Crossroads

I'm standing at a crossroads with my WIP.  And frankly, I don't know which path to take.  I guess it's better than standing at a deadend with nowhere to go.  Or painting myself into a corner wondering how the hell I'm going to get my characters out of this fine mess.

Actually, I think I'd prefer to be painted into a corner.  Some of my best ideas come from having nowhere else to go.  Right now, I have too many places I could go with this thing and not one of them is jumping out at me as the best direction.

And off in the distance, I can see where I need to be.  The Emerald City is waiting for me and I don't even have a damn field of poppies leading the way.  Nope, I've got brambles thicker than Sleeping Beauty.

It's totally frustrating.

I know you'll all be itching to offer suggestions, but I'm just venting.  Commiserate.  Offer sympathy or hugs.  Suggestions at this point will probably just stymie me even further.

Basically what I need to do is poo or get off the pot (as my father always said - in a much less PC way).  Pick a frickin' direction and jump.  If it's the wrong direction, I can always backtrack later.

And so, here goes nuthin'.  Wish me luck.

Writing Toad

Where did the week go?  I can't believe it's already Friday.  Hell, I can't believe it's already the 9th of December.  I want my year back.

I know where part of this month went.  I've been writing.  New words, even.  Since the start of HoHoNoWriMo, I've managed to get out 11547 words on Djinn II.  I'm behind, but I'm making progress (even if the word meter doesn't always reflect it).  In this bastardized NaNo, I'm running at an average of 1443 words per day.  Which, while about 200 words short, is still an accomplishment.  If I can keep this up, even if I don't hit 50K by 1/1/12, I'll still be a winner.

The rest of the month?  Well, let's just say I've been a toad and leave it at that.

How are things going in your world?

Public Service Message

I know the readers of my blog probably don't need to see a message like this - because you're all much smarter than the average bear - but for the sake of anyone who might be wandering by...

When it gets cold and there's water on the road in the form of snow or ice, chances are the roads are slippery.  Please slow down and give yourself plenty of time to stop.  I so don't want to watch you slide through an intersection in front of a school bus, killing yourself and injuring children.

Thank you.

(This message was prompted by the moron I just saw roar up to a stop sign, slam on her brakes and slide into the busy road I live on.  She was just very lucky the road was empty at that particular moment, because this road is rarely bereft of cars at this time of day, and shortly after she left, a school bus went by.)

Writing When I Don't Wanna

I so didn't want to write yesterday.  It wasn't that I didn't like the story.  I wasn't even against the work.  It was just that I didn't want to sit here and bang on the keyboard. 

But here I was chatting on FB with Daughter.  (Which in retrospect makes not writing seem silly.)

I told her I should be writing.  And she said 'Yes, you should."  In that guilt-inducing tone all FB chat text can take.  At that point, though, it was after 9 and I'd already checked in with my lack of progress in LoNoWriMo...  Or HoHoNoWriMo*, as the Daughter called it.  Still, if I want to be the PITA mom she knows I can be about her course work, then I really need to back that up with my own work. 

Right?

So, I sat down and cranked out 545 words.  Not a huge amount, but it was something.  And you know what?  I'm pretty proud of those words because if I hadn't let the kid guilt me, I would be 545 words short this morning.

Your turn...  What gets you writing when you don't wanna write?  Is guilt your motivator or do you have a better tool I could try?

*HoHoNoWriMo = HouseHold Novel Writing Month... plus it's kinda Christmassy.  She such a smart kid.  =o)

Starting

Every journey begins with a single step.  I don't recall who said that and I'm too lazy to go look it up.  All I have to say to that person today is...

Well, duh.

Actually, every journey begins with the thought that you want to go somewhere, to take one step and then another and another.  The thought forms and the willpower carries you through.  I have the thought.  I think I have the willpower.  Taking that first tentative step?  Well, now, that's what I'm faced with this morning.  I even have the first couple sentences laying in my head, waiting to be birthed onto the page.  Where I'll go after those steps is anyone's guess at this point.

Wish me luck.

(And if you missed last night's post about LoNoWriMo, click the link.)

LoNoWriMo

Since I put that meter up over there on the right, I figured I'd probably better drop a note to tell you what the heck it means.  That, my friends, is a meter to show my progress during this thing a friend and I are doing.  What with all the things we each had going on in November, neither of us could do NaNo.  So we decided to write 50K in December.  And just now, I put a name to it...


LoNoWriMo

As in Local Novel Writing Month.  She's over there on the other side of the country and I'm here in Colorado, so we're each doing it locally rather than nationally.  Get it?  :shrug:  Cut me some slack.  I'm tired and it's the best I could come up with.

Anyway, I've decided to start the sequel to Djinnocide - particularly since the beginning hit me in the forehead with a hammer last night as I was trying to fall asleep.  So, here we go again, waltzing through the world of the modern day genie and her antics as she tries to save her brethren, fend off her former lover, keep her business afloat and save the day against some very bad dudes.

Wish us luck.

Using EditMinion to Your Advantage

There's this wonderful tool someone blogged about last year (or was it early this year... time flies) called EditMinion (brought to you by the same people who came up with Write or Die! - Dr. Wicked).  You paste your text into it, click the Edit button, and Voila!  It tells you where your problems might be.

I say 'might be' because it's not perfect.  One of the main problems I have with this thing is that it doesn't account for things like voice.  Sure, it may be correct English to never end a sentence with a preposition, but "The former was a problem I didn’t know if I’d ever get over." and "The former was a problem over which I didn't know I'd ever get." aren't the same.  Ack, if Jo actually talked like that, I'd shoot her myself.

Another thing poor EditMinion does is flag every single instance of any word anyone has ever used as a dialogue tag - with the exceptions of 'said' and 'asked'.  That part is pretty funny when you're using a word like 'bubbled' to refer to something actually bubbling and not as a dialogue tag.  (I've never actually used or seen anyone using 'bubbled' as a dialogue tag, so that one really made me laugh.)

The idea with EditMinion - and other tool you use to edit, including other actual humans - is that the things being pointed out should only be taken as suggestions.  Of course, you still shouldn't dismiss them outright.  Take each one and evaluate whether it flows with your story.  If you can reword the flaw and make your story better, great.  If not, toss it on the trash heap.  (Although, if the idea came from a real human, you might want to thank them for their time first and treat their idea with more decorum than 'on a trash heap'.)

In the end, though, I think EditMinion is a wonderful tool.  It catches all my stupid 'passive voice' sentences, it reminds me that I'm using too many adverbs (again), and it generally talks my text out of context so I can more easily see where I fugged up.

Have you ever used EditMinion?  How'd it work out for you?  Lemme tell ya, the first time I edited and see all the pretty colors pointing out flaws, it was daunting, but I stuck with it.  And I'm glad I did.