Write at Home Moms - Page 3

[allgirls]

It's all imagination. I walk around with my scenes and conversations twirling around in my head until I get a sense of how it's going to go. Right now I'm working on an argument/conflict and I'm playing different scenarios out in my mind...then I'll sit and write it with time. I consider the imagination part writing as much as the writing part. I see my characters...I know what she says, I'm having a little difficulty with his words..he's scared now, he wants her back but risks everything he has worked so hard to achieve if he takes her back...I think I have it. I'll sit and write it soon. It'll come.

I think you just have to trust the process...don't force it. If you are stuck on something move on to another chapter and come back to it. I know my story and I've done this quite a few times. So much so that I've written stuff I've forgotten was already done

Good luck!

Allgirls

[MommyHawk]

Originally Posted by allgirls

I love editing

I am also enjoying the class considerably! I just finished and posted my third lesson

I think you'll really find it helpful! I love learning

did you pay the $75 membership to take the classes?

[MommyHawk]

I'm so sick of my book!

I started this book - the story - at a time when I was still dealing with some things of my past...and they are in the story, intertwined with the fiction - and it's been a real healing cathartic journey...but I'm so done with it now. I am feeling like my past is sneaking into my present now, I feel stuck in the past, and I know it's this book. I have polished and shined the first few chapters that really deals with it, and then my character MOVES ON and LIVES! I can't wait, because I just feel so stuck right now... just two more chapters to edit and then I'll be out of the woods...

anyone else do this and find that it was a bad idea? My next book - already outlined - has NOTHING to do with my own reality. Can't wait to start it!

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by MommyHawk

did you pay the $75 membership to take the classes?

No..F2K is a free class..it starts up again in April.

The $75 fee is to join for a year. I'll probably do that at some point I want to do the noveling workshop...it will be worth it for that alone

[allgirls]

Mommy Hawk..I would think it's going to be fantastic then if it's affecting you so..two more chapters!

Sounds painful though..hope you get through it soon. I have real life stuff throughout mine but nothing painful like that.

I've finished chapter 45 of my novel and I'm through the rough spots!

.nice blurb in the paper about my poetry book launch on the 20th, great fan letter in the mail the other day, I booked an ad in the Gazette and I'm being interviewed for the local news program about my book

Lots of happy things..oh yeah and today I received a copy of another book I have a poem in..it's great!

[1jooj]

allgirls, here's to a great book launch and the momentum to follow!

I have not been working on my own book. Bright side, I have been writing for pay again. I know I need a new strategy for storage. I think I am going to upload to gmail, so that I can access the doc from wherever I am (as long as there's wifi) and keep working. Right now it's housed on one laptop, but I am often on the other, so something as simple as inertia keeps me from adding words.

And like I said, bright side, I am working for pay. I think this year, I'd like to get myself a Mac. I work on Mac for work and love my work laptop. I spilled coffee and gummed up keys on my PC laptop.

Working on fun projects at the job, which is great, but as insulated as I thought I'd be from office politics...*sigh*...notsomuch.

[allgirls]

My husband bought me a flash drive...could you get one of those...you can just go from computer to computer...and it's a great little backup...just keep your main book file on there

I am revised up to chapter 57 out of 70...I have to go back and change a scene that was a bit lame and it came to me how to fix it so I'll rewrite that little paragraph. Best part...Chapters 60-70 are already revised and it's not rewrites but rather proof reading at this point so for all intents and purposes this sucker is finished!(until they send it back to me again )

Book launch stuff is moving along...a local news television show(the one I'm a reporter for actually) is coming to interview me about the book on Monday fora FEATURE and the local paper is coming to the launch as well.

I also am thinking of writing a screenplay for the novel as soon as it's off for publishing..in April...I have a contact who will take it to a person who makes movies...for serious...now that's kind of thrilling

It's very exciting around here!

Oh and my husband bought me a beautiful pen when he was away last time for me to use to sign books. I love that man

[MommyHawk]

this is the only place I'm saying this...I'm afraid to edit past chapter three...

Ok, I said it. Maybe that'll help me actually do it, admitting I'm afraid...

phew! I hate admitting fear, but it is what it is...next book? totally fiction! But this was THE BOOK that I had to write. I've heard other authors who have that one book that calls to them, and this was mine. And it's this stupid fear that had killed my new years resolution to be done editing by my birthday. So I'm moving my self-made deadline up, but no later than May...ok, time to put up or shut up! I can't let him win twice...

but in fun news, I was looking through a mag and found a picture of a woman who looks JUST LIKE my MC, the way she looks in my head! So I have her pick taped to the wall with her "name" (Matty Bell) written at the top, like a friend's pic close by to help me keep going. And it's a pic of her after all the crap at the beginning is over...so it's a helpful reminder that she does get past the crap...

you'd think I already know that since I already wrote the whole book, to the finish! But for some reason I just feel stuck in this junk at the beginning...I know what I have to do. Edit past these stupid chapters (which are great sounding, but painful to write/edit/read for me...kwim?)...

[allgirls]

ha! Mommy Hawk...I'm in the same place and again, like you..this book has a lot of my own stuff in it..it's sort of a "what if?" story from an incident in my life.

I think I'm afraid for it to be over..it'll mean it's finally over...

I spoke to a writer friend of mine briefly and he said he had the same exact moment of panic just before his first book went to print and it too incorporated a lot of personal stuff.

Anyway..perfectly normal is what I'm saying

I'm writing several more chapters to my story..it's great because it's won't require much rewriting..it was a loose end from the beginning that I thought I might let dangle but I've decided to tie it up and I figured out how to do it.

Keep going..you can do it!

Allgirls

[MommyHawk]

OT: I don't understand why they closed the forum BEFORE they had the new one in place, ready to go. upsetting to say the least...

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by MommyHawk

OT: I don't understand why they closed the forum BEFORE they had the new one in place, ready to go. upsetting to say the least...

From the forum closing notice

MDC is undertaking a large software upgrade, and we do not currently have the time or resources to adequately maintain the Writing forums.

The writing forums required a lot of moderation/work. I couldn't keep up with it when I was moderator there.

[MommyHawk]

Originally Posted by allgirls

I love editing

I am also enjoying the class considerably! I just finished and posted my third lesson

I think you'll really find it helpful! I love learning

ok, I love editing again!!! I just realized something...I am NEVER going to put true to life events in a book EVER again!!! It's just too much an emotional rollercoaster for ME...writing about it was one thing...re-writing and editing it is horrible. But I've passed the part that is 'real' so I don't need to revisit it again for a long while. Now I'm onto the GOOD, oh so good, parts of my book...

is it ok to fall in love with your own male lead???...

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by MommyHawk

ok, I love editing again!!! I just realized something...I am NEVER going to put true to life events in a book EVER again!!! It's just too much an emotional rollercoaster for ME...writing about it was one thing...re-writing and editing it is horrible. But I've passed the part that is 'real' so I don't need to revisit it again for a long while. Now I'm onto the GOOD, oh so good, parts of my book...

is it ok to fall in love with your own male lead???...

I hope so...I LOVE mine so much..

[MommyHawk]

Originally Posted by allgirls

From the forum closing notice

MDC is undertaking a large software upgrade, and we do not currently have the time or resources to adequately maintain the Writing forums.

The writing forums required a lot of moderation/work. I couldn't keep up with it when I was moderator there.

still...

in fun news, I just signed up for F2K! Can't wait...

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by MommyHawk

still...

in fun news, I just signed up for F2K! Can't wait...

Yeah..there wasn't a choice there.

I should sign up again!

Allgirls

[Paigekitten]

Can I join you ladies? I just found the mothers writing forum, only to realize that it is closed.

I am starting a new novel, but I feel so drained I'm having a hard time feeling creative. I have a handwritten manuscript that I had abandoned, but now I am thinking I should pull it out and go back and forth between rewriting, and forming the new one.

I have so many problems in the first draft that I don't know if I need to just scratch the whole thing and start over, type it up as is and go on from there, or say it was great practice and just leave it alone.

[allgirls]

welcome Paige

Can't advise you on how to do..I would walk around with the main character in my head see if you can think of ways to make him/her do something fantastic, see if they speak to you.

I got my first 20 chapters back for revision(on the final draft) and only a few mistakes and one paragraph rewrite

Is there any such thing as a final draft?

lol

I'm starting to think it's called "the book" lol.

Anyway I've finished 17 of them so will finish the other three today

[georgia]

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[MommyHawk]

let me just say, OMG... Paige, Welcome! don't worry about 'having to rewrite' your first draft. You will rewrite it again and again and again. Just go for it. If you have a hand written 1st draft, make your second draft from that, making revisions as you type it in. If you remove major parts, add others, that's all part of the editing process get into a groove and keep going. Have you written a previous novel? What about?

[Paigekitten]

I have only completed that first handwritten draft. I had thought there was no salvaging it because I was going to have to change practically everything. I started a second novel, but I keep thinking about the other so I think I need to actually get it into shape. They are both fantasy, I had intended young adult, but I think that's going to change.