ff The Cottage of Blog: March 2006

Sunday, March 19, 2006

The Cottage of Blog

The Cottage of Blog

Good morning,

Where the coffee is perking, the country is the United States of America and I speak English (and a smattering of French and Germany--sing in Italian and have sung in Portugese. that's another story)

I'm back in the groove again. bound and determined that come June 17th I will change jobs. I will be a writer. A novelist. Whether I make a million dollars at it (wouldn't that be nice) or less than a penny.
I will have a new job.

Job description and schedule plans:

Get up, scoot dogs out the door, put on coffee drag myself across the kitchen to my home-office and turn on computer. check email. Eat breakfast.

Get on exercycle for 5 minutes whether I want to or not.

Pick up poop in back yard.
Pick up house. (Not literally)

Check on email. get off email.

check work from previous day. Any research that needs to be checked on previous chapters? Check outline and see where today's plotline may be going. Will it work?
Make novel altering decisions (NOT) Go back and check previous chapter.

Work on new scene.

Do some housework, if I have to. Check email.

Work on new scene. Put head between legs and take deep breaths and go back and redo that lousy first draft scene. Take a few more deep breaths. Walk around the house ranting. Go back and start again.

Take coffee break. Check email. Write in blog. Laundry anyone?

Back to scene. What? You mean we're actually on to the next scene? Write.

Lunch.

Time for researching what might be confusing or not quite right.

A little reading from craft book of choice.

Little more writing of said scenes (2 now?) OR/ time for recreational novel reading. from: romantic suspense, suspense, mystery, horror, paranormal, take your pick.

My day will go by fast. Or slow.

I figure up at 6:30 working from about 8-11/30, reading writing again in afternoon/reading. Evening's free.

Of course that's my schedule 13 weeks before it even begins.

I might start with research/reading then ease into thewriting part.

There's also the few hours a week I'll need to research mhy market. Agents, publishers anyone who even remotely looks like they might like my material.

Pat who's going to start looking back at chapter 4, then determine what my outline looks like for chapter 5. actually, I do work in scenes, sequels, events and happens, but sorry folks who hate chapters, they all do have to fall within the confines of chapters. I doubt there's a publisher in the world who will accept a novel in a stream of scenes, sequels, happenings and events.

Take care from The Cottage of Blog

pat

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The Cottage of Blog

The Cottage of Blog

Welcome to the Cottage of Blog. Grab a cup of coffee and join me for a chat. Love to know what you're doing. Love to share with you what I'm doing.

I thought I'd had it all figured out. My retirement life that is. Well, actually I do. But, I'm thinking about staying on just a bit longer. Half year-year. It's amazing how one vascilates about something like this. Definitely one of the big stressers.

Writing. Yes, I am. I'm finally back. Last weekend I plotted out my newest WIP, which I SWEAR will have a new title. I'm going to let it hatch itself. It doesn't need any help from me. I have the story mapped out scene by scene. I'm sure they will change as I go along.

Today I worked on a scene change in a police station setting. The conversation changed, but the essence didn't. That was encouraging. Tonight I'm going to pull that into the manuscript and move on to the next scene. Some major blocks have been clear to move on. Thank heavens.

What's so hard is keeping the basic plotline simple. Not that plot lines should be simple. But, some of us have a tendency for overkill. One murder isn't sufficient. There has to be four or five. Although I do love a good serial killer suspense novel.

One thing I love about writing is taking issues that I'm particularly interested in and studying them as I send my characters headlong into those topics. Obsession is the theme for this story. It's a terrifying prospect having someone so obsessed with you, they'd destroy your life. It happens to movie stars all the time. Sad.

I love a good psychological drama.

I just joined an Agatha Christie book club at the local library. We discussed the ABC murders and The Murder of Roger Akroyd. That last one, by the way, was the first mystery I ever read. I remember it like yesterday. I was baby sitting. The house was dark. There were noises coming from the upstairs--and not baby noises either. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Of course they were just the settling noises all old houses make. But--when you're reading Dame Agatha . . .

I hope to be back more regularly.

Craft book of choice: synopsis by Pam McCutcheon. I can't say it makes writing a synopsis enjoyable, but it certainly does make it easier and more organized.

Take care all. Hope to hear back from you.

Pat

Thursday, March 02, 2006

The Cottage of Blog

The Cottage of Blog

Been a long time since I've written into my journal. This is supposed to be a writing journal, but it's kind of grown into something else. What else you ask?
Hmm. Good question. An inconsistent something else.

the most important growth and development came, I think, when I decided to retire next June and write full time. So there. I've said it publically. I plan on retiring. I've been toying with this for a while. I may still vacillate many more times before I go down to the "board" and fill out the papers. Every morning I think twice, by the end of the day, I'm sure I'm making the right decision.

Then comes the real hard decision on how to organize your time. I should be good at that, I keep telling myself. But, as good as I am under pressure, my body has been falling apart because of that, lately. And, when I work under extreme pressure and stress, it's for a real life, "do it or die" scenario. Writing, until I'm under extreme demands from a publisher (were that but true) I'll have to create my own. My own timetables, my own editorial expertise, my own ingenuity. My own entitiy.

they say "no man is an island" but in writing, I think one man or woman must be, to a certain point.
And it's so easy to procrastinate.

Well, darlings, I have to go and get stressed again.

Take care from The Cottage of Blog. Tomorrow, I'll share with you the craft books I love, and if I have time, why I love them. It's about time this blog became a writer's blog again.

Pat and her ghost writers: Annie,Alex, Roxanne and Zuri.