Just Feeling Really Happy

It's friday (which is never good) and my ovaries hurt, but I just feel so damn good right now. Like, ridiculously. Not getting a whole lot of words done, but I very happy with what I'm doing, and i love this stupid novel so damn much, and this contest just makes me feel like it's all actually going to come together. I mean, I have 0 expectation of winning -- there are some seriously amazing first lines there -- but that's seriously okay, and I would be so happy to lose to some of them, and just to see that people are liking mine is just... wow.

I just feel full and fluffy right now, and as though everything is coming together in the way it should. 

I'm sure I'll crash tomorrow ;)

Exciting Stuff!

Well, good or bad, news usually comes in threes, and it certainly has over the last couple of days!

First off, my new position as admin for The Writers' Helpers has kicked off to a rather fabulous start! Three posts in, the links to which can be found in my shiny new 'link' link, and I feel very settled ^^ This is definitely what I was made to do, help out aspiring writers, so it's a real pleasure to have an actual platform on which to do that. I will be updating the Link Link with every post I make, so be sure to check it out.

Secondly -- and this is where I get cheeky and ask for help -- I've entered my first contest! It's held by Adventures in YA Publishing, a rather nifty blog I've been following for a while which has great interviews with authors and agents in the YA circuit. The contest is for first lines of unpublished novels. A hundred are posted, then wittled down over the course of a couple of months by votes from the public (35%) and the professional involved (65%) 

So I'd really really appreciate it if you could pop over, take a look around, and vote. You can vote for as many as you like, and there are some pretty awesome ones. Mine, if anyone's interested *hinthint* is 'Cupping the moon in his hands, Dakin offers it to his little brother.' And if you do happen to like and vote for mine, I will love you forever <3 Contest

Lastly, I got confirmation that my work permit's on the way!!!! Only two months later :D Finally feeling properly settled in the States now ^^

Hope everyone's having a fabulous July! 

Halfway Through

So, it's been a funny few days. Lots of good things happening, so I'll start with those.

First up, more commissions! Weee! This time by the wonderful AndyTheLemon

I've been flailing after her art for a fair while, especially admiring her quick commission sketches (damn! I wish I could sketch like that!) So as soon as she opened them up again, I hopped right on it. I highly recommend her if you've got a spare $10. I love what she's done with the boys <3

Second up, and something I'm still a little in shock about -- I've been picked to be one of the new admins of The Writers' Helpers, where I will be answering questions and giving writing advice. I applied sort of on a whim, not really expecting anything to come of it -- it's a pretty big writing blog, and kind of a pipe-dream -- but eeee! I was so excited when I got the email saying I'd got through to the next round! And yesterday I sent in the last part of the interview process, and they said they'd send the password along shortly after that so... Woop! I've been really wanting to get more involved with the tumblr side of the writing community, so this'll be a fun way of doing it. 

So now for my moan. 

UGH I am so damn stuck on this bloody part! And the worst part is, I know it's just me being stuck in my head because I had such issue with it in the last draft. The problem is, I'm reeaally pleased with the way it ended up last draft, but the way one of my characters has changed means that the whole dynamic between them all has to change too. It's like a triangle -- you alter the degree just a fraction, but that sets the tangent along a completely different course. So I'm trying to work through this AND keep up with my wordcount, and it's just a headache. And I know I should chill out and just do it as it need to be done and relax, but I really really wanted to finish by the end of July, and that goal is slipping away from me and asdfhjk!!!! I feel like I'm never going to finish. It's always 'One more month, one more month', and the months are piling up and I feel stuck in quicksand. And I know it's right for the story, and I'm seriously happy with what I've got so far, but it's killing me!! 

*deep breaths*

It's going to be okay, I know this. There is no hurry, especially with writing. I'll get there in the end.

Update: Today ended up going surprisingly well. Sarah sent me a quote from an article on types of writer's block and how to overcome them which gave me a lot of pep --

10. You're revising your work, and you can't see your way past all those blocks of text you already wrote.

Revising is a nightmare - and if you've adhered to the "write a first draft quickly and then fix it in rewrites" school of thought, you've agreed to a Faustian bargain. There's no way to make this process go faster or more smoothly, a lot of the time. Sometimes it takes a while of looking at your text from different angles to figure out where the problems are, and sometimes you need more feedback from more people to figure out where the real structural weaknesses are.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you're getting stuck during revisions, that's not any type of Writer's Block (as nebulous a concept as Writer's Block is), but rather just the natural process of trying to diagnose what ails your novel.

Although one thing that works for me when I'm getting stuck with revisions is just to rewrite large sections from scratch, without looking back at your original draft. Same story, new words. Sometimes, it's a lot quicker than trying to wrangle the words you already put down.

So I ended up with 2k of Moon Path AND started a new project. I bought a new notebook and have decided to start free-writing short stories again ^^ I haven't touched short stories in over two years, but I've started having cravings again. So I also have a thousand words of a short story called '3 a.m'. It's very silly but a good start!

Week One Catch Up

A week in and 15k down! It's been a really good week, progress wise. I've finished Part 2.2, and (bam bam bam!) My friend and I have fallen headfirst into a crazy crossover between our stories, so I've got 7.5k on that one, and 7.5k on Moon Path. It's pretty awesome to see our styles meld and to see how she's playing with my boys :D And for me, it's been great getting into a proper high-fantasy world, a genre I haven't really fiddled with before. It started off as something silly, but it's growing into something pretty expansive! I really like having something 'fun' to do when I'm exhausted by 4th draft writing; I'd forgotten how wonderful free, first-draft writing can be! We've been swapping scenes every day since we started on the 2nd, and that's been really driving me to get on with it. 

Right now I'm debating whether to plough though Part 2.2 (which I'm stalling on) or move onward to Part 3, then go back. Having a bit of a pause with Moon Path because I've been staying at home to clean in perpetration for the descending of the brothers-in-law, so it's good to have some time to think about it. Working on this crossover with Sarah's really pepped me up for Moon Path, I feel like I'm getting a new perspective on the characters that I just couldn't get on my own. They're feeling just a little bit more three-dimensional. That always seems to happen, with every little step they take away from me -- like seeing them drawn for the first time, or giving them to my first readers, and having the first in-depth discussion -- it's a really odd feeling, but I feel proud of them, sitting back and watching them do their thing! My babies are growing up! 

Aaaand... They're Off!

The big question of the month is going to be: Can 4th Draft Standard Be Maintained At NaNo Speed? 

I look forward to finding out the answer. 

Today I avoided Camp by going to see Inside Out and celebrating my 1 year anniversary of being in the States, then sucked it up and bashed out 2k in two hours. Am pleased. Hope to continue to be pleased.

*scared*