ok...here goes....

House is quiet right now...Shannon's at Matty's and Cassidy is on the computer in the back of the house.  Greg has gone to fight with the Best Buy people about why we still don't have the tv we bought a week ago...
So now is a good time to work on writing/editing/ and anything else that takes brainpower...

It's so hard to do any of that with the TV going...I fight the distraction monster on a minute by minute basis...so after I make my grocery list, I'm going to block out about 2 hours of quiet editing....I'm working on Chapter 4...again...trying to take it line by line...read a blog post about line editing that was very helpful as far as how your mind has to be when you're line editing....helped me realize the point of view I need to be looking at the words from....not just the  imaginary reader, but also from the point of is this really necessary?  Do I really need that sentence?  Can I rephrase this without losing what I'm trying to convey?  Those are questions I was asking myself, but not as often as I needed to. 

Twitter has really been helping me find other blogs and helping me see what to do and not do and how to approach writing in general...It's becoming a valuable resource...

Been awhile

When I created this blog, I wasn't sure when I would post or what I would post.....hadn't really read many blogs to know about 'blog edicate'...like if you're going to have one, you need to update it every once in a while.  So this is me, thinking I didn't have anything to say and then realizing that all the blogs I've read since creating this one are just regular people saying what they think.  Well, I can do that...

Then tonight as I sit here while Polar Express is running on the TV for the second time tonight, (gotta love ABCfamily) I thought maybe I needed to use it to track my progress in my writing.  I've been at this for what seems like forever, and I do have a full time job, and I'm a mom.  I only started on Fall Break of 2008, but sometimes I get distracted and I lose track of time.  I read a blog post from a lady that said she'd been editing for 6 months.  I started wondering how long I'd been editing....hmmm.....seems like it's been FOREVER...
I catch myself starting over on the same chapter to try and get the flow of the story only having read it a thousand times, I'm not really appreciating where the mistakes are or where the sentence needs to be restructured.  Tweaking has to be a excruciatingly, patient process....thorough attention to details....which I have a hard time with...
I get distracted fairly easily, so my progress is slow.  I thought maybe if I use this blog like a diary and show myself where I am, it'll light a fire under me to stay more focused.  After reading some other peoples' blog posts about writing and how it's close to impossible to get published anyway, it makes me want to just stop fooling with it....but at the same time.....I don't want to....I'm too stubborn to take no for an answer, no matter how many times I hear it.  No matter how bad of  a writer I am.....I know I'm not any good yet.  Writing is a craft you learn...it's just like playing an instrument.
When I first started playing the trumpet in high school....I sucked...because I'd never played one before, but that didn't stop me....I practiced every day...started after marching season was over, around mid-November, and then by our Christmas concert, I was playing the third part of all the music.  I was last chair, but that's ok.... I knew the more I did it, the better I would get.  In two years, in my senior year, I went from last chair to 4th and from 3rd part to 1st part.  That's not too shabby.
I feel like as a musician, I have the determination to get this done....musician's know....pieces don't get under your fingers or out of your mouth if you don't practice...so that's where I am...I'm just going to keep practicing, and allowing other people's eyes to look over it and see where the mistakes are when I can't see them any more...keep up with Twitter more...that seems to be where all the agents hang out...and write, write, and write some more...:)

Diana Gabaldon interviews

I love all things Diana Gabaldon...I watched some interviews she did and she is so funny!  Her books are an inspiration to me.  I absolutely love Claire and Jaime...her two main characters in her Outlander series she's written.  I can only dream of being able to write any story half as good as that....

Changed my mind

I do that a lot...had a friend read my two first pages and she said it was too much...a  little over the top, so I'm sticking with what I've got, just added a few minor details.  I think it's better.  I hope so.  :)

Remember...

     Today is a day of remembering....9/11 happened 9 years ago.  My daughter Shannon was in 2nd grade.  Trying to explain everything to her was hard when she was little, but we answered whatever questions she had the best we could.  It's hard to explain something like that to a kid when you don't even understand it yourself. 
    
Another thing I thought about today that I had forgotten...I'm trying to write for everybody else.  I suffer from  'people pleaser' syndrome.  I put the first page of my manuscript on a website to be critiqued.  The first review I got wasn't good.  Said the idea wasn't original enough and they didn't like it.  After that, I proceeded to completely rewrite my first page to make it more exciting.  Rewriting the first page usually translates into rewriting everything else too.  I even thought about completely rewriting the whole thing. 

Then I remembered an interview Rob Pattinson did while he was promoting one of the Twilight movies.  He said if he tried to please everybody he would go insane.  All he could do was what he liked and thought was good and if people like it great and if not, that's ok too.  That's what I need to do.  If I post something...everybody's not going to like it.  I know that, but ...I want it to be the best it can be, so if I need to change something I will, but at the same time...I need to remember the story that I like and stay with it.

Currently reading:

I'm reading "The Help" right now.  Great book, but I keep getting side tracked with life and haven't picked it back up.  I've also started "Water for Elephants".  I wanted to read it before the movie comes out with my favorite guy, Rob Pattinson.

Thinking about shaking up the first page of my novel.....hmm....

I'm thinking about changing the situation in the very beginning of my novel....right now, it seems a little boring...but I've been told it's because I've read it so much, it doesn't effect me any more.  I think I'm going to put the first page I have up here first and then write a different one and see what people think....

New picture

Here's an updated picture of us at Melissa and LaBrone's wedding.

Red head

In the picture to the left, I'm the red-head on the right. That's my life-long buddy, Dane, on the left and my other life-long buddy, Sam, in the middle. Love those girls!

Well, I'm back!

I started this blog in 2007 with the intention of keeping up with it. Then came Shannon going to middle school and soccer games...then cheerleading...games and competitions. So here it is, Sept. of 2010 and now I've decided I need to give this blogging thing another 'go', as my friends from Oz would say.
We're still busy, but Shannon has her license now, so I'm not in the car quite as much. Cassidy has started middle school, so her teachers give her time to do the homework in class, which is fabulous!
I got this bright idea in 2008 to try to write a novel. Never done that before...not ever...never was really a 'reader'. I don't really feel like I even have a right to try and write because I'm so behind on my reading. I have been reading more now. When I was younger, it was always so hard for me to read and understand what I read. I had a comprehension problem from the time I could read until adulthood. When I took a reading test, I had to read passages more than once to understand everything in them.
For a long time, I thought I had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) because my mind just goes off in every direction while I'm trying to focus on something....and then sometimes it doesn't..

A friend with almost enough credits to have a psychology degree told me he thought I had Central Auditory Processing Disorder. So I Googled it and it said reading comprehension issues was one of the problems of this disorder. I also have trouble understanding what people tell me. Sometimes I have to have things repeated more than once because it sounds scrambled to me the first time I hear it. My husband thinks I just can't hear. I've told him before, "I heard what you said, I just didn't understand you."
My friend also told me the therapy for this disorder is music, so me being a music teacher has helped me overcome this 'reading' issue. Now I can read much quicker with much better comprehension. I'm definitely a success story. I want to share my new found love and try my hand at writing.
And so on Oct. 2008, Fall Break of that year, I started writing. I've written the equivalent of three books so far.
I've been on websites and researched how to become a published author. It ain't easy.
Lots of hoops to jump through. Lots of writing, rewriting, editing...reading and learning about the craft of writing.
So here I am...close to my two year anniversary starting this new adventure. I'm being patient. If I get in a hurry, I'll screw it up. I want to make sure I'm doing everything right.
Hopefully, I'll not only have the 'know-how', but enough talent to be considered by an agent.

I want to use this blog to post my progress as a writer and the ups and downs of someone trying to break into the world of being a successful, published author...
and so....the adventure begins.....