No Sleep and Too Much Coffee

Turns out, I want to write the new scenes before I print and hand over my rough draft to my coworker to read ...

It is a beautiful, cold, rainy February morning. After having a rough night of sleep (or lack of sleep) I'm at my desk working on the scene I wanted to add.

Rough night because:
1: James worked a graveyard shift last night, so I didn't have his arms around me.
2. I decided to stay up late so I could sleep a couple hours with him in the morning.
3. I went to bed at one in the morning and was woken up at two by my dog whimpering at me. So I put on a hoodie and some shoes and took the dogs out. Then two hours later I woke to pee. Then one hour later Kenni whimpered me awake again to go out ... She does this when she has an upset stomach, and either I pay attention and take her out or she poops all over the apartment. (Not her fault, her stomach is upset.) This is five am by now.
4. James had dropped a mug on his toe last night causing it to bruise up badly and bleed. We had bandaged it and he went to work, but he was hurting a lot and blood was leaking into his sock ... so I cat-napped from five until 5:45, on and off texting him. Then at 5:45 I got up to go pick him up from work. Luckily he was working only a four minute drive away last night at the new gas station that he is (YAY!) transferring to.
5. We snuggle in and go to sleep ... two hours later at eight, Kenni whimpers again! Ugh! I take the dogs out and give up.

Here I am, at my computer attempting to write a new scene. Jumping back and forth between other scenes and bits of notes so I get this scene right. And I'm sitting here thinking, "Am I right that about three hundred words per page is about a three hundred page book? ... Hmm ... To the Google!!"

I found a nice FAQ page for author Meg Cabot (I'm a semi-fan of hers). And I run across this:

Q: I can't think of anything to write about.

Meg: How about this: Who do you hate and why? Who do you love and why? What's happened to you that you wish hadn't happened? What hasn't happened to you that you wish WOULD happen? Write these things down. There's your story. Obviously you've got to create a plot and change your characters names so your friends and family won't sue you. But that's the fun part.

This had me giggling, but quietly so that I don't wake James who is behind me on the bed trying to sleep.

I don't have trouble with finding things to write about. However, another part of this FAQ that I can actually relate to was "I started lots of stories, can't finish them. What's wrong with me?"  I have started many and haven't finished them. I do have three finished books ... I use 'finished' lightly when talking about Shattered, the book I'm adding scenes to this morning. It is finished from beginning to end, but there are a few things I'm adding and tweaking in between ...

Meg Cabot says how it's more fun to start a new story then keep working on the old one you've been working on for months ... and she's right. When I first start writing a book, it is literally only one small snapshot in my head. One little scene. And there's nothing else about the book littering my head, clouding my writing. I'm not just trying to get to point B, because at this time there is no point B in my story. Only A.

So I can take my time with it, get into the pretty words and the wonderful descriptions ... then once the story starts coming together in my head, I start making notes. Then subplots pop into my head. Then little details. Then more details about the characters and their lives ... soon I have an entire world in my head to keep straight and organized, and things get a little unorganized and hurried, and the start of the book sounds so pretty and neat and well-worded and descriptive. The further into my book I go, the less pretty it is, the less descriptive scenes and people become, the less pretty vocabulary I use ... Then later, I have trouble editing it and making it pretty and descriptive ... And I never feel like it's good enough, nothing is ever as perfect as that first scene and I get bored rewriting and rewriting and rewriting ...

So, I move on to other stories ...

It's not easy being a writer.

But it's what I love doing, despite all the headaches and plot holes and poop cramps from too much coffee ...

No matter what, I will not give up writing. As soon as this book is ready, I'm going to start hunting for an agent while I start writing book two. (Shattered is an eight book series.)

Happy writing!!