This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

I wrote 1000 words on my lunch hour yesterday. It went so fast because it was virtually all monologue, the big confession of past angst scene. I need to rework it a little because I realized there was a logic error in the story, resulting from me not having figured out all the implications. Writing it down helped with that. And once I've edited, I think it'll be a great scene.

Worked out this morning, and am seeing the trainer Thursday afternoon, the last time for this trainer, as she's a grad student. Will have someone else for my remaining sessions. Then I need to decide if I want more trainer sessions or not. They have been quite valuable. I definitely got my money's worth. I'm also thinking about a pilates class, but next year, as I have enough going on right now.

Rehearsal tonight, and dress rehearsal Friday night. We have two concerts this weekend.

All of 550 words last night. I saw other words I would like to cut, but didn't allow myself to cut most of them. I am going forward right now. I also made a few changes to the scene notes for the last few chapters. I plan to write at lunch today, and after work. It felt good to make progress. I am within about 25K of having a completed draft. I suspect I may have a bit more plot than that left, given that erotic scenes in this book take rather a lot of wordcount. Oh, well. It's a Quality Problem, right? And not everything has to happen on stage. It can't be every character's book, much as I like them all.

No gym this morning, though I considered it. I didn't want to be sore when I see the trainer tomorrow. I'm not that dedicated.

I'm now reading the second in a new historical romance series by Mary Balogh; both the first (First Comes Marriage) and the second (Then Comes Seduction) use variations on the "Marriage of Convenience" plot, which I've always loved; one of these days I hope to write the "werewolf marriage of convenience" novel. So I'm rambling a bit on that plot over at the pro blog. Probably I will do so again in future.

I am a slow starter this morning. I made it to the gym, but not as early as I'd hoped, so I didn't have time to do a circuit of weights; need to figure out how better to organize my workouts to make them most efficient. I did some squats and crunches, plus fifteen minutes of elliptical, which was more intense than the treadmill. I see the trainer on Friday during my usual lunch hour.

Rehearsal was pretty fun, some bits swinging along beautifully, some still sounding scared. We're close to the concert now, so it's getting better at an exponential rate.

And I need to write this week, badly. I wrote around 800 words on the train down to D.C. on Friday, stopping only when the train pulled into Union Station. But I skipped the rest of the weekend, and Monday and Tuesday. Today, I'm going to go write immediately after I leave day job. Hopefully, I can get some lunchtime writing done on Thursday, as well, and after work on Friday. My usual Saturday session is being replaced by workshop this weekend, so I think Sunday will have to be a dedicated writing and gym day.

I have Stuff to Do. I need to make another appointment with the trainer for this week. I have to pack for CapClave - I leave Friday morning. I have two more visits to the cat I'm sitting, and choir rehearsal on Tuesday. Oh, and I need to write.

I haven't really written in two weeks. I think I might have sat down once with the file, and another night I wrote down what my brain had been chewing on during the time off. It is good stuff I came up with; things came together in useful ways; but the stuff isn't yet wordcount. I need to get moving again, and get it done. I need to write maybe 30,000 more words that tie up several plotlines, and then edit the whole thing, and turn it in by February 1. Factor in that I rarely get anything written in December thanks to a choir concert and holiday events, and the week of Thanksgiving is usually a bust as well, not to mention two cons and another choir concert, and you can see why I feel a little stressed.

I plan to have fun at CapClave, though. I'm bringing my netbook so I can write on the train, on the way down to D.C. - on the way back I suspect I will be too sleepy to do anything but sleep. During the con itself, I will simply have fun with natlyn.

*breathe*

I wrote one page last night. Couldn't figure out why I couldn't concentrate. Then I went to bed, and woke up really sick...guess that was it. I finally got back to sleep and then my phone rang at 5:30 am, but it was a wrong number. I couldn't get back to sleep until about fifteen minutes before my alarm. Stomach is better now, regardless. I've even put food into it.

Haven't been to the gym yet. Thought I was supposed to get a confirmation email or something, but didn't, so I emailed yesterday. Will call today if I don't hear anything, and make an appointment with a trainer. If I can't get anyone, I will go in person after work. I promise.

Was thinking last night, this novel isn't so bad, but I really need to read over what I have, a bit over 250 pages so far. I can't remember everything I wrote!

Short Fiction FAQ 3/3. Tomorrow, stop by with your questions/suggestions.

I'm pleased but brain-tired after a week of lots of writing. I took Friday off, but Saturday wrote 1700 words, and almost 800 on Sunday morning. I'm going to write during lunch today, as tonight I am going out to eat.

It was also a weekend of goodbyes - filomancer departing for another year in the United Arab Emirates, and a college friend, whom I hadn't seen in ages, departing for a three-year academic post in Switzerland. However, two other friends are flying back today, after stints in Michigan and Seattle. Maybe that will cheer me up.

I think I've figured out something important about secondary character Raoul. Finally.

And I passed on nojojojo's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms ARC to the next reader. Anyone else who wishes to be added to the list to read and review, please email me SOON with your mailing address.

I am DONE with Moonlight Mistress. I'll email the typed line edits/corrections to my editor on Monday.

Now I have to write a partial and edit a synopsis for a proposal, and work more on the pirate novel, and make notes for Worldcon. Oh, and pack. I'm leaving for Montreal August 3.

I've been managing a minimum of 500 words a day this week, usually at lunchtime. It seemed easier yesterday, so maybe I'm less stuck than I was.

On the pro blog, I wrote about coming up with topics to blog about. Is that meta?

I have a guestblogger over at the pro blog today. She wrote on Feminism in the Tang Dynasty: the Footbinding Dilemma.

I'm going to try and do some lunchtime writing this week. And maybe hide somewhere after work and write some more instead of going home. I need to get further into this manuscript before I'm out of town for Readercon and RWA National and Worldcon.

I wrote about a thousand words this weekend on the pirate novel, and drafted a synopsis for a "virgin widower" story set in WWI, for a possibly collaborative project. He's a British ambulance driver, widowed by the Influenza epidemic! She's a German prisoner of war! They fight crime! It would be maybe 30,000 words at most. I won't have any news on that for quite some time. It'll likely be a few weeks before my collaborators and I begin serious work on the proposal.

ETA: I forgot that I was interviewed today at We Heart Historicals.

I worked on revisions last night, solving a couple of problems by simply excising confusing bits, or bits that were no longer relevant because of other changes. I think I've now addressed each query on the revision letter, some of them more briefly than others. It might be time to print and read over. It seems a daunting project, but otherwise I won't see the whole picture.

If I burn out before I'm done with reading it over again, at least I'll have another chance at the manuscript after copy edits and such. However, that chance will be handwritten...so if I want to add those couple new scenes, I should do it now. They're not scenes that are desperately needed, just scenes I want to put in for the sake of characterization. And for fun.

Revised plan for revision: spend this weekend reading it on screen, as much as I can take, and add those couple of lagniappe scenes. Hopefully, also find if I missed anything big. Next week, print and read until I've read the whole thing or until my brain fizzles out. If I could ship it on February 2, that would be ideal.

After that, I've had a request for a couple of chapters on the pirate project, so I'll do that next, along with a shorter, more focused synopsis. Since February includes the Death March to Brahms rehearsals, I'm not sure if I'll finish that in the same month, but I sure plan to try.

Revisions continue, and I continue to check things off on my revision letter for The Moonlight Mistress.

I have rediscovered something else: available time to write does not directly translate into wordcount.

If I'm writing dialogue or description, but most especially dialogue, the words pile up faster. Word acquisition slows when I'm making subtle changes, or changes in many places.

I think there are a couple of reasons for subtle changes being slower. One is that I spend time scrolling or searching around in the document for the things I need to change. The other is that each change requires time to think, and if the changes aren't related to one another, each one requires a little thinking time of its own.

If I'm just adding in a scene, I can start at the beginning and proceed to the end, or an end; also, I've usually thought about what I'm going to do in that scene before I sit down, so it's just drafting, or if I'm really lucky, transcribing.

Why do I ponder these questions? Well, I feel better about my writing if I feel in control of it. It's not something one can control in every aspect, but knowing how I work, and that my methods have been successful in the past, is reassuring. Understanding my process makes me feel more in control of my process.

I have three days off this week when I was supposed to be out of town, but it fell through.

Even though I'm still a bit brain dead, I plan to spend those days writing. Not crazy writing, just writing however many words I damn well want to write. I'll be working on one or possibly two short stories; one that's for a specific market, and one that's been lying around, a page long, for a really long time.

I want to remember what it's like to write a short story, and continue to let my brain rest and be free of pressures to do specific things at specific times. I think I really need this break.

Rehearsal tonight, though. Saturday, we started our season with an all-day rehearsal in a room with no air conditioning, that had recently been painted. Luckily, it's cooler today, and the paint smell will have dissipated somewhat. We're working on a program that's all by Eric Whitacre, to balance out all the Bach we'll be doing later in the season. I'm told Eric Whitacre has a myspace page. My mind boggles. I am singing a composer's music, and he has a myspace page.

I'm not progressing as fast as I'd like on these revisions. Last night, though, I went a couple of pages with no changes at all, and it struck me that I was for most the part doing line editing, and that was what took so long, pondering how to clean and sharpen each sentence.

It isn't the time for that now; especially since my revision letter might have me cut scenes. I want the manuscript I turn in to be clean, of course, but I have to back off a bit if I want to be done. I still need to have time to physically enter the changes in the computer file and write the new scenes I've decided I need.

This wasn't an issue last time; I simply wrote until my brain was empty, printed, and sealed it into the courier envelope so I couldn't touch it again.

A thousand words last night, and I am done with the draft. Well, until the mad frenzy of editing starts tomorrow. My goal is to send off the manuscript on next Friday.

I decided I could be done when I realized there were a lot of things I didn't really need to show. I can change my mind later, but I don't think so, not so much. Pacing adjustments maybe, and very likely more scenes in the earlier portions of the book. My backbrain will work on it.

I'm taking tonight off. I can finally do a load of laundry!!!

I'm at [almost] 75K in the draft of the werewolf novel, and am extremely pleased with that. I only have one more major action scene to sketch out, and two sex scenes, one of which doesn't have to be long, just useful (and, of course, hot). A couple of denoument-type scenes are also likely. And then there are all the scenes I thought of while writing, that I have to go back and work in, while I clean up the whole thing as much as possible.

Weekend wordcounts:
Friday 500
Saturday 4000 (!)
Sunday 2000.

ETA: Also, received check #3 from publisher. The only one left is for delivery of this manuscript.

My Author Alterations copy of the duchess novel have arrived.

*flings all other things to the winds until they are done*

I cut words. Maybe a thousand or so, I didn't count exactly; they were talky-not-showy words I would have cut later, so I might as well cut them now.

Then I made changes relating to the Law of Conservation of Characters (I don't know if that's a real law with a name, but it ought to be) so that instead of a younger brother and a sister and her husband and his brother who is the important one, the brother-in-law is now the younger brother. And the rest are neighbors or something, they might end up gone, I don't care at this point. It is hot outside and humid and I am tired and feeling pressured.

I also made some other changes, copy-editing types, so the brother-in-law would be the brother all the way through.

Then I made a list of new scenes that my critiquers had suggested or inspired; there are other changes they suggested I really liked, but those can wait until the draft is done, I think. I still need to write a better scene list for the last third of the book.

I've also been asked to do some outlines for something else, an experimental something which I can't talk about now, but for me, a lot depends on when they'd want actual manuscripts, because I don't want to work on more than one novel at a time. I'd have to start after I turn in the werewolves.

My. Brain. Is. Empty. Sent out the first 42K or so to workshop yesterday; did not fill in that one scene that was missing, except with a note explaining what happened. Didn't even try to write last night. Thought a little about the novel, aimlessly. DHL came with my hardcopy of the revised manuscript for the duchess novel. I put together stuff for my reading tonight: laminated copy of cover flat, a bunch of business cards in a ziploc baggie, the [ancient] printout of "Camera" I'm going to read, and five test booklets of the duchess novel's first chapter--these have no art yet, except some decorative squiggles, and are on regular paper, but I am not bringing them for general handout, just in case the salon organizer wants one, and in case someone desperately wants one.

Revisions are sent to editor.

I'm taking tonight off.