writing habits – Page 3 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Never a good time to write

I’m on vacation now, staying with my uncle in Midland. The rest of the family will be out here in a couple of days. In the meantime, I’m visiting with relatives, going Christmas shopping, and trying to finally finish Bringing Stella Home 2.0.

It’s not going to be easy, though, with all the family stuff going on. I managed 1,221 words yesterday, but most of that was after midnight. I get the feeling this is going to be pretty common for the rest of the time here.

There’s never a good time to write–but I think that’s the norm. If I’m not busy with exams or schoolwork, it’s family obligations or traveling. There is never a steady routine that gives me time to write.

I suppose part of being a writer is learning to write anyway.

So anyways, my goal is to finish Bringing Stella Home 2.0 before the new year. I’m about 26k words from the end, so with only 10 days or so to go, that’s going to be almost 3k words per day. A little steep, but definitely doable. Also, since this isn’t the polished draft that I’m going to be sending out to publishers, it doesn’t have to be perfect–just good enough for me to make perfect on the next pass.

And now my Dad’s calling me, asking if I’m up and ready to go. I’ll have to cut this short here, but in the meantime, check this out: explanetary systems forming in the Orion nebula. Holy crap, this is awesome! Maybe I should go back to school and become an astronomer.

Fistful of words

I’ve recently developed a taste for Ennio Morricone’s music. My writing process these days consists of me sitting down and watching this youtube clip:

After that, I’m all gunned up and ready to work!

Holy crap, today I sent out the first three chapters of Genesis Earth to the other two editors from the BYU Writers for Young Readers conference. What a rush! I spent a couple hours writing a chapter by chapter synopsis, rushed out a couple cover letters, bought $4.81 in wood pulp for both copies of the work, headed on over to the BYU Bookstore for the envelopes and all, and voila! Sent ’em off!

We’ll see what comes of them–probably more form rejections. It’s funny how when you print something off to send it out, it seems ten times worse than you remembered.

Well, I sent it out anyway. With writing, good things never happen to those who wait.

The question in my mind is now: does that synopsis count towards my daily word count goal? Because I only wrote 1,072 words in Genesis Earth 3.0 today (nothing in Ashes, sadly), but that synopsis was upwards of 2,800 words and took up a good chunk of my normal writing time. Eh, I’m counting it.

In unrelated news, I saw Star Trek the other day. Found it entertaining, but wasn’t very impressed. Too many holes that stretched the believability.

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For example, in the beginning, Kirk’s wife goes into labor during the evacuation and the child pops out…like, five minutes later? Or the red, fleshy monster on the ice world: no visible fat, no fur…how does that thing stay insulated in such a hostile environment? Or the Romulans drilling to the core of the world to create the black hole: why don’t they just create a black hole on the surface? Gets the job done a lot easier. Better yet, when Nero realizes that he’s gone back in time and his home world hasn’t yet been destroyed, why doesn’t he save his people instead of avenging himself on the Vulcans? Or…you get the point.

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I was never a big Star Trek fan growing up, though (except for Star Trek Voyager–I loved Voyager!). I can understand how the nostalgia would make a lot of people enjoy the movie. And really, it was very pretty–the graphics were great. Lots of action. It was entertaining, just…not as good as everyone makes it out to be, IMO.

I could say more, but that’s enough for tonight. Have a wonderful Sabbath!

Breaking 20k/7day and a new apartment

Today I broke 20k words for the running seven-day total. According to my records, the last time that total was over 20k was Monday, June 8th. Despite the fact that I moved into a new apartment today, I managed to finish with just over 4k for the day.

You should have seem me at the library at 11:39 pm. I was sprinting. “Just let me finish this scene, just let me finish this scene!” Didn’t finish it, but I only have another 500 words left. I’ll use it to help get me back into the zone tomorrow.

Momentum is so important for me as a writer. I can plow through long chapters and difficult scenes if I know I’m making progress. Once I get bogged down for a couple of days, it doesn’t matter how exciting the next scene is; it’s going to be painful. Once I’m up to speed, though, the book practically writes itself.

According to my records, in the 2+ weeks since I started Ashes, I’ve only surpassed 4k on three days. That’s not good. I should at least be hitting 3.5k every day through July in order to finish this beast by August 1st. If my momentum is running steady at 4k, that will be much easier.

I don’t have too many interruptions planned for July–no conferences or major trips. That’s…good and bad. I need to get out of Provo. I can feel it. But…blegh.

Fortunately, I’ll be getting out tomorrow, touring some ghosttowns with Charlie and some of her friends. I’m REALLY looking forward to that, and have been for some time. Man, it’s going to be awesome! I’m going to check out a whole bunch of Western music from the LRC, and we’re going to have a picnic, and it’s going to be great!

In other news, I moved into a new apartment south of campus. It’s pretty nice and spacious, and since I only have one other roommate, I’ve got a private room. His name is Brett, and he’s from Colorado. As of this week, he’s an elementary ed major; even though he could graduate from the Marriott School in April, he realized that that’s not what he wants to do. He’s also engaged, to a girl he met in his freshman ward. They’re both RMs now, which is pretty cool; kind of like my parents, they kept in contact through letters and stuff. She’s in Atlanta now, and they’re getting married in August. He seems like a pretty cool guy; I think we’ll get along.

Church meets at 8:30 am in the JSB. Hehe…unless I bring a snack, I’ll probably end up sleeping through most of the meetings. It’s going to be nice, though, having the rest of the day to do stuff.