The Coffee Shop - JUNE

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Sommer Leigh
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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Sommer Leigh » June 27th, 2012, 8:54 am

CharleeVale wrote:So I decided to do the thing I tell everyone NOT to do. I'm going back and revising what I have of this draft without finishing. GAH! I know! You can throw things at me now.
I am like some of the others who've commented - I revise as I write. I am not a "finish then revise" sort of writer, never have been. I find this especially true when I get stuck somewhere and don't know how to move forward. Going back, reading what I've already written, polishing and fixing things, somehow helps to "right" the problems I was having. Like, it puts me in the right frame of mind, gives me a new perspective, and reminds me of all the awesome work I've already done. That is usually enough to push forward with. Like my own personal battering ram.
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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Mark.W.Carson » June 27th, 2012, 9:21 am

I'm slogging along with mine, but thanks to some help from some wonderful people, I have a lot of changes to make. I'm cataloging them, and then I'm going to do a massive cleanup, which usually involves starting from the beginning to incorporate those changes.

Maybe this time, I will actually use an outline and stick to it.

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Cookie » June 27th, 2012, 9:49 am

Gah! How did I miss this? Oh right, I haven't been on in like forever.

In book news, I finished my rewrite. It took me slightly longer than I wanted, but hey, I picked up extra hours at work. I'm going through one more round of edits before I send it out to my CPs. That thing took me forever. :)

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by dios4vida » June 27th, 2012, 11:23 am

Cookie wrote:Gah! How did I miss this? Oh right, I haven't been on in like forever.

In book news, I finished my rewrite. It took me slightly longer than I wanted, but hey, I picked up extra hours at work. I'm going through one more round of edits before I send it out to my CPs. That thing took me forever. :)
Your absence was noted, Cookie. Nice to have you back. :) And congrats on finishing your rewrite! I hope things came out even better than you hoped.
Brenda :)

Inspiration isn't about the muse. Inspiration is working until something clicks. ~Brandon Sanderson

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Sommer Leigh » June 28th, 2012, 2:09 pm

So the other day I was sitting at the coffee shop. It was late, like around 9pm. I was writing. Sort of. I was staring into space trying to figure out how to say what I wanted to say without saying it the way I'd already said it. There was a fly buzzing around near the window I was sitting next to.

I glanced at the fly and it....died.

Like. In mid air. One moment there was buzzing and the next it just fell and landed upside down on the windowsill.

I ...think my super powers have finally come in.

And I am a supervillain.

*evil grin*
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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by CharleeVale » June 28th, 2012, 2:30 pm

Wow, Sommer. That's intense.

CV

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dios4vida
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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by dios4vida » June 28th, 2012, 2:38 pm

Sommer Leigh wrote:I ...think my super powers have finally come in.

And I am a supervillain.

*evil grin*
Well, of course!! :) That is just too cool and bizarre, Sommer. One of your superheroes in that novel totally needs to just kill a fly by looking at it.

And speaking of novels, I'm almost done!! I have 70K completed, down to the last wire...which are the hard scenes that need a lot of fleshing out, but I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking about how stinkin' close I am, at last. It's about freakin' time. I think I'll need to buy myself a celebratory T-shirt or something - I finished my stinkin' draft at last, here's a present! I've got my eye on one at ThinkGeek.com already...

Now there's motivation. Finish the draft quickly, before they sell out of your size!!
Brenda :)

Inspiration isn't about the muse. Inspiration is working until something clicks. ~Brandon Sanderson

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Claudie » June 29th, 2012, 12:55 am

Brenda: buy yourself a plush microbe. They are the cutest thing ever. I miss mine, which have been trapped in a box for the last weeks.

Speaking of microbes, do you know where I wasted my writing hours today? I got this board game which is a coop called Pandemic. And you've got to eradicate and cure four different diseases before they take over the world. And you know what? It is so freaking hard! I played it all morning with my boyfriend at the Normal difficulty, and lost. Five times in a row. Then tonight I came back with three friends and we played it at Easy and we still lost all night! And yet somehow this is the most fun I've had losing in ages. Great game. And little writing. XD
"I do not think there is any thrill [...] like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything." -- Nikola Tesla

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Cookie » June 29th, 2012, 8:51 am

I want the ebola plushie. Although the flesh eating virus is pretty cute (That doesn't seem right saying that).

Sommer: I'm not surprised at your sudden super powers. I caught a fly with my hand the other day. I think we'll make a great fly killing team.

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Hillsy » June 29th, 2012, 10:26 am

Cookie wrote:I want the ebola plushie. Although the flesh eating virus is pretty cute (That doesn't seem right saying that).

Sommer: I'm not surprised at your sudden super powers. I caught a fly with my hand the other day. I think we'll make a great fly killing team.
A SWAT team.....yuk yuk yuk

.....is it possible to be disheartened by your own comedy???........

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by dios4vida » June 29th, 2012, 11:02 am

Claudie & Cookie, I actually bought my sister the ebola plushie for her birthday several years ago. Her undergrad is in molecular and cellular biology and she was working in a lab at the time (now she has her master's and is going for her doctorate, still in the science field. She's crazy, and we're obviously nothing alike). Many years ago she had a picture of the ebola virus, surrounded by daisies, as her computer desktop. It was disturbing.

Me, I think I'll stick with the T-shirt. It's my favorite line from The Dark Crystal, how can I refuse it?!?!
Hillsy wrote:.....is it possible to be disheartened by your own comedy???........
I've heard you tell worse. ;) (Actually, that last one was kinda funny, and I hate puns.)
Brenda :)

Inspiration isn't about the muse. Inspiration is working until something clicks. ~Brandon Sanderson

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by CharleeVale » June 29th, 2012, 12:28 pm

I wanted one, but the one I found the cutest was a disease that almost killed me, and somehow I just couldn't bring myself to own a plus version of it...

CV

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by Claudie » June 29th, 2012, 4:44 pm

Ha! I have both ebola and the flesh-eating disease. Along with herpes, sperm, ulcer (the cutest of all), salmonella, TB, and one or two others I can't remember. I love the plushies. Although, yeah, I can see how I might not want a plush of something that almost killed me.
"I do not think there is any thrill [...] like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything." -- Nikola Tesla

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by trixie » June 30th, 2012, 11:05 am

Okay, so June was NOT a banner month for me.

I'm going through a crisis of confidence, to say the least. I feel guilty for not getting the proof copy of my NaNo book. However, if I was going to have to pay for the proof anyway, I told myself I'd rather wait and print out a copy that was closer to final than what I have now. Maybe I was just making excuses, I don't know.

I feel bad for a variety of reasons.
1. I feel like there's a disconnect between me and my writing group. I don't know if I should take July off, or find a way to gracefully exit all together. I'd like to think I'm close to needing betas and right now, I don't think they'd be right for a variety of reasons. I'm wrestling with that guilt.

2. There's an immense amount of guilt around the fact that I come here and participate with people who are walking the walk whereas I feel I'm just pretending. I only got 8K new words in June and some of you guys do that in a week. I know it's not a contest, but that nagging doubt of "WTF am I even doing here?" is coming back.

3. I need a thicker skin. Someone in my writing group looked confused, and then shrugged when I said I wanted to query my MG book. He said since I wrote it for my nephews, that I wasn't writing it for myself and it wouldn't be picked up. That stung, but I'm trying to toughen myself up for the road ahead. Maybe he's right. And if so, am I wasting energies on the wrong book?

4. Blog? What blog? Twitter? What's that? I know I am retreating and hiding from others. This is a bad place for me to be as it is just a quick click away from shutting down my online presence overall and settling for the mediocrity of a desk job and dying dreams for the rest of my life.

I guess I'm just flailing over here in over-dramaticized land lately (gee, you think?). All things being equal, I should consider myself fortunate to get 8K new words this month. That's more than last month and it has forced me to work through a huge change in the story.

Okay, sorry for the vent. Carry on.

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Re: The Coffee Shop - JUNE

Post by dios4vida » June 30th, 2012, 12:25 pm

Hey Trish - deep breath. Get some coffee. Preferrably something large and loaded with more chocolate and goodies than actual, you know, coffee. :)
trixie wrote:1. I feel like there's a disconnect between me and my writing group. I don't know if I should take July off, or find a way to gracefully exit all together. I'd like to think I'm close to needing betas and right now, I don't think they'd be right for a variety of reasons. I'm wrestling with that guilt.
That really sucks. I hate it when you feel like the people you're working with just don't line up with your vision, etc. If they're dragging you down, then they aren't the kind of people you should be exposing yourself to. Don't make any rash decisions but I'd definitely suggest distancing yourself a little and seeing how things go from there. If you need a beta or two, but don't feel like your local group are the right people for the job, I think I know a few around here who would be happy to help. :)
trixie wrote:2. There's an immense amount of guilt around the fact that I come here and participate with people who are walking the walk whereas I feel I'm just pretending. I only got 8K new words in June and some of you guys do that in a week. I know it's not a contest, but that nagging doubt of "WTF am I even doing here?" is coming back.
Heh - speed? What was that? Speed doesn't equal quality, remember. Some people bang out amazing books in a few months, and I envy them so much I should ask forgiveness for breaking a Commandment. Some people bang out crap in a few months. Other amazing books take lifetimes to write. Remember how long it took Tolkien to write The Lord of the Rings? Yeah. A lifetime. But no one's gonna look and say it was a waste of time. Work at your own pace, and remember that things like life and work and stress can get in the way, and that's okay. It doesn't make you any less of a writer. (And most of us feel like pretenders some of the time - I know I do - but keep in mind that anyone who actually makes time to sit down and write is, in fact, a writer.)
trixie wrote:3. I need a thicker skin. Someone in my writing group looked confused, and then shrugged when I said I wanted to query my MG book. He said since I wrote it for my nephews, that I wasn't writing it for myself and it wouldn't be picked up. That stung, but I'm trying to toughen myself up for the road ahead. Maybe he's right. And if so, am I wasting energies on the wrong book?
I don't think that one's your problem. See my comment on #1 for stupid poopieheads who bring you down. Writing for yourself or your nephews in no way makes your book of any less value. Personally, I think it makes them more genuine and therefore of even greater value. Besides, I've not only heard the premise of your book (which I adore) but I've seen the passion in your eyes when you talk about it. It's the right book for you to be writing, whatever that loser said. (No offense to said poopiehead - well, maybe a little. :twisted: )
trixie wrote:4. Blog? What blog? Twitter? What's that? I know I am retreating and hiding from others. This is a bad place for me to be as it is just a quick click away from shutting down my online presence overall and settling for the mediocrity of a desk job and dying dreams for the rest of my life.
We all go through phases where we're outgoing and energetic, and other phases where...not so much. It's part of life, and it's okay. Perhaps an online persona isn't for you - perhaps you've just needed a break (not like your life hasn't been stressful from what I've heard or anything). Don't let it get you down, take a breath, and start figuring out your priorities - not the priorities of a year or two ago, but your priorities today. Maybe it's time for you to pull away - maybe you need to push a little bit and get back on the horse. Only you can figure that out, and that only wrong decision is the one that goes against your heart.

But you also haven't pulled away completely - you're still here, and that means something at the least. Take heart. :)
trixie wrote:I guess I'm just flailing over here in over-dramaticized land lately (gee, you think?). All things being equal, I should consider myself fortunate to get 8K new words this month. That's more than last month and it has forced me to work through a huge change in the story.
I have felt the same way. The last few months in my writer life have been full of melodrama and THIS IS TRASH and I can't do this. It's okay. It's part of being a writer. What really matters is what we do from here. So, take a breath, relax, ignore the poopieheads who are putting bad thoughts into your mind, and focus on what's really important. Then go do it.

And your friends are here for you, even if we're halfway across the country. :)
Brenda :)

Inspiration isn't about the muse. Inspiration is working until something clicks. ~Brandon Sanderson

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