Tap, tap, tap

Holy heck, it’s been busy around these parts!  I set a goal for myself to finish the draft of the YA manuscript I’m working on by the end of February and I’m right on track.  Sadly, the pace of my writing has kept me away from blogging, but I’d say it’s a fair trade-off.

After our monthly SCBWI Schmooze earlier this month, my friend asked me how I’ve kept focused on moving forward with this story when the urge is always there to edit until things are perfect.  The only good answer I had is that it’s different for everyone.  Even for me my writing schedule and methods have changed from book to book.  This is the first book I’ve written with an outline in hand and it’s been incredibly helpful in keeping me on track.  The outline is more of a general guideline as to where things are going, but having this means I don’t get stuck as easily on figuring out what comes next.

After each chapter I write, I print the pages.  Not only is this a way to see progress, the hard copy is also a good back up in case of computer problems.  I read this printout before bed and I make revisions on the hard copy.  Then I read ahead on my outline to where I need to be in the story tomorrow.  This usually leads to brainstorming and hand writing a few sentences before I go to sleep.  I don’t know if this method would work for people who, say, actually go to bed at the same time as their significant others, but hey, it works for me.

You know how people say a sign of love is when that thing or person is the last thing you think about at night and the first thing you think of in the morning?  That’s me and my book.  Sick, I know.  So yeah, I’ve been living, breathing, and dreaming about this story.  I think the harder part for me will come with editing.  That’s the place to kill your (literary) babies.  All the sentences that don’t go and the plot points that don’t work.  We’ll see how it goes.

I’m back (and getting published!)

Hi all you faithful readers out there.  Sorry for dropping off the blog radar for the past few weeks.  When did it get to be December?  The days have been filled with serendipitous travels, lots of writing, eating, and honeymoon planning.  I hope you can forgive me.

I’ve crawled out of my cave (aka the library) to tell you one of my poems is getting published in the Northridge Review.  Woot!  The Review will be released early in the spring and they (gasp!) want me to do a reading.  The possibilities for embarrassment when you combine me + public speaking are endless.  And that’s just how I like it!

That’s all for now but I promise I’ll be back with lots more fun soon.  Thanks for stopping by!

Productivity, at what cost?

It’s now gotten to the point that I have to bribe my dog with bones to get him to be quiet for me to write.  He’s supposed to be on a diet, so this makes me a bad pet owner.  He doesn’t seem to mind the extra treats, but still.  The good news is, I’m getting a lot of writing done.  I’m in the stages of sewing my scenes together, since everything is written in chunks, and it seems almost like cheating to get so much done so quickly.  I can turn out a chapter a day now, if I can get in a few good hours of work.  Tonight I’m going to the library though.  Let the dog bark all he wants.

Out the door

This just in from the Tanya Productivity Department: I sent out my manuscript for the consultation I won at the SCBWI Summer Conference.  It’s nice to get everything out the door and I’m excited to get some more feedback on my novel.

Graduation, among other things

Wow, it feels like I’ve been gone from the bloggosphere for forever, but it’s really only been just over a week.  First of all, I’m sorry for my absence.  In a quick recap, I’ve had the following things to deal with over the last week: 3 trips to the vet (the first: diagnosis, the second: get foods to convince my cat to eat, the third: picking up the food that my cat actually liked), a trip to the emergency room with my friend (post to follow tomorrow), photographing an Indian engagement ceremony/party (pulled together in 2 days while my husband was out of town), a power outage or two, tea with friends, first chapter critique, writing a long synopsis, then a short one, writing my final exam for my last class ever, reading two books, shooting a wedding, picking my husband up from the airport which meant I could finally sleep again (I didn’t get any sleep when he was gone) but also picking up his Switzerland-zombie virus.  Commence sleeping/popsicle eating/nose-blowing.

So yeah, I didn’t do much blogging but it was a busy week.  I’ll try to do more frequent updating and not abandon all you readers out there.

In parting words, today is my official college graduation.  What will I do with my time?  Ha.

Revision

For the first time this week I finally feel productive, at least writing-wise.  I’m still working on a first draft of my book, but since I have a manuscript consultation coming up, I put a little time into revising the first chapter.  Some of the conflicts in my story have changed since I first wrote the opening, so I went back and made everything work.  I feel pretty good about the result, but I’m so used to seeing the words one way that it feels weird too.  Either way, I’m feeling better about the revision process than I ever have.  Someone once said it’s easier to revise than to write, because when you revise you at least have material to work with.  I’m starting to see the light.

Back to the daily grind

You know what’s ironic?  At the airport you need to be at your gate at a certain time, and yet there are no obvious clocks in the entire place.  This is not just one airport, but nearly every one I’ve been to. Seems odd to me.

That tidbit aside, this wedding weekend in San Francisco was fun but brief.  I didn’t get as much writing done as I would have liked, so I’ll try to play catch up this week.  I’ve got added incentive to work efficiently – at the SCBWI summer conference I was a door prize winner for a manuscript consultation with Stephen Mooser, President of the SCBWI.  I’m beyond excited, but I have to pull together a synopsis for my book.  This is harder than it looks, since my book isn’t actually finished.  That and I want to make a few changes to the first pages, since some plot lines have changed from when I began writing.  All in all, it’ll be hectic but fun.  Let’s just hope life doesn’t throw too many other projects at me.

So I’m a little tone deaf, so what?

It’s gotten to a bad point – I’m writing a book that takes place at summer camp, and I have the camp’s alma matter stuck in my head.  I keep singing it, and every time I do, my dog walks out of the room.  Tough critic.  Girl can’t get a break around here.

Feeling the burn

Yesterday my husband and I decided to take our new kayak down to the marina for a little ride.  Ian had previously taken it out a few times, so it was my chance for kayaking glory.  We launched off a little boat ramp and away I went.  The good news is, I was able to ride out to some rocks to see seals.  A few of them were playing around and jumping all over the place, but when they started swimming towards me out of curiosity, I decided to let them be.  Odds are, they’re much better in the water than I.  The bad news is, after a long ride out, the ride back to shore felt considerably longer.  I’m feeling the burn and I’ve got blisters on my hands.  Which makes typing this considerably harder.  It also rules out handwriting my next book sections, so I’m going to try writing things directly on the computer.  It doesn’t flow as well for me, but hopefully it’ll work.  Things are coming together nicely in my WIP, and I’m hoping to have something in shape for the conference next month.

New Beginnings?

Earlier this week, when I was on my way to an exam, I came up with a new book idea.  It made me happy but the timing was inopportune: when I got to school I should have been cramming, but instead I was writing out the first pages that my character just had to tell me.  Sigh.  I love it when characters come alive.  My conundrum, exams aside, is that I’m still finishing up my middle grade novel, so I don’t want to start something new just yet.  (I probably will anyway, but this will drive my husband crazy.)  So in the mean time I’ll be “researching.”  Cooking will feature prominently in my book, so tell me some of your favorite recipes and I’ll try some out.  Who knows, I may even throw a dinner party.  Anything in the name of research, right?