Coming up with titles is hard

It's Sunday. Statistically speaking, this is the most boring day of the week for me -- and why? I slave the entire week and end up staring at the walls when I could be hanging with my famous troupe of friends? (I say "famous" but I guess I really mean "imaginary")

Getting some critiques on Awake and The Silent Treatment. Having one's work critiqued is extremely good; however, after getting the notes, it's not so good to sulk and contemplate giving up writing altogether. It's a hard process -- it's all subjective, which makes it even more difficult to give or receive critiques.
But a word to any other budding authors out there: always say "thank you". No one wants to say anything harsh; every time I have to tell someone, "I didn't connect with the main character," I feel bad - and the person who says it to me feels bad too. We're all trying to better each other, not be mean.

That being said, my manuscript is now RIDDLED with revision suggestions (which could actually make the revision easy), so I'll be busy with that for a while before I submit it anywhere else.

Still reading, too

Finished listening to Carrie by Stephen King. Boy oh boy, the man can tell a story! I love the suspense technique he used through the whole novel - I've never seen the movie or read the book before, but basically from the first chapter you know what's going to happen at the end. That's what makes it scary, though, because you're left guessing exactly how it's going to happen, or when. I'm also really impressed with the way Mr. King portrays his characters: in this story (haven't read all his stuff, so I don't want to make a blanket statement), everyone is very human. Carrie is picked on and humiliated -- oh yeah, and has telekinesis. The story ends at the place the characters logically take it, without anyone suddenly turning into a freaky monster, void of any emotion.



Music is also very good

As I may have mentioned before, music is a big help to me either while writing or just walking around the city. My favorite artist just released a new album, so I'm all over it right now. If any of you are interested in music without English lyrics, check out Tarkan's Adımı Kalbine Yaz.

humph.

Apparently, blogging isn't a priority of mine.

I have been editing a lot, blah blah blah. I'm also living in my little dream world, designing my future home in Europe. *

Also got hooked on a German band called ich + ich


So there went most of my day. Not sure what the creepy clown is doing in this video, but it's a nice song.

I have been reading. I gave up on The Girl Who Played With Fire because it was pretty confusing with all the Swedish names and places (and then it got started with drug people and and lesbianism, and most importantly, I couldn't figure out where the guy was going with all of it). Then I ran across this parody from The New Yorker, and it addressed most of my complaints.
More enjoyable, and just as exotic, is Miyuki Miyabe's The Sleeping Dragon. Her images are very real - like when the characters are outside in a typhoon. Without being redundant, she reminds the reader just how drenched everyone is.

Finally working on part 2 of Awake, and I'm having probably too much fun writing about an office environment. Grievances will be aired - but any resemblance to any persons, places, or events, living or dead, blah blah. Feels extremely good to get this stuff out in a "safe" environment. Not that I'm writing about personal experiences. NO! All fiction.



*note to self: figure out how to live in Europe.

Grand total: 120k words; just under 450 pages

Whew!

Well, that's done.  I finished the novel last night after pouring 6,400 words into it yesterday.  That's a lot!  But after all that, all the hard work, pushing through the boring parts ... I think the ending tied together really nicely.  I don't think I've left any loose ends, but I'm sure my test readers will tell me if I did.

Editing is going to be an adventure, though.  Not only have I never written 450 pages of anything before, I've never had to make 450 pages look presentable before!  I guess I'll tell you all about it when I get there.  For now, I'm leaving it alone to marinate in all its awesomeness.

And it's weird what music I got hooked on while composing this little (*cough*) tale.  Lady Gaga and Falco.  Why?  Maybe I went a little nuts toward the end of the novel ... but after a while, I was like, "I've really gotta listen to Bad Romance again!!"  So yeah.  Some crazy pop music lead to my crazy word count.  And now I've gotta come down off it somehow.

Still going

115,302 words.  412 pages.

That's the grand total at the moment.  Yep, I'm still working on the novel, and I'm actually ready for it to be done.  Once I've gone back over the thing with a heaping dose of editing, it's going to be a fantastic story -- and depending on how many test readers I get for my first draft, I'll be able to see how well it goes over with my "fans".

I'm even starting to think about other stories to write.  All of them these days have some sort of mystery to them -- just can't figure out how to end a literary novel.  Maybe I should read some more of them?  I don't know.  They're so beautiful, but with me, they ramble.  Just like I'm doing now.

Finishing touches before the ... beginning.

Only a week to go before NaNoWriMo starts.  I wish I could do more right now than tinker around with an outline I'm not even going to use in November (because, if you remember, the out line I'll be using has long since been finished).

So I'm stocking up on good music to keep me going during November.  Lots of Turkish pop (especially Murat Boz and Gökhan Özen) and wordless soundtrack stuff (I'm really loving the Bleu soundtrack because of its sadness ... it fits certain scenes).  I've also stocked up on some lovely flavored coffee creamers.  

Back to work

Today was unbelievably good in terms of getting my butt in gear and getting some work done on Exchange.  If you follow me on Facebook, you've already read about the coffee shop I went to this morning and enjoyed.  I mean, the sign out front said "Gingerbread Frappe" ... how could I not go in?  I might just be off Starbucks forever now ... so delicious ...

And because I wrote the first draft of Exchange back at the beginning of this year, I was listening to different music than I listen to these days (changes with the season, sort of), I had to go back to that music to get "into character".  Lots of German synth-pop.  I forgot how much I love Peter Heppner.

1 Easy - Peter Heppner

Anyway, without any distractions, I was able to get back into my "zen" place and smooth out a few pages. 14 pages done (altogether ... I probably did 5 today)!  150 to go ...