Some Serious Multitasking

I received my new textbooks yesterday for my classes that start next month. Woohoo. No really, woohoo. I'm excited. The course I'm looking forward to the most is the expository writing class. I've looked through the book and it seems to be just what I need to clarify a few writing details in my mind. By few, I mean all. I've been critiquing and having my work critiqued lately, and I've noticed some differences of opinion especially when it comes to punctuation. I need a refresher course to get things straight in my mind. So, college, here I come. On a different note, I also received, in the same shipment, the software I've been waiting so impatiently for. I downloaded it last night onto my beautiful new computer and wa-la I am ready to go to work creating a website for a friend of mine. I know, right? How exciting is that? Not that I have any free time as it is. No, I'm booked from morning till night what with the work that actually pays the bills, the reading, the critiquing, the writing new stuff, the revising and now ... website building. I've got to figure out when to eat and go to the bathroom. So, if you see someone dancing around with a full bladder whilst creating a website, writing a best selling book, attending classes and keeping the accounts in order, that will be me. Hee hee.

Procrastination ... Still

There isn't much I have to say here today. I am working on my revisions but they aren't going well. This is more due to my disinterest in them than because I don't know what to do. I have much work to do and no wish to do so. Stupid me. I really need to quit messing around and start working. This blog is another delaying tactic. Yep, if I continue writing here I won't have much time left to revise before I have to quit and go to bed. Good plan, right? Yeah, I thought so too. By the same token, I seem to be able to critique and pick out all the things for others. I can do this for hours. Perhaps because it isn't my work and I look at it with fresh eyes. I don't know, whatever, the point is that it sucks to read and critique my own work. OK, OK, I'm going already. Tah-tah.

Writing And Reading

Slowly but surely I'm getting my writing information moved from my work computer to this brand new, shiny, beautiful computer at home. *smiles stupidly* I've got to get to work on my revision and I've started a new story. My friend in the UK has read the first chapter of my new project and she likes it so far. It's really rough, I just wrote it this afternoon, but she thinks there's a good story there. We'll see. It's my first attempt at writing in first person and it feels really odd. I sent my revised first chapter to my critique buddy and an old friend who read the first version of it. My critique buddy has already read it and sent me some comments. I haven't had a chance to look at them yet but the ones he sent me from the first version were quite helpful. I'm sure these will be as well. I have some reading to do for another writer first, though. She sent me her entire manuscript and I'm only half way through. It will be interesting to see how her story winds up. Right now her character is in some deep shit with no seeming way out. I think I've let her hanging long enough. The poor girl must be really tired by now. Ciao.

New Computer And Changing My Main Character

I'm dancing a happy dance and the kids are eying me like they think perhaps I should be committed. I have a new computer. I do so love tax returns. *giggles* I love my new computer. I'm thinking of getting a skin for it. This reminds me of when I got a blackberry. I can't do anything else because I'm exploring all the features or thinking of new features to explore or I'm asleep dreaming of exploring the features. Yep, I'm in love. Now I just need the software I've ordered. On the writing front, I've been reading some manuscripts for three really talented writers. One of them is pretty rough but she has a great idea. She's written a pretty gritty story for older teens. Its pretty graphic in nature but I think if she can get away with it she will make a huge splash on the book scene once she gets it polished enough to query it. The other two are well on their way. The one has a pretty deep theme for young kids but he deals with it delicately without diluting the message. He needs to polish the writing and maybe sharpen the tension but he's well on his way. The other blows me away. Her writing is pretty amazing. Her book is one I want on my shelf when she gets it published. She's from the UK and I've had a great time giving her my opinions of her writing. Let me just say this, she has the most awesome bad guys I've read in some time. I originally wanted them to win just because she writes them so well. She's changed the good guys a bit and now I've switched sides but let me tell you, the bad guys are great. I've gotten some great feedback for the first chapter of my nano book. One of the writers I've been reading for has read it and he gave me a lot to think about. The people on the writing bridge have given me even more to figure out about my book. The result is that I've made some huge changes in the storyline. Jacob is no longer an orphan. That's pretty huge for the story. It was very difficult to change the background of my main character. However, I've started the process and I like where it can go. This changes ... well not everything ... but quite a few things. Oh the joys of writing.

Great New Group And New Ideas

Unlike the dreary day outside, my current writing life is looking sunny. No, I did not land the mega million ten book deal but I have found some new writer friends who are interested in forming a mutual help society (better known as a critique group). Mutual help society sounds so much happier, doesn't it? Barring their getting to know me better and blocking future emails, I think we may be on to a good thing. So far, I've read a bit of their work and one of them has read some of mine. He wasn't completely scared off so this may work. The fingers are crossing as I type which makes it very difficult to hit the right letters. So, if there are misspellings, you'll know that my fingers cramped and I had to go to emergency to get a muscle relaxer. Ah well, such is my life. As for revising, I've revised the hell out of my current WIP (work in progress). It bears almost no resemblance to the original writing but that's good because now I can go back and build on the parts that were good to begin with and not get swamped by all the drivel. I need to get to chapter 2 in the paring down mode but I think I want to spend a little time with chapter one before I move on. I've also been toying with a general fiction novel about an army Ranger based on a friend of mine. He is pretty high up in the army and used to be a Ranger. I have to get him to sit down and talk to me and I'm having trouble keeping him on task. He does love to talk, though. His stories are amazing. I think he is a born soldier. He loves it. He doesn't do so much of it now as he used to but when he gets the chance, he's out there in the thick of it. Personally, I think he's crazy. But then, I'm not a soldier. It takes a special person to do what he so obviously loves to do. More on him later if I can get him to sit still for five minutes and talk to me. In the meantime, there is this manuscript waiting for me to revise it and you all know how I just LOVE revising. NOT!

One Should Never Be Negative

I'm here to say that if one can get over oneself and put oneself out there just the tiniest bit, one gives oneself the opportunity for good things to happen. There I've said it. I took a chance at a critique group and bombed. I was removed from said critique group voluntarily which led to companionly feelings all around with other members of critique group. The aforementioned companionly feelings led to the recommendation of a possible partnership with another writer of the same genre as me which has led to the exchanging of first chapters. It's kinda like a first date without having to say the awkward good night. He's a good writer and hopefully he'll like what I write as well. The second great opportunity is that about the same time I was suffering the insanity to try to join a critique group, I applied to a small online writers' workshop. I was accepted. Gulp. This means I have to write because they require submissions and workshop participation and critiques and who knows what else. I am overwhelmed. Thirdly, whilst suffering under said insanity, I signed up to be a beta reader for some writers who are ready to submit and hopefully be agented and published. I have two complete novels to read and critique. Can anyone say busy? Life is like that, though. Feast or famine. No in between.