*Insert Witty Title Here*

Oh dear... today was a lot longer day at work than I wanted it to be. I was supposed to get off at 2, but 2 o'clock got there and we had about a 2-hour wait time for new scripts. So yeah... I didn't leave 'til quarter after 5. I mean, great money and such, but argh, my feet hurt. And I didn't really get to write a whole lot. All of the new words were from yesterday, only not all of them got converted from longhand to digital until today. Numbers wise, it looks more impressive than it feels. I need to get the plot moving along. Until that happens, everything feels like fluff. So who knows if much of what was written yesterday will stay.

I feel like I have more to say, but nothing's coming to me. I'm working on critting some great stuff from both my wonderful CP and my wonderful cousin. I've got a bunch of stuff I have to do for school and technically I should have studied today for our Tuesday exam. However, I've gotten an 82% and 84% (somehow!!) on the two tests we've had so far. I'm not quite sure how that happened as I was expecting a failing score on that second one. Seriously. We had to know drugs/dosing for so many infections it had my head spinning. I think going with "Levofloxacin 750mg QD" saved my ass on like 5 questions, I'm guessing. lol Anywho, peace out my people.

Project: Reaper
New Words: 1,702
Total Words: 10,974
Word Goal: 100,000

10974 / 100000 words. 11% done!

Damn you, thesaurus!

Argh! I'm so frustrated! I'm re-writing a scene (that I now absolutely LOVE), but I can't think of a word!! It's a synonym for doorway. I want to say it starts with an s, but I'm not sure. I checked thesaurus.com, but to no avail. What you'd describe when people used to say to stand in a doorway during an earthquake. A google search of that also proved fruitless. I'm trying to avoid use of the word "door" as it's used in the sentence preceding it. The sentence goes, "... the angry manager that stood in the ______." Why can't I think of this word?! It's totally there, I just can't find it! Grrr! Argh!!!

Hoping for anyone good with words (or in my case, one particular word) to help. I've done some editing, but haven't done enough writing to justify another word count bar update... Well, I have, but I'll feel like I accomplished more once I actually write more and I get to go from 9,272 to whatever I end up at. ;-) Yeah, I cheat.

-Ash

Nine Hours Later

I meant to past this last night as I was heading to bed. However, the Benadryl hit me WAY fast and by the time it occurred to me, "Gee, I ought to get my blog post in for today" I was nearly doing a *headdesk* not of my own volition. And so, I am posting it today when I am now bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Well, the former part of that saying anyway. I don't have a tail that I know of. :)

So yesterday... I believe I am getting to the part where I need to sit down and write some sort of outline for Reaper. I need to know where it's going. I mean, I know the beginning (which is pretty much all written) and I know approximately how it will end. However, the Dreaded Middle awaits. I am so not looking forward to that.

Somehow I plowed through it in Alex's first book, but I'm not quite sure how I did that. Perhaps because SO MUCH was happening in that book that I always had something to write about. I'm thinking I need to do some more character interviews (aka, me talking to imaginary characters in my own head). I did a long one with the MC, and figured out a lot about her world and her opinions of it. I think I need an interview with the male lead and the villain as well.

I guess I'll be off to do that today. However, I have a presentation for my Pharmacology class to put together. And I have to answer a bunch of questions about the article I read for it. Here's hoping it goes quickly, hm? Then I can get back to the fun stuff.

OH! And I spent the latter part of yesterday evening catching up on the second season of Chuck! God bless Hulu.com! Oh dear, I'd forgotten how much I love that show and how much I love Zach Levi (Chuck). He's super attractive in a very endearingly nerdy way. *sigh* I mean, give me Alexandre Verga any day, but Zach's pretty up there, too. :)

Project: Reaper
New Words: 1,960
Total Words: 9,272
Word Goal: 100,000

9272 / 100000 words. 9% done!

Reading and Writing = Great Saturday

Yes, I had to work this morning/afternoon, but it went quickly enough and I'm kind of getting used to our new computer system in the pharmacy. I'm still uncertain about a lot of things, but it's not quite as bad as it COULD be. :-) I would rant here about an incredibly rude patient, but my professors would remind me that would be "unprofessional" of me.

Anywho, after work, I went to Borders to utilize my 40% off coupon. Unfortunately, they didn't get their shipment of Succubus Heat yet so I couldn't use it on that (a trade paperback). Boooooo. However, I got Cry Mercy (a MMPB) instead, by Toni Andrews. I managed to read the whole thing between 3 o'clock this afternoon and... 9-ish? So it was a relatively quick read. But definitely a worthy addition to the Mercy Hollings series. Tino really grew on me as a character in this book. I admit, though, I wanted to see a lot more of Sam in this than we actually got, but there's always hope for the next installment, hm? We got some tantalizing bits about Mercy's heritage, too. I'm guessing that will be an integral part of book 4, whenever that one comes out.

And after that, I finally felt renewed enough to write. And write, I have. Geez. I guess a lot of writing has been building up in me this week since I didn't get a chance. At all. All week! It was torture. I got through my plotlessness, thankfully. But no real writing during the week. So anywho... the Benadryl's kicking in now so I better post my word count before I fall asleep and do an unconscious *headdesk*.

Project: Reaper
New Words: 2,784 (hoorah!)
Total Words: 7,312
Word Goal: 100,000

7312 / 100000 words. 7% done!

The Muse ComesThrough!

So... the wonderful Jeaniene Frost posted a teaser for her book First Drop of Crimson on her livejournal... with Spade as the MC (tho it's third person). And OH MAN! I wasn't sure if I'd go for it, but based on that teaser, I'm totally freaking sold! Better yet, she gave a song suggestion that I happened to have on my iTunes but hadn't listened to much... and guess what, apparently the Muse enjoyed it because she started forming a scene for me! And I'm so excited for it!!!

Even better, she knocked loose some cobwebs in my brain and found some dots to connect that I somehow didn't see. Apparently she deigned to handfeed me the pieces one by one. ;-) Such a fickle creature she is. I guess time is all she needed, however insistent I was about it. There must be something to this writing longhand business... Slower, yes, but no email/twitter distractions (btw, my twitter is ashleynewcomb). It helps me actually focus on one coherent thought at a time.

Oh, and I called my local Borders and they are notifying me as soon as they get Succubus Heat. Since it's a soft drop, they can sell it prior to the 26th!! Woot woot! I so hope it gets here this weekend? Perhaps? Pretty please? Anywho, no word count tonight, but I'm going to finish seeing if I can draw anymore from the Muse. I've bribed her with brownies and ice cream... Pretty sufficient bribe, yes? I thought so too. ;-)

Listening to: The Fray - Say When

The Smoking Gun

I'm still searching for that elusive smoking gun. Doesn't matter how much ammo I've got, I can't start shootin' without the gun. Dammit. :-( Perhaps some longhand brainstorming is in order... That seems to help lately. I partially studied for the exams for tomorrow... They should be easy regardless. If not, then we'll see. ;-) I find Reaper immensely more interesting than Complementary/Alternative Medicine and Pharmacoeconomics.

Listening to Next to Nothing by Breaking Benjamin. Yeah, it's time to bring out the old stuff. ;-)

-Ash

Unfortunately no word count update as there were no new words written. Boooo!

Stubborn Muse!!

So it seems that my writing streak was a fluke. Or maybe today is the fluke? That's the more optimistic way of looking at it, I suppose. Anywho, I'm frustrated because I have all of this backstory (thanks to a long interview with the new MC for Reaper) however my muse refused to tell me the main plot line. I have the subplot from yesterday, but it's not strong enough to carry the whole book. Plus, it might be something that wouldn't even be revealed 'til the second book (if it ever makes it to that point) ;-)

So. That leaves me with a lot of great ammunition, but no gun to shoot with. Damn. And I've got me some nice .38 specials too!!! (man, I want to go shooting again... all this talk of ammunition) Argh! Here muse-y muse-y muse-y! I've got some nice Dove chocolate for you! Maybe some sleep will do me good, huh? Anyone have tricks for making the muse play along? I think she figures that since she gave me everything else about the Shiny New Idea, that I should do the legwork on the plot. I might have to break out the threats if she doesn't offer me some good plot soon...


Project: Reaper
Words Today: 925 (so close... ah well)
Total Words: 4,528
Word Goal: 100,000

4528 / 100000 words. 5% done!

Reaper Update and the Joys of Saturday

I'm SO excited about this project!!! Seriously! It's coming at me so quickly, I'm just struggling to get everything down before my muse refuses to repeat everything back to me. Which makes me really excited, because I don't know that Alex's world ever wrote itself quite this fast.

I wrote over 2K today! Been a while since I've posted that kind of result so it's a nice change. And that was with a four hour shift at work today... And a three hour break when I hung out with a couple work friends to eat pizza and watch Taken (which was friggin awesome, btw). So not bad for a day's work, huh? Anywho, not only did I get the nice bank of words today, I also discovered a plot thread! And I wasn't even looking for it! It just fell into my lap as I was writing. It totally surprised me and I walked around the house with a silly grin on my face for a couple minutes because of it.

Anyway, back to the grind before I fall asleep tonight. Want to get a few more plot devices worked out before sleep. On the downside? I totally neglected working on the presentation I want to get done this weekend. Oh well, I'll hope for tomorrow.

Project: Reaper
Written Today: 2,259
Total Words: 3,603
Word Goal: 100,000

3603 / 100000 words. 4% done!

SNI Progress

Figured that, since I actually got some written text done, I'd update and post a word count. The Shiny New Idea now has a Word folder! Hip hip hooray! And I got back to my 1K/day goal! Whoo hoo! After work tomorrow, I look forward to working on this project some more. The MC is intriguing me, as are the other minors. I don't know that I've even been this excited Untitled 1&2.
It really sucks not having titles so for the purpose of not getting confuzzled, I've got a working title for SNI1 (Shiny New Idea #1). That would be Reaper. So we'll go with that for now. Now I must get back to the file before I waste any more word count on blogging. ;-)

-Ash

Current Project: Reaper
Written today: 1344
Total words: 1344
Word goal: 100,000

1344 / 100000 words. 1% done!

Shiny New Ideas and a Contest!

No, unfortunately it's not my contest. However, the wonderful author, Jeaniene Frost is doing a contest for an ARC of City of Souls (by Vicki Pettersson). I avidly follow both Jeaniene's and Vicki's series. Totally go check it out and win a chance to win an amazing book! Check it out here: http://frost-light.livejournal.com/100062.html

On another note, I've finally pinned down some details on Shiny New Idea number 1. I think there are two or three others floating around in my brain, but this one's got me excited. I will come back to book 2, but I want to get some more stuff worked out for SNI1 (as I will affectionately call it until a title presents itself). Woot!

1,000 word fail ;-)

But that's okay. I had some studying to do tonight. And technically I was letting my mind consider where to go next for writing. Coming up on the dreaded Middle!!! *dun dun dun* Hence the plotting and confusion and mayhem. Add to that studying the medicinal chemistry of beta lactam antibiotics = one confused Ashley. I'm going to let my mind play with a Shiny New Idea tonight just because I feel like it. So yeah. There.

Project: Book 2 of Alex's world
New words: 288. yeah yeah yeah...
Total words: 7,744
Word Goal:100,000

7744 / 100000 words. 8% done!

I shoulda studied more tonight...

But oh well! At least I got through 1.5 packets... out of 5. Just watched the Castle season finale. Thank God for Tivo. I'll probably brainstorm tonight a bit for what's to come next b/c I get the feeling that the next parts won't write themselves very easily. But who knows. I certainly hope I'm wrong. :) Met the 1,000 word goal again. Not sure what tomorrow'll bring. We'll see.

7456 / 100000 words. 7% done!

A Happy Surprise, or, Procrastination

So I was ecstatic to find the first six chapters of Succubus Heat (the fourth Georgina Kincaid novel by Richelle Mead) posted on Borders.com! The full thing doesn't come out 'til May 26th, but that was an EXCELLENT pick-me-up for the Monday Blues. If urban fantasy/paranormals are your kinda thing, then READ THAT SERIES! It's friggin fantastic. I don't know that I've ever felt what the MC feels as much as in this series. So anywho, can't wait to get my hands on the real hard copy, but it'll be here soon. Can't wait for the 26th. Also, because Vicki Pettersson's new one comes out, as does Kim Harrison's foray into YA, Once Dead, Twice Shy. That will be a fantastic day. Just wish they could maybe each be a week apart. That way I'd have one of those things to read right now! *sigh*

On another note, I did succeed in the recent 1,000-words-a-day goal I've set with my CP. I've updated the word count meter and I think I worked past this stupid scene that was just so wooden and would NOT write itself. Ugh!! But anyway, hopefully that's over now and I can move on. I'm foreseeing that I'll be unable to do the 1000 words on Thursday. And Wednesday. But we'll just have to see. Anyway, I just realized I'm missing the Castle season finale. Thank God for Tivo.

6402 / 100000 words. 6% done!

Weekend Happenings and Progress

Thanks to the amazing critique of my CP (Hi Cari!), I've found a more fitting beginning to book 1. Thus, about 3K words were cut, bringing the WC down to just under 140K!! Still got a ways to go to shorten that to 115K, but hey, I'll take 3K wherever I can get it. :) Considering that a month ago this mammoth was just under 150K!

I've been kind of stuck on book 2 the latter half of this week because I couldn't figure out which part to put next. And then I realized I needed Kade... and I've since written more than 1300 words today. Hooray. Oh, how I love writing him. Anyway, see the progress bar below. And hopefully working through this kink will help me this coming week...

5327 / 100000 words. 5% done!

Book 2 Progress

I'm tired... Benadryl kicking in...

4037 / 100000 words. 4% done!

Book 2 Progress

Got more written tonight. Didn't intend to, but it actually wrote itself decently well. I guess that's what happens when I get to write dialogue. :)

2789 / 100000 words. 3% done!

Book 2 Progress

Hoping to catalogue the progress of book two on a somewhat regular basis. Here's to hopin.

1654 / 100000 words. 2% done!