Success!

I have managed to keep my promise (more or less) to limit my time on the Internet. And....Success! I have made ridiculous progress in my revision of Banished. Am almost done with the first round. Phew! I feel like it is really coming together now. Made a lot of the changes that were suggested and I know the plot is flowing much more smoothly.

Cody leaves for school on Monday, so I will have even more time to avoid Facebook and work on my book. Wish me luck!

Slacker

Yep, that's me. SLACKER!!!! (when it comes to writing, anyway....okay, and cleaning. but really, who cares about that?)

I had a ton of free time to work on my book this week. My boyfriend was gone for the week, and I spent the better part of most nights home alone. And what did I do with that free time? The answer is...er....I have no idea. I think I watched a lot of tv (hello, The Bachelor!) And probably spent waaaayyyy too much time messing around on the Internet. I did manage to clean the apartment, but it took like two hours. Ooh, I read, a lot. I finished 2 books. But....I didn't work on my own hardly at all, and that is very shameful. Now my boyfriend gets back tomorrow, and between work and spending time with him, I know I'm barely going to glance at my book.

So. New resolution. Wait, is it too late for those? Regardless, I'm limiting my time on the Internet to a half hour a day. Seriously. No more spending hours reading useless news stories and status updates and who knows what else. My goal is to having my manuscript edited and ready to query by the time Cody graduates from school in May.

This is going to be tough.

There aren't enough hours in the day

to do everything that I want/need to do. I find this both frustrating and unfair. There should be.

First, reading and writing. Always a priority. But at the moment I find myself buried. First, I have a Kindle. New unlimited possibilities for reading, not to mention the ridiculous convenience that is oh so tempting. Second, generous family members gave me 75$ in gift certificates, which I spent 50$ of (to give the Kindle and my bf Cody's credit card a break) which equals 4 books I am drooling to read (actually already finished one). Plus my mom sent me two of her manuscripts, one of which I have started and am enjoying critiquing (minus the sexy scenes...awkward..). And then there's my own manuscript which I am in the middle of revising, and also enjoying. So I am finding myself doing a merry-go-round all day alternating between my Kindle (was in the middle of a book when I started a new one), the paperbacks I bought, my mom's book, and my book.

Second, I made the slight mistake of getting my adorable boyfriend Cody a Wii for Christmas, and then advising his brother to buy him Mario Kart for it. Well. Guess who is his new favorite video game buddy? Yep. Me. And guess who is strangely addicted to it, even though two games makes my eyes bloodshot? Oh yeah, me again.

Third, work. Really starting to get in the way of all the reading/writing/video-game-playing I want to be doing. However, 2 friends who recently quit make me tell myself on repeat: must be thankful I have a job. Must be thankful I have a job.

Fourth, grown-up-boring-type stuff. Bill paying (Ewwwwww). Cleaning (Double ewwwww). Grocery shopping, getting gas, giving the dog a bath, cooking dinner, watering the plants, blah blah blah, all cutting into my fun time considerably.

Fifth, spending time with friends. Which I always, always, always make time for. Time that there is not enough of.

Sixth, wasting time on the Internet. This one is my bad. I spend waaayy too much time on Facebook, checking my e-mail, FML, etc. Hmm...maybe if I cut down on this I would have more time for other things....

I'm thinking I should've paid attention when they taught time management in middle school. They always gave us those planners to write down our homework and things we had to do, but inevitably mine ended up covered in doodles of flowers and hearts and very little useful information. Maybe I should get a new planner!

Nah....

Thanks Mom!

I don't really have much to write about, but I haven't written a blog for a while and I feel it necessary.

I started revising Banished a few days ago. My mother generously took the time to read it and comment, giving me loads of invaluable advice and insight. And also making me realize how much work I have to do. At first I was completely discouraged. There are major plot points that needto be reworked, or are missing or unexplained altogether. Not to mention numerous grammatical errors, words and phrases that are ridiculously overused, and characters who do not stay consistent. I'm exhausted just writing all that out.

However. I decided to make a short list of the major flaws that need fixing, and just got started. Suddenly I'm feeling very confident as I'm seeing the story improve. The pep talk from Mom about how I have the bones of the story and just need to flesh it out also helped me put the whole thing in perspective. I'm excited that I've got the whole thing down on paper, which is the hardest part for me. Now all I've got to do is make it the best it can be. And surprisingly, I'm looking forward to it.