best intentions... yeah, yeah, yeah...

I did quite well, for me, yesterday. I've decided that I've really got to shape up and make like a proper writer - instead of being a weak, self indulgent procrastinator all the time! I wasn't perfect yesterday, but I did improve on a lot of recent days. Achievements included:

• checked proofs of Public Domain and sent changes off to lovely editorial assistant
• perused and edited my story for the Sex With Strangers anthology [quite pleased with it too!]
• printed off a few chapters of Suite Seventeen for a paper edit
• set up my excerpts blog Portia's Prose
• prepared a bill for a web client
• read some more of Alison Kent's CIG to Writing Erotic Romance

And that lot is quite impressive if you're me!

Today I plan to get on with that paper edit of Suite... I did the edit of the SWS story on paper, and somehow, I found it easier to do that way. I got a clearer view of it. Not good for the environment to do it that way, I suppose. I'm going to allot myself a few chapters a day, so I don't frighten myself off doing it. My critique partner is away on holiday at the moment, so I can't send it to her until next week anyway.

Anyway, that's my main job for today. I may perhaps post a tasty morsel of the SWS story over at Portia's Prose, if I have time, and I'll certainly be reading more of the CIG, because even though I've been writing for years and years, it's still giving me insights into how I should be editing Suite... mostly things which I should be mindful of, but have lost sight of somehow... basics like goal and motivation and that old buggaboo of mine - conflict! God, do I hate having to 'do' conflict in books!!! I'd walk a million miles over broken glass and nails dipped in pus to avoid conflict in real life, so it just seems totally against nature to have to make up conflicts for my characters in my books... but dramatic storytelling is NOTHING without conflict... so there you are, I've gotta do it.

One thing I mustn't do today is continually keep checking MySpace to see how many friends I have. I've really got to get a grip there, and just go once a day to do my socialising and friend adding... It's a super place to network, but it's also a timewaster too. Big time! I've also got to refrain from continually visiting my Google Reader page to see which of my bloggy people has blogged... The posts will still all be there if I ration myself to one or two visits a day, and it'll be more of a treat if I have lots to read at once.

Anyway, time to start on my new, improved productive day! What are the bets on how long this latest of a million resolutions to do better will last?

excerpts

Taste a bit of PUBLIC DOMAIN here!

spotting the goofs

Well, I read through Public Domain again, and spotted a couple more boo-boos. I always like to read through proofs a couple of times at least, in case I miss some dreadful howler on the first pass. This is a big task with a 75K manuscript, but not so bad on a 4K short story. There are a handful of thingoids in PD that need dealing with... mainly because I sent a draft of the thing to the editor for a look-see at quite an early stage. Because it's not my usual type of story, I wanted to know if it would be acceptable, and if not, I'd write another... But it was acceptable, and I never went on to work it over any more, when under other circumstances, I might have done. The good news is that it was pretty much okay as it was... there are just a couple of repetitions here and there that I might have spotted on another round of editing. Otherwise, I don't think I would have changed it anyway...

That's about all I've done today so far, except for some pottering around on MySpace. Which is fun, but it scares me too. Not for the timewasting, which is bad enough, but for the fact that I feel it's a dangerous space, wide open for the nefarious activities of spoofers, hackers, crooks, creeps, nutters and general mischief makers. I think one needs to be very wary there, somehow... It's a great promotional opportunity for writers and other kinds of creative types, but it does merit some care and caution...

Well, I still don't know what project I'm going to do next. When Suite Seventeen is turned in, I'm out of contract, and that's a very depressing state of ungrace to be in. My editor has murmured about projects, but so far, not come to me with anything more concrete than that... and I feel that because I'm not proactively pushing stuff at him, he might forget about me and work with other writers who are hungry and eager and full of dynamic ideas. I suppose I must really discuss this with my agent, but in the meantime, I have various bits and pieces to edit inc. a novella and a short story or two, which could do to be polished and put out there. Nobody's going to accept anything that's still festering on my hard drive or in a heap of A4 in my office!!!

In other news, I've just started reading Alison Kent's how-to book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Erotic Romance. I read a preview of Chapter 20 aka Getting Wild and Kinky and that was totally fabboo, but now I'm going to work my way through the whole book. This book is perfect for me, as I need to understand better how to meld romance and erotica more harmoniously, and raise the volume on the romance side of things to match that on the erotica side of things. It's also v. apt for me because as most people who've read my blog for a while [both here and at the old place] will realise, I am actually a bona fide Complete Idiot! :)

I think there's much to be gleaned from writing how-to books, even if you've been in the game for a while, like I have. There's always something new to be learned, or something that you need reminding of that you've forgotten. Or, and just as important, you can find affirmation in them, in that, you can find yourself going... 'Oh god, yes, I do that...' and you realise you're doing something the right way, or at least in a way that's one of the right ways to do a thing. I think that when I've read Alison's book - which I know is going to be invaluable - I'll dive into Janet Evanovich's book, How I Write. Obviously, I won't be writing romantic crime in the near future... at least I don't think I will... but I expect there to be a lot of great advice of use to writers of all genres amongst the pages.

Ah well... better get on with something, I suppose...

Sex in Public

Sex in Public,
originally uploaded
by wendywootton.

Well, today I must do some proper work. Writing work. I foofed a lot yesterday, despite my best intentions. I mean, I did some web stuff, and I've a bit more web stuff to do today, but yet again, I did nothing towards writing except look through some notebooks and discover a few scrappy story ideas.

So, I think my best course of action is to do the proofs that I have on my desk [aka on the bed beside me, as I mostly work out of my bedroom on my laptop these days] They're for my story Public Domain, which is in the Sex in Public Wicked Words collection. This one's a bit unusual, as it's sort of alternate universe, sort of futuristic, and sort of sci fi. Can't really say too much about it, for fear of giving away the plot... which is micro thin, of course, it being written by me! But it's a bit of fun and a change of pace and scene, and I hope everybody will enjoy my hunky hero Cicero. [No relation to any Roman philosopher or whatever...]