I woke up feeling especially melancholy—for no real reason. I feel like I'm waiting for something. Like I'm counting on lightning to strike, and the chances of that are one in a million. Yet I'm still looking up, hoping to see a flash, wondering why it hasn't yet come. (Note: Actually the chances of being … Continue reading Another Day
Month: July 2006
Outlined
I finished the outline for the YA assignment and emailed it to the editors an hour ago. "Finished" is a funny word. I could have worked on that outline all weekend. For weeks, really. It's establishing a whole new cast of characters and although I know them better than I did some days ago I … Continue reading Outlined
Burned Again?
Maybe I should say singed again. About a month ago I had sent a query to an agent who had encouraged me—only she wanted to see a revised, and I wasn't sure exactly how revised and how interested she'd be upon receiving it, if, theoretically, she ever did. I never heard back. So I did … Continue reading Burned Again?
How to Know When You’re Going Overboard
Your outline is nearing 30 pages (single-spaced!) and you still feel no closer to knowing the heart of your story than you did before. That instead of making a nice orderly list with bullet points as you have here, you have almost entire scenes sketched out, bits of dialogue, asides into outer space, name-dropping like … Continue reading How to Know When You’re Going Overboard
Body vs. Mind
Why is it that whenever I am working seriously toward a deadline (and in this case, multiple deadlines) my health falters? I don't see what I'm doing differently except less TV and less sleep, but in reality not really that much less sleep. And then when I don't feel good I am less inclined to … Continue reading Body vs. Mind
Oh, Oh, Oh
You'll be disappointed in me. I am. I wasn't able to finish the outline by this morning—my super-ambitious self-imposed deadline that I told the editors I'd meet because I always think I am capable of finishing things before I can... it left me in a ditch. It wasn't even a matter of the "done" versus … Continue reading Oh, Oh, Oh
The Novel in My Dreams
I keep dreaming about my adult novel, the one I've decided to send out to indie publishers but wanted to make a few character tweaks to before doing so. In the daytime I don't have even a moment to think about that novel—with all these freelance writing assignments I said yes to, I've booked myself … Continue reading The Novel in My Dreams
The Sinkhole That Is My Apartment
I didn't write a word once I reached the apartment yesterday evening. I don't know what happens when I'm inside these narrow walls—crumbling brick on one side, grayish white on the other. All of my energy is sapped once I set a foot inside. The couch swallows me up like a sinking carpet. My brain … Continue reading The Sinkhole That Is My Apartment
What Happens When You Are Hungry and Fidgety and Can’t Stop Blowing Your Nose?
Fifteen minutes to five o'clock, and you decide to pack up and go home. You'll work on the outline at home, while munching on cherry tomatoes and sucking honey-lemon cough drops. You'll motivate in the dust and squalor of your own apartment—you will! You want the outline to be good, that's first and foremost. But … Continue reading What Happens When You Are Hungry and Fidgety and Can’t Stop Blowing Your Nose?
What People Are Searching For
Like Slynne on So You Think I Can (some really great posts about this!), I've come to notice some of the search terms that have led people to find this blog. People are seeking very curious things on the Internet, or they're using the Google search field like a confessional. Like "take off all your … Continue reading What People Are Searching For
