Tag: Writing

Writing, Crocheting, Napping

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Here it is Saturday morning and I should be productive.  Yesterday I came home tired and grumpy.  After paying bills, I curled up in the recliner and took a nap.  Ken and I watched Babylon 5 and had pizza for supper.

I should have worked on all the writing stuff I have on my list or some of the crocheting stuff I have on my list.  I didn’t.  By 8:00 last night I was in my jammies and crashing.  I talked to all three of my girls yesterday – always a good thing.  After that I crashed for the night.

Normally I wouldn’t go to bed this early because after about four hours I’m up and can’t sleep.  It throws my sleep pattern off.  However, last night I crashed.  I woke up three or four times throughout the night but I “slept” for about eleven or twelve hours sort of.  I haven’t done this in ages.

This morning I’m working on book work for the writing, matching payments with sales.  Several people have asked if I’m coming out ahead, the answer is no, not yet.  My expenses still outweigh my income but I know this is a long term thing not a short term thing.

I have nine books out and am hoping to get another out this weekend.  That will be my next project.  I have a little bit of editing to do, checking things out, adding in front and back material.  Then I will do production.  Shockingly I have the cover already done and am hoping to get through all the production steps so I can go ahead and publish today or tomorrow.

Once I’m done with this book, I’ll be working on edits for the next manuscript and writing for the several stories I have running right now.  I feel this week has been unproductive for me.  I’ve written only a little and edited only a little.  I’ve done a little crocheting.

One thing I have noticed this week and I’m reminded of it as I look at the trees outside my window.  It is fall and the leaves are gorgeous.  It is my favorite time of year, the trees are gold, orange, red, green and it feels so good.  Even though it is a gray day outside, I see all the flame colors out my window and know it will be a good day whatever I end up doing.

Take Two

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Last week I wrote a scene for one of my stories.  I was pleased with it, planned to go through to the next step in the manuscript.

I went to my other computer (the one in my office) and shifted files, saved the files from my flash drive to my hard drive.  I thought I’d got all of them.  As is my habit, I deleted the files on my flash drive and copied over my big main file.  I use the flash drive as a portable back up of most files.

I opened my story expecting to move forward and realized I had copied over the file with the scene I’d written.  I was annoyed with myself.  I’ve been saying I need a better way to keep track of the files I change but hadn’t done anything about it.  I have now.

In wandering around looking at other files, I discovered a copy of the story with the scene I thought I’d lost.  This left me with a dilemma – which of the two scenes I’d written did I like better.  I read them both and liked parts of both.

I read both version several times and couldn’t decide.  Instead I combined the two versions.  Going through the scene I cut a little from each and found a nice combined version of the scene.  It is probably a little heavy in parts but when I edit the whole story I’ll catch it and cut the fat from the scene. Hopefully I can now move on to the next scene.

As for my issue of saving files, I’ve opted to put files I’ve worked on in a different folder.  It is a little cumbersome but for now it works.

Completely Unproductive

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

My evening was completely unproductive.  I meant to work on editing and writing.  I planned to get a chapter or two written on the next Wayfarer novel. 

None of that happened.  I talked to all three of my daughters and one of my sisters.  I spent the night on the phone and video chatting.  It was an interesting change of pace.  By the end of the evening, I was tired and ready for bed. 

The lack of writing last night just felt odd.  I’m so used to having my time to myself and editing or writing that to be engaged in other ways just felt odd.  Not good or bad, just different.  I spent a lot of time talking with my two daughters in Georgia.  We video chatted, I got to see one of the grand fur babies – the other was camera shy. 

I like video chatting because I get to see my girls rather than texting or talking.  I get to see their faces and their place.  It is always a good thing for me.  I feel more connected with them. 

Tonight I plan to write and edit but you just never know what will happen…

Relaxation!?!

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Yesterday I was busy with writing.  I published a book, downloaded reports from the companies who I publish through, printed a manuscript for editing, finished editing one manuscript and got a third of the way through another.  It was a busy day.

In addition to all the writing things, I talked to all three of my daughters, organized coupons, and spent time with Ken.  It was a good day with a bit of balance in the day.

This morning I’ll be putting edits into the computer for the manuscript I finished a round of editing.  I have more coupons to go through.  I want to work on croheting.  I also have to get stuff ready for work this week.

I now have nine books under my name.  This is way beyond what I thought I would do in a year.  In the next two months, I’m hoping to get two more books out.  The two manuscripts I’ve been editing need to have a nice polish put on them and then out for readers to enjoy (I hope).  The one will be Wayfarer Immemorial, the third installment of the Wayfarer series.  The other will be a new book about magic, love, good versus evil, betrayal and a bit of redemption.  I’ve not named it yet but it will hopefully be ready by the end of November.

I’ve been submitting short stories and other items to other places and having absolutely no success.  I don’t know that I’m successful with the books but they are at least out there for people to try.

My relaxing weekend has been full of writing and hopefully today a bit of crocheting while I catch up on the tv shows I’m behind on – NCIS LA, Dr. Who, Person of Interest.  I hope I can finish the current scarf I’m working on and then start some of my holiday crocheting.  I’ll just have to see how things go though because the editing is really calling to me.

I started the fourth Wayfarer book and have struggled with getting more down.  It’s in my head, I just can’t seem to decide which scenes to write first.  I realized last night the moon is in the full phase.  This is almost always a non-creative time for me but a productive time in getting things done.  I can only assume as the moon shifts to the dark moon I’ll get back on track with the fourth Wayfarer book.  I also have a bunch of information in my head about the last Defenders book and the second book in another series I’m working on.  I just need the time to get it all into the computer.

In My Head

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Waking up this morning, I wanted to just stay laying in the dark and thinking.  I woke up thinking about all sorts of things – scenes, story lines, plots, characters, motivation.  I also was thinking about other things too.

The last thing I wanted to do was get up and face a day of reality.  However, I had a desk full of work that needed taking care of.  In my head is never a good place to be when I’m trying to get practical things done.  My mind just isn’t on what I’m working on.  It is looking inward, thinking, dreaming, thinking mostly about everything.

Being a responsible adult, I did get up.  I went through my normal morning routine and grumbled about it.  I drove to work – this is normally my transition time.  It’s where I stop thinking and focus on getting ready for work.  Not this morning.  I was completely in my head with my thoughts as I parked the car at work.  Even in the elevator, I was in my head.

The shift to reality was tough this morning.  I felt jarred and disrupted.  The nice thing about my work is my people there understand me.  Now whether by design or just out of habit, I had two co-workers chat with me this morning and this helped me shift my focus from being in my head to being at work.

I was still in my head a lot today but I got through work.  When I finally got some down time, some me time, I worked on editing the third Wayfarer book.  I have it nearly in shape.  I think one more read through once I put in these edits.

Even better than that, I got the first scene written for the fourth book.  I’ll probably shift to working on that for the next few days.  Yes – all of you who are waiting – it is coming.

At the end of my day – the final end, not the end of the work day – I’m exhausted, still in my head, and ready for sleeping.  I’m hoping I can sleep and not have to sit up and start writing the next scene.

Productive Day

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Yesterday I got two manuscripts ready to start the production process.  I’ll see how far I get with them today.  Time alone in the morning meant I focused on the Defenders of the Land manuscript and after Ken went to bed I worked on Wayfarer Clans.  Both of these are second books in series.

This morning I submitted a story to a contest.  I read the description and immediately thought of  story I had already written so I jumped on it before I could forget.  I also updated my spreadsheet where I keep track of what has been submitted and where I’ve submitted things.

I’m up early on a Sunday which I don’t like but if I’m going to be up, I might as well get stuff done.  I have four big steps to go to finish the two manuscripts for publication.  Last night after I’d shut down for the night, I realized I didn’t fix one of my issues with one of the manuscripts so I need to do that this morning before I forget again.

Cover, production, and the synopsis that I have to write those are on my agenda today.  Depending on how long it takes me to do all of them, I may be able to publish this week.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I still have a 350 page manuscript to get edits into the computer.  It is a first edit for one of my stories so it will be enter, search for words I over use, do a spell check, and print again.  I will need to do a second edit and try to figure out a cover for it.

On top of all of these tasks, I’m still working on three manuscripts.  I’m at a point in all three where I’m considering what comes next.  For the one, I know how it will end and have five to seven scenes I know I want to write.  But I feel like I need two or four scenes more before I can get to those final scenes.  I’ve got one extended scene and a short scene in my head but haven’t quite figured out if that will be enough to lead up to the final scenes.  I just need to write the two and see where it puts me and how well it lines up for the final grouping.

As it is Sunday, Ken will be watching football most of the day so I should get plenty of writing time.  I’ll see how motivated I feel to work on all the above tasks once I’ve had a chance to wake up.

A Quiet Saturday at Home

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Ken went to his parents this morning, leaving me all alone at home.  I couldn’t be happier.  I have gotten through one manuscript (Defenders of the Land) and gotten it to the pre-production stage.  This is a hundred thousand word manuscript so it is a lot of work to go through.

I also worked on budget, talked to the girls via text and phone, and finished editing the second Wayfarer book.  The last five hours have been productive.

I’m about done with sitting at the computer though.  My legs are hurting and I’ve got an idea I want to get down for the third Wayfarer book.  It is one more scene.  With the other two the scenes just popped into my head and flowed the way I thought they should.  I’ve reached a point in the third one where I know where I’m ending up but feel there should be more in between where I’m at and where I’m going to end up.

While that may sound complicated, it isn’t.  It just means I need to work on other things while the story mulls.  This is why I have one scene in my head and I want to get it down.  I’m pretty sure that scene will lead to other scenes.

I haven’t a clue when Ken will be back but I still have a LONG list of things to work on.  I have two manuscripts sitting here that need to have the edits entered on the computer.  One is the final edits for the manuscript which means I need to get it to the same pre-production stage as the Defenders of the Land.  The third one is a first edit on a brand new story.

A nap is sounding really good but I hate wasting alone time sleeping.  When I’m alone, I don’t have to feel guilty about spending all my time working on writing, or having my music loud.  It is a guilt-free Saturday!

Four Down, One to Go

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Friday I promised myself I’d get the five manuscripts in my bag edited over the weekend.  It totaled nearly a thousand words.  I got through three and a half.  I finished the fourth one tonight.

The one I worked on tonight was a first edit of a rough draft.  I thought I might have to do some pretty serious editing but discovered I liked the story just as much as when I wrote it.  There were scenes where I got goose bumps, teared up, and laughed.

The main character is strong but not overbearing and the main couple are loving, funny, fierce, and flawed.  I like it.

I read this one out loud.  No idea why, I just did.  It helped the editing go faster and the dialog be edited more smoothly I think.

One more to go and I’ll have my pile done.  At least with this round.  The last one I have to edit, I just finished on Thursday so it may need to sit for a little longer.  I have three that will move into my done pile for editing (I think).  Then it is all about production for them.

Hopefully with getting this manuscript edited, I’ll be able to get some sleep tonight.  Last night I slept a total of two hours.  The bad part of that is it wasn’t even a consecutive two hours.  I got a little here and there.  It was a rough night.  I’m hoping tonight will be better.

What a Week

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Pain on Thursday kept me home.  The weather turned cooler which is probably why my pain level went up.  This meant I stayed at work later on Friday to make up some of the hours.

It’s been a good week for writing.  I finished the second Wayfarer manuscript and did edits on two other stories.  This weekend I have five manuscripts on my couch waiting for me to edit them.  I’m hoping to finish the edits on the second Defenders book.  I’m also hoping to publish the first Defenders book in the next few days.

Last night I was grumbling at Vicki because I felt like I was behind schedule on the editing.  I have the five manuscripts which totals nearly a thousand pages.  I wasn’t even done with one.  I had to stop yesterday because I had a headache.  I felt this put me behind.  Vicki reminded me that I was grumbling about a self-imposed deadline and I needed to be more realistic.

She was right.  I worked on one of the longer manuscripts yesterday.  I have about 75 pages left, I think.  I’ll finish it today.  This will be the last edit on the manuscript before I start developing the production pieces I need for it.

I’ll probably pick up the next longest manuscript which will be more intense as it is a first edit.  There aren’t even chapters in this one so it will be a lot of work to go through the first edit.  One thing I decided was that I should go through and search out key words I tend to overuse when I write the rough draft.

Unfortunately, I woke with a headache several times in the night and this morning I still have one.  Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on business end of writing – updating spreadsheets for income and expenses.  I also submitted some paperwork to start blogging for Pagan Square.  I’ll have to start thinking about what I want my next post on there to be.

Today Ken will watch football.  I will probably work.  I uncovered my crochet basket yesterday and saw a project that has just been sitting there waiting on me.  It isn’t screaming at me but it is tempting.  Perhaps if the editing is too hard on my head today, I’ll watch movies and crochet.

Pain is still a problem but it is daily so I’ll just cope because what else can I do.  A warm blanket and a good manuscript to edit should keep me from being in too much pain.

On a Roll

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Even though I wrote till almost five in the morning, I got a lot done yesterday.  I got all the errands organized so Ken could take care of them.  I got coupons organized and grocery lists made.  He went to the post office.  I got bills paid.  I cleared off a card table that has been in my office for years.  I cleared off some of my desk (it is still a mess).  I got a book published.

Then I crashed and burned.  I was going to take a nap but was too wired to nap.  I was going to write but I was too tired to write.  My evening was just blah.  Ken and I watched a couple episodes of West Wing.  I opened up my current story and knew where I wanted to end but not how I was going to get there.  As I normally do, I just moved to something different.  I putzed a bit with a couple of stories but nothing really clicked.  I ended up doing more reading / editing than anything else.

At eleven I gave up and tried to go to sleep.  Laying in the dark, I can’t say I thought about anything in particular.  My mind wasn’t overfull of things as is normally the case when I can’t sleep but I couldn’t sleep.  At midnight I called it quits and opened my computer to work on writing.  I wrote a scene and a half before my brain said enough.  It was two in the morning and I slept pretty good until six and dozed until nine.

I’ve been working on writing.  I got descriptions written for Defenders of the People.  I got a cover created and worked on production.  I have a couple of steps left but I’m in wait mode on them.  In my head, I think I know the next few scenes for story that I’m working on.  As my legs are getting sore and tired, I’ll probably hit the recliner shortly and work on it.  I have over 21,000 words in this story which is nearly half written as they are smaller novels.

I’ve heard nothing but grumbling from Vicki over when I’m going to get this one done.  I’m enjoying working on it but I also have ten other projects to work on as well.  It’s been a productive weekend and I’m hoping I can keep the ball rolling and work on writing .