The Countdown Begins and Damn I Sure Can Ramble (when I finally get started)

[paragraphs]

SO. After chopping a gazilliony billionty words from my current ms, I have 84 pages of good solid clean fic, 175 more to go. Starting tonight (correction, tomorrow night lol), I have set myself the task of reworking 5 pages a day or else. In 35 days, it will be DONE if I keep up with this plan. I've given blue_fjords free reign to smack me sideways and to the moon and back if I fail to report my nightly pages done. :)

I still have to write retconbookwrite, but I have a great idea! I am just not sure I can pull it off as I am not really that good at writing other peoples' characters. It throws me. And I hate writing short fiction. And...yeah. Last thing I'll be signing up for, without doubt. It is best if I stick to original fiction. lol.

This was a busy weekend! Friday night was spent running around doing stuff and cleaning, Saturday I got to spend the afternoon and evening with my friend talekyn as he is in town for business for a few days. We've settled on Tuesday night for dinner again and that will be awesome--I adore Anthony! We talk writing, books, about life and adventures and all sorts of things. Mostly about writing and how we both WILL make 2011 the Year of the Book. He has a marvelous story near completion, I have a fantasy to hammer out and write, and neither of us has any excuse for not getting things done. I mean, really. We will see each other again September 2011 and it would be very embarrassing if by then we were no further along than we are now with these particular stories. I mean, really! RIGHT ANTHONY?????

So, the gameplan: finish this rewrite over the next 35 days, well before the end of October, and get it turned in. My editor is expecting it, and is being very supportive about it, so I must not fail her. Nano will be devoted to finishing ballet boy, and I'll get IT sent in by the end of the year. Next Loose-Id book...I have no idea what I will do, but ya know what? I've given my editor two third-person books in a row, and by golly next one is gonna be in first person, so THERE. But that is later, like next summer's project.

2011 will be free and clear and wide-open for the fantasy. I just have to decide exactly what to write. I've gone from having no idea what I could possibly write to having 3 things I would enjoy, all for different reasons. Technically, all three could work in the same world, IF I move my 10-years-in-my-head-world over to a slightly more modern, technological setting.

I am extremely tempted by the thought of changing my old medievaly setting to a neo-Victorian. Steampunk somewhat. I kinda have a meh-yeah! attitude toward steampunk...mostly it is frustration with what books I've picked up thus far. Not a single one has satisfied me, been what I want a steampunk novel to be. Then again, I admit it is possible the problem is I keep looking for a book that's not written yet but will be soon as theemdash and momebie get cracking on it. Ever since I read about their characters for their ms, and their plans for it, I have been wanting to find something similar and really, I haven't. Therefore I conclude nothing will suit but having their story in my hands, and of course writing my own story and making it how *I* want a steampunk world to be. Being late to the game as ever, I now have a Delicious account, and have been stashing all kinds of links and such in there.

HOW did I live without Delicious before now? Seriously! I hate my air-headedness sometimes, and how I often must be bashed over the head before I see brilliance in something!

Should I number these paragraphs?

Anyway. Gonna ramble on more about that subgenre later. Tomorrow is going to be exciting at work! NEW COMPUTERS! Even though mine is just a year old (if that) I'm getting a new one. All the programs we use for GIS and BNSF's programs and what-not take powerful computers and the powers-that-be apparently decided that we needed better. Plus, BNSF has FINALLY upgraded from old school IE and we can too at last (though I have been using Firefox for the non-BNSF stuff for months now). Windows 7, which I've played a little with, and a screaming new machine...hopefully this will be awesome.

One last interesting thing--my recent flist cleaning freaked out some people, pissed a few off, but also helped me reconnect to some old friends who I hadn't talked to in awhile. It is really nice to have a shiny pretty smaller flist to deal with on lj, and the DWers tracked so I don't miss their posts. I likes it. And LOVE hearing from those people again. :)

Today's event was my daughter's ring ceremony at TCU. It was outside(!) and hot, but awesome to see her get her school ring. When she graduates, she'll turn it around the other way so the emblem faces out. It is lovely. She's done this all herself, putting herself through school and earning all those grants and scholarships (about 90k worth, more really) and I am enormously proud of all she has accomplished. I was happy to be there, even if like everyone else, I was melting. LOL. Oh Texas, where is FALL????

Nite kids!

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Awesome writing plans!

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

I shall make you proud. LOL. Okay, myself proud. :)

[cd0103.livejournal.com]

Love the writing plans, but much more excited for your daughter. How cool she did TCU on her own. That is amazing.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

I know. It is pretty darn amazing. She lived at home, worked sometimes 3 jobs, and has pulled of a high gpa. I haven't figured out where she came from as her dad and I weren't like that! LOL.

[misswinterhill.livejournal.com]

We can be the crotchety people who, when asked to sign up for things, go NO! GET OFF MY DAMN LAWN!

5 pages a day. You are a machine! It'll be like nano :D

That's awesome about daughter and her scholarships. Totally awesome. Congratulations!

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

I miss yooouuu... after this week I hope we can powwow about nano. LOLOL.

Five pages a day should be doable, doing nothing else. It is like that treadmill though--hard to get started but once into it, easy to keep going. Sigh.

[theemdash]

I can't wait to hear you ramble about that subgenre more. ♥

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

LOL I need to poke you guys to do the same. I am learning! So much to learn!!! I started a book today that is coined as steampunk, set in the 1940's. Henry Ford's auto factories have a special unit that is producing golems...oh my. I am not too far in but though it is very good, can't wait to read more tonight, it too lacks what I am searching for, that 'steampunk feel' I am craving in a book. Argh.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

I think that writing a book that looks like what you want steampunk to be is an excellent plan. Genres are broad definitions of collections of ideas, so there's no one saying that what you're looking for isn't absolutely perfectly steampunk and you're the only one who thinks like that, so you're the one to write it. But then, I will always encourage people to Write Moar Steampunk. I'm easy that way. Also, pushy. ♥

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Well, that is what spurs alot of people to write certain things. AUthors say it again and again "I couldn't find what I wanted to read so I wrote it myself." LOL.

You are wonderfully pushy!!! I appreciate that!

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

OMG you are so organised and motivated! does your editor not like 1st person? i think i've decided on a split between 1st and 3rd... and we'll see how it works!

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

She hates it. Really. It was a real bone of contention between us for awhile there. Seriously. I let it become that though and that is wrong, and stupid, so I buckled down and have produced. LOL!!! She won't refuse a book just because I wrote it in first, though. I turn in my ms's to her and the head honcho. LOL I think maybe I should flock this post now...

[klgrem.livejournal.com]

Rambling is good. :) Congratulations to Tiffany, too!