Writer's Block: Girl Scouts' Day

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Of the few, non-nut-cross-contaminated varieties that are allowed in our house? For me, it's a toss-up between Lemonades and Thanks-A-Lot. For Wonderful Husband, Thin Mints win, hands down.

(He doesn't know that I've bought a few extra boxes of Thin Mints and stashed them in the back of the cupboard to dole out to him during the rest of the year. ^_^ )

I Lack Vital Qualifications

Customer, on the phone, asks to speak with one of the counselors. I tell her that he is on another call, and ask if she would like to hold, or if I should take a message and have him call her back.

"How long is he going to be on the line?"

...When I got this job, I didn't realize being psychic was part of it. Somehow I entirely missed the precognition requirement in the job description. Oops.

(For the record, if I was a precog, I would play the lottery once, then retire, whereupon I would write, garden, sew, and cook, dedicating myself to my arts.)

The customer ended up leaving a message.

On What I'm Busy Writing

I have been doing a lot of posts on editing Queen's Choice recently, for much the same reason as why I posted about going to the gym a lot when I first started: public accountability. It keeps me motivated! And I feel like I had a pretty good run over the weekend, getting thirty-four pages of edits from my teacher and classmates moved from on-the-desk to atop-the-shredder. At fifteen-plus copies for each ten pages, they're cross-stacked in two piles a foot deep. I would like those 11.5"x11.5" pieces of desktop real estate back.

I want to get an editing run done through Queen's Choice before I start on the next book (working title, aka I have no idea what else to call it, "Field of Stars". Because naming it King's Somethingorother or Queen's Somethingorother, appealing as it is to have matching titles, gives away the end of the first book). I want to sell these. I want to be a published author. Unfortunately, being so heavily into this project means that others suffer. I also want to be writing Transformers fanfic, specifically hammering Deus Ex Machina into shape now that I know what's actually going on in it.

But there are only twenty-four hours in a day. I need eight of them for sleep, another eight for my job, and two more for the commute. Leaving six, which also get to encompass two meals and making sure the house doesn't devolve too far into a slovenly pit. So... fanfic may be on hold until I've completed this editing pass. To my friends and readers, if it works out that way, I'm sorry. But this project is really important to me, so I hope you'll understand. And I hope that I can get an agent and a publisher and that someday you'll be able to read the original world I've been building and having fun in, and that you'll like it too.

In the meantime, I have my file of notes for Deus Ex Machina so I won't forget what I want to do. And I don't think my ambitions to go professional writer can ever eradicate my fanfic writer tendencies. One of the earliest stories I can remember telling myself was a GoBots fanfic; I've been into fanfiction almost as long as I've been into reading!

All of this navel-gazing brought to you because of seanan_mcguire's excellent post about the value of fanfiction to a writer. Go read! I like her stance that it's not either-or. But I know myself, and I'm lower output than she is, and I have to concentrate on one project at a time to the exclusion of all others, or else I will never get any of them done.

Wish me luck. And feel free to nag me about going to the gym.

Daily Editing Count

Up to page 83/624. 131,797 words. Still heading in the right direction! I'm learning to be ruthless. It's a bit odd. I have also informed Wonderful Husband that I may be bitchy and grammatically critical until I get this done.