Novelist-Miranda Cardona

Hurricane Ike came through, but everyone I know is doing fine.  We’re all alive, most of us have our power back, and we’ve started cleaning up the debris.  I’ll do a writing post at some point soon.

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d;
All murder’d: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour’d thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?
 ~Richard III, Act 3, scene ii

Last night I wrote over a thousand words, which had me rounding off chapter five and putting a nice dent in chapter six.  I’m very much enjoying my ten to midnight writing time (although last night I started a little late).  It’s doing wonders for my word count and writerly self esteem.  This brings TEL to 16,695.  I’m going to do a dance when I hit 20,000 for this draft.

I also thought I would post a link to one of my favorite writing blog/websites.  Debbie Redpath Ohi’s Inkygirl is hilarious, informative, and interesting.  I wouldn’t expect anything less from the person who started Inkspot.  (She sold it a number of years ago, and now has no affiliations with it.)  I’m tremendously impressed with her.  She does so much and still finds time to write. 

Now to edit.  I hate editing.

Yesterday I spent a total of nine hours working on TEL.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, given that I was so upset with the entire manuscript I took a week off.  That was a good decision, because on read through there were only a few things I thought needed changing.  Over all, I did six hours of editing.  The remaining three were spent on redoing my outline, writing my 500 words (not including the ones I deleted), and figuring out a new chapter.  I’m really proud of myself, but once midnight hit I was done with words for the day. 

As I was falling asleep I realized that I spent an extra two hours writing than I do working outside the home.  I work nine to five monday through friday, with an hour off for lunch.  As the time passed, I really didn’t notice it, and when I was finished I had this remarkable sense of accomplishment.  I was tired, but in a good way.  I can’t wait for 10 o’clock to arrive so I can start working again (I have a standing writing date when my friend, Molly, every night at 10).  I have no doubt that I could do that every day for the rest of my life.

It’s a good feeling.

As I’ve been getting terribly frustrated with my WIP again, I’ve been spending a bit more time studying the method of writing rather than actually writing.  (Well, yesterday I went to bed early, but that’s neither here nor there.) 

On AbsoluteWrite (By far the best writing resource on the net, as far as I’m concerned) there’s a 100+ page thread titled “Learn Writing with Uncle Jim.”  (his bibliography can be found here.  The man’s prolific to say the least.)  I started reading yesterday and am now on the fifth page so far and some things I’ve learned, some things have been explained better, and I’ve already developed a list of books I now want to read that he’s recommended.  Honestly, I think everyone considering a career in writing should be reading this discourse, even this early into the thread.  (If I were him, I’d compile it all into an ebook, but that’s just me. [I am also quite fond of the parenthesis today.])

I plan on writing tonight as I’ve gotten in the habit of stopping what ever I’m doing between 9 and 10pm and making myself sit in a chair in the study.  This is working well in several ways: 1) Sometimes I get too busy at work to get writing time in.  2) I’m a creature of habit, and after three weeks of doing this I feel funky if I don’t at least take the time out.  3)I’m getting something done, be it editing/writing/perfecting my solitaire game.  Granted, I do take the weekends off unless I start getting twitchy, in which case I write whenever I can fit it in.  (The fiance and I end up being social butterflies on the weekend whether we want to or not.)

See?  Blogging isn’t the only habit I’ve been cultivating!

Total word count for the day: 15,015.

Chapter One is finished and reworked.  I am ready to sleep.

I’ve spent most of today reworking the first chapter of TEL into something better.  I’ve lost about fifty words, but I think I’m happier over all.  The introduction is compelling rather than whiny.  Now my brain feels mushy.  I think I’ll end up taking a break to read more of Atonement and then go back and read through the chapter to check it for consistency.

Right now, TEL is running at 14, 636.  I will hit 15k by the end of the day unless I decide to start from scratch.

Anyone who says writing isn’t hard work is an idiot.

I’ve been obsessed with the length of TEL for the last month or so, convinced that 55,000 words just wouldn’t cut it.  Stretching it out to at least 80,000 words had been one of my main goals as of late, and I’ve pretty much decided to give it up.  My biggest worry right now is that stretching it would ruin the story as a whole.  Yes, some things had to be added to get to to be over 50,000, and those I will keep, but over all I’ve just decided not to worry about it any longer.  TEL will be as long as it needs to be.  The story is told in first person so it’s seen through emotion rather than an objective narrator.  This definitely condenses word count.  Now I’ll just shoot for a goal of 60,000 words and leave it at that.

That said, I wrote about a thousand words Thursday and Friday all told.  I took today and Saturday off as weekend life tends to get in the way of my writing time (especially wedding planning).  Having a goal of 500 words has definitely kept me writing, since it’s a goal I can easily manage.  When I had my daily goal of 2,000 I felt horrible when I didn’t meet it.  There were many times I just wouldn’t even bother trying if I knew I didn’t have the time to hit it.  This was not working.  Now that I’ve got such a low goal every day I get words in, and they’re usually good words.  I find I don’t end up having to delete as much, and I enjoy the process more.  If the time comes where I can write full time, chances are the word count will be increased exponentially.  At that point it will be a job, and not something I do when I can squeeze in the time.

It’s time for me to go to bed and fill up the word bank.  Check back tomorrow for an actual word count for TEL.

The last twenty pages of TEL have been edited despite waking up with the worst migraine this morning.  I think I’m going to start work on Chapter Five again tomorrow.

It’s been a year since I finished the first draft, and high time I just put it to bed once and for all.  If I don’t complete it I’d always regret it, so I’m back in the game.

You know your blog is moving up in the world when you get two spam comments in one day.  Given that I’d never had one before, I can’t help but be pleased that the scammers of the world have noticed me.

On to pressing business.  I read through and edited twenty seven pages from TEL yesterday as well as some research for the short story.  The fiance, in all of his awesomeness, has also been finally setting up a writing nook for me in the study.  He’s been organizing the closet, setting up the desk and drafting table (for my arty projects) to create an uber workspace, and adding lamps since I hate overhead lighting.  Once the room is throughly organized I need to look into getting some art for the walls.  So far it’s been excellent for my concentration.  I can shut myself away from the world, corgi at my feet, and work after dinner.

Today is going to be split between TEL and short stories.  I need to get the one for the anthology written ASAP (I’m so bad with deadlines), and I really want to finish the one I came up with yesterday.  These will not be put on the website, as they are targetted towards publication.