Progress made; progress lost

I've been silently brooding the past few days because I'm an artist. I had saved often, made sure to keep my life work saved. It still didn't save me. Over a thousand words gone because of a corrupt file. It could have been worse, but it's always heartbreaking to loose progress. This isn't the first time I have either. Some of my best scenes are lost to the harsh attunement of my temperamental laptop. Perhaps once I have Wi-Fi again I can return to backing things up on google.

Hopeful plans

By this point I'm as tired of saying it as you all are of reading it, but over the next year I actually want to focus on my writing.

I want to get some books out, set up some daily habits. Really let myself have at the work that I love doing. Maybe even find a few rejection letters.

I have a lot of stuff from over the years all piled up. Some of it I believe is pretty decent. Some other things, not so much. The more I think about it, the more I feel drawn to write select stories and when I ask myself why. The answer is simple.

Because gay.

Told you, simple. It the world of stories you're told to wrote what you know. Well, I know a little about a lot. Doesn't mean I need to write a cookbook about 100 ways to use ramen noodles. Useful, I'm sure, but it wouldn't satisfy me. I need hope. I need struggle. I need the world to see a side of life that not everyone gets to experience.

I need to show someone that it gets better in a way that only I know. So stick with me friends. I'm working on some pretty intense lesbian stories. I can't wait to share them with you.

Little details matter

I figure that I'll give you all a break from me going on about my first child, I mean short. I actually have been mulling over some things the past few days, and in my massively sleep deprived state of mind, details just so happen to be what I would like to bore you with today.

Not just any details though! The little ones. Sure we might care about how her eyes sparkle in the moonlight, but will they shimmer under a half moon the same way?

Small things like that matter to our human brain. When we are out living our lives all these things assault us.

For example, I was watching a show called Skin Wars. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it's a body painting competition. The challenge was to make your human model look 2D. How does this apply to writing you ask. Let me explain a bit more so please just hold tight. When the winner of the challenge was announced the model walked out. My brain pooped itself. The person moved like a 3D figure (Cuz it is) and yet looked 2D. My brain couldn't mesh the two because something is either one or the other. Not both.

Little details can make all the difference in your world. They can mean the difference between someone brain flipping a table, making them reread something a few times, hence pulling them out of the story.

For the next few days, I challenge you to observe one thing around you, that you normally don't pay attention to. A few quick examples, the cigarette butt can at your local grocery store.

Let me know how that challenge goes with a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Late night character building

Yup, I work my normal job tomorrow too, but I'm not about to let that slow down. My NaNoWriMo prep!

Driving is my jam.

Some people get great ideas in the shower, I was never one of those people. My brain seems to work best when I'm sitting in the car driving, or on a bus or train. The up side of this, I drive about 2 hours everyday to and from work. (Round trip thank the gods.) The down side, it's pretty dangerous to write while trying to drive. Normally when I get to work and park, I scribble down notes like crazy. I feel like this is how all of November is going to go. I'm perfectly okay with that.

Gullible Character - Writing Prompt

     She believed everything she was ever told. From a young age Lilly was always taught to tell the truth, she had always assumed that the rest of the world knew that as well. It was a blind faith that she had in people and grade school wasn’t much different from home. She figured sense the teachers were smart, they must know everything too and only speak the truth. Her classmates would tell her such amazing stories about Paris, or the magical creature that gave them every answer to homework. She never once thought to doubt them. She had no reason to. Her life went on around her as she kept her head up in the clouds. It suited her well.

High school started and was beyond eye opening. Lilly had many firsts in those days. Her first crush. Rayden was the star of the football team and everyone wanted him. Lilly followed her friends and listened to them talk about him. How hot he was, how someone else heard a dirty rumor about him. The girls would fly into a fit of giggles each time.

“Hey Lilly wait up!”

Hearing her name but not recognizing the voice, Lilly turned around. Her jaw almost dropped open with surprise. “Rayden, what’s up?” Her head cocked a bit as she spoke, it was an odd behavior but one that she had picked up.

Heather squealed at the news she was just told. “He’s such a player! Are you really going to go out with him?”

“Is he really?” Lilly pulled her legs up against her chest. “I don’t know who to believe, he seemed so nice and genuine.” Her brain spun as she sat there with her best friend.

Three days later Heather picked up her phone without thinking twice. She spoke into the phone, concern in her voice. “Are you okay? I didn’t hear from you after your date!” Her words flowed out at what seemed like five hundred words a minute.

Lilly on the other hand was holding herself back. Her tone was low and there was a hint of tears in her voice. “The stories were right, you were right. It was terrible.” Heather could hear the tears start to fall from her eyes.

In that moment, she believed everything that she had ever heard.  

Busy Little Kitty

     Radio silence has returned to your dash due to the crazy fact that my new job has been working the heck out of me. I'm on week three and already pulling over time and working 8 days in a row. Tomorrow I have some class that I have to go to and I'm kinda excited.

     The up side of all this, is my brain is always working and I cannot wait to get myself into a better writing habit. I just need to wait until our new location is open.

New Job

Wow, some days I still just can't believe that I've been a published author for a few years now, but I've always known that it wouldn't be enough, at least not in the beginning. So I've always had a 'day job' as well as working on my writing. 

Today is an incredible day, after working just one year at my current location, I'm now starting as a supervisor. This is great for me. It means more money, more benefits (like health insurance!), and times to come will be a lot more stable. 

So that's good. At least for me. My writing however, will more than likely take the hit. Sadly there are only so many hours in a day. 

Who know's though. This might be what I need to refocus myself. I do have that massive list of things I need to write and I'm getting more ideas every day, so I will have to get myself focused on that. But perhaps writing will go back to being something I really enjoy and can get myself into more so. Books have always been an escape from the outside world for me. My own included.

Making Friends.

     As a lesbian first and a writer second sometimes I find it hard to make new friends. Even more so sometimes it's hard to find people I could even talk to about my books. At least outside of my wife, whom I'm sure is sick of hearing about it. She's actually a really good sport about it.

     Anyway, it always amazes me when I do make a new friend even more so when said friend says they write as well. So now for the next few weeks we will swap stories over the next few weeks and if I am lucky, I'll have her as a friend for quite some time. Also I might be able to con her into being a beta for my current projects.

     It just goes to show, you never know who's in your same boat.

I'd Rather Be Writing

     I'd honestly rather be working on my current commission. I've been doing a lot of word sprints to kick out some decent progress on it. However, my brain has decided to fry because of the heat. It's just after one in the afternoon here and with the heat index it currently feels like 103. I'm not looking forward to going to my day job today, but such is life.

     Why am I writing this then instead of working? Because I at least wanted to get some sort of writing in. I'm also thinking about doing a new 30 day challenge. This next one might be to write a blog post every day. Maybe. Could be, or it could just be me working on more word sprints. Not to sure yet, but I would like to work on setting more goals.

Organization

     I keep finding myself running into the same problems week after week and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it. So again, I'm going to try something. I'm a very visual person and it's how I learn easiest. So today, I gathered all my projects and mapped them out in their stages. Perfect. Now that I can see everything it helps.

Almost 10,000 Words

     While I haven't been as focused on my blog as much. To be honest, I haven't really had a lot to say. At least not about any of this kinda thing. Plenty of other ranting but I don't think you all want to hear about that. Anyway! I have been happily writing at least 1,000 words a day. I just passed day nine today and it feels so good to see those numbers. I mean about 90% of them are just trash and ramblings. Heck one day I even counted down the last ten words by just writing out said words. Sad, but I at least did it. I refused to shortchange myself.

   

A bit more about "Werewolf Wednesday"

I’ve recently had an idea, and we all know that never means anything good for my scheduling, but as always, I’m going to do it anyway. #werewolfwednesday happened to be trending on my twitter feed the other day and put two and two together. “Silver Mane is werewolves, and people like those. Why not move the release date of a werewolf series, to werewolf Wednesday? This won’t change much really, just moving it to Wednesday. This also gives me a bit more time to work on the newest post for “Silver Mane” and perhaps I can even squeeze in some editing on the project.

What Will You Try to be More Patient About? -Writing Prompt-

 Leora:
     She ponders the question for a moment and shifts her weight, making her armor rub against its own steel plates. “I feel like I need to work on understanding where others are coming from. Like Poppy will sometimes do something that’s wrong, but she believes she’s doing it for the right reason. I don’t understand, and I feel like that’s something I need to work on.”

Araxie:

     She pushes her glasses up. “Sometimes my brain works too fast?” It was more of a question than an answer. “I need to once in a while slow myself down.” She shrugs at her final statement and goes quiet.

Poppy:

     She looks around, with a gleam in her eye. “Poppy is just fine the way she is.” There’s a massive smile on her face and her hair bounces while she readjusts herself on the chair.

Kenna:

      With a jab of her thumb towards herself with a grin on her face. Her tongue flipped the match in her mouth to the other side and her teeth pressed down on it. “Perhaps I shouldn’t blow up everything as a first resort.” She throws her head back and let out a laugh.

Valdis:

     Her hallow eyes scans the surrounding area. “Patient? I’ve walked this world longer than most of you have, I believe I have that I need. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to be done.” She get’s up, her body looking weak, but it doesn’t hinder her gait. She walks off with a massive book in one hand and a scrawling pen in the other.  

Small Steps

Recently (aka over the past week) I’ve still been working towards getting myself back into the habit of writing. So far so good. I’ve even been able to make some slow progress on “Silver Mane”. Not nearly as much as I would like to, but something is better than nothing.

I also am not sure what else to be posting for these between posts. I want to work on other shorts as well and start cranking out new novels, but focusing on this defiantly takes a good chunk of time away from it. I also don’t want to lose interest in writing this blog and sharing things with you all. I just need more hours in a day it seems. Or at least more focus for those hours.

I’m also wondering if anyone would like to read small one time shorts (under 500 words) here. Not just the ongoing series, but perhaps small tidbits that will tie into novels that I am working on? Perhaps even chapter bits?

Slowly getting back on track.

     I broke my habit, and as some of my oldest followers know, I need those habits. After being sick I couldn't focus on anything. Now I'm slowly trying to get back into said habits of writing on a regular basis. I did sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo to help refocus me writing "Silver Mane".

     On the upside, I do have word that I have a few shorts coming back from my editor. So perhaps there will be some new things coming soon from me. That's a bit inspiring.


     Again sadly though I don't have another installment of "Silver Mane" this week, at least not at this past moment, but soon I'll be back on track.

March Goals

     This one is a bit personal, but I feel like I need to write it down somewhere so that I can try to focus on it. Recently my life has been flipped upside down with the loss (not death) of a loved one. It's been very hard for me this past week or so while I try to get my life together without said dear person in my life. She was a great inspiration to me and it has for sure changed a lot of my work mentally. I've found it hard to write, and even some days just hard to function. When you live with someone for over six years, it's just odd once they are gone. Anyway, I need something to start getting me focused again.

     I want to read. I've been working on the same book for way to long now. Back in High School I could easily go through a 500+ page novel in maybe a week or two. It's taken me almost two months to get through "A Game of Thrones". So this month I want to get back to reading. That will also mean more book reviews for you guys!

     I want to publish. Sense I've gone back to working a normal "day job" my writing has suffered. I've gotten more written in the past two months that I have for half of last year, but I feel like it hasn't been enough. Yes I still want to focus on my series on here (Silver Mane) and I have a lot planned for it. I'm also starting up my Tumblr again, and I'm going to be putting a different series on there. I also want to get a few more novels out this year. Last year was 5, I want to at least match that this time.

    I want to keep writing. Above everything else in my life, I want to keep writing. Keep working towards my own personal goal.


     Current projects and status:
          Silver Mane- Book 1 is roughed and ready for editing. Book two is being worked on and ready for small chapter publishing on here.
          Tumblr series is fully mapped out ready for rough draft.
          Between Heaven and Hell is still being drafted, but at about 70% now.
          Another lesbian romance is still in planning stages and beginning draft work.
          Fantasy erotica- first draft 80% done.

February Update

     I just wanted to real quick toss together a small part of my progress so far this year. Mostly this is for my own good. It's meant to inspire me and to show me (and you) how much I have gotten done when I look back. February is almost over so two months in sounds like a good spot to gauge my progress and line up my hopes for how the rest of the year will go.

      "My hopes for this year. To write. To keep writing. To pour my heart onto the pages for you all to enjoy, but mostly to just get the voices out of my head. I do plan on redoing this blog. I want to shift my focus from just updates to more of a free web series. I will be testing the waters on this project over the next few weeks."

     I can for sure say that I have been writing. I have also been working very hard on this blog, not only keeping it updated regularly but I have kept up on my web-series. I've written well over 6,000 words already this year. That's a pretty decent number. I do however, believe that I can do better. I've also submitted a short story to a few magazines at this point. In the beginning of the year I had hoped to attempt to submit one every month no matter what. So far, I've reached that goal as well.

     I've also wanted to (for a few years now) keep a better handle on the books that I have read, even if I don't review them all. To be a great writer, I need to read. Good books, bad books, and everything in between to hone my talent. So I would like to also start keeping track of those. Perhaps even making a separate page on here for what books I have read. I can also just put up a quick list for my year start and attempt that with my next book. haha. I haven't read a lot so far this year. The first one took me forever because it was so painfully bad that I had to make myself read it. I did a silly thing and bought a book from the dollar store, only to realize it was in the middle of a series. (This may not have been the first time that I've done this.) It was just a poor book. Enjoyable in a few passing moments, but I'm not going to go out and buy the series. The other book is the one I am still working on (and painfully close to the end, I wish some books would go on forever, or that the next one would just appear on my doorstep) is the first book in The Game of Thrones. I'm truly enjoying that one, so I expect to post something more about it later.

     Overall, I feel like I am getting somewhere. I've been keeping up on this blog (a first!) and I've been working hard at starting marketing for my next novels as well. I have two planned for release this year and I still aiming for a few shorts as well. On top of the monthly submissions to magazines. I have a lot going on but I can handle it. While I didn't quit my day job, I did leave one to focus more on my current job, as well as my writing. I can really tell the difference in my work. 

     End note to future me: Great work me, keep doing what I'm doing. 
          ~Past me.

Focus

As always for me these last few days will be a flurry of writing to get my words in last minute. This year will be no different. I'm going to do my best and see what I can get done. With that said, I'm about to focus on my writing. I suggest you do the same, even if it's just free writing to take up space. Do it. Get your words in. We can totally still make it. Every word counts! I'll see you all on the other side.

Things Pile Up

Laundry, mail, my responsibilities. It's all been chucked up in a corner and forgotten about for the month. I have 2 book reviews that I need to share with you all, and a bunch of other things that I need to get organized, buuuut that's not going to happen. What is going to happen is I am going to beat my old NaNoWriMo word count. I'm still going to try for the full 50,000 but I will take what I can get.

Happy writing!