Well, hello.....

Been awhile.  Let's catch up shall we!

Let's see.  I'm still working on the edits of NaNo '09.  I set it aside for quite awhile but I'm getting back into it I think.  I still have my Zombie story that I really want to finish.  Doesn't look like I'll get to it before this NaNoWriMo though.

Aside from novel length things, I'm going back to my roots!  Short stories!  Lol.  I started one about treasure hunting and one with an interesting twist on zombies.  I'm stuck on zombies a little, aren't I....  Ah well!  :D

I don't have any idea what to do for NaNo this year.  Though I'm not worried because I try not to think to hard about it until October rolls around.

I've been reading as well, of course.  I just finished the Fall of Angels series by Keary Taylor.  It was pretty good.  Now I'm reading The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler.  I'm loving it so far.  Next up will be Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

And I guess that's it.  What's been up with you??

Pressure of Progress

If you're anything like me, progress scares the mess out of you.  It makes you uncomfortable.  Most of all it's really hard.

It's a giant cliff that you need to get to the bottom of and the only option you have is to jump.  You've come to the point where it feels like it's now or never and it makes you freeze.

You've decided that this was the path in life that you were going to take and then it led you to this cliff.  You tell yourself all the things you're going to do, you believe in it enough to tell everyone around that you're going to do it.

But you don't.

You took a risk coming to this cliff and everyone knows now.  You tell them how your getting ready for the jump, but you feel embarrassed because it's been the same words over and over again.  Now you question if it was worth it.  You wonder if you'll fly or fall.  You wonder if you shouldn't just turn around and try a different direction.  Until others start to say the same.  Then you realize how important this is to you.  They tell you different variations of 'Go back', 'Do this', and 'It's the wrong way'.

That's when the fire was rekindled.

You want to prove them wrong.  You want to prove yourself right.  You want to take that one step that will most likely change it all.

But you chicken out.

Now you're fighting with yourself.  Are you scared or just lazy?  You make countless running starts only to pull up short and you're left pulling reasons out of thin air that you use like a veil to cover up whatever the really reason is.  Then you're just left tired.

And that's when you get tired of being tired.

You're tired of standing still.  You're tired of wondering what would happen.  You're tired of worrying that you'll miss your chance and have to ask yourself 'what if'.

So you run for that cliff, full speed this time, and don't show any signs of stopping.  You don't know exactly where it goes or if you'll be flying or falling but you only hope you'll be too busy enjoying the rush to find out.

Update on updates!

I finally got done with my new outline a few days ago.  I like what I've added so far.  I think it will make it a better story.  But there is also SO MANY WORDS I'm going to be taking out.  In fact, I'm going to be taking out the entire first chapter.  It was really good for me to rewrite my outline because I did have a couple chapters that felt really unimportant when I read it on the outline.

Now that we're halfway through Camp Nano though I'm wondering if I should go on with some more edits or start on the story that I wanted to finish during camp.  Both?  I haven't even written the outline for it yet. :/  Perhaps next month?  Or next camp even.

Anyway, I just wanted to update here.  So there it is.  :)  See you guys later.

Cleaning out the Story Stash

I think I'm the type of person that feels like I have to be done with one story in order to do another one.  I never liked being halfway done with one story then get an idea for another to be tempted to start on.  I don't even get good ideas while I'm working on another one.  I'm pretty sure a lot of my problem is just not finishing half the time anyways since I have about a hundred unfinished projects...  But moving on.

So I heard that March is 'National Novel Editing Month', 50 hours of editing this month, (not in affiliation with NaNoWriMo to my knowledge) and I thought 'Great!  This is just what I need to get moving again.'  Maybe if I feel like I've cleared the slate of one mostly unfinished project then I can get my creative flood gates open again.  Even if I don't make it to 50 hours I'll at least have made progress on my book.

I've just felt blocked lately.  I don't know if it's just that a lots been going on lately that I just can't put enough mental effort into my writing like I want or what.  So I think this will be a good start, just fixing what I already have.  And it's been going slow but steady.  I want to do an outline of what I have now, add in notes of what I want to change, then officially make those changes.  Right now I'm in the last leg of the outline.  It shouldn't be long now before I start adding note then actually start tearing the story up and putting it back together!

Happy 2013 everyone!

Ever write a blog post about your resolutions and then a year later look at them and realize 'Wow, I don't think I did a single one of those...'  Me?  No, I was just asking...  Ok, maybe.  Oh well.  I can either beat myself up about it or take advantage of this new year.  With a new year comes new resolutions!

REVISE THAT '09 NANO NOVEL!!!
Yes, that needed to be Caps Locked along with the bold.  I've been putting it on the back burner for way too long.  In fact, all of my NaNo's have.  This one is really the only NaNo novel that I wrote 'the end' on so I have 3 other unfinished novels patiently waiting for me.  Hmmm, makes me think that I should tack on another resolution.

Finish at least one other NaNo novel.
That a girl, Sarah.  Next?

Finish at least 3 short stories.
I can think of two at least that haven't gotten my proper attention.  One might be a bit long for a short story but so be it.

Research!
I'm going to start looking into magazines and such that take submissions.  It's time I start trying to ease my way into the publishing world.


So how about you?  Any writing related goals?  Any other kinds of goals?  Keep at it, everyone!