan to fix it, then follow said plan. I am an itinerary kind of person.

Except when I write. To me, outlines are like stilettos. They look nice, but aren't meant for long-distance travel. Like chapter two. Or up a flight of stairs. Or three stairs.

The point is, I can only plot so much before it feels wrong, like when you accidentally get in the shower with your bra on. Something just doesn't feel right. Like I'm being stifled during the one time I get to be really free.

So, um, what about you? To plot or not to plot? Stilettos or flip flops?