Sunday, August 26, 2012

Conundrum

I've been working on building my story skeleton a la Story Engineering. Anyone who read my previous post knows I've been having a great deal of fun with the "what if" questions.

That led me to something of an epiphany today. The more I think about my story, and the more intricate it needs to get to reach the end, the more storylines I actually have.

How do I fix that? Things look all muddled, like a plate of spaghetti, when I reach the middle. For instance, I realized yesterday that a scene I liked, which I included because it illustrated the burgeoning relationship between protagonist and lover, may or may not be necessary. How can you tell? Or...how can you tell if it has enough "oomph"?

Now, I could be asking these questions because I only managed to get a couple of hours of sleep last night. My roommate (who goes out gaming on Saturday afternoons) and I decided to go to Walmart in the middle of the night to get hurricane stuff. (Thanks, Isaac!) Then I had to get up because a friend needed to see me.

Or it could just be that I'm tired enough to let the questions loose.

I go back to work tomorrow. I've been assigned 8 classes this semester, but I won't have any students until Tuesday. So maybe I'll get some more work done then.

See you all on Wednesday! (Yawning and waving goodnight)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Fog is Lifting...Slowly

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Roommate is still stuck in bed, alternately snarling at the necessity of being in bed and moaning in pain. He's beginning to see the light, because the pain's finally gone down some. Good for him! (Note to self: never fall over backwards due to backing up and not seeing the rolling chair behind you. It's not good for your balance and your long-term health.)

My friend Olivia and I have spent a lot of time at Starbucks and Hooters since my last check-in. She's cranking out words like nobody's business - she's got over 30,000 just this month. But she's a pantser. Livvi is adamant about not trying to fashion a skeleton or musculature to hang her story on. She's just going for it. I admire that. But whenever I try it, I always get muddled, somewhere around the middle. And I usually have more storylines than I know what to do with.

Livvi's probably some sort of writing goddess in disguise who won't have to do a lot of rewrites. Me, I would. That's why I'm still plodding along with my Story Engineering. And I've made some progress.

For anyone who's using that method (and I know there's a few of us) I'm having a lot of fun with the "what if" questions. I've explored a couple of different things that didn't occur to me before, and I found a couple of things I needed to fix that way. It tightened up the overall plot a bit (for now), and since I've had to cut something I thought had real potential I might get another book out of it. Maybe.

On a different note, Livvi and I are at Hooters right now. We've had lunch, and are fueled with food and caffeine such that we can easily last several hours here. Woo hoo!  But something...off...is going on. We're in a booth, under a fan. Two men sat in the booth behind us. I'm sharing the side that their booth is on.

Now, I know we're mammals, and mammals are methane-producing creatures. And that's not the only odoriferous thing we produce. Sulfur is another. And I bet if this man's lunch break goes on much longer I'll discover more. Phew! This is a day I wish I had a wicked cold!

Oh, well. Maybe I can use it somewhere...in something...

In the meantime, happy writing all. See you Sunday!

Lara

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Not a Good Week

Hi all,

I've not had a good week this week. I didn't make the check-in on Wednesday because I was at the emergency room with my roommate. He hurt his back really bad. They sent him home with drugs, but I've been pretty much at his beck and call since then.

My only goal this go-round was to get this book organized. I'm using Story Engineering for that purpose, but it's taking me a bit of time to work through it all. I don't feel like I'm getting anything accomplished, even though technically I know I am. I'm just not seeing it.

Basically, it's been a week of the blahs. Anyone who checks out my emotional eating blog will get a glimpse of how I dealt (or didn't!) with that.

Here's looking forward to a better week next week.

Lara

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Productive - Finally!

Morning, all. It's been a rather productive week - I've plotted all the way through Act I and begun Act II. My word count is abysmal - it's only around 2,000, but I hope to crank out some more today.

I laid some background down in the first act, showing how much my heroine enjoyed her job. (She's an Egyptologist on a dig, living in self-imposed exile.) She and her team make a profound, but intriguing, discovery. It's scientific importance could rival that of King Tut's tomb. Hayleigh's trying to keep her glee in check and approach things in a logical, professional manner.

Then she gets "the call." She refuses. The next scene is being written this morning, right after breakfast. (I'm writing this in a restaurant while waiting for my cohort, Susan. We always have breakfast together on Sundays.)

I did have some writer's block issues this week. Coincidentally, I also tried to quit drinking coffee. Again. Apparently that's not a good idea. Once I sat down with hot coffee (yes, it has to be hot), played one game of Free Cell to let my brain detach from the "real" world, the words started flowing again.

Who says coffee isn't a miracle drug? Woo hoo!!

On a more serious note:

I also started a new blog. It's called "Eating My Nightmare." It's about fighting my way through emotional eating in order to drop some weight and find a healthier place to live my life.

I've discovered that lots of people have food relationships that include an emotional component. Most of them, in one way or another, seem detrimental.

Throwing all of this out into the faceless void of the internet may help me, and maybe some other people, too. Feel free to come over, if you'd like.

See you on Wednesday!

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Woo Hoo!

Hi everyone! Hope everything's going well.

YES! I did it. I got the A in Calculus!!! Never thought I'd see the day. I decided I'm not taking Calculus II until the spring semester - I've got to brush up on my Trigonometry first.

I was bad this week with the writing. I haven't done as much organizing and planning as I should. I've been a little depressed because of my financial situation, and it's been overtaking my brain. I hope to fight my way through it and find my equilibrium. I have to keep remembering - God wouldn't give me anything that I'm not able to handle. Or, for the more metaphysically inclined, I wouldn't create this for myself without a reason.

Ok, so squaring my shoulders and preparing to move on.

I did come up with a new idea this morning. Working title called "The Comely Wench" and it's in praise of well-fleshed women and the men who love them. I wrote down all the data that I dreamed, and then put it in my future works file.

I've got to get this current piece done!

See you all on Wednesday. Happy writing!

Lara