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?

Plot Bunnies

I wish I had come up with this idea at Easter, that would have been cool and very in keeping with the season. Unfortunately, I didn't. My mind doesn't work that way. I only thought about writing about plot bunnies after I was attacked by one.

It was a normal evening, pretty much like any other. I was trawling through my final edit which, as I've mentioned here numerous times, I am finding increasingly tedious. My husband (he's my beta reader, he works as an editor which makes him more critical than the average husband) was reading over some chapters with his customary little frown on his face. He chuckled a couple of times, which I took as a good sign. Then he told me that it was very good, and I relaxed slightly. It's nerve wracking giving someone part of your work to read. My writing is entirely fictional, but deeply personal.

I felt upbeat then, and went back to my editing with renewed vigour. 'You're so close to the finish line,' I told myself excitedly. 'You can do this.' And then...the plot bunny attacked.

Plot bunnies are strange creatures. When you actually need one, catching one can seem almost impossible. But whenever I'm working on a story, a plot bunny pops up and waves it's little paw at me. Incessantly. This bunny is especially unwelcome, because I've put writing novel 2 on hod in order to edit novel 1. And this plot bunny told me firmly that he was destined for novel 3.

I have to try and ignore it while I finish the job at hand. But I don't want to completely ignore it, in case it wanders away and I can't find it when I come to write novel 3.

What about all of you? How do you deal with plot bunnies?