A Revelation

Hey all! How’s your writing coming along?  I’d like to say that mine is going pretty well, but yesterday turned out to be a huge let down.  After working 7-3 and going to get my hair done, then dinner at my boyfriend’s parent’s house, I was completely wiped.  And I had started my day colossally early—4:45 AM.  And so I slept when I came home with the intention of getting up to do more work.  I woke up, deliberated on what I should do and then chose to sleep some more.  When I finally decided enough was enough, I dragged myself out of bed at 4 this morning to try to make up for yesterday’s debacle.  And the result was almost as pitiful as my stinging, sleep-deprived eyes.  I managed to meet my 200 word count for one fifteen minute session, but I was none too pleased with the words I strung together on the page.  I packed it in, feeling angry with myself for not being able to follow-up Monday’s success with another.  I went to bed in shame, wishing I had pushed through.

Today at work, as I reflected on it, I realized I was expecting a lot from myself considering I had an early day and hadn’t had the chance to nap.  Often when I have bad days such as these, I shut down or hustle to make up for what I missed.  This of course causes undue stress on my part and leads to the burnouts I experience that fuel my unwillingness to write and perhaps even a bit of writer’s block meant to prevent myself from completely breaking down.  Knowing all this, I wanted to try something different, and that’s to simply LET IT GO . . .

You can’t even imagine how much of a battle it was for me to finally settle on that decision and I’m still not 100% happy with it.  I normally like to follow through with things, but at the same time I knew that taking the route I usually take to solve the problem would not help me in the long run.  I realize that it’s more lucrative to let it go and move on to the next day, than it is to dwell on the past and mull over what wasn’t accomplished the day before.  I should be focusing on my future writing, which won’t get done if I spend all of my time depressed and angry with myself.

So for all you writers out there that may be in the same situation as me, try to keep an open mind, give yourself some slack (not too much mind you or you run the risk of not writing at all) and keep your spirits high.  Motivation through accomplishment is what will propel you to the end and you need to keep in mind that every little bit helps, even the instances where you feel you’ve missed your goal.  And, of course, every word counts!

Best of luck my fellow writers!

Marlena

A Cause for Celebration

Hey all! I'm back and for good this time! I wanted to share all the hard work I put into my recent book project, which kept me away for a month.  In case you haven't read the previous posts, the working title for my manuscript is As Fate Would Have it; it's a romantic suspense.  Here's a snapshot summary about what it's about:

     Naomi Boudreaux, an aspiring investigative journalist, adamant in her pursuit of career advancement, is given the opportunity of a lifetime. She makes an impulsive decision to publish her story before submitting it to her editor, which leads her on a fast track to unemployment.  As if that weren't bad enough, the personal attacks begin.  It's up to Ray Salvador to keep her alive long enough to solve the case.

Not the best summary out there, but you get the idea (I hope . . .).  Below is my cast of characters:

Naomi Boudreaux

                     Raymundo Salvador

      
          Damion Bryson










 



                        Jeannette Boudreax

          Gene Boudreaux

                                                                                                  

          Charlene O'Shea    

           Zachary Ryder











       

                                                               



                            Pedro Almonte






                            

                     Isaac Cottrell

                                                                            


                         Athena Cottrell

                  Trevor Angelo












 


                        Lyle Cottrell

               Jonathan Adderson








And that's my cast of characters! I hope they look realistic enough.  In any case, these sims I've created help me to visualize them as I write my scenes, which is a plus.  It's a wonderful tool.

Speaking of tools, I would  like to recommend two that I've found invaluable now that I've started writing: yWriter and yEdit.  These free software programs makes the job of a writer so much easier.  yWriter is excellent for organizing your outline notes and yEdit is a great place to type your work if you're working toward a target word count.  I used yEdit today for my writing today.  I simply put in the target number of words I wanted to type and just went to work.  When I was done, I copied and pasted it into a MS Word document, fixed the font and formatting and double-checked the word count (it counts tabs and spaces you put between paragraphs).  As for yWriter, I used it to type in my character sketches, add the pictures of my characters created in the Sims 3 and added scenes to chapters.  I even added a few locations and applied them to the scenes I was working on.

Go here to download them:

http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html

http://www.spacejock.com/yEdit2.html

And here's a tutorial for yWriter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti5HNVVIV1w&noredirect=1

The tutorial above was done by K.M. Weiland and it was her recommendation to download the yWriter software in Outline Your Novel that inspired me to check it out.  I am certainly not disappointed.  I then found yEdit, which suited my need of reaching a target word count each day.  Much love to Simon Haynes for creating such useful software for writers!

Well, after a month's time spent working, I finally got down to the nitty gritty: writing!  I met my goal today of writing 1,600 words and thensome (2,413 to be exact). *Insert epic happy dance*  Now I just have to keep it up for tomorrow.  I've found that working in 15 minute intervals keeps me motivated, focused and eager to do more.  And tea, 1001 Nights tea to be exact, gives me the boost I need when I start to drag during the day.

I wish all of you luck with your writing ambitions!

Marlena