write a book

I put the first one on hold for a little while because I have a friend who needs me to write his story before he . . . well, he’s like 80, so I just want to get it written.

This story, although fiction from my head, is based on actual events from his life. I’ve gotten two chapters just about done. There’s only a page or two left of Chapter 2, then I’ll send him a copy of it, to make sure it’s going in the direction he had in mind.

It’s a pretty cute story. I think he’ll like it. In fact it’ll probably make him cry. heh heh. :)

Yeah, heh heh, already. I’ve only been actively working on this book for eight years.

OK, so most of that time I was not actively working, only thinking about the story and what all has to happen. I’ve only been actively working on it for about a year and a half.

It’s Mid-Grade fantasy, so it only has to be 45,000 words and I’m up past 20,000 now, so almost halfway in word count, too, but I just finished Chapter 9 and I think it will end up with 18 chapters, so I’ve hit the halfway point there, too. yay!

Got some good work done, but not nearly as much as I wanted to accomplish. Big, beautiful cabin . . . with freaking, stupid sporadic Internet. Aauuughhhh!!!

My plans had been to spend at least an hour a day in research and study, but both require access to the Internet. Instead of getting my work done, I was forced to -spend- no,WASTE! several hours every day doing everything I could to get online. SO frustrating!!!

Also, I had to sleep on my air mattress. Again. I’m not so belligerent as to insist on a bed when certain prissy little divas are whining that they cannot possibly sleep comfortably unless they are in a proper bed. I do know how to suck it up and just have fun, but it was especially hard to deal with this time.

I chose a place to sleep upon arrival and the lady I’d driven up with left the room, presumably to go find herself a bed, but when I went back in to the table to sign up for half the king bed with the beautiful quilt, this same so-called friend (who is, unfortunately, one of the annual whining divas) said, “Oh, you know what-I just claimed that bed. Too bad.” But she had not claimed the bed. What she had done was to RUN to get in line ahead of me. _{•°•don’t slap her, don’t slap her! don’t rip those false eyelashes right off her face and don’t yank her fake ponytail out. just let it go. just bed down on the comfy air mattress again and let it go•°•} Fine.

I think they should require the attendees to take turns each year with who sleeps on beds. Except, of course, anyone with ACTUAL health problems or advanced age should get to sleep on beds when they are able to attend. Either that or they should charge the floor-sleepers less than the bed sleepers. We are really not getting the same retreat.

The food’s pretty good, but we do still have to cook and clean, just like when we’re at home. And instead of just putting food out for a while so everyone can take their own breaks from writing, the “leaders” of this retreat have been ringing a dinner bell and making everyone stop when they decide it’s time to eat. Several of those times are five minutes after I FINALLY get online, so it hasn’t been all that fun.

Yes, I wish I had had a better time, and I’ll be glad to get back home tomorrow, even if it is 110° outside. I’d like to tell my Dearest all about it, but he would probably consider it a huge waste of time and money to have sent me up here.

If they have the retreat at this same place next year, I’m not coming. It’s not worth the frustration. I expected to get 2,000 or more words added to my manuscript, but I only ended up with 157. I did get some major re-structuring done, though, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Cheerful Update: I did tell the Dearest about the above frustrations (and a couple more), and HE said that next year, he will take me on our own retreat. We’ll go camping in the woods, near our favorite stream, and he can fish in the daytime while I’m writing, then we can eat trout for dinner and enjoy the evenings together. Just a couple days will be plenty (especially if there’s no Internet or phone service). I’m looking forward to it already! :)

. . . are fun and wonderful. And I’m getting more and more of them!

I just finished Chapter 6 this morning, and even that may end up being Chapter 9 or 10, but the part I wrote today was originally planned to be part of Chapter 4.

I just keep splitting and adding, but the neat thing is that my chapter titles are formatted, so it’s a bit of a challenge to think up new phrases that keep to the same format.

Fun!

...I’ve got one for Chapter 3.

The one word I was looking for says everything I wanted it to say.

Brain-racking can be exhausting, but when a little strand of genius threads its way out, it’s totally worth it!

Yes, and it did take quite a bit of work. The book is really only about 11 pages longer now, though.

I had finished chapter 3 a few months ago. It was about twice as long as I wanted it, but I didn’t want to get rid of any of it. I realized I would have to do some chapter revising at some point. Well, apparently that point came during my holiday in Utah. I would get up an hour or two before everyone else and go downstairs in the cool quiet where I could study and write.

I ended up chopping Chapter 3 in about half and coming up with a fabulous title for my new Chapter 4. Now, however, I need to think of a different title for Chapter 3 because one of the words overlaps and I can’t have that. I am on to something, but I just haven’t been able to pull it all the way out of my brain yet.

During all of this, eleven handwritten pages poured into my notebook (I didn’t have my computer with me—it was vacation).

Chapter 5 is now where I thought Chapter 4 would be and i am very excited about it. I read some of it to a trusted colleague the other day and she thought it was “beautifully written.”

I’ll take that compliment and use it to reinforce the good things about my writing and develop my pitfalls into strengths. :)

_{. . . woo hoo! i’m on chapter five!}

I have been watching one of the crime dramas with my Dearest and getting rather suspicious as to what they might decide to do with the main character. A particular thought has been nagging at me for quite some time, and last night I said it out loud to my Dearest. Now if it happens, he will know I saw it coming. It will be quite a weird twist but the writers could have thought of it. I did.

And because I did, I realized it’s a pretty dang good idea, if not somewhat disturbing. There’s been a storyline for a book sitting in my head for a while, so I decided to study the “what ifs” of that book unfolding like my thoughts for the show.

For months, I’ve needed a solid ending to this story. I know what happens because it’s based on real life, but the real life ending is dumb. So today, I started jotting down some notes. I ended up outlining the entire book and this crazy ending works! I’m pretty excited, what with Retreat coming up. Now I’ll have more to work on during all that writing time.

I’m still working on my first book, of course, and the second one eats away at me because I’m ghostwriting it for someone else, but now I’ve got the third one outlined and it’s really pretty great!

. . . now all I have to do is outline some specific work to get done so I don’t spend all my writing time thinking about what to do.

I’m lucky I get to go to this retreat. We are due to return from family vacation just the day before. Plus, I have another wedding to plan, but they can spare me for a few days, and I will need a respite from the late-June heat by then. Retreat is in the mountains 166 miles away from my home on the desert floor.

Today, I found my writing notebook, ALL my handwritten notes, my writing exercises, and the other writing stuff I had left wherever I had been working on it and gathered at separate times into the same room.

Now it is all in one stack, ready to be thoroughly organized. :)

I’ve never heard of charting out chapters the way it occurred to me to do it today. After I had it all drawn out, I thought of combining my charting with a favorite method for journal prompting, and I think I may have found a surefire way to bust writer’s block!

Necessity being the Mother of Invention and all, I am still stuck in Chapter 4, knowing what has to happen, but not in contact with the words to describe it yet. I’ll know this week if my new idea will work.