Victoria was a blast to interview, head over to Savvy Authors to check it out.

WOOHOO!!!

Ok, now for the things I didn’t do:

1) I did not finish my manuscript- I originally set  to complete a 90,000 word UF story.  Ummm, I failed to meet that goal.

Now, for the things I did right
(and yes, I only did 1 thing wrong-lol)

1) I developed a daily writing habit
2) I learned when my golden times are and how to properly take advantage of all of my writing opportunities, both the peak and off-peak times

—and drum roll please—

The most important thing I discovered during June is:

3) I had a real break through on my story. When I first started this progress, I’d given up on doing a 3 book UF series.  Why?  Because I found the prospect of creating 3 stories right now very daunting.  So I chucked the idea and set about the task of outlining all my ideas into a traditional 3 Act format.  Then, I just wrote, and wrote, and wrote.  And over 30k words later, I was still working on Act 1, and had several ideas coming to me that I wanted to include before the first major turning point. 

Then it dawned on me, I have my 3 books outlined now– each Act is a loose outline for a book.  So now I have modified my plans for my 3 book UF series, my first task is to draft  3- 60k word drafts.  This way, I’m allowed the freedom to just get the main ideas of my story out, and uncover plot threads I didn’t know were hiding away in the inner most caves of my creativity.

And I get the freedom (yes, as anal as I am, I do have a fair amount of panster in me apparently-lol) to have a fair amount of room–to the tune of 30k words per book– to smooth the story out, drop in subplots, and weave the stories together.

So, my verdict for Savvy Authors June Bootcamp– PASS with a B+

 Because I am an analytical geek, I made a chart of my daily production.  On a good day, I tend to hover around the 2k mark, and on a bad day, I’m lucky to pull out 500 words.

Then I decided to delve in a bit deeper & get a little more geeky, I came up with the following list of stats that probably don’t mean a thing, other than they tickle the left side of my brain:

So, looking at this I’m seeing my avg daily word count is far below the 3,214 I need it to be. But again, the fact that I am producing any daily word count is a thrill to me.  And apparently, when I have a good day, I have a GOOD DAY-lol!.  Check out that best day stat, 6,796  in one day! I definitely need a few more of those. 

Then, just for S & G’s (& to tickle the left side of my brain more) I wanted to see what my first half of the week production was vs. the last half of the week.  While the numbers are not really statistically relevant, I found it interesting. With Saturday and Sunday writing included with the “last 3 days” figure, I would have expected my production to be really off the chain on the weekends…. Apparently not-LOL   .  But what this does show me is that I am more focused on my writing when I have a finite time during the weekday to write (usually 2-3 hrs only) vs. unlimited time (in theory) on the weekend. I think I procrastinate more on Saturdays & Sundays because “I have plenty of time to write”.

Because I got to thinking about it and couldn’t resist, I made a stacked column graph that shows what I’ve been spending my writing time on the last 19 days:

You know, I am shocked and amazed (no, really I am ) that I have actually spent more time writing than outlining. Me thinks I’ve truly made a break through here. Am I really learning that the best way to finish a novel is to just write the damn book? Hmm, time will tell…

Okay, enough time wasting.  Time for me to get my butt in gear for some writing today. I’m planning on wrapping up Act 1 and then outlining Act 2, hopefully setting a new personal best in the process. 

 
Side Note: as I was writing this, one of my CP’s and I were IM’ing back and forth about being right brained and left brained.  As it turns out, we are both fairly even brained, her more so than me.  I tend to lean towards my left side more, but today I am channelling my right brain. :-)  This bodes very well for me and my word count goal of over 5K today.  I’m hoping I can even kick on the after burners and do a new personal best today.   7k - 10k would be a very nice addition to my word count. In case you are wondering about all this left brain vs. right brain business, I did a post on it a little while ago with links to two tests you can take. One is a quick visual test, the other a short questionnaire <here>. 

My test results are fairly consistant in that I tend to always be close to the middle, but leaning towards the left side.  I took the quiz again this morning for fun & today I’m 58% left brain, 42% right brain.  I find this quiz accurately describes me as a whole, but to get a sense of which side of my brain is peaking at any given moment, the visual test is key.  Today I woke up with the overwhelming urge to knock out the rest of Act 1–via fast draft, so I could work on my Act 2 outline.  A quick look at the visual & it told me that  my right brain is actually peaking now.  Good timing I’d say.  The right brain is the side that deals with the big picture side of things better.

Myla–an enchantment–was spelled as the dying act of a mother bent on protecting her newborn son from all the dangers and evil she knew would dog his footsteps all his life.  Myla’s only duty has been to keep Prince Taric alive and safe.  She’s performed that duty well, until  one night she’s hurt when saving him from an assassin he hadn’t seen coming.  Taric began to see his protector as something other than the fiercest warrior he’d known. In one terrifying instant, her fragile side sparked emotions he’d never felt before.  After a  forbidden night of passion, Taric knew he had problem on his hands, Myla, while real to him, was not human.  How could she give him the one thing he had to have in order to ensure his kingdom’s survival? A child.

For Mother’s Day, I was gifted with an eReader.  And being excited about it, as I tend to get when I recieve new gadgets, I took to the Twitterverse to get suggested eTitles I should try.  Lo and behold, one of my Twitter friends, who also happens to be an author, suggested her book.  I looked it up, and when I saw the following warning, I knew this story was for me:

“Warning: This book contains a shape-shifting bodyguard, sizzling sex scenes, supernatural lilac mist, swordfighting and heartbreaking sacrifices. No jaguars were harmed in the writing of this story.”

And just let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I loved Myla by Moonlight.  Ms. Kelly transported me to a richly detailed world, where wars wage, magic flows and love scorches the pages, the virtual pages that is .   This story is beautifully told and doesn’t release its hold on you until the very end. It has something for everyone, romance, action, shape-sifters, trechery, sword play, and heroic sacrifices.  I got lost in its magic on page one and I’m secretly hoping (well I guess not so secretly since I just put this out in the web universe-lol) that the author is hard at work on another story featuring this world and some of it’s characters.

This book is also available in print, and I highly recommend you pick it up, especially if you like the Fantasy and/or Paranormal genres. This story is a masterful blend of the two, full of action and sensory detail to transport right in the midst of Taric and Myla’s story.

“All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?”

–Philip Pullman

I came across this quote this morning while I was searching for a motivational quote to post to my Savvy boot camp team W.O.W. (stands for Wordsmithing Other Worlds). While this was not the zippy, quick witted one-liner I was going for to spark us into action, this one struck a resonant chord with the writer in me. Today is Day 7 of the June Savvy Boot Camp, and after 6 days of writing, I am staring square at being 11,726 words short of the weekly goal I’d set for myself during this process. To say I’m disappointed is an understatment–I am quite unhappy with myself.  So I felt the need to craft a little Note to Self:

There are no excuses, I am 100% to blame for my own productivity.  My daily goals are very doable–I’ve learned to temper my excitement and set attainable goals over the last 2 years.  As long as I am DEDICATED and exert some SELF-CONTROL, I can make my daily word count goals.  Yes, it is a bit high at over 3k a day, but the purpose of the boot camp is to push yourself hard for a short amount of time to see what you can accomplish.  At least, this is the goal of the boot camp for me.  So unless I get my butt in gear, I’ll be doing me a big disservice. 

See, I’m not really all that concerned with finishing an entire draft in this month (although trust me, I want to), I’m more concerned with showing me–specifically the part of me that doubts and second guesses every step I take, every word I write and my dream of having a  spot in the literary world as a published author– what I could accomplish with concentrated effort, dedication and prioritization. Like I said, my daily goal is a bit of stretch, and I know that some days will be better than others in that other priorities will sometimes trump my writing for the day.  Looking back on the past 6 days, I can honestly say this is not the case, I’ve just not put in the effort I’ve been needing to.  I’ve had one really stellar day–hit over 6k that day–but I’ve also have 1 day in which I didn’t write one thing, and several days where I hovered around mediocrity with a average of about 1,200 words.

So today, I’m getting serious about my efforts this month because I owe it to myself to see what I can really do.  I owe it to myself, and no one else, to see (1) what I can really do if I push myself a little and treat my efforts with the respect it demands and (2) see if I can meet the goal I set forth for myself for the month of June.  I’m tired of setting goals, then giving myself the okay to not reach them because the kids were a distraction or I was busy at work or I was  tired or I just didn’t feel like it…

It’s early and I have a full day ahead me (I’m in a very busy season with my day job and my kids will be back home today after spending a week with the grandparents).  While it is not likely I will hit the 11,726 mark needed to go into week 2 flush on my word count goal, I will surely give my writing the effort and respect it deserves today as I try to break through this mark. 

I will update this post, and my word meter with today’s progress before I head to bed tonight.

**Update: Word Count from 6.7.10–2,129**

Because I need some a bit of mental space from Worth Fighting For (the contemporary romance) and work on my Urban Fantasy.  I’ve not given up on WFF, I am actually very pleased with the progress I’ve made on it.  But since I’ve changed the story up so much from my original outline, I need a little time to work on they second half of the story.  So Savvy’s June Boot Camp seemed just the thing to both give me a bit of a breather, but allow me to pursue a fresh idea that is burning a hole in my imagination, trying to escape my mind and get down on paper. Lovely bit of imagery that is, don’t you think-LOL 

So, I’ve I got my new word count meter set, and I am officially on the clock.  My mission is to draft a 90,000 word draft of, what is initially termed, an Urban Fantasy.  Outside of some brainstorming & idea tossing I’ve been doing within my own mind (and out loud at times), and constantly dragging my patient CP into the depths of my crazy ideas and rationale, I really don’t know where this is headed.

Crazy?

Yes.  But you know, I want to shake things up and get the creative juices flowing.  Hopefully after a month off from WFF, I will have a finished UF draft and a golden plan for the last 50 % of WFF.

Ok, off to write now. 

(My posting consistency is already spotting , so don’t expect too much from me this month.  Although, I do have 2 posts that will be coming up soon.  One a review on a very good ebook  and another a craft related post about a concept call Fast Drafting.

Well, I’ll tell you why!! :-)  For one, with my final word count from this morning, I am now OFFICIALLY over 50% done with this story!! WOOHOO. I have been working on this (in varying degrees) for the past 2 years.  I am now, as of this morning, finally on the downside of the hump.  I am quite proud of myself as I have threaten to chuck this book more times than I care to admit, including at least 3 times this past week alone. 

And the second milestone you may also ask yourself, considering this blog’s title is “More Milestones” not “I’m halfway through”-lol.  Well, l’ll tell you that one too.  I completed my first full sex scene this morning.  Just let me tell you how hard this was.  I’ve been dreading and avoiding this moment from the very second I decided I wanted to write a romance 2 years ago.

But it’s done ~done in my best imitaion of a dying gladiator that had just enough will left to kill his opponent–who’d btw killed his family and burned his lands and killed his dog– before he succumbed to his own fatal injury) <– see, I have quite the active and dramatic imagination, now you see why I write.

So to borrow a word from another friend and writing buddy Mynfel, I am just full of AWESOME SAUCE today.  So I am heading off to take the kids swimming while I am riding the wave self-fulfilment, because I know me and it won’t be too long before I’m wanting to chuck this story again.

The silver lining to this cloud (this thunder cloud that is WFF) is that I’ve been getting revision ideas to implement on the overhaul revision round.  I’m been second guessing myself because the changes (not to the plot, but the actual timing of things) is major.  To implement, it will cause me to let go of 2 ideas that have been with me for 2 years with this wip–translation: not an easy feat.

But, this rejection is making me feel better about implementing them.

I attended the book signing with one of my local writing buddies.  We both found it to be very interesting event.  For one, these two authors have one of the most unlikeliest, fairytale-ish, comedy-of-errors type of road to publication.  The short version of the story is that neither author had finished a story on their own, so their kids dared them to write and finish a book.  Being the sports they are, they accepted the challenge.  The proceeded to write the book, turning over the completed chapters to their kids to read as they were done (and as proof they were actually writing the book-lol)

By the time they were finished, they had several students (like 100’s)  that attended school with their kids wanting to read their finished product.  So they were going to post it to the net so all of the kids could have access to it, when one of their friends (who just happens to be a published author) stepped in and stopped them.    Said friend also sent the book to his agent, and the agent loved it.  The story gets really funny now (in a Lucy & Ethel type way), but long story short, after several mishaps and thinking the interest of the agent was a practical joke, Kami and Margaret are now proud authors of their first published book, which also happens to be the first book either of them has ever written.

Their story is a YA/Paranormal/Southern/Gothicy mix that has gotten rave reviews both on Amazon and from the radio DJ’s that I initially heard talking about it.  Listening to the authors describe their story and their influences really piqued my interest as well.  So I did something I rarely, if ever do.  I purchased a book–a hard cover no less–written by authors that I knew nothing about (other than what I’d heard than night) or whose books I’d never read before.

The one quote/piece of advice these ladies gave, that I will always remember, is “There’s no such thing as a bad book, just a bad draft”.  This was their response when an aspiring author asked them for insight into their writing process (which, in an of itself quite hectic).  This matra is the one thing they both kept in mind to keep them going, and I think it’s worth remembering & repeating.  I will definitely be pulling this one out the next time I have a crisis of confidence regarding my writing–or– the next time I recieve a rejection. 

For one, I’m really digging the book cover, and cover art usually doesn’t play a strong part in my book buying decisions.  But something about it appeals to me, and I LOVE the title font, it’s very fluid and artsy.  But I’m really looking forward to reading this one.  It’s next on my TBR list.

Oh, and did I mention?  Beautiful Creatures has been optioned for a movie.  Congrats ladies!