Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for the ‘novel progress’ Category

At the end of 2008, I posted three personal goals for 2009. Since we’re coming to the close of June, … Can you seriously believe June is almost gone and the year is half over? I can’t! … I want to evaluate where I am at with my goals. (See my 3-month follow up post here.)

Here’s my original goals…

• I want to strengthen my business.
• I want to organize.
• I want to write my novel!

So, how am I doing?

Strengthening: I still feel like I’m doing okay in this area. As before, the income is sporadic (comes with the territory of freelancing). Right now, I have two projects I’m working on and four that I’ve given estimates for. While I would love for all four of those estimates to turn in to work, one in particular would be awesome. Pray that it comes through! In the meantime, I’m working on three very specific goals:

• Goal #1: Advertising – In early June, I advertised my services in the state writers’ conference program – no hits yet from that, but I’m hoping! With our upcoming additional income (read: workers’ compensation settlement – WOOT!), I’m planning on some local advertising, primarily in a really awesome rural W.Va. publication called Two Lane Livin’ (great content, huge readership, reasonable rates – definitely works for me).
• Goal #2: Web Site – While the Skala Creative site is celebrating its one year anniversary, I’m working towards developing a more dynamic site that will attract visitors and retain them. The main addition will be a blog with new and revolving content as well as a redesigned portfolio. (Shout out to Jared at Filament Pop for helping me re-develop the site! Thanks, Jared!)
• Goal #3: Networking – So much of today’s freelance world involves networking via social media, which is great when you live out in the sticks. I have a personal goal of responding to 3-5 Twitter writer friends a day with the hopes of engaging in conversation. I also shamelessly self promote on Facebook and emails. And I’m trying to participate in the ACFW loops by responding to questions I feel fall in my area of knowledge.

Organizing: Still feeling good in this area! Other than staying aware of this need and not slacking, I’ve established my daily routine and am still lovin’ my iPod Touch. In the last half of the year, I need to work on organizing those awful stacks of papers that self-propogate overnight. Personally, I think it might be a lost cause.

Writing: While I’m excited about all my goals, writing is the one that I’m most excited about. I discovered the “loops” on the ACFW site and have learned tons just in the past two weeks. I can’t believe how much I was missing out on by not visiting the loops! And, here’s the best part concerning writing …

Last week, through a series of events, I felt like God finally gave me the “go ahead” to write the story on my heart. If you’ve been around Ramblings-n-Writings for awhile, you know that I’ve dabbled with writing a novel. However, I never had the peace I needed to devote a lot of time to writing. Over the past year, I’ve done research, thought of scenarios, dreamed about characters, and I’m finally ready to roll! I truly believe it will be a beautiful story in the end. Two specific goals…

• Spend the next month (July) concentrating on writing and polishing with the intent of submitting to a contest in September. Again, not sure if it will work out since I just found out about the contest last week. Since the number of contest entrants is limited, I’m praying a spot will still be open when I’m ready to submit.
• Attend ACFW Conference, September 17-20, in Denver, CO. I would LOVE to do this. Absolutely LOVE it. Not sure if the details will work out, but praying they will! Going to the conference could involve a potential cross country road trip for the Farmer and me. I’ve never been west of Chicago, so we’re tentatively planning on hitting up all the big sites in the western USA. And after about 6,000 miles, we’ll be back home.

Good things are happening here and I’m excited to see what the rest of 2009 holds. But, as always, when good things happen, the Devil attacks. For the last six months, it seems like we’ve been attacked constantly, one thing after another in every area – from family to finances to friends.

Through it all, I’m challenged each day to keep the proper attitude and perspective on life and to continue on doing what I know is right and acceptable in God’s eyes. The verse that comes to mind almost daily is Psalm 119:165 …

Great peace have they which love thy law:
and nothing shall offend them.

Things are a little tough today in our house. We’re in the middle of another workers compensation crisis. At this point, I just want it to all be over. Almost five years of dealing with them is enough. But I don’t want to whine about that.

I really want to write about NaNoWriMo and my progress. Since I’m finding it hard to be excited about anything related to writing today (or anything else), I’ll just give you a quick summary…

Word count = 6,593 at the end of Wednesday. By midnight Saturday, I need 11,666 words to stay on target.

My real goal isn’t the word count, but to put my story on paper (read about my story here, here, here and here). Even if I fall short on words, I’ll be happy with my progress because it’s one step closer than I was last year.

In fact, I think I already passed last year’s count. Last November I didn’t have the peace I needed about pursuing a story, so I stopped after a couple of attempts. I started working towards NaNoWriMo 2008 back in the summer as I developed my plot and characters and even wrote some scenes. So this year is a different situation, if only life would stop interfering.

As far as my storyline, I’m finding spots where I need to do some more research and others where I need to work on developing a character better.

Besides NaNoWriMo, I’ve been reading some good books, so look for a couple of reviews in the next week or two.

Oh, and the really exciting news of the day…drum roll, please…we changed the type of filter in our whole house water filter! This is BIG news because before the change, our water pressure was a lot less and one load of laundry took over an hour. The water was soooo slow. Today…are you ready for this?…I did two loads of laundry in one hour! Yep, two loads in one hour! Totally exciting!!!

I’m off to start the third load…

So, how many words did I write last night? Um… Well, I had good intentions of cracking the whip and hashing out some details. But…

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been stumped about part of my story. I couldn’t write another word until I solved the problem. You see, I was missing the dilemma, what the character battles throughout the story.

My story goal is to write about immigration and detail a journey through Ellis Island, but other than a threat of deportation or sickness, I just couldn’t think of anything.

I needed something that would essentially turn my character’s world upside down. But I didn’t know what.

Discouragement set in because without my dilemma I didn’t have a story and I was failing. I truly believe that God called me to write this story. The best thing I can compare it to is a burden – my story is my burden. I have to carry it and see it through to the end. If not, well…I don’t want to think of that.

Just when I was ready to give up, the Lord proved Himself faithful.

I still smile 24 hours later when I think of how things fell in place. (And I also hit myself upside the head for being so daft and not figuring this out sooner.)

Last November I started a story with no preparation, no forethought. (I heard of NaNoWriMo about 2 days before it started, so I really didn’t have time pre-plan.) I worked on the story sporadically after November, but at that point, I didn’t have peace about writing.

Now, almost a full year later, God’s given me permission to use that story. With a little adaptation, it weaves perfectly with Oceans of Hope. *sigh* God is good. =)

I’ve been caught up in doing “things” the past couple of days. I really want to clear my desk of as much as possible before November. NaNoWriMo starts then, remember?

I think I’m making good progress. Except that I haven’t stepped foot in my office today. Is that a bad thing?

Actually, I did venture into the office while searching for one MIA kitten. The little female races out of the mud room as soon as the door opens. She’s a sweetie. I would love to keep her, but DH says I have to find homes for the two outside farm cats first. Sigh.

We brought the kittens inside last weekend since our nighttime temperatures took a dramatic plunge to 25-27 degrees. The days warm up nicely to the low 60s, but I think 20s is a little too cold for young kittens.

So, they come in during the early evening, learn all about the litter pan, and go outside in the late morning. They seem to like the routine. All three get an A+ for litter training too! Yay!

With the 25-27 degree temps, we wake up to a hard frost every morning. Needless to say, my flower garden is history. Thankfully, I planted all of the perennials my mom brought me just in time.

But I digress from my purpose. I’ve been working so hard to get “things” in order that I’ve neglected my writing. About an hour ago, I decided to take a break from everything tonight – no working (real job), no dinner, no cleanup, no nothing. Just me and my creativity.

We’re ordering a pizza, and I’m sitting down with my writing to write the next bestseller. *grin* I’m excited! I’ll let you know about the progress tomorrow.

“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” ~ Charles Bixton

I’m making slow, but steady, progress on my WIP. The first major change is a new title. I’ve been calling it “Uncertain” partly because I knew my character was uncertain about her new life in America and partly because I was uncertain of the title. Now that I have a better idea of my story, I’ve settled on a new title – “Oceans of Hope,” symbolic of the ocean crossing and the hope an immigrant carries.

I’ve written slightly under 6,000 words so far or about 5% of a hopefully completed manuscript. =) However, what I have is somewhat disjointed. I have a collection of conversations between my characters in little snippets. I need to go back and add descriptions and the meat of the scenes.

When I write, I feel the necessity of recording what’s happening on the “movie screen” of my mind. I see the characters and hear what they say. It’s almost like writing down a dream. My goal is to get the “meat” of the scene on paper and add the props (specific details) later.

I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to work on “Oceans of Hope” or even blog in the next week. Between now and next Thursday, we have two doctor and two orthopedist appointments scheduled. Not too bad except by the end of the week we’ll have traveled about 450 miles just going to and from the appointments. I’m cringing to think of the dent that gas will put in our budget. Hopefully prices will drop soon!