Saturday, October 6, 2012

31% and almost 22,000

If I had a nickel for every time I think about writing and publishing this book I'd be as rich as J.K. Rowling. I can't help feeling so excited about it this time. I've started and stopped a writing project at least half a dozen times and this is the best I've ever done. The only issues I'm running into this time are the problems of remembering important plot points that happened earlier in the book. It hasn't become too severe of an issue yet though. I've had these issues before and they've contributed to me quitting projects in the past so I'm happy there isn't a major problem with it (yet).

Getting a MacBook Air is my hopeful solution to this becoming a serious road bump. I can use Scrivener again when I have a smaller and more portable computer.

I'm writing exclusively on my iPad now (did I mention in an earlier post that I'm using the app Simplenote for this?). If they come out with a mini iPad, I'm going to trade this larger one in for it...but that won't be until I swap out my computer though. I sound like a terrible person, but I guess I'm not the only one who sells their outdated technology on eBay for the newest 'best' thing.

I know I've talked about the MacBook Air before. The one I want is probably a tiny bit bigger than the keyboard/iPad combo I'm using now. I'd stick with the current set up if I could use a good program like Scrivener on my iPad. I really look forward to having an actual computer with the ability to get super organized on this book. Plus the MacBook Air will be much faster than my computer now because of the hard drive being solid state and not needing much to access its contents. The battery will last longer, there will be less risk of having any problems losing info in the hard drive, it'll be super portable. I can't wait!

Hopefully I'll have a chance to write today. Right now, I need to get my husband, toddler and self ready to go to Shippensburg..we're meeting my longtime college friends there for the day. I can't wait for this either!


Just under 2 weeks until we will be in Phoenix!!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

30% Done

I'm still committing myself to this project most days. In fact, in August AND September I wrote 18 days out of the month (sounds better in September because that's 18 out of 30 days instead of 18 out of 31). I wrote over 1,200 words today (not to kid you though, this is one out of only 3 or 4 days that I've broken 1,000).

With this consistency comes a frustrating urge to talk about what I'm doing with my family. Unfortunately, it's difficult to talk about a 'wanna-be' book that I'm writing when I have nothing to show for it and no previous success in this area of my life (I've talked about 'wanna-be' books in the past so I'm speaking from experience here...all it gets is a smile and a courteous acknowledgement that I've just said something).

It's just hard to receive or expect to receive any support from anyone for this endeavor. I'm already doing the jewelry shop, I'm a part-time graduate student, and I'm in the process of relocating across country with my husband and toddler. Would anyone be expected to take this seriously?

The only reason even I am still taking this seriously is because I'm using a couple of iPhone apps that are making me keep track of the words I've written. That's how I know what percentage of the book I've written so far. The goal is to get to 70,000 words and right now I'm at 21,147 words (tracked with the 'Word Count' app) and I can see the days of the month I've written by logging the words in my TracknShare app.

At least half the time I force myself to write so that I have something to enter into those two apps. And I don't consider that to be a bad thing. Almost everywhere I turn to for advice about writing tells me that if I want to finish a book, I have to write. This wouldn't be such a constant piece of advice if I were the only one who struggled getting the words written. It takes time and commitment and I highly doubt there's anyone in this world who can spend months straight on a certain writing project without having a day or two where they just don't feel like getting into it that day. And for busy people that have several big and unrelated things ruling their time, they might see those couple of days spread to months. The only way to get myself to do this is to remind myself on a daily basis that it's something I want with every creative urge in my body (it sounds weird, but I have loads of them) and that I'll never feel totally whole unless I do this.

So once again, I'm happy to have this blog to track my thoughts on this topic and be an audience for me to put it out there that I'm excited about this.

"First get it written, then get it right." -not sure who

Thanks!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Wapwallopen, PA