Back Into the Fray

Remember how I entered those contest and lost? Well, after a month or so of edits and wound-licking, my skin is thicker and the MS is stronger. I've actually started a second novel *gasp* and have left the first alone for a few weeks now.

I entered a wonderful Critique Partner mixer, and hope to land one or two great CP's to help me polish that first MS. It needs new sets of eyes on it. Ones that aren't so attached to every word.

I've also discovered Get off my lawn con. It's a wonderful new online forum for writer's of adult fiction. Query advice, pitch tips, contest links, and just about everything else an aspiring writer could hope for. It's run by one of the amazing minds behind QueryKombat, and I look forward to wasting away many hours staring at the various forum threads.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get more serious about writing. I even tried giving myself a daily word count goal. It didn't work. Too many distractions. I can find a million reasons to be sitting anywhere other than in front of my computer. The biggest one just turned three years old and always wants to build pillow forts and play hide and seek. I tried getting up early to write before he wakes up, but most of what I put on the page that early in the morning is rubbish. I've tried waiting for him to fall asleep before I begin to write, but the call of my bed is too strong, and I usually only last for thirty minutes before climbing beneath the covers.

The big distraction starts preschool in two short weeks. The mommy in me cries every day because she will lose him for six hours every week. The writer in me is dancing, eager to put each of those hours to work.  Using Netflix movies as "research" counts as work, right?

The Mighty Procrastinator

We've all heard the lamentations of the distractions technology can pose. The internet is an amazing thing, and an invaluable tool...most of the time.

Each time I finally find a few minutes to sit down at my computer to write, the internet calls to me. So far, I haven't managed to resist a single time.  Take this blog post, for instance. I'm trying to beef up the MS, yet again, when I realize I haven't posted to this blog in more than two weeks. Better write something up before I forget, right? There's no better time than the present.

And then there's Facebook and Twitter and Reddit. So many wonderful ways to waste away my precious writing time.

I must learn to be strong in the face of temptation. I'd disable my wifi while I was writing, but then I'd have to lug out my thesaurus and do my writing research via old newspapers. Actually, research that way would require a trip up to West Carthage to look at local maps. Ain't nobody got time for that. The internet must stay on. I just have to learn to turn a deaf ear to its call.

It's just so much more fun to browse Reddit than it is to stare at this MS.