Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Shambles, or Not

Apparently I am not in an Apocalypse sorta mood. I know that shouldn't stop me, but it's been so hard to write and I'm currently on vacation. I'll be back in my usual roost in two days, but I'm already quite far behind my goal for the month and I'm a little disheartened. Since it's a rainy day and I've already run into town (15 miles away) I'm going to try to focus on my writing for a bit before and after I make dinner. It's hard to focus on what happens after most of the world is eaten by Zombies with the view I'm looking at, though, and it also doesn't fit with my November NaNo story waiting to be finished.

I am currently presented with a nice fire in a rough stone fireplace and a view out the large glass doors and windows of a bluff overlooking a beautiful green river and the hill across the way as rain and fog rolls across the land. The pine trees still have their needles, with the exception of the bug eaten one missing even it's bark, but the rest of the trees are bare. There are birds braving the rain to eat some seed strewn about on the deck and railing for them. There's a large selection, a cardinal, blue jay, lots of little sparrows and finches, even a squirrel visits every couple of ours. A woodpecker flits about nearby and occasionally pecks one of the deck posts instead of a tree. I've seen at least 10 deer in the last couple of days, though not the friendly fox that normally frequents the area.

It's beautiful in a way that I cannot begin to capture in words, and none of my writing endeavors even begins to appeal to me while surrounded by it. I've been out hiking, cleared logs and leaves from around the house, Geocached, read two books, and almost every meal has been cooked at home (most by me!). It has been a great retreat despite not being entirely necessary or planned. I'm glad I have this time to spend with my mom and boyfriend after the craziness of the holidays, but I'm ready to get back into my life.

I don't know what I'm going to write yet, so I'm not going to set a goal. I'm just going to admit my current word count for the year and scurry back to my hiding hole to enjoy my last two days before stressing or worrying about getting caught up.

Word Count: 1,015

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy New Year!

I'm back from the holiday vacation and have already flown through the first two and a half days of the new year. I was separated from my planning materials until late evening on the 1st, and we had to unload the car and unpack. In the spirit of last minute decisions, I finally picked a goal of 500,000 words by December 31, 2012 as of the 2nd. With my goal, I finished my tracking spreadsheets and decided what I'd start out with.

Today I've begun writing on my short story about an unwitting zombie, and hope to finish it tomorrow. I'm guessing it will be around 5,000 words in the first draft, given my penchant for long scenes even when trying to condense them. If I finish it tomorrow close to my estimated word count, I'll be pretty much on track so far! It's going a little slow because I'm handwriting it thanks to an undeniable urge to do so, but I'm going to go focus on it as soon as I'm done here!

I hope starting with a short story and being on track in the first week of the year will help me push through difficult times with the realization that I've already finished one story, quite an accomplishment for me! Then, I'm going to move on by going back to my latest NaNo story in order to finish it. That'll be two finished first draft projects under my belt before I start a larger project!

I still need to do outlining for the story I think I'm going to work on next, Lunch Meat. It's less serious than either of the others stories, with all of the characters based on my current or former friends, and pokes fun at the current batch of Twilight inspired books (and Twilight as well). It centers around two girls whose friend begins to date a mysterious stranger and the disappears. Eventually, they connect the stranger with other weird occurrences in their town and decide they have to take him down. I'm looking forward to this fun little romp, even if I decide not to ever revise it.

Current word count: 238
Goal by end of day: 2,500
Goal by end of tomorrow: 5,000