Writing

One of the things I love about writing is the ability for do-overs.

I’m sure you’ve had situations in life that you reflect on and think – I wish I would have done that.

While I’m writing, I can.

Even though I’ve planned this bugger out, the story is still developing as I go. As I was writing today, I had a moment that I realized one of my characters should have done something.

I love that I was able to scroll back to chapter six and fix it.

Dontcha wish real life was like that sometimes?

Happy Wednesday to everyone!

Made the Hills My Minions aka, First Long Ride of the Season

Did it yesterday 🙂

I admit, I was nervous. And not because the ride was in Kansas and the threat of severe weather was high.

The ride was the Wamego Cabin Fever Challenge, and at times, it was challenging.  I was worried about the distance. My friend and I signed up for the 30 mile route. Last year, my longest ride was 40 miles, and it was at the end of the riding season. I wasn’t sure I could BEGIN my season at a ride only 10 miles less than my longest.

But my friend Becky is awesome. She encouraged me and believed in me. Not only did we finish, our time was better than we’d anticipated. I expected it to take us at least four hours. Total time from start to finish was 3:20. We stopped at the support stations along the way to refuel or “empty the tanks”. Our total moving time, was 2:49. I was amazed.

But it was momentous for me in another way. Last year, I took a pretty bad tumble on my bike. I was on the road going down hill (which means fast – I’d gotten up to 25 mph that day). Through a series of unfortunate events and bad decisions, I found myself on the ground, stopping me and my bike with my bare arms. I took home some beautiful looking road rash and a cracked rib as parting gifts. I did two more rides after the accident (a 40 and 32 mile). I was scared and nervous on both, but I finished. I was terrified of going down the bigger hills. I went, but slowly, surrendering the joy and sense of freedom I’d had on hills before the accident.

Yesterday, I knew a monster hill was coming. I’d studied the course and elevation before hand. But Becky encouraged me. Marry that encouragement to the utter frustration of feeling like I couldn’t do something, and I let go. I enjoyed the rapid descent. The feeling of freedom as I wheeled faster and faster down the hill. At the end, I looked at my speed. I’d hit 29 mph. Not only the highest since the accident, but a personal best. I couldn’t help it. I gave hollered my joy.

I expect I’ll still be nervous on the downhills for a bit. Pain is an effective teacher. But to feel that accomplishment and freedom again will help balance the fear.

I can’t wait for the next long ride!

 

Inspiration

I’m in love with a new song. Since I started writing, I’ve paid more attention to the words in songs.

Songwriters can be powerful story tellers, and they do it with a minimum of words. In their favor, they have music to go with those words to help evoke the emotion they’re trying to portray, but still, there’s some hugely talented people out there.

Lots of times a song will speak to me, and I keep track of it, knowing I can use it as inspiration somewhere.

This is one of those songs.

Skin, by Sixx AM

Moving Forward

slowly. But I’m moving forward and that’s better than nothing!

Finished chapter four today. Get to play with the villain tomorrow, that’s always fun 🙂

Hope everyone had a fantastic day! It’s time for me to hit the sack!

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone is having a great day, today!

Progress

Chapter one is done 🙂

Today, I’m going for my word count, then rewarding myself with another bike ride, I think. I ran last night and my legs feel it this morning! Hope to be done with my wc by the time it warms up.

On to chapter two!

Have fun with whatever you take on today!

Some Writing

Today, I really had the itch to write. It hasn’t been that strong in a few weeks. Last week was the first time since my mother-in-law passed away that I even thought about writing, so this is a good progression. I know that once I get into it, I’ll be fine, it really is something I enjoy.

But instead of jumping right into the new book, Sacrificed, I’m going to go back and tweak a few things in Deceived. Nothing major, but the changes are holding me up. My brain works in odd ways sometimes. I think someone just coughed the words, “all the time.” It’s alright. I forgive you, mostly because it’s true. Anyway, it’s hard for me to move onto task four when task two isn’t correct. My mind keeps dwelling on it. So, I’ll go back and take care of those, then start book two.

I’m really excited to use my spreadsheet 🙂

 

Hello Spreadsheet!

I prepared a spreadsheet to keep track of writing/editing numbers for my next book. People have been very nicely holding my hand and walking me through excel, and I’m starting to finally catch on!

The first time I used a spreadsheet was for NaNo in November. I LOVED watching the numbers change as I got closer to my goal. It was a huge motivator. There were days I didn’t feel like writing, but wanted to see the numbers change, so I wrote.

This time around, one of my friends showed me how to color code cells 🙂 So, if I hit my wc goal for the day, the box turns green. If I exceed it, my cell turns lavender. And if I don’t make it…big, bright, embarrassing red color floods the cell. Those will be the cells of shame… The goal is not to have many 🙂

So, I hope to start turning the report green and lavender this week. – Wish me luck!

Here it is!

Quick logo for the team. We’ll be running (or in my case, walking and wheezing) on the 21st.

Fun!

Writing is largely solitary. That’s why critique groups and writing groups are so important. But even better is knowing my family is behind me.

My husband put together a team for an organized run. I’m a terrible runner, but he roped me into a 5k. He came up with the idea to use the team name to promote my writing. I love him.

So this weekend, I’ve been working on a simple logo for the shirts. Eep!

I’ll share when we decide something.