Motivation

I've been following Ali's blog on getting her 50 pages together for CWC next week. What's funny is that my word count has pretty much matched hers on each of her posts. This morning I have 7 pages to go--as did Ali as of her last post.

But it haven't been racing her, trying to meet or beat her word-count. Competition wasn't my motivation. The closest I can come to naming it is 'Fear'. Fear of disappointing my group and myself. Fear of being the first to miss the deadline. Of looking ridiculous or showing myself as not being up for this. Fear of failure.

It worked pretty well. Not that I recommend a steady diet of it. It does wear on the psyche.

So how do I keep motivated once the 50 or 55 or 72 pages I get together by Saturday for printing and such are complete if I don't employ the fear factor? I'm hoping the big Mo keeps me going. Momentum is a wonderful thing. It's what happens after you work out those kinks in the writing muscles by just doing the writing. Butt in chair, pen on paper (or fingers on keyboard) and writing. One word, sentence, paragraph, page, scene, chapter at a time.

I'm liking what I'm producing. That helps, too. It's not anywhere close to perfect, but I'm going in directions that surprise me. And that usually means I'm doing something right. The group will let me know if that's true. But until then, I'm going to work on another scene.

And then another after that. This is getting to be fun.

The Who - I'm Free (Isle of Wight)

My doctor's exam yesterday was great. I am now free to eat whatever. And before the groovy summer fresh fruit and veggie season is over.

Holy Crap!

As Ali pointed out we only have two weeks until we have to submit again. Argh! How can that be?

I wrote some over the weekend, but it was like exercising after taking a month off. My creative muscles weren't exactly happy about it. I'm not sure I stand by my decision to take said month off in order to wait for feedback. Just hit me this week that even if I was going down the wrong road, I'd have pages done. Pages that could be edited. D'oh! Won't make that bonehead mistake again.

Time to keep pushing through. I'm not sure where that leaves the revision of MMG. It still feels like that needs to be my priority, but I've signed on for CWC (FCWC?--I'm liking that Fountain Creek thing again) and it is a good thing. It's making this whole writing thing real. As Jenny said to me, "It's a job. A good job, but a job." With deadlines and accountability and all that good stuff.

So time to suck it up and just do the work. How and when to finish MMG will work itself out. And it's not like I was burning up the revisions before the new group started. So if I am serious--and I believe I am--then I'll find a way to get it done.

Nothing like a little panic-driven self pep talk to get motivated.

June's Gone, July's Here

Wow! A week into July and I still haven't done a post mortem on June. See post below for excuses.

My goals for June were:

--Finish rewrite of MMG. I'm at 50 pages. No where near finished.
--Continue research of Tarot, crystals and all things metaphysical. DONE
--Finish both critiques for CWC. DONE
--Graciously receive feedback on Vesta. DONE--at least I hope so
--Do critique of HM for D.B. DONE
--Outline TNN with new ideas. NOT EVEN CLOSE

So for July, I'm taking it just a bit easier on myself.

--Do 100 pages of rewrites for MMG.
--Write 50 pages of Vesta.
--Complete CWC critiques.

Let's see if I can make it through these tasks. I'm dropping the reoutline of TNN, because I've got enough on my plate with a rewrite and a new-write and critiques. I don't want to muddy the waters even more with a third novel in the mix.

Good Feedback

I had meant to post about this last Tuesday, but I made a very impulsive decision on Monday to take off the rest of last week so I could spend more time with Miss Elizabeth and her parents. Overall a good decision, although I'm paying for it a bit today because of the stack of things in my inbox. She is very much a 3-year-old with flashes of 40. Too much fun.

My favorite thing is that she says that pink is green because her father hates pink and loves green. Not bad, eh?

Anyway, received my feedback on Vesta from the CWC last Monday night. If anyone can get me in publishing shape, it's this lot. There was a lot of great discussion and wonderful suggestions on how to make it better. My favorite bit? That everyone said this was the best thing of mine they'd read. Talk about an ego boost. Of course, later that evening I wondered just how bad the previous writing was. But that's my issue, not theirs. I have a lot of work to do by the end of the month, but I am glad that I decided not to continue until I had feedback on the first bit. I may not wait next time, but at least I'll know I'm headed in generally the right direction.

I enjoyed Ali's and Fleur's submissions last month. I hope the feedback I gave them was half as helpful as what I received. And I'm looking forward to reading Jenny, Mary and Shane. It's been a while, especially for Mary and Shane. I'd like to get the reading done this week so I can concentrate on my own writing. Then I'll review the day of the meeting so the stories are fresh.

A lot of work on both sides, but I'm thinking it's going to be so worth it.

Shaking Things Up

"I'm sick and tired of waiting for dreams that never come." Walk on the Moon by GBS

"The hardest part of life is to live while you're alive." Here And Now by GBS

I just finished listening to Fortune's Favour by Great Big Sea for the first time. Wow! As I stated in an earlier post, the sample songs had a me a little worried about how pop-py the songs sounded. And the album is probably the most pop-oriented one they've ever done, including Something Beautiful.

There's a maturity here. While there's still some melancholy--the predominant emotion on SB--it's tempered with a "but isn't life still cool?" attitude. Not surprising when you think that all The B'yes are right around 40, married and at least two of the three have kids now. What is surprising is that given that, being in the game for 15 years and their past success they are so willing to shake things up.

We still have the three traditional songs: England, Banks of Newfoundland, Rocks of Merasheen. They still play tin whistle, bodhran, bouzouki, banjo, etc. on the pop songs. There's the mix of uptempo offerings and ballads, etc. Even a couple songs that stray into the realm of country (Sean's influence, I'm sure). But the production is much more sophisticated than anything we've heard from them. This one may be at the top of my favorites list.

One little quibble is that there isn't an a capella song on the album. However, they made up for it by giving one as a bonus if you pre-ordered from their website. So I'm good with that.

You may have a hard time finding it at your local record shop, but it's worth the effort because of the bonus DVD that shows them at work in the studio. Come on, we all love to see the creative process, don't we. But it's also available on iTunes for just $9.99.

Another Week...

And another week behind.

You don't want to hear about no time.

You don't want to hear about how other things crowd in and my time goes away.

You don't want to hear about getting a few minutes and then not having the energy to do anything.

Hell, I don't want to hear it.

Maybe I should just go make something happen.

I'll let you know how that works out.