bangs, day 56

Tonight I'm actually changing the hair up again, so why not post a before pic, right?  It's been almost two months since I decided to start growing out the bangs, so here's where I'm at today:

They're growing, sure, but still at that awkward length- too short to really clip back, too long to leave down, oh and then there's that awesomely weird cowlick I now sport that makes it difficult to swoop them off to the side. 

Sigh.

However, my good friend Holly provided me with some adorable bobby pins she made, so I will be sporting these soon enough:

Aren't they cute??  You can see more of her fantastic crafty creations at her Etsy shop- she's one part of The Lovely Wrecks along with her friend Brandi. 

I have absolutely nothing else to report right now as far as writing goes.  Things have literally been at a standstill because of all the crap going on- it was a rough week for us last week with two funerals in five days.  The next month ahead is so busy that sometimes I feel like I want to throw up.  And I shouldn't whine- most of it is fun, social stuff, after all.  I just start to feel panicky when I don't have enough Josie time, I guess. 

Oh yea, and by the way, I'm going blonde tonight.  Yay.

life gets in the way...

Life is getting in the way of my revisions.  Like, for reals.  Lately, by the time I sit down at night all I want to do is turn my brain OFF.  Cranking up the lap top and being creative for an hour or two just hasn't been at the top of my list.  And that, my friends, sucks big time.  And it needs to change.  I am truly excited to get it done, get it to my readers, and await their revisions and comments.  So why the procrastination?

My theory is that I'm way more proud of this novel than my first one- and I was hella proud of that one.  Just being able to say I FINISHED IT was amazing.  I mean, I wrote a book.  One of my lifelong goals was complete.  Well, minus the whole getting-it-published thing.  But with this one...this one I feel personally attached to.  I've spend the past year and a half reading virtually nothing by YA novels and learning, learning, learning from them.  I've absorbed so much from my favorite authors and want more than anything to be a part of their community.  So this time, I'm afraid the rejections that will inevitably come pouring in will sting a lot more. 

So, perhaps somewhat unconsciously, I'm putting off finishing it?  Totally possible, I guess.

Anyway, I'm just under 100 pages into revisions, which means I'm halfway done.  I'm hoping the second half goes a bit faster than the first, but I also know there's a lot to be cleaned up and added in that second half.

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately, too...I'm going to try to be better, I promise!

So close...

So, last week ended up being a hell of a lot crazier than it should've been.  I can't even remember what I did on Monday night, but Tuesday I ended up at a car dealership until almost 8 pm, and I unexpectedly drove home a shiny new car that night.  Totally spur of the moment; my lease wasn't up until September but thanks to some crazy deals I got the updated version of my car with some fun new features and I'm paying $20 less per month.  Crazy, right??  Anyway, then Wednesday I had to head back to the car dealership after work to pick up my garage door opener I'd left behind in the old car (dooops) and drop off my old spare key, and Thursday I hosted the girly night...so basically, what I'm trying to say is that writing was on the backburner last week.  Until Friday, when I thankfully took a mental health day and was able to plug away at the WIP a bit.  I also managed to squeeze in some time on Sunday, so when all was said and done, the week was not a total wash:

Total Words Written: 2,385
Total Hours Spent Writing: 2.5 hours

Total Word Count Overall: 70,872

That's not so bad, huh?  I mean, I know I've been consistently under the 3,000 word mark, but eh.  I'm still happy with how the story is progressing.

That being said, I'm actually allllllllmost done.  I think there will be two, maybe three, more chapters to go and then the rough, rough first draft will be complete.  I already know the revision process is going to be a beast and a half on this one.  I flat out hate the beginning (again) and I really want to add a bit more "oomph" to certain spots.  I've been revising a bit here and there as I go, mainly because I think of things, write them down, and just want to get them added before I get ahead of myself.  So anyway, at this rate, now I'm thinking it might end up just under 80,000 words.  Which is sort of funny, because originally I thought it would go on longer. 

Just goes to show that the story is in control, not me.

Moving along

First off, I know I've been neglecting my Thursday posts...and that's honestly because I haven't had any time to think about Three Things, let alone have time to write something.  I'm hopeful that will change now though!  Last week I was in Chicago on Thursday for a big pitch with a potential client, so between the meeting and traveling, blogging just wasn't gonna happen.

I thought writing just wasn't gonna happen last week either, but thankfully, I had some time yesterday to sit and plug away.

Total Words Written: 1,937
Total Hours Spent Writing: 2 hours

Total Word Count Overall: 65,587

Hey, almost two thousand words in just two hours isn't half bad!  I wasn't around at all last week during the weeknights, so I was really glad I had Sunday to get back to it. 

I'm starting to realize that I really do need to wrap up this story...in only about 15,000 more words.  I mean, if I go over 80k it's not a big deal, but I don't see that being an issue anyway. I'm in the final stretch for the most part.  Which is crazy!  If I can stick to the 3k words/week goal, I'll be done in just about a month.  WOW.  When did I start writing this story?  Does anyone remember?  I suppose I could go back through my blog archives and find out...I wanna say it was late summer?  Hmmm. I should probably pay attention to how long it takes me to write a whole novel- including the revision process...

I already have an idea for another one, too, and would still like to go back to IMME someday and clean it up some more. I still think it has potential. But first things first.  Let's finish up After the Dream and see what happens...still plenty of revising to do, too.

Anyway.  I'll stop babbling now.  Happy Monday, everyone!

So close, but yet...

Wow.  Where did last week go?  I suppose I can blame it on the time of year...the holidays are coming and schedules just start to get busier and busier until you no longer know up from down and right from left.  So, part of that is true.  I did a lot of random running around last week, went to the gym, hosted the girls for our weekly Thursday TVD night, etc.  What I'm trying to say is I ended up being a bit of a slacker revision-wise last week. 

But I really am SO CLOSE to being done!!  I think I have 2 full chapters left, along with a little bit of the last one I started.  I really am excited to move on with it, too, now that I have where it's going framed out a bit more.  This week should be a little less hectic, so I should finish those last two chapters no problem.  And the one I'm on now is one of my favorites that I've written so far, so I'm sure I'll get through it nice and quick.

In non-writing news, last night- on a school night, no less- Debbie and I made the trek down to Columbus to see The Airborne Toxic Event.  What an amazing show, you guys.  That whole band is so ridiculously full of talent and they would've totally knocked my socks off had I been wearing socks.  All I know is they made the long drive and lack of sleep totally worth it!  I'm so glad we decided last minute to go, and I hope they come back around soon.

So on that note, here's the video of one of my favorite songs off their new album.  It's called "All I Ever Wanted" and is ah-may-zing.  Violin!  Stand up bass!  And not to mention some of the most beautiful lyrics I've ever heard:

"I could tell you that you're all I've ever wanted dear
Through the din of your breathing while you're sleeping here
You wake and you ask me if I'm gonna be here forever
    Forever
         Forever
Your face all twisted and your eyes alight
I wanna tell you I can change it when you cry at night
But I'd be lying...
Love is defying"

I wanna be able to write like that.  For reals.

Back on Track

As crazy as the past few weeks have been, I'm proud to say I'm back on track as far as word count goes:

Total Words Written: 3,616
Total Hours Spent Writing: 4.5
Total Word Count Overall: 46,285

Whew.  It was actually a bit of a struggle to work up the energy to sit down and write, too.  It's not that I didn't want to- lord knows I'm dying to get this story done- I think I'm just feeling whupped lately.  I was still a bit under the weather all last week, and add on top of that the fact that we're still working on redoing our laundry room (new floor, molding & tiles, plus trying to organize the piles of junk that have accumulated), the faucet in our tub was leaking like crazy, and the new couch we had to order to replace the one that didn't end up fitting through the door was being delivered on Friday...I had a lot on my mind.  Like, a lot.  Even yesterday, when I sat down on our lovely new, fluffy couch to write, I had a hard time getting motivated.  I ended up rereading a few chapters before I finally started plugging away.  I'll have to really make sure I write during the week this week as much as I can, because this weekend I won't be around much.  It's my birthday weekend, woot woot!  Saturday we have a trip to the wineries planned and Sunday is the big family party for all the September and October birthdays at my parents' house.

Oh yea, and in case you missed my Facebook and Twitter posts- I found my missing flash drive!!  I couldn't believe it.  I went to put on a pair of my comfy pants yesterday when we got home and felt something in the pocket.  When I pulled out the flash drive, I almost fell over.  I have no recollection of wearing those pants the night I lost it- they'd been thrown on the chair in my bedroom and gotten buried under various other clothes.  So, thank goodness, it's been recovered for real!!  No one is stealing my ideas, hooray!!

Anyway.  I'm hoping to top the 50K word count mark by next week...and then my readers will get another little preview!

a good problem

I simply cannot write the WIP fast enough. Seriously. And I just don't have enough time in the day to spend writing it. It's killing me a little bit because it's sort of all I can think about right now. I have notes going about things I want to add or change or develop more, and I'm just constantly thinking about this story. Like, seriously, constantly. I think about it as I fall asleep at night, when I'm blow-drying my hair or brushing my teeth. When I'm at work trying to concentrate on, well, work. It's like Anna is starting to haunt my dreams the same way she's haunting Riley's (my readers will know what that means, heh).

This story is so much more complex than IMME. I feel, anyway. I'm really focusing on developing my character's voices as well as the setting. The characters have more layers to them, more troubles, more doubts and fears. Also, the historical aspects, while pretty minor at this point, take a bit of researching which I barely had to do for IMME. If at all.

Last night I only meant to write a couple pages. I planned on writing for an hour, stopping at reasonable time, calling my mom and then relaxing with Dan and the new Modern Family episodes. Except the problem with this story is that I just CANNOT STOP WRITING. I suppose it's a good problem to have, but it's starting to seriously cut into my time at home. I feel like I'm neglecting Dan, like, a lot. I ended up writing for two hours last night, finishing a chapter completely. After about an hour and fifteen minutes, I was about to shut it down, but I was SO CLOSE to finishing the chapter, and I knew exactly how I wanted it to end, so I just figured I should keep going. So keep going I did. I'm already over 2500 words for the week, just between yesterday and Tuesday night.

I will make it up to Dan this weekend. Sunday is our second anniversary (already!) so we're going to have a nice fancy schmancy dinner out on the town on Saturday, then Sunday we'll have a lovely meal at home. My plan is to spend a little time writing on Saturday morning, then trying to keep the lap top put away the rest of the weekend so we can focus on "our" time. We'll see how that goes, if I can keep Ella and Riley and Anna away for a day or two...