Mortaine’s Blog

I am resolved to do more writing this year. I really feel a need to get moving towards my goal of making money at fiction. What might surprise some of you is that, while I consider myself an avid fiction writer, I have never yet made a sale.

Anyway, I’m currently editing , my Nano2003 novel for NaNoEdMo. I have put in a total of 2 hours so far this month, but that’s not bad, considering yesterday was such a busy day. I’ve also written almost 2,000 words in that time. 400 of them were last night after my long day at the polls; I wrote the closing argument for the prosecution, even though I still don’t have his rebuttal phase written yet. The prosecution makes a very compelling argument; I need to make a better defense; I’m not sure I can do that. Perhaps I can come up with something that would convince the judge (and in my rewrite, I’m probably going to go with a jury, actually) that Obe just isn’t a bad guy.

I also have joined Book in a Week on Yahoo! Groups. This means that, sometime in March or April (hopefully April; March being NaNoEdMo), I’m going to be writing another book. I’m going for something simple and sweet, like a romance novel or a short mystery novel (mysteries and romances seem to be the only places where you can get away with a 300-page book instead of a 500-page monstrosity anymore).

In non-writing news, I’ve been very cranky lately. This past weekend, I was pretty bitchy, and I’m finding myself making rude comments in ICs on the Support Board, and then deleting them (mostly) before sending them through. I even went trolling the Weight Watchers discussion groups hoping to find drama to mock privately. I didn’t find any. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, other than monthly hormones (which usually don’t cause mood issues for me, just tiredness and pain).

On the other hand, I’ve gone for 3 nights without coughing, which is good. I have my doctor’s appointment today re: the SCUBA clearance. I’m still not 100%, but I’m going to have to go anyway, since I forgot to call and cancel yesterday.

March 1-10th: Finish writing the ending.
March 10: Print it out, get notebook, pens, editing space together.
March 11: Explore the theme and subthemes. Consider how much it parallels 9/11 and consider ways to change that.
March 12-14: Read through the novel. Outline as I go. Do scene analysis of each scene, marking manuscript heavily.
March 15-20: Go through the manuscript one more time. Be harder on myself.
March 21-29: Type-in, enter the changes I marked. Finish up.
March 30-31: Re-read with satisfaction. Mark and fix glitches.
April 1: Submit to readers.

Things that will need to be second-edited: Physics, legal procedure, laws. linguistics.

I spent 15 hours at the polls today, from about 5:30 this morning until 9:15 this evening. My # of ballots tallied perfectly at the end of the evening (we’re usually 1 off). I’m feeling good about that, and the fact that we were done by 9:15 and I was home at 9:35. Yay! Go me! (I was the inspector, which is the “lead honcho” in the polling place).

Um, not much else for now. Tired. Feet hurt. Want to take Trinity to bed and do some more writing/editing before passing out.

Night, all.