Productive Weekend

This past weekend was a productive one for me on the writing front. Saturday morning, after an early wake up from the hounds, I was doing some file clean up on my computer and got to digging around in my old hard drive. Like an archaeologist sifting through the debris of decades past, I found a treasure trove. 9 stories I had begun some time ago but had no hard copies of. Woohoo! I knew they were around somewhere but was having trouble piecing them back together just from memory. Given that a couple are nearly complete, I was exceptionally happy.

The dogs thought I was a bit weird for my little happy dance. Oh well. They're silly pups anyway. So I got started editing one complete story. Too bad I soon realize I hate editing. To me, the story's done... finished... out to the unsuspecting masses with it. But alas it is not ready for the world yet. That's when I started the rotation. Edit for a while. Write new stuff for a while. Transcribe long hand notes into the computer for a while. Rinse and repeat. And somehow it worked.

How well, you might ask... Well... 110 pages worth. Plus some long hand notes after I went to bed last night. Now that's call for a major happy dance. I celebrated by baking cookies.

That was enough that I wasn't even in a bad mood when I went to work this morning. All day, only a couple emails annoyed me and I didn't threaten to boot anyone. Major accomplishments for me... I have a love/hate thing with people. But I did set a few goals for my writing.

First, I will write something every day. This doesn't necessarily mean writing any of my fiction every day. It could be documentation for work. But I must write.

Second, I will spend at least two hours per week editing. I have to or I will never get anything into a good, consumable format. And the per week is because of my work schedule. If I can't make my brain work on editing during the week then the weekend it is.

Third, I will write at least 40 pages per week. Again the per week because of work. And I am not limiting myself to 40 pages of completely new off the top of my head material. I have stacks of notebooks with ideas and pieces of various stories in them. This includes stories already in my computer but I had ideas for when not at home. These need worked on just as much as new material... perhaps even more.

Think I can do it? I'd love to know what your goals are, writing or otherwise. This whole set goals thing is rather new to me. I'm more of a thrive on chaos kind of girl.

Keep reading.
SK

What Do You Know

Write what you know. How many times have you heard this one? And how many times have you actually followed it?

For me, this has often been an excuse to research something new. Last weekend, it was military special ops teams. I honestly don't know why that one suddenly popped into my head but it did. I've always found the big tough semi-bad boys very appealing. Too bad you don't get a lot of them where I'm from or I might not be approaching yet another birthday as a single lady. *sigh* Oh well, such are the trials and tribulations of life.

So why am I on this topic today? Because it suddenly dawned on me that one thing I know is the industry I work in. It's not unusual for me to get story ideas at work but usually it's me daydreaming about being somewhere else. Today I passed a guy in another department I work with and the expression on his face was one of secrets. Again, not unusual as we have access to a lot of information (we are an information technology services area) which we have to keep until tight security. But that expression just triggered something in me. He'd probably find this funny, but I started thinking what if he was an undercover agent of some sort? What if he'd taken that job to get in a position to investigate some nefarious doing of our executives? Or anyone in our company for that matter. Our area would be perfect for that. Of course, we have training classes on spotting and reporting such bad deeds which may have also prompted the thoughts. I'm behind on updating my certification in those classes.

So, I found myself actually writing about something I know and didn't have to go research. The only time I spent on the Internet today at work was over lunch coming up with names for the six characters I've already sketched out. No surprise, 3 of those 6 are based off actual co-workers and what they do. But the guy who set all this off is not in the story. Perhaps I should give him a cameo as a thank you.

Keep reading.
SK

Where's Signy?

As the Webyeti has been reminding me lately, I haven't posted in a while. I can turn this comment back on him but...

So what have I been doing? First, working the day job for far too many hours a week. One of these days I'm going to save up enough money and work up the guts to quit. A few weeks ago I had a melt down and told one of the team leads, who had just pissed me off to the point of tears, that if I didn't need the money I'd quit on the spot. Meanwhile, my supervisor has taken to referring to my writing as my 'exit strategy'. We're in the midst of working up personal performance goals for 2008 so it's been a common discussion.

Second, I've been working on editing my story. The word count is already twice what it was when I first wrote the tale long hand but it doesn't have a title yet. Sebastian, my male lead, is being difficult and refusing to speak to me at the moment. I've noticed that tends to happen after I make the mistake of going out with coworkers as I did Friday night. The voices stop talking to me for the next few days.

Third, I've been working on ideas for new stories. No new dreams to turn into stories but ideas I've come up with while watching tv, listening to music, etc. I don't know that any of them will pan out but they're simmering. I've been exploring the idea of returning to my small town, Midwest redneck roots for a story. After 10+ years I think I'm coming to terms with how I grew up. Then again, I've said that before and promptly rebelled again. How redneck, you ask? After my mother's funeral, my family bought out half the shops in town of Budweiser and Bud Light. Ick. I prefer martinis or wine, thank you very much. For that, I get made fun of by my family.

Fourth, the hounds. Ever present, always needy (especially the Moof). We've had a return of cold weather on top of the usual Spring wet so they've been cooped up and going stir crazy. We've also had multiple visits from the Webyeti's dog, aka Fluffy Butt. I'm posting a picture of her with this blog. Our walk time doubles any day she's with us. Also, Dozer and Moof enjoying playing keep away with the toys when she's around. How many toys do you think two greyhounds and an Australian shepherd can hoard?

Now I am off to fix myself dinner and contemplate trimming hound claws before starting another work week. Everyone out there, keep warm and keep reading. Also, thank you to Vicki for her response last time I posted. I hope everything is well in South Africa.

SK