Thursday, August 30, 2012

Update Thursday #74

Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme of sorts where I post an update of the goings on at my blog, with reading and writing. Feel free to borrow the idea from me for your own bookish musings.



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Reading...

Books I Finished:

 
Books I'm reading:



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Writing...

~ If Only We ~ 30,010 ~
~ Before We Knew ~ 11, 449 ~
~ Whatever This Is ~ outlining ~
~ Under Enchanted Skies ~ 1,550/plotting ~
~ Beyond The Horizon ~ plotting ~
~ So I Thought ~ plotting ~
~ Hold Your Breath ~ plotting ~

The latest = Not a lot. Two quick things...

I am more determined than ever to get this story written. I wanted it out by the end of the year, but at this point, unless I finish tomorrow, I don't see it happening. So, I may have to tweak my expectations there, but I am still determined to get it done SOON.

The second thing is this: I was struggling this last week with a scene leading into another scene. I sat there looking at it, rewording it and changing it and deleting lines and adding lines. Nothing was working. So I just ignored it until the next day. Then the next day. Finally I looked at it yesterday and realized something... I was thinking too big. This scene didn't even need to exist. All I needed to do was allude to it and then GO to it. And then... the clouds cleared up and my mind was free again!

Amazing feeling, let me tell you. ^_^

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Until next time!

~Jessica

4 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you had a breakthrough! Sometimes you do just need to set it aside, give your mind a rest, and come back at it with fresh eyes. I think most writers probably have the tendency to over-complicate things when there could actually be a fairly simple solution. Yay you!
    Plus, re: your comment on my Update Thursday, how funny is it that you get Maneater stuck in your head too? It's such an old song, I thought people would be like WTF lol. I bet your brother's version will be seriously cool! I'm thinking the Music addition is going to clutter my Update Thursday, and then I was thinking of your new Sunday feature and thinking I might start something like Music Monday...even though it's a book blog, I don't think it'd hurt to have one day a week dedicated to music, especially when I get ideas and inspiration from music. Just thought I'd mention it in case it happens to be something you'd be interested in participating in! ;-)

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    1. I've been setting it aside a lot, but I think I've gotten to that point in the story where the middle feels like it is going to flow for once. I made this goal of hitting 500 words today and already hit 600. So I'm treating myself to some chocolate. LOL.

      I *LOVE* old songs! I grew up listening to all sorts of 70's/80's music that my parents loved and I have a soft spot for them all. It's like leaping back into the elementary school years when they would play records on the stereo. I think I know all the songs on that side of the Hall and Oates album. ;) Hmm... now I need to play that song!!

      It is SOOO funny that you decided to add a music thing in, because I have always wanted to do something music related. When I was brainstorming some ideas for *cough* that idea I mentioned to you yesterday *cough*, I thought that a weekly music feature would be SO AWESOME to do. Especially since we both have a love for music. :D But, YES, I would so love to participate in something like that.

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    2. Good for you! And chocolate is the best reward. You should set it within your sights every day and say 'I can have that when I've written X words' haha.

      I love old songs too! We're so close in age that we probably grew up listening to the same stuff. I'm an 80s music fiend, and I know you've talked about that before, too. I think you're more 70s-80s, and I'm more 80s-90s maybe. I'm sure my parents are way older than yours (they had me very late in life, so there's a double generation gap) but our parents likely listened to a lot of the same stuff too. My parents were big on Abba, and even though I didn't listen to them much as a kid, I got into them later and love them now. I remember my dad listening to Meatloaf all the time (on the record player, too) and even though the lyrics were totally inappropriate for a kid, I loved those songs, and always associate him with my dad. We still have our record player even though it broke a few years ago, and I refuse to let my mum get rid of the records because I'm determined to get the thing working again some day.

      I love the idea of a music feature for our *secret project*! (I seriously just giggled typing that.) We could do something like 'what's inspiring us this week' or just anything music-related since we're both so into music. When I was doing the BSD blog tour, one of the girls asked me for a guest post and she had a feature where she had authors and bloggers to do a post for 'Through the Ears of...' where people talked about music and how it related to/inspired their writing, which I thought was a really cool idea. Until we start up, I think I will do Music Mondays - I have 'make a graphic' on my to-do list, so I think I'll be starting it this coming Monday.

      Annnd, finally, I saw this on FB and immediately thought of you - cat + MLP. I was too lazy to save it and email it to you and knew I'd be coming here to comment lol
      http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=309419892488925&set=a.112399745524275.16491.112390402191876&type=1&theater

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    3. That would make me so productive!!! :D

      I'm mostly late 70's to early 80's because of the parents, and I have a little bit of mid to late 90's in me when I was a preteen/teen (Go Spice Girls!!!). I kinda missed out on the early 90's wave of music. The newfound 80's obsession, I have no clue where that came from. My parents are about 12 years apart (my mom being in her 50's, my dad in his 60's now). So my dad grew up during the Beatles era, although he loves the Beach Boys more, so I know a lot more by them than the Beatles (although I adore Paul McCartney when he was solo and in Wings). Inappropriate songs, OMG, I know. My dad listened to Steely Dan and I remember loving their music while in the 4th grade. Talk about alcohol and innuendo, such a great combination for a 10/11 year old. LOL. If we lived closer, my brother could fix the record player for you! He's fixed several. Gah! Maybe you can email me the problem and I can find out the solution.

      OMG, I so giggled when I read that. That is a GREAT idea. Music is really inspiring for me. When I'm listening to the Bones soundtrack, there are two songs on there that trigger something in me for the one story I want to write. I would have done that one for NaNoWriMo, but there was SOOO much in details I needed to work out first. I'm looking forward to seeing the post on Monday. I'll totally post one and spread the word. :D

      Marie, that picture is awesome. I love it! ^_^

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Thank you for commenting and happy reading!