Friday Wrap Up and Other Things

Um…I’m not sure what happened to last weeks Friday Wrap Up. I meant to sit down and write it up but apparently never did. I also meant to write a few posts during this week, but obviously that didn’t happen…I’m going to blame it on the house guest that we’ve had living with us for the last month. (Shhh don’t tell her.)

I’ve been helping my darling husband with some work the last two weeks which consisted of me folding surveys and stuffing envelopes…a lot of them. I think I lost count around 2,000. I finally finished the last 100+ envelopes early this evening-now all I have to do is seal them.

Some bullet points for the week

• Found the cd that I listened to non-stop when writing the draft of my first novel. Talk about nostalgia.
• Managed NOT to get paper cuts stuffing envelopes (go me!)
• Wrote an average of 400 words per day
• Am still enjoying the co-writing on the forum.
• Started yet another story titled “Somewhere In Between” that features Sascha, my gypsy vampire. (That makes a total of 4 stories being written on the forums)
• Am venturing outside of my typical comfort zone for writing.
• Picked up a book on writing erotic romance.

That pretty much sums up my week. Not bad really. Fairly busy even though it didn’t seem so at the time. I’ve got to write the next portion of “The Sun Has Set” tomorrow, after that I am officially caught up with the forum stories.

Words To Think On

Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.

Jules Renard (1864 – 1910)

Well…most folks don’t at least…

Friday Wrap Up

And so it returns…this weeks edition is brought to you from the comfort of my couch.

• Finally kicked the not writing thing I’ve been going through
• Wrote a combined 3000 words on various stories
• Began and almost finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyers
• Had a lovely discussion about books last night with a friend.
• Discussed writing styles with a co-author
• Realized that I need to start reading again
• Learned some interesting things while doing research for various stories
• Wrote 500+ words before I even logged in to write this post!

Things are going really well. I managed to work out how to write a scene this morning after breakfast. I’d been wrestling with it for two days. Not sure how productive this weekend is going to be, my calendar looks to be pretty packed at the moment…of to write a sibling argument!

From The Trenches

Yeah… so I didn’t write a Friday Wrap Up last week nor did I post the book review as promised. I did however write close to 3000 words total between three different stories.

I’ve been writing so much (as in sitting in front of the computer and forcing myself to write something even if I don’t really like it or feel that it is some of the worst writing I have ever done compared to my co-authors–and not getting up until I’m done) that my darling husband has even commented on it. Actually he complained, but that’s not the point.

I am running into some creativity issues and I am trying really hard to keep my inner editor locked away, but it is tremendously difficult when I am working with such talented writers. Not to mention the fact that the stories differ completely genre-wise even though the theme is essentially the same. All of them are essentially love stories of varying degrees.

Pulse
The first of the three stories that I began last week is a vampire tale. In the tradition of Laurell K. Hamilton, the story name was taken from the club owned by the vampire character. I am writing the human element in this story and my co-author is writing the vampire. I enjoy writing this one as it is something I am fairly familiar with. The plot itself is always evolving as we write more of it.

The Sun Has Set
This story is being written by three people. It is an urban fantasy story involving fae. (remember I mentioned working on an outline last week?) This story has been more difficult for me to write. Perhaps it is my lack of knowledge or that I simply don’t have a firm grasp on the vision I am trying to create. I see what I want to happen in my head clear as day, but the words on the screen just don’t match up. And that is frustrating to say the least. This is also the one story I can’t seem to keep my inner editor locked up for any length of time. The moment I sit down to write, she’s sitting on my shoulder…constantly giving suggestions to the point I can’t decide what I really want to write. Makes things difficult.

Wayward Tempest
This story came about after a discussion of possible ideas. It is at it’s core very similar to As You Like It in that there is a girl masquerading as a man (in this case as a pirate) who is being chased by a bounty hunter…and there are many a misunderstandings. I confess that though I am a Pirate at heart, I have never attempted to write a pirate story. (Not counting the drabbles about Devin) And I think I understand why. I’ve never really like writing sea battles (or battles in general really) and I don’t really know how. It’s been a stretch to be able to write actions on a single ship-thankfully I have the Pirate Primer to help with the basics. I shall see how things fair as the next scene should encompass a sea battle. I’m looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, as I have some plot bunnies that my co-author isn’t aware of (as I am sure there are some that I am not aware of either)  and it will be interesting to see how characters react.

I need to get some reading in soon. I still have about 80 pages to read in Twilight. I simply haven’t picked it up to finish it. And it might help if I pulled out some of my fae novels to read…

So that’s what I have been doing for the past several days. Writing. It feels good to be doing that again, even if it is like pulling teeth occasionally.