Happy New Year's Eve!

Between working my day job as a medical transcriptionist, taking care of my rotten wonderful kids, and doing all the normal day-to-day things, I've still managed to keep plugging along on the first draft of my book (and I'm even ahead of schedule for hitting my goal!) and spend hours reading other blogs on writing. I've read a lot of very useful information as I mentioned in yesterday's post and I'm trying to incorporate everything I've read into my writing, such as to show and not tell (though my first draft will more than likely be a mixture of both), not to use passive voice, have strong dialogue that doesn't feel forced, etc. It is hard when reading your own work to pick out the errors you've made in some of these areas so, at some point soon, I am going to need to find a great critique partner or group to show my work to. But how do you go about finding the right critique group? I guess a little more research in this area is needed before I can set out to find the right one for me.

I'm really excited about 2010 and all the great things I hope the new year is going to bring for my family and me. My husband and I have been together since 2000 (married since Aug. 2001) and over the last 10 years we've had four beautiful little girls and a lot of ups and downs--more downs than ups. Basically, we've just had 10 years of bad luck but I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be the year our luck changes. In fact, it has already started to. My husband has just received a long-awaited promotion at his job which takes effect January 15 and I'm hoping to have better success with my day job as well as with my writing. Even if 2010 means that all I'll do is write a book or two that sit in a file on my computer without ever seeing the light of day, that's okay with me. But at least then I'll know that I can do it.

On another note though, 2010 is also the last full year that I will be a 20-something. I will turn 29 in 2010 so I want my 20s to go out with a bang and if I can accomplish the goals I've set for myself, I think I can make that happen. :)

Happy New Year everyone! Stay safe, don't drink too much, and make sure you kiss your loved one at midnight and not someone else's! (hence the reason why you shouldn't drink too much--just trust me)

Making Changes

I spent most of the day yesterday reading other writers' blogs and even a few agents' blogs and found quite a bit of useful information concerning what not to do when writing and the things that make agents and publishers cringe when reading query letters and manuscripts. This information made me realize that I may need to go back and rework the first chapter and a half of my book. I don't need to rewrite it, just move some stuff around to get the pace going a little faster. As much as I'm dying to go back and do that now, I know that I need to just keep going from where I'm at so I don't throw myself off track of my goal. I did, however, go back and add a couple little pieces of information to strengthen my plot.

I couldn't sleep last night, which is not unusual for me, so I started thinking about my plot and my characters and an idea occurred to me of something that I could add to make the story much more interesting. I went ahead and added it because it is now a vital part of the plot so I needed it there in order to incorporate it into the rest of the story. Does that happen to writers often?

I have a few questions about finding a critique group and about the critique process in general but I think I'll save those for tomorrow's post. Hopefully, others will have found my blog by then and can actually answer those questions for me :)

P.S. I think I've figured out what the "days to go" line means on my counter. It changes every time I update my progress so I think it is going by the average words typed each day. For example if I type 2006 words a day (which is what it says my average is at the time I'm writing this) for 25 days (which is what it says for days to go) that would bring me up to just over 50,000 words by whatever the date is next to "days to go". Hmm....Interesting. 

Starting Over

I've been writing stories off and on for as long as I can remember. I remember when I was younger telling my parents that some day I was going to be a famous author and make lots of money. While I still hope to become a published author someday soon, and it would be nice to be famous, I'm not expecting to make lots of money. Just writing the stories is enough for me right now (getting published would be a nice bonus).

I've never completed any story that I've started before. The reason for that was because I had no solid plots, my characters were just going in circles and, really, all my previous stories just plain sucked. This time, though, it's different. A week or so ago ideas started coming to me for a story and then the characters (who were still nameless at the time) started talking to me and I was hearing their conversations in my head. I was beginning to picture the scenes clearly. So I decided to start writing it all down.

I've given myself a goal of reaching 55,000 words by February 20, 2010. At that point, I hope to be completed with the first draft of my young adult book. I have added a progress meter to my blog so everyone can see how much writing I have accomplished and if I'm staying within my goal. You really only have to pay attention to the percentage bar, but the other details are there as well. (I'm not quite sure what the "days left" line means and the website I'm using for it has no explanation about the details so we will just concentrate on the words written, words remaining, goal date of 02-20-2010, and the percentage bar). I hope that if anyone notices me slacking off (which I do not intend to do) that you will kick my butt back into gear.

I have no idea if this story will turn out to be any good. I have no idea if it will ever land on an agent or publisher's desk but I have to write it anyway.

So, the main goal of this blog is to track my writing progress but from time to time I will also talk about books I've read and books that have been recommended to me to read. I need all the support I can get to keep me on track with my writing because so far I have not mentioned to any of my real life family and friends that I'm writing it. The reason: It's a support issue.

Until tomorrow.....