Author Moods

Sometimes we can't control how we feel about situations. While I was writing my suspense, Vengeance Is Mine, and having trouble with it, my husband suggested that I might be more comfortable writing my historical sequel. So I started Saratoga Winter 1865 and got to Chapter 3. His next suggestion, since I seemed to be having trouble with the historical, was that I really seemed to like critiquing more than writing. Now, I don't even feel like writing at all...not even on my blogs. I guess it's difficult to have someone so close tell you that you are not succeeding in anything you're writing--even though you know it yourself.

It's funny, my publisher is interested in getting both of the above mentioned books. My writing sells for her. She keeps asking me about them and I'm nowhere near completion on either. It's a bit daunting, having my husband critique my very behavior and three different writing groups critique my pages, until not a word I've written is worth reading.

Actually, I would like to go back to the suspense. I really like to write and will start doing it for myself and myself alone, if that is what is necessary. I guess having two writers in the house is a bit much, so I will work quietly in the background. I am going to start sneaking into my outdoor office and writing on the sly.......so much for cooperation.

Snow-To-Go

We have enough snow here right now that I'm willing to sell some to anyone who would like to decorate their lawns in white. It's been snowing for 24 hours. It's stopped everywhere else around us, but we seem to be in some sort of valley that has a cloud hanging over it........and the snow comes down and down and down.

This morning, I shoveled the deck and the path to the office. Then I went to exercise and out to lunch. I didn't get back until after one and haven't done a thing since. Shel, on the other hand, pushed the snow around on the deck, since it hasn't stopped coming down. And tonight, I shoveled the front porch. All this exercise is tiring me out. I didn't do a single useful thing in my writing today.

Disgusting isn't it?

Doctor Days

On the days that either my husband or I have doctor appointments, I just don't seem to get much writing done. I did some this morning on the beginning of Vengeance Is Mine. But, it's hard to work on something when the time you get to spend on the writing is broken up by other things.

I'm curious, with this snow storm, if the school will be closed. On days that it is, I seem to get much more work done. I spend a part of the morning shoveling snow off the deck--for the dogs--and then shovel snow off the walk to my outside office, where the big computer sits and waits. Once the shoveling is done, I go to the office and work for a long period of time. The only thing wrong with that office is the fact that I have to come into the house for lunch--or to go to the bathroom. "Mighty inconvenience," I say.

I am anxious to go to the office. There are things I want to get done on each of the novels I'm working on. Each day, I make a list of what needs to be done--and my greatest pleasure is to draw a line through each thing accomplished.

Gone to the lists

I've had it with my foolish ways. I am making a list of everything I need to do in the course of a given day. Each day, I will do my household stupid errands in the morning. My writing activities, other than a blog or two, will get done in the afternoon--unless I can get some done in the morning, especially these blogs.

For today, I have seven items on my list. I have done two of them, will do a third within the hour and am writing this blog a bit earlier than planned. I will be able to save the afternoon for some writing exercises--although, I must admit, I snuck in some writing this morning before even getting showered and dressed for the day. I'm cheered up already.

I have some monumental writing to accomplish. I must definitely rewrite pages 9 through 15 of Saratoga Winter 1865. It seems that, in transferring those pages from flash drive to computers, I have lost my original rewrites. It's a pain in the tush, but I guess I'll have to redo them--and hopefully make them better.

Also, I brought two complete chapters (excluding pages 9 through 15) to the SRWA Winter Retreat. The attendees critiqued them all, not the exclusion, and I have those to go over. I also have to work on Vengeance Is Mine, having gotten some good ideas written down. All that should keep me busy for the rest of this week--writing-wise, that is.

Took a Hiatus

Didn't bother to write on the blog for a couple of days. I went into thinking mode, grew discouraged and had to berate myself. Sometimes the things Shel says to me cut to the quick. His latest bit of sweetness was so comforting. He thought that I enjoyed critiquing someone else's writing rather than writing my own. He's touted me off the suspense novel, which I am going back to with a vengeance, telling me that I seem to write historical novels so much easier and without a struggle. Frankly, the whole conversational twist had me in a funk, but I'm about to reembark on a new path.

I will write every day, whether I'm working on the suspense or the historical. I will find some time to do the writing, no matter other things come up to get in my way. It's merely a question of deciding to write instead of hanging around, watching TV or reading, which is one of my first loves. If necessary, I will forego all TV, in order to write and will not allow myself to turn the blasted machine on until some writing has occurred on that day.

I don't know which novel I will work on in a given day. Perhaps, I will be able to squeeze both into my schedule. I am going to have to write around meetings that keep getting in the way and all the other sort of CRAP. I will write. It's a promise I'm making to myself.

The Days slip by

Days slip by before I realize they are all gone. I had planned to do much over the weekend but did nothing of note.

When I tried working on Saratoga Winter 1865, I wound up rewriting the beginning of the suspense, Vengeance Is Mine. I must be in a learning spurt. I'm reading a lot and that makes me want to try different writing techniques. I feel I can always learn. I must have seen something in what I was reading because I immediately thought of a new way to start the suspense.

It's strange though. When I'm writing the historical, I think about the suspense--but when I'm writing the suspense, I can't concentrate on the historical. I can't figure out which I am more comfortable with and enjoy writing more. I also know that I enjoy working on the big computer, rather than the laptop, but I tend to use the laptop more in the evenings. Transferring things gets to be a problem. At the Retreat I went to, I found that pages 9 through 15 were of the old start. I somehow lost the new revisions and am only now catching up. What a waste of time--yet I thought I had everything done correctly on my Flash drive--but obviously, NOT. Now, I have to rewrite something that had already been revised.

I haven't kept up with my Writer's Village assignments and have to visit there today. I really have been lax.

Just Another Lazy Day

Today we had a snow storm, an ice storm and rain. What more can the weather bring--more from what I heard. I guess it's going to be a mess until tomorrow afternoon and then again over the weekend. We certainly are getting our fill of messy weather. It's the climate up north.

Although I spent most of the day inside because of the icy rain, I merely wrote something for the first chapter of Vengeance Is Mine. All the time I'm thinking about Saratoga Winter 1865, ideas come to me about the suspense and the historical gets cold. Strange how those things work. I guess if I want to do something on the historical, I should be writing on the suspense and vice-versa.