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Work In Progress Wednesday

Kate started doing this, and then Elana took up the torch, and then I caught Annie doing it too.  So what the heck, right?  We'll see what happens.

I usually have several works in progress at any given time.  So here's the tally at present:

Contemporary fantasy/paranormal romance (can't decide) that I'm waiting for some friends to finish reading so I can make appropriate changes and send the rewrites out.  (Elana, have I mentioned yet today how much your editing helped? ;-)

NaNo Novel is at about 65,000 words, which is obviously much too short.  I was feeling pretty apathetic about it.  Not sure why.  These are the least angst-ridden characters I've ever created.  Could that have something to do with it?  Or perhaps I was writing so fast during NaNo that I never had the chance to really get the colors and flavors of each scene, and now I'm still having trouble doing that.  I did switch the novel over from third person to first person, and that seems to be helping, at least with my feelings of apathy, at least somewhat.  I am also hoping that as I get farther into the novel I'll feel more enthused.

Nonfiction project - I've gotten the first drafts of two chapters mostly written.  Since writing is harder than editing for me, I'm trying to write several chapters at a time.

Now let me talk about my very serious, very GINORMOUS problem when it comes to my WIPs.  The Internet.  I knew when the internet went wireless that I was in trouble.  Before, I'd sit down with my laptop, play a couple of games of solitaire, and then be good to go.  Now I'll get out my WIP.  And then I have to check my email.  And then I have to check Facebook.  And then I have to check RallyStorm.  And then I have to check my email again.  And then I wonder why I never get anything done.

I need one of these:


  Ugh.  What do you guys do to deal with the siren call of the internet?

6 Comments:

  1. Annie Louden said...
    I always obey the siren call of the Internet, which is why I'm up past 1 every night, getting behind on freelance work, not cleaning, not practicing violin... but I have been writing! Thanks to you.
    I need an alarm to go off after 30 minutes of surfing. Then maybe I'd snap out of it.
    I'm sorry you're not exactly feeling your NaNo novel. Maybe even though you have 65,000 words, the story didn't come out yet. Maybe you need to keep writing more, and faster!
    Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...
    My solution? I don't have the internet hooked up to the computer with which I write.

    It's only a pain when I need to look something up for a quick reference, but otherwise I don't miss it. I can hyper-focus on scenes and characters without that distraction.

    I'd never get fiction work done if I was connected like that.
    Elana Johnson said...
    Write by hand. ;) That's how I stay off the Internet. It also helps that I have a job that allows me to plop my big self down in front of a computer for 5 hours a day. I can check email and forums while my students are coming in and getting started, while the second graders play typing games, etc. But I totally hear ya on the whole Internet-distraction thing. It's a killer.

    We need to brainstorm the NaNo novel, I think. Or maybe you should just send it to me...
    Michelle McLean said...
    unfortunately, when the internet calls, I generally give in and get nothing done :D I'm working on that though :D
    Kate Karyus Quinn said...
    Yeah! I am so glad everyone is playing along. If you want you can leave a link to this posting in the comments of my posting and that way others can find you too.

    And yeah - the internet. Sigh, I know. The internet just becomes a bigger and bigger time sucker everyday. Generally, I just set a certain time at night aside to write, and I give myself a word count goal to reach - so that helps keep me focused. I don't know though - you have 3 projects happening right now, so you can't be doing too badly.
    Anonymous said...
    Good post...you are BUSY. And Yes, the internet habit is the hardest to break!!!

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