Back in the groove?

Miss me?

So here's the deal: Work has been killing me the past few months. I mean seriously, I feel like I've been to hell and back, which hasn't left much time for anything extra, blogging included. At the moment it's sort of a calm between the two storms though because I'm gearing up to get super busy again. Let's hope I can get through this busy period with a little more grace than I did the last one!

So here's an update on my life: I am now at 52 new books for the year, and I'm currently working on my ninth reread. I'm not going to do a blog post on every book I've read since Wake, but I can give you a quick summary here (and I just listed them, I think I have them all...):

Fade by Lisa McMann (Dream Catcher #2) - Good, but majorly awkward to read.
Gone by Lisa McMann (Dream Catcher #3) - Good ending to the series.
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments #2) - Good, once I got into it.
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments #3) - Best of the series, I think!
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #3) - Uh-may-zing, but no shocker there!
Columbine by Dave Cullen - Wonderful book about a horrific event. Definitely recommend!
A Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (The Infernal Devices #1) - I went all fangirl. Loved.
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory (Cousins' War #2) - Good, but not her best.
While We're Far Apart by Lynn Austin - Beautiful! I loved it, like I love all her books.
The Exile by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Graphic Novel) - First graphic novel I've read, and not bad!

Out of all those, I would have to say my favorites were: Mockingjay, Columbine, A Clockwork Angel, and While We're Far Apart.

Let's see... what else. Since my last blog update, I went on a business trip to California that I was NOT looking forward to, but shockingly I ended up having a great time! My dad flew in for a meeting the evening my meetings wrapped up, and so we were able to spend a couple days hanging out on the west coast. Kinda fun that this summer he and I spent time on the east coast and the west!

In September I made an impromptu visit to Maryland/Washington DC for my best friend's birthday. I've never been to DC (or Maryland), so that was great to not only see her, but have her show me around somewhere I've never been. It was wonderful! The weekend after that, the hubs and I went to St. Lucia for a few days. It was g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s. Even though it rained most of the time we were there, it was so beautiful and relaxing. I don't know if he agrees, but I wouldn't mind going back someday! We went ziplining while we were there too, and let me tell you: If you have never ziplined, you NEED to. Even Hubs, who is scared of heights, had an absolutely amazing time doing it.

After we were back from St. Lucia, I then took a road trip up to Chicago with my mom for her 30th high school reunion. It was fun to visit my hometown, and I was able to visit my grandpa's grave a few times as well (it was somewhat cathartic). My only regret about the whole thing is that by that time I was TIRED of traveling! I wish we had gone at a time when I wasn't so busy and tired and stressed out because I would've appreciated it even more.

In between travel and excessive work, I've been keeping up with horseback riding and LOVING it. It's hard, and my muscles are certainly not in the shape they used to be (or my lungs!). But I'm working on it. Just last night I rode a new horse named Buckie. Buckie is a (formerly wild) mustang, and I have to say that was a first! I've never ridden a mustang before. He was a lot of fun though, even though he was a bit difficult to ride. My instructor brought up the idea of possibly leasing him since his owner has several other horses and doesn't ride him often. Leasing wouldn't cost much more per month than my lessons, and it would give me the opportunity to ride a LOT more often. While I love the idea of riding more than once a week, I admit I was on the fence about the idea last night. I brought it up to hubs, and he said I should do it. This morning I woke up thinking about it, and all day I've been thinking about it and getting a bit giddy at the same time. In other words, I think I knew what I wanted long before my mind officially made itself up to the idea. Hopefully it will be something that can be worked out!

Upcoming for me? Work and NaNoWriMo in December. I don't know how successful I will be this year because I'm just as busy this year as I was last year. But I'm going to give it a shot! It always is fun!

I guess that's about it. You're caught up on my life. :) I'll try to get to updating the blog a bit more frequently now. I promise.

Chipping away at my work in progress

I am ashamed to say that the novel I have been working on has been shelved for now. I'll probably keep at it here and there for the purpose of keeping the juices flowing, but for now I have something else on the horizon that I'm really excited about!

This new project is daunting, and I cringe to think about how long it will take to even complete a first draft, let alone go through the revisions and fact checking! You see, I am going to be writing a historical fiction novel. Despite the fact that I absolutely love the genre, I never really had any interest in writing a historical fiction because it's just so. damn. daunting. I'm a history minor, and so I will never half-ass a project like this. And while that's certainly not a bad thing, at the same time this is going to take a while. But regardless of how scary being at the start of this process is, I think this story is a good idea that I'm not about to pass up.

I've already made some good steps though: I have been writing out some ideas, and sometime soon I will be starting on an outline. I read one book for research purposes (that I loved!), and I have a stack of other library books that will be tackling sometime in the near future. This evening I also made contact with an old college history professor I had, and hopefully I will soon get a response that will point me in the right direction for some of the information I will need.

One thing I'm unsure of is whether I should do the bulk of my research before I start my first draft, or if I should just start writing and then fill in the details as I go. There are a few facts I need to find out in order to shape the plot, so obviously that will come first, but what about the little details? I'm not sure! I have a hunch that at first I will be doing a lot of trial and error before I get into a groove.

Regardless, I am super excited about this project. I'm not ready to share the details yet, but I think I'm going to have a lot of fun writing it. I am really looking forward to the process, and hopefully within the next few years I will be satisfied enough with it to begin to query agents.

Writing - Puzzling out the Pieces

I'm writing a novel.

There, I said it. A few select people are aware of this, and I even recently joined a writing group that has really helped me to plow through the hard parts of the process. But the majority of the people in my life have absolutely no idea I'm doing this. Part of the reason is that I'm still in my rough draft phase, and I don't want anyone to see my work yet. Some of it sucks, some of it makes no sense, and some of it leads nowhere. I want to have a chance to polish things up first once I've completed version one.

Another reason I'm not very forthcoming about this fact is that I'm not ready to answer those inevitable questions about what it's about or who the main characters are. I think part of this is a little nagging sense of self-doubt. I love my story, but I'm not quite ready to hear that someone else doesn't. This is a piece of myself that I want to show to the world someday, but that time has not yet come because the manuscript is far from complete, let alone up to my high standards.

Last night I hit 28,000 words, and even though it seems impressive it really means I haven't even cracked the halfway point yet. Part of the fun of this process is that I don't know exactly where things are going to end up. I know how I want them to end, but this could easily change at any time. New ideas keep popping up in my head, whether a new character or a new direction that things can take. I know this isn't the way many writers do things. I know many have a detailed outline or some other process they go through before actually sitting down and tapping out the novel on their computer. But I started with a general description. I keep a separate document with information I may need later: Facts, character names, scene ideas that I think would be fun, etc.

Sometimes I wonder if an outline would have been better. For example, last night I was completely stuck. I had finished one scene and was ready to start the next, which I had thoroughly fleshed out in my mind already. The only problem is that there was a small in-between part that would segue me into the next scene that I could not figure out. Nothing I thought of made sense, and unfortunately this little in-betweener wasn't something I could just gloss over for right now. Even though it was only a few paragraphs, that little piece would carve out the future of several important supporting characters. I was stumped, and admittedly I was completely frustrated with myself for having gotten this far before realizing that I had absolutely no clue what to do. I should have had an outline because this would have been a non-issue. I could have just consulted my outline, tossed it into the story, and I would have been done with it rather than spending a good two hours stewing as I tried to toss in a few sentences here and there.

In my head I tested out various scenarios. What if this happened, and then from there I went here? Or what if that happened? If that happened, I couldn't go there. And as I did all this, it occurred to me that my writing process is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I start by finding those corner pieces because they're easy, and they're incredibly important if you plan on actually completing the puzzle. From there the edges are hunted out, and I slowly begin to put them together to create a frame. But the rest is a mystery. Sometimes I have to take several pieces and try fitting them together to see if they fit or try fitting one piece to the frame of the puzzle. Sometimes it works and snaps into place, but sometimes it's all wrong and I need to try again.

I did end up finding a solution I liked for my in-betweener, and once that happened I had no problems forging ahead and completing that next scene. I was proud of myself for being able to work through it in a way that pleased me and opened up future possibilities in my story. After this was all said and done, I admit that I contemplated outlining the rest of my novel before continuing on. But some voice inside my head told me to stick with puzzling out the pieces because not knowing everything right now makes me feel like I'm on an adventure. I feel like I'm a reader in a way, where I have an inkling of where things might be going but at any time something could shake things up. It allows me more perspective, which I think will make for a better story in the end. Sure it will require a lot of clean up, but honestly isn't that the way all writing is?