Melonade

Oh friends, the writing juices are flowing again. Let's all rejoice. Things were clogged for far too long. I must say thanks to all the people who ask me if I'm still working on it without even the tiniest bit of sarcasm. Also, I just heard about an exciting opportunity that might get me closer to publishing the darn thing. If you're a praying person, send one up for me and the novel, would you? Thanks.

By the way, it's almost September. Which means October knock on your door any day now (make sure he wipes his feet before you let him in). And that means...NaNoWriMo 2008 is almost here! If you have ever said to yourself, "You know, I'd like to write a book," then you need to know about NaNoWriMo. Come November, people around the world will be torturing themselves to finish a first draft of 50,000 words in a mere month. It's like the Olympics, except everyone wins, and you don't have to lie about your age to get in. If you're a teacher, you can sign up your class for the student version of NaNo. Adorable.

Another week, and I'm looking back thinking, "Where did it go?"

I got some work done on the book, but not enough. Last night we had yet another tornado scare, and I had to rush home from the grocery store to make sure my sister had stopped panicking. And it's hard to concentrate when you know the weatherman could tell you to seek shelter at any moment. Hopefully tornado season will be over soon.

I've gone back to editing a hard copy rather than directly on the computer. For now, I think it's best. I'm working on the first 12 chapters, and I've posted the first 8 on Urbis to get some stranger feedback. This is where the frustration kicks in.

Urbis is a great writing community site. If you're a writer and you want to get useful criticism on your work, I recommend it. The only problem is that you have to wade through some of the less-than-helpful reviews to get to the good stuff. Lately I've been longing for some specific criticism, and I get fluff that doesn't help at all.

Am I going to stop using Urbis? Certainly not. Several of my submissions are the top-rated in the YA category, and I intend to add to that list. If nothing else, there is the thrill of seeing that someone new has read my work, and the tension of wondering whether they will like it or not.

All week I've been trying to get back to editing the book, and all week I've been failing big time. It's not a lack of desire. I've got that in abundance. But when I open up Copywrite, I just end up staring at the words and wondering where I was and how I get back there. So I printed the twelve-ish chapters I had seriously manipulated in the last 3 months and started reading them again. I didn't know what to expect, but it was a decent way to start.

Today I had lunch at a little mafia-themed pizzeria in Edmond. Armed with a slice of pepperoni, I disobeyed the direct order on the pizza rules list and ate most of it with my fork while I finished reading and marking up chapter one.

I felt good about my accomplishments, strangely enough. I didn't take much out, but I added a few bits, and none of it felt like fluff. I'm going to see if I can copy that success in a few more chapters this weekend. Wish me luck.

It's been a rough week all around. Writing's been kind of slow and not consisting of progress that word counts can measure. Instead of adding, I've been cutting a lot of fluff this week. Sure, it means better quality, but the quantity is down by several hundred or even a couple thousand words. I know it shouldn't mean a lot, but it's somewhat disheartening. I can see the end, but I just don't know how to get there. And I think I've actually put up a few obstacles for myself. Plus, I've still got lots of packing to do in the next 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to being in the new place, but the transition is rough.

Trying to soothe myself with movies of the literary ilk this week. Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, etc. If you can't read books, at least watch TV that's book-related, right?

Rock Band was a major success, people. I'm not sure how many folks we crammed into Blake's house, but it must have shattered the non-holiday record. There is even video evidence of the shindig on Stephen's facebook page, because it would be difficult to believe how much fun we were having if you weren't there to see it.

The morning after Rock Band was a killer. I woke up Saturday morning (and by that I mean 10:30 after going to sleep around 2:30) with the kind of headache that makes me want to stay in bed. I pounded out a few hundred words on the story before giving up and spending a few hours on the couch watching Some Assembly Required on the Discovery Channel and learned how to make Tennesse whiskey & barrels, cat's eye marbles, cheese, and some other stuff I can't remember right now. Informative and entertaining. Just how I like my TV to be.