You know you need a break from writing when...

When you write the word "pettles", stare at it, take away the extra T and glare because the red squiggly line is still there. 3 minutes later you finally come up with something spell check recognizes as "petals".

When you write the word stair instead of stare originally in this post.

When you finally hit the big flashback scene only to realize it only deserve a paragraph and you have no idea how else you're going to make word count for the day...

I wrote 'posthumusly' today. Apparently spellcheck has no suggestions for that. I've decided it deserves to be it's own word.

posthumus-- 1. (n) A mediteranian dip where chickpeas are added and then removed by high-speed centerfuge. 2. (adj.) The curious state of gastro-intestinal discomfort brough on by an over-abundance of greek and or mediteranian food.

Right. What were we talking about again?

NoVA ML

2009- Witching Time
2008-Phaedra's Light
2007-Dying to be Immortal (never move and try to start a book three days later)
2006-Thistles in Spring (worst title ever)

Ha! Very funny, Bookwrm. I plan to add that one to my vocabulary. But you definitely need a break.
-Cathy (catpet)

I wrote 'posthumusly' today. Apparently spellcheck has no suggestions
for that. I've decided it deserves to be it's own word.

posthumus-- 1. (n) A mediteranian dip where chickpeas are added and
then removed by high-speed centerfuge. 2. (adj.) The curious state of
gastro-intestinal discomfort brough on by an over-abundance of greek and
or mediteranian food.

 
************************************************
Catherine Petrini
Children's and Young Adults' Book Author

blog: http://petrini1.livejournal.com/
e-mail: petrini1@aol.com

You call your main character "Banana" for six pages for reasons unknown to you, and you can't figure out for the life of you what's wrong with it.

You make up words such as "trampsed" and "whumps" and consider calling the dictionary to add them because the red squiggly ticks you off.

:]

Absolutely the funniest thing I have read all day!

W a/o I

W a/o I

I'm at 10,000 words, my main character has become petty, whiny, and a complete bore. I'm sick of her, want to scrap the whole thing.

Insult to injury, the story is much more than loosely autobiographical.

Jennifer Howe
Alexandria, VA
www.HoweToEat.wordpress.com
"Eating Through..." 2009

OK - did the slightly/more than slightly autobiographical last year and it gets hard. You have to find a way to say "yeah - no longer me" so you don't start mixing yourself up and blaming yourself for your character's choices and vice versa. The way I did it was by taking the autobiographical character and start putting her into situations that never happened and never could- i.e. spending 6 weeks with a dying grandmother. Mine are both dead and the grandmother I based the other character around was one I could barely spend a week with let alone 6. Made it much easier to write what I needed to, keep it fictional and not fall into the blame game.

If you are already doing that - send her on vacation and start talking through someone else's eyes for a chapter or two.

Good luck, Jennifer!

Lisa

Liadona
aka Liadona Rau (SL)

2007 - yeah, epic fail, not even a title
2008 - "NOLA Bound"
2009 - "Her Sister's Gem
"Prince Griffin and the Dark Forest" (a children's book written in 1 day)

Is your character named Banana or something similar? (My MC is Adrianna, but for some reason I keep writing Adriane.)

LOVE posthumusly!

Another new excerpt! This one is about faeries.

...your three year old comes to you covered in chocolate from unknown sources, and your husband has fallen asleep on the sofa while holding the baby!

You know you need a break from writing when...
You swear there's a "V" in hamster...and then attempt to convince your pillow of it in a heated debate...which you lose becuase the pillow cheated.
Your puppy is currently better at spelling that you are.

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.~ Thucydides

Well, his name does start with a B, but it's nowhere close to banana! D:

...You fall asleep at your laptop and wake up with more words there. Sleeptyping. Who knew.

Worst part? It seems better than what I wrote when actually conscious.

You really want to get to 17,000 words, especially since you found a juicy story you are trying to fold into the main text and your husband WON'T STOP SNORING. These aren't gentle, go into another room snores. No these are wall shaking, glass shattering snores that WON'T GO AWAY.

Think it is time for a sleep apnea test. Good lord!

Liadona
aka Liadona Rau (SL)

2007 - yeah, epic fail, not even a title
2008 - "NOLA Bound"
2009 - "Her Sister's Gem
"Prince Griffin and the Dark Forest" (a children's book written in 1 day)

... you either can't make the enter key work or always double hit it.

...you feel like something is wrong and then glance up and realize the two characters in your scene switched names somewhere along the way.

... you get into arguements with your characters over what's going to happen a particular scene...and lose.

...you had a definite plan in mind when you sat down to write and several pages later realize it hasn't happened yet and now can't.

... you get woken up by your wife who tells you "You're typing in your sleep. AGAIN."

... you're sure that if you stare at the screen long enough, that GREAT idea you had while getting a drink/fixing a snack/walking the dog will come back. Any second now. Really.

...you barely avoid getting clipped by a drunk driver on the way home and your first thought is "The hospital has wireless, right?"

The point at which your male lead, Donovan, becomes Joe for two pages. You don't remember switching the name, or even thinking about it. He has simply been renamed, and you have not been consulted. Strange.

Another new excerpt! This one is about faeries.

You know you need a break from writing when...

You actually DO take a break from writing, watch some brain candy tv with your spouse and then realize it is 11:52 PM AND YOU HAVEN'T UPDATED YOUR WORD COUNT! You practically rip the the safety handle off the wall on the stairs as you dash up them, desperate to beat the clock and update your word count. You then realize that you stopped within spitting distance of 15k. Why did I stop within 100 words of 15k! Argh! Surely I could have figured out 100 more words before I quit last night. I just hadn't even glanced at the WC except to ensure I was close to my daily goal I set for myself.

...you start saying things in real conversations (and at work) that your character says.
...these are not nice things. In fact, these are five-minute rants full of more simile than a fourth-grade text book.

...you stare at the television for fifteen minutes and don't remember leaving the computer.

...you start a shouting match with your new laptop because it wants to reboot every fifteen minutes.
...you lose, and then spend fifteen minutes complaining about it over the phone.

...your friends continue calling you because they want to be in this ridiculous novel they heard about from your mother.
...you say nasty things to them because the interrupted your writing streak.
OR ...you say sweet, nice things and assure them they will be in the novel. The show up for three paragraphs, whereafter they are viciously mauled by a stuffed penguin.

...you can't feel your bottom anymore and you know all the grain the table.

...your local coffeeshop doesn't even talk to you when you enter. They hand you the same drink you always get, and quietly point at your normal table, which is always open for some reason.

...your SO actually keeps both an arm and a leg over you at night to prevent you from leaving the bed for the computer.

You know you need a break from writing when...

you suddenly realize you've embedded Monty Python jokes into scenes of your Stargate novel, and they're in the narration, not the dialog.

 
************************************************
Catherine Petrini
Children's and Young Adults' Book Author

blog: http://petrini1.livejournal.com/
e-mail: petrini1@aol.com

You actually have to go back and rip out about 100 words because they are in some language that you think you have invented, but forgot to write down what the words meant as they came out in a sugar induced trance and not even your husband can interpret them for you. YIKES!

What does Baerthwtha mean again?

Yeah - that was my night last night. UGH!

Liadona
aka Liadona Rau (SL)

2007 - yeah, epic fail, not even a title
2008 - "NOLA Bound"
2009 - "Her Sister's Gem
"Prince Griffin and the Dark Forest" (a children's book written in 1 day)

That's hilarious! I laughed for a solid minute. Then my fiance did too.

Another new excerpt! This one is about faeries.

So glad I could bring some humor into your evenings. :-) Onward to 18500!

Liadona
aka Liadona Rau (SL)

2007 - yeah, epic fail, not even a title
2008 - "NOLA Bound"
2009 - "Her Sister's Gem
"Prince Griffin and the Dark Forest" (a children's book written in 1 day)

Your dog steps on your keyboard and you look at the resulting jibberish and think, "That could count as a word..."

Another new excerpt! This one is about faeries.

..you're describing the physical characteristics of the moon, when you realize you're actually describing the Death Star ...

You spend five minutes retyping the word "costumers", unable to figure out why it wouldn't read as "customers".

You legitimately try and spell "phrase" as "fraze" and find nothing wrong with it.

Your scenes start to end halfway through with a note that says, "come back to this after you've gone on a tour of Richmond." *sob* (this is easier than you might imagine since Richmond is where I am right now, but nova is my home region and I thought I'd stop by and look at the forums. ;D)

I now type in notepad just so I won't have the excuse of fixing spelling to keep me from writing, and I'm STILL behind. Sweet~

When you type sayed instead of said.

When you can't get the dictionary to recognize the word you're trying to type so you just leave it there.

Patrick Keane
Novel: Zombie Man
Is it awesome: Yes, quite awesome.

you write three words, go read a knitting blog, write eight words, go check facebook, write four more words, decide you need to read all of your knitting blog archives starting with 2005 and continuing through present day.

(I knit, btw... it's hard to knit and write at the same time. Thus far I have not learned to do either with my toes.)

Another new excerpt! This one is about faeries.

you notice that you are writing 'oaf' instead of 'of'. Fix that. When you look up, you see the page is filled with oafs. And not the normal kind.

When you decide that being two days ahead of schedule is good enough, darn it, and you take a day off because your brain feels, as you describe it, 'mushy'. (I did succeed in hitting 50k last year with taking 1 day off in week 2, for much the same reason)

When you're brain is mushy enough that you leave your iphone at a store....

BTW, much to my shock and delight someone actually TURNED IN MY IPHONE at the Giant when I left it sitting on the self checkout counter. I am immensely happy.

You start writing out the lyrics to "All Alone in the Universe" from Seussical and can't understand why they don't belong there.

You have a half hour debate with your three main characters, lose, come back with evidence and counterarguments, lose again, and make the scene you were arguing over even WORSE (because, admit it, it was a terrible idea, and you can't keep saying it's not just to save face with your OCs just because you created them and they're supposed to respect you) and even LONGER than you had originally planned.
After updating your daily wordcount, you continue writing till 11:30 at night, shut off the comp, go to bed, hug your pillow, shut your eyes, and pray that your main character stops glaring at you from the blank computer screen and moaning, "Whhhyyyyyyy...."

A horse with no nose will never win close races.

Yay good citizens! Glad you got the phone back!

Liadona
aka Liadona Rau (SL)

2007 - yeah, epic fail, not even a title
2008 - "NOLA Bound"
2009 - "Her Sister's Gem
"Prince Griffin and the Dark Forest" (a children's book written in 1 day)