jennickels (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jennickels) wrote2011-08-14 09:37 am
jennickels) wrote2011-08-14 09:37 am
so much writing
Me write like crazy woman. Yep. I guess I'm unblocked. I think the stress of big project deadlines looming was causing the blockage. And the fact that I was stuck on the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sg1friendathon story for so long. Once I got that sorted out I was able to start writing again. I also decided to just not do het_bigbang . I like the story idea I have but since it took so long to figure it out I won't have time to write it (9k words are do tomorrow and I still have zero). I mean I could probably write the story if I really pushed myself but not in the mood now. Sad. Maybe I can expand it and use it for NaNo but then I had that Easter Island adventure that I wanted to use. It needs research, though. I'll have to think about that one.
Anyway, the last few nights I've been writing, writing, writing. I even got some writing done during the day with the radio playing AND the kids going crazy. That's unusual. I really have to be in a zone to write with all the noise. I love that.
I've finished several projects including one where I had to cut words out of an already written story. If you read my journal you know I HATE cutting. And this particular story was one I had issues with when I originally wrote it. My 1st draft was like 800 words but according to the challenge it had to be within 10 words of 500. It took me forever to cut it down to 508 (I think it was, something like that) words. I felt like I cut so much good stuff out of it, mostly describing Jack's feelings about the situation and some set up stuff. But the story worked as it was and still got the point across with some angst. This time I had to cut it to 240-260 words. Oy. The challenge from hell, lol. But actually it ended up being fairly easy and I learned a valuable lesson about less being more. I think I'm going to use that with one of the stories I'm working on that's gotten kind of wordy. Snip, snip, snip, it's going to get cut down.
So, the big stories I'm working on (because there's always a few going at once in case I get bored) right now are going pretty good. I have like a bajillion challenges due but I'm not stressing anymore. I'm just doing what I can, writing what my muse finds interesting. She's not too happy with the browbeating from last week so I'm letting her have her way for awhile. Things tend to work better that way.
One story is from the Seven Deadly Sins challenge atfictionland . It's supposed to be like 7 little drabbles about the sins. You know like 700-1000 words for the entire challenge. But nooooo, I can't do that. The story that popped into my head was much more involved than that. I started writing it the other night and typed up what I had yesterday. It was already over 2000 words and I didn't even get to the part about the sins, lol. That I started writing last night in my notebook. I hand wrote 13 more pages. I'm not on the third sin of the story and moving quickly to the 4th. Since this part flows more quickly I've decided to use those cutting skills on the beginning because it's the end part of this story that's important not the beginning. Hoping to get it done tonight because it's due on Tuesday. Yikes. If I can't finish it in time it's not the end of the world (it's worth like 50pts, though). It will get done and posted by the end of this week whether I make the deadline or not. :)
The other story I worked on last night was for anotherfictionland challenge. Way back at the beginning of the phase we got this mega prompt table. Okay, it was only 15 prompts but each story has to be 1000 words. Prompts can be combined (up to 3 in a story) but still have to have the 1000 words per prompt. We've had months to work on this and I'm just starting now. Well, actually I started one last month (for the same prompt) but it turned into another adventure story that would have been too long to finish for the challenge. So I transferred it to my "in progress, hopefully I can finish some day" pile (yes, there are actual piles). The one I started yesterday was flowing much quicker and full of angst and Sam/Jack goodness. Stranded fic is so easy to write. It's done, using two prompts and I hope it's over 2000 words. It's 1 1/2 pages typed and 3 1/2 pages written right now. If not I'll pad it as I type it up later.
I like the set up of this story so much I'm thinking of using some of the other prompts to write a sequel because I know people will ask. There's actually an AU challenge atstargateland due on Saturday and I'm thinking I could use this. Originally I was going to finish a story for my alt!reality series (the one where Jack's a major and Sam's the man, lol) but this would work and it's more fresh in my head.
All in all I wrote (by hand, mind you... running one pen completely dry) almost 17 pages last night. That doesn't include what I wrote during the day at the computer. Nice. Thank you muse for cooperating. Now it's time to type. And edit. Still have to edit thesg1friendathon story. I needed a break from it so I could see it with fresh eyes. Can't wait to have it done and posted.
Tonight I'm going to finish up the 7 deadly sins story, work on one of the Homesick stories forfictionland (might be one of the sequels to the fic I just wrote), start hopefully the AU fic (another sequel) and hopefully get to 1 or 2 of the prompts from the table. I won't finish all that but I hope to at least start them so I have an idea of where I'm going. All of this stuff is due this week, lol. It won't all get done but all these story ideas are knocking around in my head and need to be written.
Somehow I'm maintaining the house in a somewhat tidy fashion. And I managed to do all the laundry (just have 1 more load of my clothes and the towels to do).
On other news: Jack seems to be in a better mood. He's currently getting four teeth and is not a happy camper at all. I've had to resort to using orajel on his gums to get him to relax otherwise all he does is cry, throw tantrums, cling to me and refuse to eat even though it's obvious he's hungry. Poor boy. He woke up in a great mood today, though, and just devoured a small bowl of cheerios, a toddler cereal bar, some yogurt melts and then a handful of dry cereal. Hopefully his appetite continues to lunch because he's a pain to feed. Not like my other kids who would eat anything you put in front of him. He has to be picky. Grrr.
And I got my LJ straightened out. Decided to go with just 2 months of paid time for now. Did two more months of the account and upgraded to the full userpic package (so now I can add even more pics... you know, of people other than Jack O'Neill, lol.). It was $11. That will take me to October and then I can decide what I want to do depending on our money situation. My husband gets a huge raise at the end of October that we'll start to see in November. It's $6/hour which should make our financial situation more stable. We're doing okay now and can pay all our bills but there isn't always enough left for what we want. We tend to overspend on the fun stuff (going out to eat and buying movies and stuff) and then now happens: we have no cereal, no bread, no butter, no meat, almost no frozen veggies and no money for more, lol. We have food just not what we want to eat right now. The cereal and bread is the biggest issue with the kids home for the summer. They go through it so fast. During the school year they're on the free lunch program so eat breakfast and lunch at school. Anyway, hubby is supposed to stop and get bread, butter and veggies (I think) on his way home from work. So he said but... you never know with him.
In conclusion: expect to see a bunch of stories from me in the next couple of weeks because I'm on a roll now.
sg1friendathon story for so long. Once I got that sorted out I was able to start writing again. I also decided to just not do het_bigbang . I like the story idea I have but since it took so long to figure it out I won't have time to write it (9k words are do tomorrow and I still have zero). I mean I could probably write the story if I really pushed myself but not in the mood now. Sad. Maybe I can expand it and use it for NaNo but then I had that Easter Island adventure that I wanted to use. It needs research, though. I'll have to think about that one.Anyway, the last few nights I've been writing, writing, writing. I even got some writing done during the day with the radio playing AND the kids going crazy. That's unusual. I really have to be in a zone to write with all the noise. I love that.
I've finished several projects including one where I had to cut words out of an already written story. If you read my journal you know I HATE cutting. And this particular story was one I had issues with when I originally wrote it. My 1st draft was like 800 words but according to the challenge it had to be within 10 words of 500. It took me forever to cut it down to 508 (I think it was, something like that) words. I felt like I cut so much good stuff out of it, mostly describing Jack's feelings about the situation and some set up stuff. But the story worked as it was and still got the point across with some angst. This time I had to cut it to 240-260 words. Oy. The challenge from hell, lol. But actually it ended up being fairly easy and I learned a valuable lesson about less being more. I think I'm going to use that with one of the stories I'm working on that's gotten kind of wordy. Snip, snip, snip, it's going to get cut down.
So, the big stories I'm working on (because there's always a few going at once in case I get bored) right now are going pretty good. I have like a bajillion challenges due but I'm not stressing anymore. I'm just doing what I can, writing what my muse finds interesting. She's not too happy with the browbeating from last week so I'm letting her have her way for awhile. Things tend to work better that way.
One story is from the Seven Deadly Sins challenge at
fictionland . It's supposed to be like 7 little drabbles about the sins. You know like 700-1000 words for the entire challenge. But nooooo, I can't do that. The story that popped into my head was much more involved than that. I started writing it the other night and typed up what I had yesterday. It was already over 2000 words and I didn't even get to the part about the sins, lol. That I started writing last night in my notebook. I hand wrote 13 more pages. I'm not on the third sin of the story and moving quickly to the 4th. Since this part flows more quickly I've decided to use those cutting skills on the beginning because it's the end part of this story that's important not the beginning. Hoping to get it done tonight because it's due on Tuesday. Yikes. If I can't finish it in time it's not the end of the world (it's worth like 50pts, though). It will get done and posted by the end of this week whether I make the deadline or not. :)The other story I worked on last night was for another
fictionland challenge. Way back at the beginning of the phase we got this mega prompt table. Okay, it was only 15 prompts but each story has to be 1000 words. Prompts can be combined (up to 3 in a story) but still have to have the 1000 words per prompt. We've had months to work on this and I'm just starting now. Well, actually I started one last month (for the same prompt) but it turned into another adventure story that would have been too long to finish for the challenge. So I transferred it to my "in progress, hopefully I can finish some day" pile (yes, there are actual piles). The one I started yesterday was flowing much quicker and full of angst and Sam/Jack goodness. Stranded fic is so easy to write. It's done, using two prompts and I hope it's over 2000 words. It's 1 1/2 pages typed and 3 1/2 pages written right now. If not I'll pad it as I type it up later.I like the set up of this story so much I'm thinking of using some of the other prompts to write a sequel because I know people will ask. There's actually an AU challenge at
stargateland due on Saturday and I'm thinking I could use this. Originally I was going to finish a story for my alt!reality series (the one where Jack's a major and Sam's the man, lol) but this would work and it's more fresh in my head.All in all I wrote (by hand, mind you... running one pen completely dry) almost 17 pages last night. That doesn't include what I wrote during the day at the computer. Nice. Thank you muse for cooperating. Now it's time to type. And edit. Still have to edit the
sg1friendathon story. I needed a break from it so I could see it with fresh eyes. Can't wait to have it done and posted. Tonight I'm going to finish up the 7 deadly sins story, work on one of the Homesick stories for
fictionland (might be one of the sequels to the fic I just wrote), start hopefully the AU fic (another sequel) and hopefully get to 1 or 2 of the prompts from the table. I won't finish all that but I hope to at least start them so I have an idea of where I'm going. All of this stuff is due this week, lol. It won't all get done but all these story ideas are knocking around in my head and need to be written.Somehow I'm maintaining the house in a somewhat tidy fashion. And I managed to do all the laundry (just have 1 more load of my clothes and the towels to do).
On other news: Jack seems to be in a better mood. He's currently getting four teeth and is not a happy camper at all. I've had to resort to using orajel on his gums to get him to relax otherwise all he does is cry, throw tantrums, cling to me and refuse to eat even though it's obvious he's hungry. Poor boy. He woke up in a great mood today, though, and just devoured a small bowl of cheerios, a toddler cereal bar, some yogurt melts and then a handful of dry cereal. Hopefully his appetite continues to lunch because he's a pain to feed. Not like my other kids who would eat anything you put in front of him. He has to be picky. Grrr.
And I got my LJ straightened out. Decided to go with just 2 months of paid time for now. Did two more months of the account and upgraded to the full userpic package (so now I can add even more pics... you know, of people other than Jack O'Neill, lol.). It was $11. That will take me to October and then I can decide what I want to do depending on our money situation. My husband gets a huge raise at the end of October that we'll start to see in November. It's $6/hour which should make our financial situation more stable. We're doing okay now and can pay all our bills but there isn't always enough left for what we want. We tend to overspend on the fun stuff (going out to eat and buying movies and stuff) and then now happens: we have no cereal, no bread, no butter, no meat, almost no frozen veggies and no money for more, lol. We have food just not what we want to eat right now. The cereal and bread is the biggest issue with the kids home for the summer. They go through it so fast. During the school year they're on the free lunch program so eat breakfast and lunch at school. Anyway, hubby is supposed to stop and get bread, butter and veggies (I think) on his way home from work. So he said but... you never know with him.
In conclusion: expect to see a bunch of stories from me in the next couple of weeks because I'm on a roll now.
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Wait!!! There are other people?!!! How did I not notice this? ;)
I look forward to the bunch of fic, just as I look forward to the more controlled chaos of the school year, although I'll be mourning the loss of the warmth. I love all the seasons, but the freedom of being able to go off and do my 5 miles without the burden of many layers, or even long sleeves and long pants, is something I always miss.
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I can not wait for school to start. These kids are driving me up a wall. Between the constant fighting and the blatant ignoring me when I tell them to do something they'll be lucky to survive until the end of the month.
I told my older son, Owen, to take out the trash in the kids' bathroom before he went outside (that was after a 3 hour ordeal to get him to actually clean his room). He was lucky to be allowed out at all after the antics with the room cleaning. He was standing in the bathroom with me when I told him to take the trash out. Shoes in one hand he looked at it and was like, "OK, I'll just put my shoes on." And he was gone. Grrr. Is it just the age? He'll be 10 on October 1.
He used to be so helpful. Sigh. The other day I did "all" the kids laundry. I asked them a dozen times if they had ALL their clothes in the laundry room. They all assured me it was there. They even went into their rooms to get the clothes they wore since they first brought the baskets to the laundry room.
I did all the laundry. Then I go in my son's room and find his closet full of dirty clothes. WTF! What is so freaking hard about putting it in the basket? Now I have another load to wash.
My husband's work schedule changes today. He was leaving for work at 8:30am and getting home around 7pm. Now he works mornings so he leaves at like 4am. He'll be home around 2:30pm (in an hour). Then he'll want to nap... in the living room so I have to keep all the kids out and quiet so he can nap in the public room instead of going to the bedroom. Oy.
I haven't even gotten to work on any of the writing I talked about in the post. Since I got up at 8:30am I've cleaned the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher twice, did 2 loads of laundry, soaked the couch cover (love IKEA couches even if the arm of ours broke), spent way too much time making the kids do their chores, fed the baby twice, showed the 11yo how to vacuum up all the crud in the creases of the couch (they were looking for a lost DS game because they can't have the DSs back until they find it), picked up the living and family rooms and FINALLY sat down to have lunch at 1:30pm.
Everything takes twice as long with the kids here getting in the way.
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I have 726 words written for my 1000-word story. :P Damned vacation -- NO SPARE TIME!
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I wouldn't know what one is. Even when we go on day trips I don't get to relax. Like our last trip to the beach. My husband dozed on the towel while I chased Jack around and made sure the kids didn't drown in the ocean. We left and I had a migraine and was more stressed than when we got there.
Being a mom = no vacations. Ever.
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I used to enjoy going for drives with my husband. Right up until the first 3 kids got to be about 4/5 years old. When they were babies/toddlers they just slept the whole time. We'd listen to music and chat about stuff we never got to discuss at home because the kids were always around.
Now it's just a chore. Especially crushed into the cab of a pickup truck. It'll probably be nicer once the 4 are in school with just the baby in the back.
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Nice new pics, btw! I really like the one of you and your family (very cool to make that an icon!) and there are some really great SJ ones in there too. Oh, and I love the one of Sam saying "wut?"! :) I seriously need to get off my lazy ass and make some new icons. I have a range right now of like three emotions total --very expressive, lol!
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I haven't made many icons lately either. I've been too busy writing. All the ones I added I made months ago but didn't have room in my userpics. Now I have room--yay.
I need more for specific emotions. I've got the ugh one, facepalm, a few angry ones. I use my smiling Sam one when I'm happy. I need to make some more.
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Never had anyone so excited to get a peek at one of my stories. I just have to get it typed up now. It's not real long, though.