Check-In-Tuesday

Ok, so I don't have a blogging schedule. In fact, I don't have a schedule at all. I see other writers have certain topics that they talk about on their blog on certain days. This sounds great in theory, but to be honest is probably more organisation than I could handle. I'm going to try and bring some order to my life, slowly though, in case it suddenly becomes too much for me.

I've decided that I'll do a weekly posting of where I am in my writerly journey. If nothing else it will keep me accountable. Monday may be the natural day for this, but it just doesn't have the same alliterative cadence of Check-in-Tuesday. And what writer picks practicality over sound and rhythm?

WIP: Despite the best intentions of Bunowrimo, I've only managed to write 11,224 words of my current WIP. This was because polishing my other novel for submission took longer than I anticipated. That being said, I've written a third of the first draft which is fairly respectable.

Works out on submission: One.

Rejections: Two. I was expecting to feel the crushing sense of doom that I've read about so often, but I didn't. Now that I'm feeling smug and happy with myself, the next letter will very probably send me running into the garden shed, sobbing and screeching that my life is over. Or something.

Plot Bunnies Avoided: One.

High point of the week: Feeling like a domestic goddess when I baked a batch of home-made cookies.

Low point of the week: Realising that bona fide domestic goddesses do not need the help of a Google search engine to work out how to change the bag on the vacuum cleaner.

What about you guys? How are you getting on this week?

I think my characters are sulking...

I started Bunowrimo as a rebel, that is that instead of writing a 50,000 word novel from scratch I will write 50,000 of my current WIP, If Life Gives You Lemons. I expected that this would jolt be back into writing, as I took May off from writing in order to prepare another book for submission. But, despite me rereading the 30,000 words that I had written to date, every word I wrote felt heavy. It was an effort to write. And seeing as I couldn't possibly be at fault, I've decided to lay the blame where it is deserved: my characters.

They're sulking, you see. I've been gone for an entire month, editing Rose, Alex and Shannon, and I've neglected my current batch of characters. So they've decided that they are not going to make this easy for me at all. They're taking industrial action and are going on a go-slow.

I'm wondering what will work to shake them out of this. Appeasement? Scenes with cocktails, chocolates and a lottery win?

Let's just hope they snap out of it by tomorrow.

Goals for June

Well, today marked the deadline for sending out my agent submissions. Unfortunately, while I'm almost done, I came up with a few changes for the novel in question while writing the synopsis. I know it means breaking a deadline, but making the changes will make my book much better. I have spent so much time on the manuscript, I don't want to scupper my chances for the sake of a few days.

So my new goals for June are:

1)  Finish Storms in Teacups edits and send off submissions by June 8th
2)  Complete Bunowrimo by adding 50,000 words to If Life Gives You Lemons
3)  Edit Ravensborough so I can start submitting it in July

I'm going on holiday on July 2 with my family. Four adults and six children in a converted castle with a hidden medieval staircase on the Irish coast. And, bizarrely yet importantly, a built in Nespresso machine. Hopefully the holiday will act like a carrot so I can do the ginormous amount of work that I've landed myself with.

Anyone else got any crazy plans for June?

It's The Final Countdown!

(Aside: Don't you just love camp-tastic 80's stadium rock?)

Well, it is the final countdown for me. Next Wednesday, June 1, my first three chapters along with a synopsis and cover letter will be winging their way to agents in the British Isles. Why does it have to be June 1 you ask? Because that was the arbitrary date I picked way back when it was reasonably far away. Now?

Now it's next week and I'm getting nervous. Seriously nervous. My hand even shook as I handed over the money for the ten padded envelopes I'll need.

So...yeah. I am editing like the world is going to end. Which is ridiculous because if I found out the world was going to end the last thing I would do is edit. Although my husband interviewed Harold Camping a couple of months back, and when he asked Camping what was going to happen to him and his wife he was told that not only were we going to die come May 21, we were also going to hell. Nice guy.

If this post is a little all over the place it's because I have stepped up the caffeine intake in order to make sure my stuff is ready on time. I have edited this book many times before, but this is the final polish. I have discovered illy coffee. It packs more of a punch than my usual brand, so I'm a little hyped. I could ease the pressure on myself by pushing back my deadline, but my default setting is so laid back I'm horizontal. I was the same in college, I needed the pressure of the deadline looming at me in big letters to get anything really done. When I was in college I often started an essay the day before it was due. Now I work steadily and start working intensively ten days before a deadline. I reckon that this is maturity. Or as mature as I'm going to get, anyway.

June will be busy too. I'll be editing Ravensborough for submission, I think I've given it enough post-ABNA time to cool. I'll also be taking part in Bunowrimo over at Burrowers, Books & Balderdash. It's an attempt to write 50,000 in June. It can be a new or existing project, and anyone who needs an incentive or a bit of camaraderie to break up this lonely business of writing should check it out. (I got the Bunowrimo image off Hart Johnson's  awesome blog. Hopefully she won't mind...)