Some Days Suck Before They Start
And, yes, today would be one of them.
Towards the end of last week, I started getting sick. Saturday, I thought I was doing better, then I got worse on Sunday. So last night, I went to bed early in the hopes that lots of sleep would help. Then from about 3:30 a.m. on, I ended up waking up every 1 1/2 - 2 hours, sometimes for myself, but most times because an animal lost its mind. Cat threw up on the bed, dog has had to go out 5 or 6 times (and that's after going out twice with the kiddo between 5:15 and 6 A.M.), and so on. (Dog is a really old dog, and I'm trying to be patient, but I'm not much of a dog person and I'm obviously highly annoyed by the interrupted sleep, so it's not working too well right now; also, I suspect she needs a vet, and we can't yet afford a vet without going further into the down payment money, which is still $300 down from the last emergency.) It ended up not being a good night, and I was cranky long before I finally gave up and got out of bed. I probably got enough sleep when you combine early in the night with all the broken up sleep and dozing from later, I just don't do well with my sleep being broken up. And, of course, fighting the sick doesn't help.
And somehow, it fit as the ending for the week. Last week was pretty much hit and miss: didn't make word count and ended up having to set aside the YA for now, plus we blew our grocery budget which blew other aspects of our budget, but I did lose weight, goals were crossed off, and progress was made on Tirs. I received notes from my last Charms beta yesterday afternoon, but wasn't in a place where revisions were a good idea (I could barely write the sloppy mess draft I'm working on for Tirs). So it really was a mixed bag last week, probably mostly because of being sick and blowing our budget, but at least some things were accomplished. Pretty happy I've dropped most of the water weight I gained going off the bp meds. Because I didn't exercise over the weekend, there's some spring back showing up, but I'm hoping to get back to stretching and whatnot tonight. We'll see. Really tired, throat is still sore (though not as sore as it has been), and the drip is still there (though, again, not as bad as it has been). A cough has also shown up, but it's not too bad. I may end up having to skip another exercise day and hopefully can get back to it tomorrow. We'll see, I guess. What I want to do more than anything right now is go back to bed, but there's too much to do, and the dog seems to need constant monitoring. :P
Mists is now a dead project. I realized, as I hit the end of my notes, I had a serious plot arc problem. Girl is thrown out of her home because of an ability she has, she finds a home and training among others who share her gift, and eventually goes back home to fill in for the person who used to serve in the position that the gift allows. There just wasn't enough something in there to make it work, as far as I could tell. The conflict happened early, didn't really maintain through the book, and didn't quite resolve at the end, even though the girl was a stronger person. I know these kinds of stories can work, but mine just wasn't. And I have more than enough other projects on my list to back burner it for now. So it's on the "maybe some day" stack, along with a horror novella that was well responded to but got set aside when I realized I had to figure out my writing process or I'd never finish anything.
So, the projects right now are Charms (polishing), Quest (casual revisions), Tirs (plot building), and Phoenix Rising (which was in its notes draft stage when I set it aside). Main focus will be Charms and Tirs, with the other two being weekend break projects as I feel like it. Really, until A.C. finds a home, there's no rush on Quest, so I'll probably work more on Phoenix, which is in the same world but falls earlier in history. In fact, Phoenix is one of the earliest novels for Alden and sets the stage for much of the later novels I may work on one day. lol
2012 Goal Progress
» finalize/submit Charms :: polish round 1 done
» polish Mists :: Notes Draft: 23,161; chapter 12 rough draft :: plot issues have taken this off the list for now
» Crown of Tirs to v3 :: Notes/Narrative Draft: 11,449
» Stretch 6x/week
» Core Rhythms 3x/week
» read 32 books :: 11
» move book reviews to LJ
» Alden.nu & domynoes.com fixes
» replace my glasses
» weight loss :: goal: 24 lbs in 2012; -160 overall; last week: -2.4; total: -5.6 this year, -35.8 overall
Progress This Week
Word Count:
for the week: 5735
for the month: 4237
last month: 113,641
this year: 183,324
last year: 593,195
Guess I can't complain too much about word count this past week. Killed it last month. Course, a novel in revisions always kills it. ;)
Goals:
» Mists notes/rough draft
» Tirs plot building (weekend)
» Charms polish rnd 2 (I hope!)
» 1250/day; 7500/week
» 1 DII crit
» journals: whysper, journeys
» Alden.nu: Metawriting
» post to writersweighin
» Market Finders update
» WCP editing: HH
» WCP editing: TAJ
» Stretch x6 :: 4
» 7 min CR Core x3 :: 2
» walk x1 :: ended up being a grocery store walk, but I did walk!
» lose 1/2 - 1 pound
» reading
» laundry
» reviews to LJ
» pick up medroxy refill (Fri)
» order Chef's Certified Culinarian patch (Fri) :: tried to, have no idea if it went through
» order Chef's jacket for grad (Fri) :: has to wait 2 weeks
» mail ticket to Chef's dad
» boyo's new doctor appointment
Reading List This Year:
» Dead Beat (reread)
» Fangtastic
» Geist (reread)
» Snow (reread)
» Drink Deep
» The Hunger Games
» The God Engines
» Catching Fire
» Mockingjay
» Spectyr
» Incarnate
Not sure I mentioned, but I temporarily set aside Thrones for Cast in Shadow. A friend recommended it to help with what I'm trying to do with Charms, and I'm liking it, just not seeing the urban in it so much, so not sure it'll help much. It's a quick read though, so should have it done by the end of the week. Someone else recommended another book for me to try, but I'll either have to borrow it from her or wait to buy it. In the meantime, I think I'm pretty much on my own for trying to find a mix that works for the urban/epic thing I want for Charms, which isn't entirely a bad thing. I actually got some really good advice for handling the 4 disparate betas and trying to do the mix: think of the betas as all one critique and erase any idea of separate genres. My whole problem right now seems to be because of boundaries-boundaries between different crits (none of which agreed much) and boundaries between the two subgenres. Erase the boundaries, and hopefully it'll be easier to work through.
Anyway, enjoying Cast more than I expected. I tried to read Sagara's Sun Sword three times, and despite being up my alley and liking it in general, I just never managed to finish it. So I approached Cast with some reservations, and am really happy to see that it's a much easier read for me.
Also, I REALLY need to think about using another friend's rule of thumb and not buy any new ebooks unless I've read 4 or 5 of the ones I already have. There's 128 files in my Nook, and at least half a dozen of those are multiple books. The TBR pile is becoming a bit...frightening. lol
Changes to this week's to do list are minor: book change, added Charms, and that's pretty much it. Oh, and going to try to do a step aerobics warm up routine twice a week. Not much more than that-not with my bp at risky levels (we did, however, find a doctor I can see for less than $100, so hopefully we'll get a handle on the finances and get me in to take care of that soon). How much I actually get through will probably be dependent on how quickly I get better. Fortunately, there's not a lot of extra stuff this week, not at this point, anyway. Just might get through the couple of things I've been carrying over for the last few weeks (Meta and Journeys). :P
Also, more than likely, walking will remain a grocery store thing for awhile. I am up all night so sleep past the time when it's safe to walk outside right now. It's warming up out there and high bp, plus activity, plus high heat is probably a bad thing. :P
Goals This Week
» Phoenix notes draft (weekend)
» Tirs plot building
» Charms polish rnd 2
» 1250/day; 7500/week
» 1 DII crit
» journals: whysper, journeys
» Alden.nu: Metawriting
» post to writersweighin
» Market Finders update
» WCP editing: HH
» WCP editing: TAJ
» Stretch x6
» 7 min CR Core x3
» 5 min Step warm up x2
» walk x1
» lose 1/2 - 1 pound
» reading
» laundry
» reviews to LJ
Extras This Week
» medroxy refill (Fri)
Honestly, until I'm not sick, not expecting much, no matter what I put down as goals, especially when it comes to exercise. Bad enough the bp is way too high. Adding illness to the mix seems a bad idea, and until it's definitely on the way out, I won't risk a head explosion. I honestly should just take them off entirely, but who knows what I might manage. Even some lazy chair dancing would be better than nothing. :P
For today, the list is typical, but again, not expecting to get as much done as usual (like housework; as much as leaving the kitchen a mess gives me the heebie jeebies, I'm also not up for much of anything except maybe a "brush up" cleaning).
» Stretch
» 7 min CR Core
» housework: kitchen :: just a touch up kind of cleaning, but it'll do
» housework: office
» laundry
» Tirs plot building
» Charms polish rnd 2
» 1250 words
» Market Finders update
» WCP editing: HH
» WCP editing: TAJ
» dinner
» dishes
» reading
Just looking at that list makes me tired. :P
And seriously, I have enough problems with one of the WCP novels in edits. I doubt I'll make my 5 page goal before my brain implodes.
Oh, yay! Boyo's increase for SSI finally came in and will start next month. Lord knows, we need the extra, especially if Chef goes from 3 jobs to 2. And my new wrist weights came in (the previous ones were developing holes and losing sand or whatever it is, so I went to a different brand with the same weight).
Okay, really, time to get some other things done, maybe. Guess kiddo and I will attempt something on the kitchen just so I'm not feeling so icky about cooking in there. lol
And I apologize for any typos. I usually clean up with a second round, but no time and not in the mood for that either.
It's definitely going to be a long day. :P
~~~
most recent
whysper one of those weeks / challenges coming :: journeys Writing In Crises
the chef's wife Cranberry Sauce
Towards the end of last week, I started getting sick. Saturday, I thought I was doing better, then I got worse on Sunday. So last night, I went to bed early in the hopes that lots of sleep would help. Then from about 3:30 a.m. on, I ended up waking up every 1 1/2 - 2 hours, sometimes for myself, but most times because an animal lost its mind. Cat threw up on the bed, dog has had to go out 5 or 6 times (and that's after going out twice with the kiddo between 5:15 and 6 A.M.), and so on. (Dog is a really old dog, and I'm trying to be patient, but I'm not much of a dog person and I'm obviously highly annoyed by the interrupted sleep, so it's not working too well right now; also, I suspect she needs a vet, and we can't yet afford a vet without going further into the down payment money, which is still $300 down from the last emergency.) It ended up not being a good night, and I was cranky long before I finally gave up and got out of bed. I probably got enough sleep when you combine early in the night with all the broken up sleep and dozing from later, I just don't do well with my sleep being broken up. And, of course, fighting the sick doesn't help.
And somehow, it fit as the ending for the week. Last week was pretty much hit and miss: didn't make word count and ended up having to set aside the YA for now, plus we blew our grocery budget which blew other aspects of our budget, but I did lose weight, goals were crossed off, and progress was made on Tirs. I received notes from my last Charms beta yesterday afternoon, but wasn't in a place where revisions were a good idea (I could barely write the sloppy mess draft I'm working on for Tirs). So it really was a mixed bag last week, probably mostly because of being sick and blowing our budget, but at least some things were accomplished. Pretty happy I've dropped most of the water weight I gained going off the bp meds. Because I didn't exercise over the weekend, there's some spring back showing up, but I'm hoping to get back to stretching and whatnot tonight. We'll see. Really tired, throat is still sore (though not as sore as it has been), and the drip is still there (though, again, not as bad as it has been). A cough has also shown up, but it's not too bad. I may end up having to skip another exercise day and hopefully can get back to it tomorrow. We'll see, I guess. What I want to do more than anything right now is go back to bed, but there's too much to do, and the dog seems to need constant monitoring. :P
Mists is now a dead project. I realized, as I hit the end of my notes, I had a serious plot arc problem. Girl is thrown out of her home because of an ability she has, she finds a home and training among others who share her gift, and eventually goes back home to fill in for the person who used to serve in the position that the gift allows. There just wasn't enough something in there to make it work, as far as I could tell. The conflict happened early, didn't really maintain through the book, and didn't quite resolve at the end, even though the girl was a stronger person. I know these kinds of stories can work, but mine just wasn't. And I have more than enough other projects on my list to back burner it for now. So it's on the "maybe some day" stack, along with a horror novella that was well responded to but got set aside when I realized I had to figure out my writing process or I'd never finish anything.
So, the projects right now are Charms (polishing), Quest (casual revisions), Tirs (plot building), and Phoenix Rising (which was in its notes draft stage when I set it aside). Main focus will be Charms and Tirs, with the other two being weekend break projects as I feel like it. Really, until A.C. finds a home, there's no rush on Quest, so I'll probably work more on Phoenix, which is in the same world but falls earlier in history. In fact, Phoenix is one of the earliest novels for Alden and sets the stage for much of the later novels I may work on one day. lol
2012 Goal Progress
» finalize/submit Charms :: polish round 1 done
» polish Mists :: Notes Draft: 23,161; chapter 12 rough draft :: plot issues have taken this off the list for now
» Crown of Tirs to v3 :: Notes/Narrative Draft: 11,449
» Stretch 6x/week
» Core Rhythms 3x/week
» read 32 books :: 11
» move book reviews to LJ
» Alden.nu & domynoes.com fixes
» replace my glasses
» weight loss :: goal: 24 lbs in 2012; -160 overall; last week: -2.4; total: -5.6 this year, -35.8 overall
Progress This Week
Word Count:
for the week: 5735
for the month: 4237
last month: 113,641
this year: 183,324
last year: 593,195
Guess I can't complain too much about word count this past week. Killed it last month. Course, a novel in revisions always kills it. ;)
Goals:
» Mists notes/rough draft
» Tirs plot building (weekend)
» Charms polish rnd 2 (I hope!)
» 1250/day; 7500/week
» 1 DII crit
» journals: whysper, journeys
» Alden.nu: Metawriting
» post to writersweighin
» Market Finders update
» WCP editing: HH
» WCP editing: TAJ
» Stretch x6 :: 4
» 7 min CR Core x3 :: 2
» walk x1 :: ended up being a grocery store walk, but I did walk!
» lose 1/2 - 1 pound
» reading
» laundry
» reviews to LJ
» pick up medroxy refill (Fri)
» order Chef's Certified Culinarian patch (Fri) :: tried to, have no idea if it went through
» order Chef's jacket for grad (Fri) :: has to wait 2 weeks
» mail ticket to Chef's dad
» boyo's new doctor appointment
Reading List This Year:
» Dead Beat (reread)
» Fangtastic
» Geist (reread)
» Snow (reread)
» Drink Deep
» The Hunger Games
» The God Engines
» Catching Fire
» Mockingjay
» Spectyr
» Incarnate
Not sure I mentioned, but I temporarily set aside Thrones for Cast in Shadow. A friend recommended it to help with what I'm trying to do with Charms, and I'm liking it, just not seeing the urban in it so much, so not sure it'll help much. It's a quick read though, so should have it done by the end of the week. Someone else recommended another book for me to try, but I'll either have to borrow it from her or wait to buy it. In the meantime, I think I'm pretty much on my own for trying to find a mix that works for the urban/epic thing I want for Charms, which isn't entirely a bad thing. I actually got some really good advice for handling the 4 disparate betas and trying to do the mix: think of the betas as all one critique and erase any idea of separate genres. My whole problem right now seems to be because of boundaries-boundaries between different crits (none of which agreed much) and boundaries between the two subgenres. Erase the boundaries, and hopefully it'll be easier to work through.
Anyway, enjoying Cast more than I expected. I tried to read Sagara's Sun Sword three times, and despite being up my alley and liking it in general, I just never managed to finish it. So I approached Cast with some reservations, and am really happy to see that it's a much easier read for me.
Also, I REALLY need to think about using another friend's rule of thumb and not buy any new ebooks unless I've read 4 or 5 of the ones I already have. There's 128 files in my Nook, and at least half a dozen of those are multiple books. The TBR pile is becoming a bit...frightening. lol
Changes to this week's to do list are minor: book change, added Charms, and that's pretty much it. Oh, and going to try to do a step aerobics warm up routine twice a week. Not much more than that-not with my bp at risky levels (we did, however, find a doctor I can see for less than $100, so hopefully we'll get a handle on the finances and get me in to take care of that soon). How much I actually get through will probably be dependent on how quickly I get better. Fortunately, there's not a lot of extra stuff this week, not at this point, anyway. Just might get through the couple of things I've been carrying over for the last few weeks (Meta and Journeys). :P
Also, more than likely, walking will remain a grocery store thing for awhile. I am up all night so sleep past the time when it's safe to walk outside right now. It's warming up out there and high bp, plus activity, plus high heat is probably a bad thing. :P
Goals This Week
» Phoenix notes draft (weekend)
» Tirs plot building
» Charms polish rnd 2
» 1250/day; 7500/week
» 1 DII crit
» journals: whysper, journeys
» Alden.nu: Metawriting
» post to writersweighin
» Market Finders update
» WCP editing: HH
» WCP editing: TAJ
» Stretch x6
» 7 min CR Core x3
» 5 min Step warm up x2
» walk x1
» lose 1/2 - 1 pound
» reading
» laundry
» reviews to LJ
Extras This Week
» medroxy refill (Fri)
Honestly, until I'm not sick, not expecting much, no matter what I put down as goals, especially when it comes to exercise. Bad enough the bp is way too high. Adding illness to the mix seems a bad idea, and until it's definitely on the way out, I won't risk a head explosion. I honestly should just take them off entirely, but who knows what I might manage. Even some lazy chair dancing would be better than nothing. :P
For today, the list is typical, but again, not expecting to get as much done as usual (like housework; as much as leaving the kitchen a mess gives me the heebie jeebies, I'm also not up for much of anything except maybe a "brush up" cleaning).
» Stretch
» 7 min CR Core
» housework: kitchen :: just a touch up kind of cleaning, but it'll do
» housework: office
» laundry
» Tirs plot building
» Charms polish rnd 2
» 1250 words
» Market Finders update
» WCP editing: HH
» WCP editing: TAJ
» dinner
» dishes
» reading
Just looking at that list makes me tired. :P
And seriously, I have enough problems with one of the WCP novels in edits. I doubt I'll make my 5 page goal before my brain implodes.
Oh, yay! Boyo's increase for SSI finally came in and will start next month. Lord knows, we need the extra, especially if Chef goes from 3 jobs to 2. And my new wrist weights came in (the previous ones were developing holes and losing sand or whatever it is, so I went to a different brand with the same weight).
Okay, really, time to get some other things done, maybe. Guess kiddo and I will attempt something on the kitchen just so I'm not feeling so icky about cooking in there. lol
And I apologize for any typos. I usually clean up with a second round, but no time and not in the mood for that either.
It's definitely going to be a long day. :P
~~~
most recent
whysper one of those weeks / challenges coming :: journeys Writing In Crises
the chef's wife Cranberry Sauce