Mental Blocks
Sometimes they stack up neatly. Sometimes they're scattered across the whole bloomin' path. Either way, mental blocks suck.
I should have finished rewriting chapter 3 two days ago. I fully intended to do it today. I was going to walk over to B&N, have a nice read of...er...whatever...and walk home to start on the edit. I intended to leave about fifteen minutes after getting up. So I got up...to find it raining. In New Mexico, that wasn't such a problem. Even in Colorado, except for a few days here and there, you're generally assured of it letting up or at least thinning to a perfect drizzle. No such luck in Florida. When it rains, it rains. Drizzles never remain drizzles. Dark clouds will equal rain. I love it, don't misunderstand. Though my lungs STILL aren't used to all the moisture and oxygen here, it's such a complete relief from the yuckitude of NM that I adore every tiny rain that passes. But it does make for broken plans.
So because that initial plot point in my day was removed, everything else got totally screwed up. Instead of writing, I futzed around online until an hour before The Hubby came home, at which point I played a little Sims 2. We got new DVDs in the mail, so I watched the DS9 disc. Went over finances ( ::mega ouch:: ), grabbed our last meal out for the next...uh...three months ($8 - go Little Ceasar's!), and watched the last disc of Firefly. I'm so very sad we didn't have cable to watch it when it originally aired. Likely our paltry support wouldn't have made much of a difference, but it was such a gorramn good show, and it had such spectacular potential! I am so very, very bummed there aren't any more. Half a season was a total rip-off for all involved. Stupid studio.
Anyway. First two chapters have been revised and await a final polish before being sent to first readers. Third chapter is actually half done...I just can't seem to get back into it. (Which means, of course, that I need to chop where I left it and start further back.) I'm probably subconsciously sabotaging myself, too, because the later I finish it, the later I'll have to deal with the trepidation of sending it out to agents. (Not to mention having to write the freakin' synopsis.)
Ideally, I would like to complete Atlantis by the time NaNo starts on 11/1. (Which is extra funny, since I believe I said the exact same thing last year, too!) 60k in just under four weeks. That's only about 2.5k per day, and entirely doable. I'd also like to edit two to three chapters of GO a week. Also entirely doable (at least assuming the majority of them don't require complete rewrites, as the beginning does). The only problem is, I should be getting a job soon. 17k + 15k of edits have every likelihood of being nearly impossible on top of a 40-hour work week. Money comes first, sadly, and given how totally out of shape I am, I expect to be utterly useless at home for the first three weeks to a month.
Chances are, I'll be skipping Atlantis altogether to start Twilight Falls or Circle of the Twisted Rose for NaNo. Whatever happens, I'll still be falling short of my 'complete four mss in '06' goal by at least one. Oh well. The first half of this year was a bitch. I don't feel the least bit guilty about writing next to nothing then.
I should have finished rewriting chapter 3 two days ago. I fully intended to do it today. I was going to walk over to B&N, have a nice read of...er...whatever...and walk home to start on the edit. I intended to leave about fifteen minutes after getting up. So I got up...to find it raining. In New Mexico, that wasn't such a problem. Even in Colorado, except for a few days here and there, you're generally assured of it letting up or at least thinning to a perfect drizzle. No such luck in Florida. When it rains, it rains. Drizzles never remain drizzles. Dark clouds will equal rain. I love it, don't misunderstand. Though my lungs STILL aren't used to all the moisture and oxygen here, it's such a complete relief from the yuckitude of NM that I adore every tiny rain that passes. But it does make for broken plans.
So because that initial plot point in my day was removed, everything else got totally screwed up. Instead of writing, I futzed around online until an hour before The Hubby came home, at which point I played a little Sims 2. We got new DVDs in the mail, so I watched the DS9 disc. Went over finances ( ::mega ouch:: ), grabbed our last meal out for the next...uh...three months ($8 - go Little Ceasar's!), and watched the last disc of Firefly. I'm so very sad we didn't have cable to watch it when it originally aired. Likely our paltry support wouldn't have made much of a difference, but it was such a gorramn good show, and it had such spectacular potential! I am so very, very bummed there aren't any more. Half a season was a total rip-off for all involved. Stupid studio.
Anyway. First two chapters have been revised and await a final polish before being sent to first readers. Third chapter is actually half done...I just can't seem to get back into it. (Which means, of course, that I need to chop where I left it and start further back.) I'm probably subconsciously sabotaging myself, too, because the later I finish it, the later I'll have to deal with the trepidation of sending it out to agents. (Not to mention having to write the freakin' synopsis.)
Ideally, I would like to complete Atlantis by the time NaNo starts on 11/1. (Which is extra funny, since I believe I said the exact same thing last year, too!) 60k in just under four weeks. That's only about 2.5k per day, and entirely doable. I'd also like to edit two to three chapters of GO a week. Also entirely doable (at least assuming the majority of them don't require complete rewrites, as the beginning does). The only problem is, I should be getting a job soon. 17k + 15k of edits have every likelihood of being nearly impossible on top of a 40-hour work week. Money comes first, sadly, and given how totally out of shape I am, I expect to be utterly useless at home for the first three weeks to a month.
Chances are, I'll be skipping Atlantis altogether to start Twilight Falls or Circle of the Twisted Rose for NaNo. Whatever happens, I'll still be falling short of my 'complete four mss in '06' goal by at least one. Oh well. The first half of this year was a bitch. I don't feel the least bit guilty about writing next to nothing then.