2012 – Reading Roundup

    It’s one of the nerdiest things I do, but I keep a spreadsheet of the books I read during the year. This would make sense if I were a book reviewer or had some other reason, but I basically do it because it lets me use my spreadsheet program. I do love my spreadsheets.
    Anyway, I’ve done this for three years so I feel like I can now spot trends in how I read. I was a reporter for several years, and as every journalist knows, if you have three similar events, you've got a trend.
    What I’ve learned is that I’m remarkably consistent in my reading patterns. In 2012, I read 51 books – the same number I read in 2011 and just one more than I read in 2010. I seem to have found a pace that I’m happy with.
    What did change this year is that I read far less nonfiction this year than in previous years – only four books in 2012, compared with nine in 2011 and six in 2010. Of the four nonfiction books, I have two favorites. The first is Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess. So hilarious that I had to stop reading in bed because I kept waking up my husband by snort-laughing.
    The other was Griftopia by Matt Taibbi. The author is mad as hell about the financial crisis, as we all should be, and this book should be required reading for anyone who thinks the recession was caused by that those irresponsible people who bought a house they couldn’t afford. I had to read this in small chunks because I could feel my blood pressure rising as I turned the pages. I highly recommend both books, but for entirely different reasons.
    My fiction reading consisted of mostly contemporary romance and romantic suspense, heavy on the suspense and mystery subcategories. I read more novels and fewer novellas and shorts this year. My favorite was probably In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming. I loved the writing, the characters, the setting, the story. The author did such a beautiful job building the connection between Clare and Russ. I haven’t read the next in the series yet, but I will and probably very soon.
    This year I also revisited Amanda Stevens’ series that started with The Restorer, one of my favorites from last year. The Kingdom (book 2) and The Prophet (book 3) were excellent and among my favorite fiction reads this year, too. This is an author I will add to my auto-buy list. In fact, she’s the reason I created an auto-buy list.
    Also on that new list:  Liliana Hart. I loved Whiskey Rebellion and Whiskey Sour and am anxiously awaiting the next in that series. Also, I binged on the MacKenzie family series. Then this month, I discovered Dirty Little Secrets, another series with a smart and smart-ass heroine, which I also loved. Thankfully, there’s a sequel in the J.J. Graves series, so I have something to keep me happy until there’s another Whiskey book out.
    What stands out the most from my reading habits in 2012 is that most of the books that I marked as my favorites were told in first-person POV. This was the same in 2011. I have always thought that I preferred third-person POV, but I really need to reconsider this. My own writing projects are all told in third person, but I am thinking about whether this is the right fit for me.
    So maybe that’s another benefit in keeping track of my book consumption. I think I’ll be adding a new item to my 2013 resolution list – to give first-person POV a try in my own writing.

Holiday Greetings!

   The holiday break is here and just in time. I was starting to feel like these Christmas tree lights -- tangled, half-burned out. A little dim.
   Now my office is closed until January. The tree is up and lit. There are presents wrapped. Packages have been mailed. Cards addressed and sent. Cookies were baked. Then eaten. And then more cookies were baked because those were supposed to given to other people.
   I'm also writing and working toward my goal of finishing one of those unfinished projects by the end of this year. Nothing like a deadline to inspire.
   Should you be in need of your own inspiration, I recommend a Tom & Jerry. That's an old family recipe that I've shared before. Works wonders. Enjoy the holiday season!

Resolutions – November Update

    I didn’t participate in Nanowrimo this year because I spent the month mired in work. So. Much. Work. I did manage to get some writing done. I’m still not sure how, but my spreadsheet shows that I wrote 5,623 words in November.
    I wrote on eight days last month, which is very few — but still surprised me, since I worked at least one day every weekend last month. Somehow, I was able to escape into my imagination in the middle of a stressful, busy time at work.
    The bulk of my writing was on the project formerly known as the novella — 3,718 words. The former novella now stands at 73,000 words. I think it’s time to find a new nickname for it. I also wrote a short scene for the eventual sequel to that project, adding 878 words. And I wrote 1,027 words on last year’s Nano project, which I would love to complete next year.
    I am now at 133,879 words for this year. Last year at this time, I had written 100,769 words. In November 2011, I wrote 15,479 words, which was my late entry into Nanowrimo.
    But despite the excellent word-count, the number of WIPs completed in 2012 stands at zero. We’re closing in on the end of 2012, so I’ve decided to focus on the former novella. I had a goal of 85,000 words for that project, so I’m only about 12,000 words shy of that. And since my chapters run about 3,000 to 4,000 words, I’m only about three chapters from the end. My characters are arcing, my plot threads are ready to be tied together. It’s so very close.
    And that is where I will be for the next four weeks — focusing on wrapping up the last chapters of this WIP so it will be complete by the end of the year. That was, after all, one of my New Year’s resolutions for 2012 — finish something, anything.

Five Weeks To Go

Thanksgiving sunset

   Thanksgiving is over and so is my major work commitment that kept me from participating in NaNoWriMo. I'm looking forward to the next five weeks when I can better balance work and writing.
   The month wasn't a total bust because I did get a few scenes written, mostly this weekend while I was on the road to visit family. This coming five weeks, though, is the make-or-break period for one of my 2012 goals -- to finish one of my WIPs. I have two contenders and need to focus on one of them to make this goal.
   To that end, I just bought Rachel Aaron's awesome writing book, 2K to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love. I've heard Rachel interviewed on several podcasts and was inspired by her approach to figuring out she could write faster. She developed a three-prong approach centered on knowledge, time and enthusiasm. Knowledge is knowing what you're going to write before you start. I'm more of a plotter than a pantser, though I'm not fully in either category. Time is tracking your productivity to see when you write best and under what conditions. And enthusiasm is keeping yourself excited about what you're writing. I've read the blog posts, but the author has added to that in the e-book and it is  worth far more than the 99-cent price.
   This week, I'm working on the project formerly known as the novella and I'm going to finish the outline, so I will know what scenes need to be written. I have a pretty good scene list, but it's lacking the last 20 percent. Taking Rachel's advice, I'm writing the end first and will then figure out how to get there from where I am.
    And where I am right now is in front of my computer with a couple hours before I need to go to bed. So I'm going to get started... now.

Resolutions – October Update

    This has not been a writerly month (it’s a word) (I had to check). The reason? I will be spending November in trial and when that happens, the month before is spent preparing for that trial. When preparing for or in trial, my client deserves my full attention. So no guilt that I only wrote 3,825 words in October. Frankly, I’m not sure when or how I managed to get that many words onto paper.
    Here’s the break-down: I wrote on six days last month; I wrote 3,263 words on the sequel to the novella, 152 words on the suspense novel, 168 words on last year’s NaNoWriMo project, and 242 words on the novella. Not great. Still, it’s better than last year, when I wrote one day and only logged 368 words in October. Yes, I had a lengthy trial last November, too. I really need to schedule work better so I can take part in NaNoWriMo next year.
    I'm now at 128,256 words for the year. That's not too shabby. Even with last month's anemic efforts toward my writing goals, I'm ahead of last year at this time, when I had 85,019 words done. The end of the year is fast approaching, though, and one of my goals is to finish something in 2012. 
    While not writing, and when not working, I have been thinking a lot about story structure, raising stakes for characters, and motivation. I have many handwritten notes about what I want to do once December arrives and things return to normal. At the top of that to-do list is “nap,” but a close second is “write.” I’m actually looking forward to the second item more (and I do love to nap).

Cheering From The Sidelines

  This is the third year in a row where I have a work commitment set for November, seriously cutting into any chance I have to participate in NaNoWriMo. I've never thought that November was a good time to devote one month to writing a 50,000-word novel. But I do love the idea of a community of writers all supporting each other as they work toward that incredible goal.
  Last year, I jumped in late because of a trial that ended the first week of November, and still managed to write about 15,000 words. But this year, I will be cheering from the sidelines. My work schedule is just too busy to even think about writing a new project, getting to know fascinating characters, plotting out a fun story, finding and developing a unique setting...
  Sigh. I will miss the camaraderie this November. For those of you crazy enough to take on this challenge, I'm pulling for you. May the words just flow from your mind. And feel free to join my lobbying efforts for an August NaNoWriMo.

Resolutions – September Update

    After the blockbuster August writing binge, my poor muse was exhausted. As a result, September was not a great month for writing. I felt wrung out, creatively, at least. I’m sure part of this was because I was working a LOT and by the time I got home in the evening, my brain was pretty well mush.
    Even with this break, I managed to get 4,888 words on paper this month. Not great, but better than September 2011, when I wrote 3,367 words. Last month I wrote 406 words on the novella project, and 1,151 on an idea that I needed to excise from my brain and get on paper so it would leave me alone. I wrote 1,495 words on the romantic suspense novel that I’d been neglecting for a couple months. I also wrote 1,582 words on last year’s NaNoWriMo project.
     I wrote 10 days last month, a far cry from my daily writing streak in August. And I did miss it. I’d like to find a happy medium in October – maybe write at least 5 days a week. Still, I am at 124,431 words for the year.
    This year, once again, I have an unavoidable work commitment the first week in November, so I don’t think I’ll be participating in the official NaNoWriMo. I may jump in late, depending on when my work project wraps up. To prepare, I’ve been studying the method put forth by Rachel Aaron in her brilliant post “How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day.” She’s also been interviewed on a couple of my favorite podcasts — The First Million Words and The Dead Robots’ Society. I'm totally going to give this a try, even though I'm not starting from writing 2,000 words. I especially love the idea of sketching out the scene you're going to write before sitting down to write. When I've done this in the past, it has helped me focus and write faster.
    One of my main goals for 2012 was to finish one of my lingering WIPs and I haven't done that yet. But I am still confident that I can. I need to take a hard look at the romantic suspense WIP and see what scenes I need to write to get to the end. I already have three potential endings sketched out, but I've been stumped on how to make it to that point from where I am. In the last month, I've had several ideas on that. Now it's time to get them written down.