Sunday, March 29, 2009

My first response team

My friend Henry has finished reading the first chunk of LSCTS, and we're meeting Tuesday to talk about it. I don't think Chick Lit is really his thing, but he has excellent instincts, and he's a published poet
, so he's all about words and language. 

Man, I hope he likes it. I didn't realize I was so nervous about it until just now. Yikes!

I've been devoting about an hour a night to editing LSCTS, in bed, in my jammies just before lights out. I'm not making many global changes, which tells me that I'm not doing much more than re-aquatinting myself with my book. It's good when you laugh out loud at your own jokes, right? 

Jeesh, I hope he likes it. 

m

Friday, March 20, 2009

grading kills creative energy

Oh, wait. I've complained about this before.

Actually, it isn't even true tonight. I just want to snuggle with my hubby in front of the t.v.

m

Thursday, March 19, 2009

screnzy logline

Being Dog-- A mysterious hound appears at a suburban dog park and takes specific people to spend an hour as an animal that most suits them until undue attention from the media and a violation of the rules threaten to end the magic.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

editing some more

I like editing. It feels good to re-read what I've written and tweak it so it feels better. I like this book, which is a nice realization.

I am a bit concerned about my use of off-color language. I'll have to peek at a few chick-lit books I have lying around to see the level of swear words they use. As I said to a friend, for the first draft, I just let my nasty self off the leash. I knew I could swear like a sailor, but it's still a bit disconcerting to see it in print.

I'm also prowling the Script Frenzy forums trying not to begin writing the script idea I came up with last night. Magic dogs. It'll be a winner.

ta
m

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Re-writes

Okay, so I am not going to get this first draft up to 80K because I’ve realized that I’m done. I could try to write another 6,000 words to get to 80K, but I think what I’d be writing is filler. I don’t need filler. I need to dig into the book and get it organized and stitched together. All the threads are there, but they are a little tangled since I stopped writing linearly after NaNoWriMo ended.

Besides that, I admit that I am totally distracted by Script Frenzy, which starts on April 1. I’ve currently got four screenplay ideas that I like and all I want to do is write a treatment for each of them before Frenzy starts.

So, that’s it for Liz word count updates. As of April 1, I’ll have page updates for the screenplay for Frenzy.

If anyone is following along, find me at http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/user/421280 , which is my page on Script Frenzy.

That’s all for now.
m

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Editing!

I have a generous offer to read the first three chapters of my book from a friend I really respect and admire, so I am leaving off the end of the book to give those chapters a quick edit.

A cursory glace tells me that I probably need to get to the meat of the book--the sex strike--before page 50, where it now sits. This is partly because my friend only committed to read thirty pages, and I really want him to get a feel for the main part of the book. I can't see myself editing/moving that section a full twenty pages, but we'll see. Maybe he'll agree to fifty pages. It depends on how much he feels he owes me for a read of his poetry manuscript a year ago.

Another thing squelching my writing is grading. ugh. It's the beginning of finals week, and I am already buried under papers. I've made good progress, but it sucks the life out of me...or at least kills my creative energies.

Finally, Script Frenzy is approaching fast and it has that "new project" smell to it. All I want to do is to write a beat sheet for the ideas I have for screenplays. I think I'll just give a portion of Spring Break to it, though Spring Break for teachers in the quarter system is simply five days to submit final grades prepare for the next quarter...not like there will be oodles of spare time.

At least the personal dramas have quieted. Most everything is fine and well in the world, finally.

m

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Review of Seussical the Musical

I haven't worked on the novel in a while for a number of personal reasons, but I got the chance to see and review Seussical the Musical for the local alternative monthly. Here's the link:

http://www.willamettelive.com/story/Suessical_mixes_complexity_simplicity142.html

I hope I get to do more of these!
m

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

a little work

daily word: 345+450 (from monday)
weekly words: 2,355
LSCTS: 74,284

This was another of those," just sit and write, no matter how much you want to go to bed right now" days. I didn't produce a lot, but it's better than nothing.

I need to get back into the groove, so I'm in "shape" for Script Frenzy in a month. I'm doubting my concept for a script for that, so I'm back to brainstorming ideas again.

I'm waiting for the quarter to be over, so I can focus on my writing instead of my working/grading.

Oh, and Thanks to Theresa O. who scored me a ticket to Seusical, which I'll then review for a local magazine. Yippee!


la
m

Monday, March 2, 2009

a better ending

daily word count: 1,560
Weekly : 1,560
LSCTS count: 73,489

Okay, I like this new ending lots better than the original. I actually have a resolution, and naked girls, and angry sheiks. Lots of fun.

I got a huge stack of papers to grade on Thursday, and for some reason, I decided to tackle them before I got to writing. I should have known that it was futile to try to grade them all over one weekend, but I forget every term how long it takes to grade them. I also had a bird emergency that took up Saturday night. Every birdy is okay now, but it didn't look good there for a long time.

So, I didn't make my 5K goal last week, and I didn't make my 80K goal for February. Oh well. What is the point of making goals that are easy to make, right? I'll hit 80K soon enough, and then I'll get to editing this puppy. Then it will suddenly be April and I'll be neck-deep in Script Frenzy, and LSCTS will have to sit for a month. That will probably be a good thing.

Off to bed to dream of nude runway models mingling with heads of state. What fun.
m