My Recent Comments

I've been thinking about you, lately. Glad to hear you are still with us. ;)

When I'm short on ideas, I go for a walk or some other type of exercise. Laps around the mall are particularly good since you catch snippets of conversation.

But you have ideas, you just are blah about developing them. To fix that I say hang out  on th ehar boards more. lol.

But seriously,  I truly believe if you surround yourself with highly motivated writers you can't help but write yourself. When they sub, you want to sub, too. Talk to your close writer buddies and have them tell you what they are working on and where they are in the submission process.

Some people work better with a deadline. You can try to set deadlines with your critique partners, telling them you will give them something by such-and-such a date. Have them hold you to it. 

Once you submit something, the high will carry you through the next project. Start with the one that needs the least amount of work and go from there.

Good Luck!

FWIW,

SueB

Don't kick yourself if you don't make 2500 words a day - it's an ambitious goal. As long as you write something - even one sentence - then you'll be that much closer to your goal. GL!

SueB

OMG Rae - you are too funny. I might have to instill the bathroom method. ;)

I work during the day and have stopped doing the social hour at lunchtime with friends. (I socialize during afternoon break, instead.) During lunch I write - although I have to be careful what scenes I'm working on.  I'm fortunate to have an  understanding husband who knows after the kids go to bed - it's my writing time. I also work better under deadlines. It motivates me. Since I'm unpub'd, I self-impose them. Good practice for when I have real ones. ;)

I'm definately going to try to get the desire finished by July 1st... I'll have a better idea come June if I'm going to make it. If the due date is more like July 10th or 15th I will have a better shot.

I'll end up subbing something to desire regardless, it's just a question of whether I'll be able to enter the pitch contest.

I think Rae is absolutely right - you have to want it bad. There will always be excuses and distractions. I feel it's critical to surround yourself with people who face the same issues (eg other writers). You can help keep eachother on track.

SueB, who is TRYING to get 2 novellas and a partial out the door this month - What am I doing here? Ack!

I tend to push myself. If I only wrote 500-1000 words a day, the crows of doubt would set in and I'd never finish anything. \

On weekdays I write more becase it is more structured. ~500 in the morning before anyone gets up, ~500 on my lunch break and then after the kiddos go to bed at 7:30 I'll write until 10:30pm - about another 1500 words. The weekends I write during nap time and in the evenings but a more relaxed pace. Sometimes I'll take a night off to watch a movie or something. Once an ms is done I will take a break to read novels and replenish. Then I begin editing.

Now I'm not sure if I'm going to enter the pitch contest for desire. I'm thinking about the noc bite pitch contest and I have also learned of another novella opportunity. Don't think I will have time to develop everything by July - even with my fast pace! HA! Something will have to be sacrificed. Not sure what yet...

SueB

Good stuff, Vince. I read it to my husband and we BOTH enjoyed it.

Good job!

SueB

It happens. It happened to me with my current noc ms. I had to first take a break from the ms, then come back to it and dive deep into my hero. What are his likes and dislikes? What motivates him? Turns out - with me at least - he wasn't alpha male enough. Rather wimpy. People stepping all over him. I gave him a makeover. Made him edgy and harder. Once a changed a few personality traits he sprung to life and took charge of my story. I was off and running.

Word of caution, though. If you change your hero, make sure to go back and edit what you have already written to accomodate the new personality traits. You want the hero to be consistent! lol!

Hope that helps.

SueB

After the pitch contest I looked hard at my story and decided it needed a face lift. Changed a lot which left me with a lot of rewriting. I have about 8k left of the rewrite, which I hope to have done next week. Then I will spend 1 week polishing the first 3 chapters and syn, get it read, more adjustments and off it goes! I'm aiming to mail it out on the 12th.

As far as the desire pitch goes, I have an idea for a trilogy. Got some good conflict ideas. After the 12th I am going to lay it all out and see how it flows. When I get to writing the first draft, I push myself to go fast - otherwise I would never finish a book. I write 2500+ words a day. It's all crap, mind you, but at least it's on paper. Editing often involves a little rewriting. It will take me probably 25-30 days for a first draft. Then I will have 2-3 weeks to get the pitch together before the deadline. I figured I can take my time a little with the editing...

That is, unless, I get a full request for my noc. Then my desire dreams will be set aside for the time being. ;)

That's the plan as of today, anyways...

SueB

you are too funny. I'm still polishing the noc ms from the noc pitch contest. Hope to have that out next week, then I am going to type as fast as I can for the desire pitch contest!

I'll race ya? lol!

SueB

Now I know what I'm working on next.

You're awsome! (Did I just date myself? LOL!)

SueB

I read on an author's website it took her 18 ms's before getting the call. EIGHTEEN! *gasp* I can't even imagine. Some authors probably wrote more. I'm only on my third.

I hate those character worksheets, too. FWIW, This time around I got pics off the internet of all my characters and assigned them all astrological signs. It might seem lazy (okay - it IS lazy) but if you go to those horoscope websites they have a wealth of character information based on the sign. They also tell you which signs are compatible and which ones are not.

Just a thought. GL with the wip!

SueB, who fought her own battle with the crows of doubt this week...