Training for the marathon

I am currently in the process of holding myself back from writing. It is really hard. I was in class today listening to my professor lecture about humanitarian intervention (human rights class, woo!), but all I wanted to do was write. I popped onto Twitter during class--I'm a really attentive student, can you tell? Well. I mean. I actually am. I multitask. BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT--and saw that Susan Dennard was running those wonderful #BAMFWordBattles.

Oh, man, did I want to join.

But I'm still outlining. I've been so tempted to just start writing this story; I know my characters, I know the underlying plot, I know what happens in the first third... but I can't. I can't start writing because I know I'll burn through what I know and the rest that I don't know well will not be what I want them to be.

I want to write what I want to write. I want to feel it in my bones.

At this point, like I said earlier, I have the underlying plot: the river, if you will. I have all the characters of the story. The one thing I need is the raft to keep them all afloat, and my MC directing the raft where it needs to go.

So, first order of business: Figure out what the heck happens in the latter part of my story from the MC's point of view. Figure out what situations the MC puts herself in, why she does it, how she gets out, and how it lines up with the underlying plot. That is, figure out the raft according to what my MC wants.

Second: Write like the wind, bulls eye.

Marchy times

(We're going to try this again, aren't we?)

I should be reading for class. (Sidenote: I should always be reading for class.)

I'll just throw this out there: I'm kind of scared of starting my next story. The thing is, I'm outlining like crazy - I'm trying to figure out all the plot lines and characters and their motivations before I start to write anything substantial. Why? Because every time I've started a project before, I hit a wall around the middle because I don't have a good enough idea of where things are going and, more importantly, how they're going to get there.

That's why I'm outlining. I'm not using any particular method to do it, but I'm writing out relationship dynamics, character traits, reveals that will happen throughout the story, plot points... pretty much everything. I want to be able to hammer this baby out when it comes down to it.

So why am I scared?

Because I don't think I know what I'm doing.

I mean, I'm sure that's true of almost every writer out there. The difference is they actually... do stuff.

I'm doing stuff. I even have a critique partner who is awesome and great and wonderful and great and great.

So maybe I'll be less scared when I figure out everything that I need to figure out. (Like, you know, what my main character does in the second half of the novel.) I have subplots. I have big picture. I need detail.

It's scary to not know things, but I'll work to figure it out. Because that's the only thing to do, really. It's not going to run over and hit you in the face.

Besides, that would hurt.

I should be reading for class.

WIP It Good

So I'm well underway with my new WIP (the last one is currently suffering from a bad case of whatdoIdointhemiddle syndrome, so it is currently sitting all lonely-like on my desktop. Of my computer, not my actual desk, I haven't printed it out), at a whopping (not really) 9,648 words! Which is awesome, as about 2500 of those words got written in the past couple days. Which is more than I have written in a couple days since... before I started college.

A year ago*****.

Which is just, if you ask me, ridiculous.

So I decided to replace that word count meter on the left of my page with a daily word count kind of thingimajig, so you all can follow my progress as well! (It'll be updated daily, so the word counts for any given day will be the the day that was closest. That didn't make sense. Maybe I'll just put dates.) For this particular WIP, I've employed a new strategy: I'm not setting an end goal as far as word count goes, so I can never really knowingly reach the slumping middle that has always been a problem with my stories. Genius, right? No? Anyone?

Stay with me here.

Anyway, yeah. Word metrics (which one of my fellow bloggers calls it! Woo! She's in Australia. I don't know if you'll read this, but hi, Jess!).

The past however long it's been since I've last posted here (what is it, six months or so?) have been fairly eventful. I did the following:
1. Finished my internship with the literary agency I worked for (though I still won't share which one, just got privacy and that fancy stuff--don't want angry writing coming after me demanding why the agent didn't get to see their work--eep!),
2. Got another internship (non-book related) at school,
3. Finished that one,
4. Got into the Journalism major (woo!),
5. Decided I also wanted to be an Econ major (woo!),
6. Did summer quarter at my school because School Kristine apparently hates Summer Kristine and wanted her to suffer, but
7. As a result of number six, officially became a junior in college just in time for the start of my second year (woo!),
8. Had lunch with author/agent Mandy Hubbard--non-business related, just for fun, and the first agent/author I've met in person! OF COURSE I asked her to sign my copy of YOU WISH, are you crazy?,
9. Is there a nine? There probably is, but I can't think of one, so... cookies! *throws cookies onto every's magically appearing plates in front of them*
10. Oh! I joined the Absolute Write forums! I haven't been super active on there, since I'm still actively working on actually writing instead of just talking about it, but I'm there!

Right. There's more, but I should get back to writing my WIP. It's called TROGDOR*, by the way. As in Trogdor the Burninator. Because, you know. Burninating is awesome. Especially if you're Trogdor.

*Not the real title, in case you didn't get that. I mean, you know I totally would actually title my book that. It's TROGDOR. But the whole copyright thing** probably ruins all that.

**Maybe, I actually don't know about all that stuff***.

***I could look it up, but I need to write****.

****I set a goal earlier today that I couldn't go to the bathroom until I'd written 500 words. According to my Twitter feed, that was an hour ago. I have 154 words to go. BYE.

*****OH WAIT just kidding I totally forgot about my 11k word dash in the first three (?) days of NaNo 2010, after which I stopped writing completely and it was a sad affair don't ask

News!

All right, so I know I haven't been the best blogger. I haven't ever, really, except for those first few days when I had this blog. Man, those were the good days.

But anyway, NEWS! I am delighted to inform you that I am now an intern for a literary agent, who shall remain unnamed and the agency unrevealed, just for general privacy reasons. But I am le EXCITED, guys! It's amazing. I've already started on a couple assignments (I already get to dabble in queries!), and when I do the work, it doesn't feel like work at all. I adore it. I don't know if I'd ultimately become a literary agent or anything (but we'll see as the internship goes on...), but let's just say that I would not say no to a job in publishing. I feel at home.

As for my own writing, and not just my reading of others' writing, it's been slow lately. I've been needing to concentrate more on school lately, and on top of reading for my classes (because all my classes are reading intensive) and reading for my internship, I haven't found enough time or energy to invest myself in my stories. I've been thinking about them a lot, for sure, but I just haven't been working on them. I mean, I'm sure if I looked hard enough I'd be able to find the time, but I read the energy that I'll need to spend that will take away from the work I need to do now.

Can you believe it's almost February? Craziness.

I was about to say that time seems to be moving so quickly, but then I realized that no, it didn't. Not really. It just seems to be moving at a normal rate. Strange.

I hope you're all well! What are your latest endeavors?

I have been neglecting my blog, and I am sorry. Finals are now approaching within the next week, though, and then I get a two-and-a-half week break! Hoorayyyy!

Just a note, but I wasn't a winner of NaNoWriMo this year, which, to be honest, I'm okay with.

But it's time to get down to business.

I decided I would try something new, and work on one of my stories that's about halfway finished. It's a story that I've been in love with since I started it in June of 2009, and I've always had a mind to finish it sometime. Except, guess what? Life got in the way.

I have a problem that whenever I try and finish a story, I tend to leave it for something else, or for school, about halfway through the story. I have maybe three or four stories that I've done this to, actually. It could be just that I'm not motivating myself enough to push through, or it could be something else.

I've decided to go to a copy center and print off that one story that I mentioned earlier. I'm going to edit it over break, and then (hopefully) finish writing it. I'm going to see if that's the push I need.

Just checking in.

So.

I'm all moved in to my dorm for college (and have been moved in since Friday, but since then it's pretty much always been BOOMBOOMBOOM something to do! And when there wasn't something to do, I was CRAPCRAPCRAP writing! because I got behind on my word count goal in the process of all that BOOMBOOM--well, you get it. Now, though, my word count is all caught up and I am happy and almost a third of the way (I hope) through the first draft of this novel.

Which is, I must say, pretty damn awesome. (College is already making me swear! AH! But only when it's truly warranted.)

(I just had a total sense of deja vu. Woooo~)

Anyway, by the end of today, my goal is to have a grand total of 15204 words, which would bring me to a total of *fanfare* 8276 words written between last Monday and today. Pretty. Awesome. I haven't written that much in a week in the longest time, and it feels good. :)

Classes haven't started yet, but they do start on Wednesday--eep! Wish me luck, and I hope all of you are doing well. :)

BOO.

Did I scare you? No? 

Drat.

Well, hello, blogging world! I've been absent for a while, but I've slowly gotten used to my new (shiny~) computer and am pretty much up and running again, even though I have a bit of a lack in blogging topics and don't have enough material yet to warrant a Teaser Tuesday. However, the evil Blog Muse Eater will not prevail! Because today, I'm going to talk about NaNoWriMo.

So, if you're my writing buddy right now on the NaNo site, you might see that I already have a title up for my NaNo 2010 project. (If you would like to be my writing buddy, CLICK!) A funny thing happened with that title this morning. Before, when I posted that title up, I had a vague idea and thought I had written it down somewhere. Well, apparently not. This morning, I discovered I only had the title, with no notes to speak of.

I was quite upset. 

But then I got over it and wrote out what I remembered of the idea in my story idea document, and it turned into something that I am now RIDICULOUSLY excited to write. So that's a super happy ending, though it's not quite an ending yet, seeing as it's still September. I have a while to wait.

Anyway, from now on I wonder if I should just leave little hints like that around, rather than writing out a paragraph of my idea. Because even with that little hint of a title, I got something that I am now really looking forward to, rather than something I just thought of one day and decided was going to be my NaNo story.

Just a musing. I wonder what else my wacko brain can come up with. :) 

A question for you: How do you keep track of ideas for the future? How much of the plot do you trust your brain to remember?

Hope you're all well!

It's still Tuesday!

At least where I am. So the statement in my last post that I would "post about... something" still stands. Especially since I finished editing a few hours ago and have been sitting around eating vital meals and continuing my project of watching Brotherhood 2.0 videos from the very beginning.

Yes. The VERY beginning. I'm at the beginning of August 2007 now.

If you're not aware, that's a lot of videos. Eventually my brain is going to melt from the level and quantity of awesome I'm seeing.

So anyway, as long as I post this within the next... hm... fifty-six minutes, the statement I made in my last post will be true.

My only problem is I don't know what to blog about. Oy.

(I just spent the last minute spacing out while staring at my computer screen. This may not end well.)

(*Spaces.* I think it'd be fun to be an astronaut. But I'd rather interview people who do astronaut-y stuff. I like hanging out on Earth.)

Oh! In a comment on my last post, Nicole asked what I was editing. As of yet, I haven't really talked about my own writing, so I guess I should get on that. Good idea, and thanks Nicole for the inspiration!

No, what I was editing earlier today was not my WIP. It was actually a short story of, you guessed it, 2,540 words, and I'm editing it for submission to a contest. Yay! I won't be posting it, though, because... well, I'm submitting it to a contest. Yeah. I don't know if it necessarily fits in a YA/Adult genre type thing, but it's realistic fiction. Yup.

My WIP (referenced in the WIP It Good thing on the left *points*), though, is definitely YA, kind of in a magical realism kind of way. Once the entire concept gets more concrete in my mind, I'll be able to give it a specific genre while actually sounding sure of myself, but right now I'm getting the vibe that it's more contemporary than anything else, but it has one fantastical part to it, so I hesitate to put that label. Therefore, magical realism will work for me. For now.

Once I get more written I may post a couple teasers, but that won't happen until I have around 5 or 10k before I'm comfortable enough with that. Until then, though, I'll leave you with the first line:

The plan was simple: Big explosions. No trace of a body. An empty casket at the funeral for the pranking.

This is different for me, since I've never actually written contemp seriously. But yeah! There we go.

UPDATE

Oh, right. Also, in the week or so, I may be scarce when it comes to blogging, or I may blog an awful lot, the reason being that I'm getting a shiny new Macbook Pro on Thursday and I will either be very confused and exploring the nooks and crannies of it OR I will be super excited and want to use it as much as possible while being very confused. :) Just a heads up.