Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Years Sat Funnies

Happy New Year!!! And a very happy birthday to my awesome Dad :) May 2012 be filled with productivity, health, and happiness for everyone :) I am taking an unplugged week next week as I'll be spending time with my family *squeeeesoexcited* I hope to see much progress from everyone when I get back :D And yeah, that goes for me too LOL


Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Resolved to be Resolute

Well, we are one week away from New Year's - which means...resolution time *dun dun duuunnnn* (and yes, we are still a week away but I'll be out of town next week so I figured I'd start thinking early :D )

I'm trying to keep it simple this year. I have generally tossed my resolutions out the window by midnight of the 1st...sometimes sooner :D So for this year, I'm going pick one simple thing that I should be able to stick to. One thing that should make everything else easier to accomplish.

Use my time wisely - I fritter away a lot of time. And I will continue to fritter away lots of time. BUT I will try to do so less :) There are things I want to get done and that just isn't going to happen if I don't get on the ball.

The two main goals I have for this year are to keep up with the house, and to WRITE - even if it's a sentence a day, I want, I NEED, to write. So many things I want to accomplish but if everything stays locked up tight in my head it's not doing anyone any good...especially me. :) And both of these are more than doable if I just use the time I have wisely.

There are lots of other things I want to do....lose weight (as always), be a better mom and wife, learn a couple new languages, organize my house from top to bottom, read lots and lots, finish my cross stitching projects, and a million more things. But I'm hoping if I focus on just that one thing, everything else will follow.

What are your writerly resolutions for next year?

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A Writer's Christmas


I think I'm probably a hard person to shop for. My poor husband doesn't want to give me a gift card every year but he knows my first response when he asks me what I want for Christmas is going to be - books :D

So this year I made him a list. It includes:
  • A gift card for books - because really, as boring as he might think this is, it ROCKS
  • Office supplies - again, he might snooze, but man does my little heart go pitter-pat when I get my hands on a bunch of new pens and post its and notebooks oooo and especially organizational stuff like binders and bins and cork boards and those really pretty push pins and paper clips and....well you get the point :D
  • Computer software - I specifically asked for Scrivener and that software that will read your manuscript to you
  • Music - I asked for some specifics (Apocalyptica, Chopin, Evanescence...my typical mood setting stuff) :)
  • Aqua Notes - have you seen these things?! It's a notepad you hang IN YOUR SHOWER. I get probably 80% of my awesome ideas and epiphanies in the shower and I forget about 80% of those before I get out of the shower. NO MORE! If I find these in my stocking I can write down those awesome ideas before they go down the drain :D (p.s. saw these first on Stina's blog - she's got a great Xmas list for writers going to - check it out!)
  • I used to ask for uninterrupted writing time :D but with both my kidlets in school full time now, I can write while they are gone during the day. But this is a great gift for writers who have to squeeze their writing time in between jobs and/or kids or other obligations.
What is on your writer's wish list this year?


Wednesday, December 14, 2011

You Tell Me....

What is your preferred form of social networking?

I am stunned to admit this, but mine is quickly becoming Facebook and Twitter. For one very simple reason: they are QUICK.

I can get on one of them, post a quick status update, see how my peeps are doing, and keep on with the rest of my day. I can follow new people and new people can follow me quickly and easily. Heck, FB and Twitter even post suggestions of people for me to follow and with one quick click, and no opening new tabs, I'm following or being followed.

I still love blogging - I love posting and reading others' posts. But blogging takes so much time...time that I am finding I have less and less of.

So tell me....what is your favorite form?

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Expectations vs. Reality













I always wish there was some sort of device that I could hook up to my head, that would translate all the images up there into words. Because seriously, one of the most frustrating parts of writing for me is trying to get what's in my head onto paper. It either doesn't come out right or takes too long to get down or just doesn't live up to my expectations.

When I first started "seriously" writing, I was living under the dreadful misconception that all I needed to do was sit down and write and I'd be done. I knew, of course, that there would be revisions. But I thought of those more as just checking for typos and grammar mistakes. I had NO idea the work involved in crafting a real, publishable book. I had no idea that the REAL work on a book happens after you get that first draft down.

So I was a bit surprised when I sent my manuscript off to my first crit group and realized that it looked more like picture B up there than picture A :D

Now, when revisions get tough, I just try to remind myself that my manuscripts can and will be like the perfect vision I expect...but they will most likely start out like the reality snowman up there and will take a lot of work to make them awesome :) The important thing is that I keep crafting and sculpting until I get there. Because if I give up halfway through, my poor manuscript will always look like Frosty on a bad day :D

Do your expectations ever live up to reality? What do you do when they don't?