First deadline: decent effort
So my first deadline came and went, and how did I fare? Better than expected in some ways, although I still have a few more characters to go before I finish off the planning stage proper.
But it’s close!
This evening, I finished off 3 middle-to-major characters, and was planning to polish off the last two but I’m just too knackered. Also doesn’t help that I’ve been scouring the net for free ebooks this evening (downloaded Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island! Haven’t read them in years!)
Also figured out how to place books that I’m reading on my WordPress blog. And even did some very basic coding to make the books appear as they do! And then because I was working on my bitchy character today, I spied a book delightfully titled, “Bullies, Bastards & Bullies” through Writer’s Digest’s tweet, and promptly bought it online.
So all in all, a good day. I’ve got 2 other characters to flesh out, and then the rest are really quite minor. Also have to work out which scenes form my chapters and in what sequence, but that can be worked out by the end of the week as well.
So here’s what I intend to do.
- Wednesday (today) – no good. Choir practice, and I will be home past 10pm, so my brain will be quite fried and useless…
- Thursday – Remaining 2 characters and polish off the rest of the very minor characters (and who they were inspired by.)
- Friday – Scenes assigned to chapters, and sequencing
- Saturday – Choir performance (and I’m doing a solo!)
- Sunday – Possible movie with person from writing group. And grocery shopping. And hanging out with my much-neglected real-life romantic hero…
Monday next week, perhaps about 5 days late but what the hey, I will finally start writing proper. And I can hardly wait, to be honest. I have had dialogue swimming around my brain for weeks, and am just dying to sink in and start typing like the demon.
But until then… I have to finish these characters. *nod*
Last of the plotlines! (dance a jig)
So I know for a fact that you haven’t been cheering for me, because I just found out that this website hasn’t yet been indexed by Google. So I spent quite a bit of the evening figuring out metatags, adding in a sitemap in WordPress, working out a better Twitter plugin than TweetSuite, and generally getting this blog hopefully indexed within 72 hours.
Anyhow – went and did it anyway. Finished my last plotline, AND worked out a couple more scenes with my piggy villain. She is now blessed with the hide of a Rhino (mixed metaphors!) and a suffocating ego. She also *happens* to resemble someone who *might* have been a colleague, once upon a time…
Because I had pre-rewarded myself by licking clean five spoonfuls of Connoiseur Cafe Grande (the one with the orgasmic chocolate-smothered almonds), the only thing I now have as reward is… sleep.
Crisis of confidence
Maybe it’s ’cause I’m absolutely knackered tonight, despite sneaking in a two-hour nap after dinner because I was that exhausted. Maybe it’s ’cause, like the rest of my life, I really have packed too much into the task at hand.
Whatever it is, I’m very aware that I have exactly a week before I am to finish with the character analysis and plot stage. Which is why it’s very frustrating that I fell asleep in the first place, and only managed to put together half of a sub-plot, broken down and integrated into my master list of scenes. That’s the problem with deadlines – they can take the absolute fun out of the job when they turn out to be stressful. But that’s sometimes the only way to push through difficult bits.
Currently, I’m petrified that I’ve got too many things going on in my book and it’s just going to all fall over. And it probably will. But I’m going to push on anyway, and see how I go.
Tomorrow, despite knowing I’m going to be home crazy-late from my day job, I will endeavour to
- finish off this plotline I started
- add a few other scenes for Carmen (one of my piggy villains).
If you feel like cheerleading a bit, feel free to send me your bestest wishes that I manage to follow through…
