10 posts tagged “toasted cheese”

Ah, I've been neglecting this little blog. Time for me to put some new goals down in writing, I think...

• Revise story for submission to WW
• Play around with another idea for WW story (partially written)
  
• Start wrestling NaNovel into shape
• Read The Right to Write, which I got as a Christmas gift
• Come up with article idea for March Absolute Blankl
• Write March AB ;)

• My digital voice recorder is on its way.
• The Toasted Cheese article is done, essentially, but for any minor edits that need to be done.
• I have a sketchy outline for my novel.

Not too shabby. I need to make myself a November schedule, and stick to it! I think I'll be in good shape if I just make sure to set aside time to write and don't let other things distract me!

Well, the freak snowstorm and ensuing loss of power has shot my writing schedule all to hell. I've been doing bits of things here and there, but nothing regular. I hope to get back on track next week.

Today, I've spent some time on myspace, just taking a look at the profiles of some kids who are roughly the same age as my protagonist. There's going to be a lot of my 14-year-old self in her, of course, but I need to make sure she fits into the current world.

Next week, I really MUST finish the TC article (well on its way), and I'd really like to have a sort of rough story outline. I'm going to take a look at this snowflake method Jam posted about at TC.

By the way, if anyone participating in NaNoWriMo is lurking about, my name there is lowgirl. :)

• Write every day, even if it's only for a short time (so far, so good!)
  
• Finish Toasted Cheese article for November by the end of October (well on its way)
  
• Get a digital voice recorder (um...maybe I'll be able to do that this week)
  
• Finish short romance for WW and submit it (finished!)
  
• Sign up for NaNoWriMo (check)
  
• Be a NaNoWriMo winner for 2006!

Not bad for approximately 2 hours' work. I'm feeling good about this--it's not much, but I stuck to my schedule and got a draft of something done well in advance of the due date! Yay!

Of course the article's not completely finished, but this frees up much of my time for the rest of the month to do other things. This weekend, I hope to get that romantic short ready to send off, and starting next week, all focus goes to the NaNovel. :)

By the end of the week, it'll at least be at the point where I can send a rough draft to a couple of my co-editors for comment. (Co-editors, if you want to volunteer for this, let me know!)

Starting next week, I intend to focus most of my attention on the novel. A rough plot outline in the next two weeks would be ideal.

Also, I'd like to get that romantic short in the mail by the end of the month at the absolute latest.

Spent about half the time today on the article, the rest on developing (or beginning to develop) a central character for my novel.

I think I'm going with a straightforward YA romance. I already have a character and beginning seeds of a storyline from a previously abandoned project. I think it'll work better for this.

Successfully got myself out of bed early this morning and worked on my TC article. At this rate, I'll be done with the article by the end of the week! Woohoo!

I did a little bit of writing today, but spent more time on research...reading articles on similar topics, posting questions on message boards I'm on, that sort of thing.

Yay for being productive!

I spent most of my allotted writing time today to getting a jump on the article I'm writing for Toasted Cheese. I'm tackling the art of writing good cover letters, queries and synopses, so as to not get your submissions tossed out before they're read. I'm writing from the point of view of an editor; I'm an editor at Toasted Cheese, of course, where we publish a quarterly online literary journal. I'm also freelancing for an e-book publisher, so I'm using my experience in those two areas to provide advice for our readers.

If you have any comments or suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

I'm also tossing around some ideas for my YA novel. I have a couple of different directions I could go...I'm definitely looking at some sort of romance, but I have some decisions to make as to whether it's a straight YA romance (as opposed to introducing some sort of fantasy/paranormal element), who the main character is, etc.

I'm counting this first day as a success. :)

Since I need to get myself warmed up for November, I'm going to start following this writing schedule on Monday. My plan is to start off with a half hour a day for the first week, which I will then increase each week in preparation for NaNo.

Monday: 4:30-5 pm
Tuesday: 7-7:30 am
Wednesday: 4:30-5 pm
Thursday: 7-7:30 am
Friday: 4:30-5 pm

This schedule assumes that I will be working Monday, Wednesday and Friday. When I sub on those days, I'm generally home by around 4. If I'm not working, I reserve the right to write earlier in the day. :)

Of course, I'll need to add in weekends when I get to November. For now, I'll plan on writing at least one hour on the weekends during October.

In early October, I'm going to devote most of this time to two things: writing my Toasted Cheese article, and planning/plotting/outlining my NaNovel.