Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

I was thinking this weekend about moments - I’m talking those gut-wrenching, tear your heart out moments, in books or movies or TV shows – and how they can be so simple and yet so profound at the same time.

What got me thinking about it was this weeks Grey’s Anatomy, when Army guy (OMG – Boone would kill me for calling him Army guy) tells Christina that she’s beautiful. It seriously made me put my hand to my heart, it was so simple and romantic and perfect. It’s like that moment in The Holiday when Cameron Diaz and Jude Law are lying together in his daughters’ tent and one of the girls mentions the 3 Muskateers and you know that’s what Cameron’s family used to call each other and Cameron and Jude touch hands and…sigh. Just sigh.

I tend to write my books around moments – sometimes I write the moment scenes before anything else and I work backward from there. If I start a book without a moment scene, I feel lost until I plan those out. Cam’s book has a moment scene already for the subplot and I’m brewing on the main plot. And praying my agent likes the proposal as well.

Got any favorite moments from books/movies/TV to share? How was your weekend?

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Proposal is done and sent to agent. Will hold breath (metaphorically, of course) until she lets me know her thoughts. Revisions on Chris’s book will go to editor Friday. I’m starting to feel free – and it’s a nice feeling.

Today (and last night), it’s onto Syd’s Tempting The Fire (working title.) Have to wrestle Logan and Chance and Marlena into submission. And CREED!!!! I get to write more CREED!!!

I’m over at WriteMinded today – come chat about ghosts!

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Free Will Astrology for Aries for the week of November 20th:

Fifty-five percent of Americans not only believe in guardian angels, but testify that they have been actively aided by the intervention of those divine helpers. Commenting on the results, one religious expert said that “Americans live in an enchanted world.” The 55 percent figure may rise even higher in the coming weeks. A majority of Aries all over the planet, regardless of their religious orientation, could have a mystical experience that will spook and delight them. If you’re one of the chosen ones, don’t get fixated on or distracted by the sheer amazement of the visitation. Make sure you’re alert for its eminently practical guidance.

Dear Guardian Angel.

Thank you.
***
I’m over at Sven’s place today, talking about my love for Claire Fontaine notebooks and a certain pilot pen that helps keep me writing.

Sven day 9: 3K between Monday and Tuesday – not bad, considering the kid’s nurse has been sick. Although sometimes, when it’s just us here (with no home therapies) I actually get more done.

Migraine, day 3. Thought it was gone until the kid woke me at 4AM and I realized I shouldn’t have skipped the 1AM med dose. Again, sometimes I work better with the migraine, as I’ll do anything I can so I don’t have to focus on the pain.

Anyway, I’m also focusing on a site redesign – the wonderful Emily & Co over at Waxcreative are doing a fantastic job. One of the reasons I chose them originally was because I adore Jane Porter’s website – and Wax has a blog up about Jane’s site and what makes it so special and reader-friendly. Definitely interesting information if you’re a writer looking to draw people into your site.

Okay, much writing to be done today. I’m hoping to get the new proposal to my agent today or tomorrow and the revisions (which I’m letting sit) to my editor for Friday. And then it’s on to Sydney Croft book 5.

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Seriously, someone needs to plan better.

Oh, and Dear PBS and every other channel that features kid shows -

What’s with cutting off Boobah and Teletubbies from your roster? Because I need to DVR them so when the kid wakes up in the middle of the night (we’re at 4 weeks now and counting) I need to be able to click a remote and show her her favorite programs instead of fumbling for a DVD. So please, for the love of all that’s good and holy (and for a mother in desperate need of uninterrupted sleep), please put these two shows back on the air.

Thank you.
***
Anyway, we lived through the 8 hour Verizon Fios installation. When I called Cablevision to cancel my serivce, I was really honest about why I canceled, told them I’d asked repeatedly for better quality signal and to clean up the mess of wires outside my house (which Verizon did in 5 seconds). Of course, Cable ignored what I said, talked about the high fees I’d incur with the new service and said they’d take me back and cut my bill in half for the next year.

Dear Cablevision -

Next time, offer that before people leave. Also, stop leaving messy wires outside people’s houses and telling them that the internet loss isn’t their problem. Do that instead of telling me that I’m going to be paying more with Verizon and I’d respect you in the morning.

Thank you.

Ahem.

Anyway, in spite of all that, I’ve got about 6K or more done, between the proposal and the synopsis and the revisions (which are just about done, way ahead of the Dec 1st due date so yeah!)…looks like I’ll be getting to Syd book 5 sooner than later, which is awesome. Are you doing the Sven thing? How’s it going for you?

How was your weekend?

Okay, off to do some massive writing / revision / proposal clean-up. And pray for the return of Boobah.

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Today, I got some light revisions for Chris’s book (Hold On Tight - book 3 in the SEAL trilogy) thumped against my door – I’ll be motoring fast on those and then all three of the SEAL books will go into copy edits at the same time. That’s both great (since they’re so closely connected) and horrid (mainly because I hate copy edits and doing 3 sets at once could easily topple me over the edge.)

But I’m relieved that my editor liked the revisions I’ve done thus far – majorly relieved.

So I’m going to try to finish the proposal and get a nice chunk of the revisions done as well. Except, of course, the weekend promises to be busy, since we’re having Verizon Fios installed tomorrow (which I’m hearing can be a 6 hour process) and I have a dinner tomorrow night.

I must make use of today and tonight.

Gotta run.

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Dear stupid bureaucracy-ish people I dealt with all day yesterday who sucked up all my time, energy and generally made me want to beat my head against the wall,

All best-
Steph

***
BTW, if you’re dealing with annoying, lying people, I’ve found it best, if possible, to either record them if it’s allowed in your state and / or put everything in writing (via email) and save all responses. That way, the inaccuracies (read: lies) can be recorded very easily for future reference. Oh, and when you’re on the phone, play Time Is Running Out by Papa Roach in the background (I refuse / to surrender…)

I’ve got a raging migraine – hopefully, meds and coffee will all kick in soon, since I need to get my ass in gear.

Anyone see Brothers & Sisters this past Sunday? My DVR didn’t record it for some reason and I love that show – anything major happen? Is Kevin accepting the Rob Lowe guy’s job offer?

Okay, onto Sven stuff.

I managed 1179 words on the Cam proposal. For a while, I was actually losing words and for most of the day I was at a negative number, which drives me nuts. By 9PM, I finally finished up.

I definintely wrote more, since I worked on the synopsis in bed (longhand) – and then, since kid was up at 3AM (she has officially become the child who needs neither sleep nor food) I wrote about 4 pages longhand on the story as well. So hopefully a good start for day two.

Except, of course, I’m at the point of the proposal where I’m thinking, this is the stupidest premise ever and will never hold together. Parts of it probably won’t, but I’m already so far from my original idea that I know, somehow, it will all work out.

Maybe.

Ish.

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Anyway, today’s goals for Sven include:

- writing 1K on Cam’s proposal
- Firming up the synopsis on Cam’s proposal. (note: firming up is a nice way of saying, string together the crap I’ve written in short little sentences all over the place and try to make it make any kind of sense at all. Not an easy task. But hey, it’s day 1 – if I can get this done early, I’ll be in good shape.)

Zoo’s away tonight – he left at 4AM this morning and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Ironic, since this is the first night in 3 weeks that the kid slept through the entire night.

:frazzled:

So yes, no sleep plus husband away plus kid and dog recovering from the trauma of being left with the dogsitter while we were away for ten days equals .

Will check back in later. Had forgotten how much easier blogging is than actually writing. :LOL:

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Writing is a tough business. We spend so much time alone, in our own heads and rooms and we created this challenge to take away some of that isolation – originally, the challenge was conceived as a way to help each other along, to challenge one another and to give one another a push when the going gets too tough to go it alone.

For this challenge, I’m working on two books – one is my Sydney Croft book 5, which I’d like to get done before early December (and I know Larissa does too!) – the other is my proposal and then, hopefully, the full book that goes along with it, for March. The challenge is over at the end of January – so I’d like to be over halfway through that book by then.

Who’s in?

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

You know, math has never been my thing – I just don’t think in math terms. I think in, OMG, I want to write the entire book today, terms. Which is what can really screw you up.

Sharon/Maya have talked about this before. In a way, binge writing is awesome – when the writing is actually coming along. When you’re in those periods of, well, rest, the guilt of not writing is very stressful, especially when you’re on multiple deadlines and things are due.

I know I’ve talked about this before, but I do think that even when a binge writer isn’t writing, she’s writing. Planning. It’s all going on inside her head – she’s giving her brain a chance to recharge, to form what’s going to go on paper next, whether consciously or not.

But it makes things like reporting in for the Sven check-in difficult. How much did I write this week? Well, Larissa and I are halfway or more through Seduced By The Storm revisions, and I know I rewrote / wrote many new scenes for that. That alone probably took care of my daily word count. But I also worked on Nick’s book – I have at least ten longhand pages or more to type in. Plus pages of just free thinking notes.

Long story short, I have no idea how much I wrote this week.

Steph T.

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

I’m dealing with revisions on one book right now and soon to be headed into CEs and Galleys on others. But at the same time I’m about to jump into a first draft – writing something new – something fresh and shiny and gloriously fun. Something I need to write within the next 45 days, more or less. So this challenge has perfect timing for me, because when it’s done, I move right into two new proposals that are due right before and right after the holidays.

So here’s what I’ve been thinking about the past few days as I was deciding what to write up for today’s post. There’s very little you can control in this business – very little. The only thing you’ve got is your writing – and really, by that, I mean the first draft. After that, it becomes a combination of you and your editor and possibly your agent working together to mold the draft into something the world will see. You have some control over that process, but by then it’s more like a collaboration of sorts. And yes, I’ve seen revisions turn a book into something awesome – I agree with people who’ve said that that’s the real writing – the real digging in deep. That’s when you mine the gold and throw out the stuff that seemed so wonderful in the first draft.

But there’s always magic in that first draft. Always.

So yes, really, when it comes down to it, all you’ve really got control over is your first draft. So you need to love it – have fun with it – don’t hold anything at all back. That’s the raw clay you’re going to use later on, when other hands get involved to help you shape it. They will have good ideas, but that kind of advice will only be helpful if you’ve got good material to begin with.

So what can hold you back from digging into that first draft – what manifests itself in so many different ways, like procrastination and excuses? It’s called Resistance, and I’ve talked about it before in reference to Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art. It’s fantastic, and I’ve actually given it a reread this past weekend in order to get me past my fear of jumping back into that magical first draft.

These passages stuck with me, so I’ll share them with you and together, today, we’ll make that leap and make sure resistance doesn’t win.

Rule of Thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.

The more resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art / project / enterprise is to you – and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.

Details on the challenge are below, along with a link to Sven’s website and the sponsors for the challenge – along with the original five, we’ve added five more to help keep us all rolling along.

New Challenge details below:

Original sponsors:
me!
Alison Kent
Jo Leigh
Larissa Ione
HelenKay Dimon

plus our new sponsors this time around:
Jaci Burton
Lauren Dane
Diana Peterfreund
Shiloh Walker
Portia Da Costa / Wendy Wootton

We here at Sven Says Sweat invite you participate in round two of our Seventy Days of Sweat Writing Challenge. The challenge begins on Monday, October 15 and runs through Tuesday, January 15.

Yes, that’s 93 days. We’re giving you 23 days off to use as your personal holiday and religious circumstances require

For those participating in Nano who don’t want to start before 11/1, you can use the first 15 days to plan out your story, and then have 45 days to polish once November is over.

The goal is to have a completed manuscript at the challenge’s end.

The rules are simple. You agree to write from 750 to 1500 words a day (depending on your project needs) between the dates listed above. If you need to take off a day, you make up the pages another. Remember: You only have to do the writing for 70 days.

You don’t have to have a blog to participate, but we do want you to sign up below so everyone involved can get to know one another. And if you do have a blog, you can post the information there. Going public with your commitment is about owning it.

As far as reporting your progress, you’ll come back here each Wednesday and Sunday and post your total word count. Those of us sponsoring the challenge will be dropping by your blog (if you have one) and egging you on! And this year we have several co-sponsors who will also be checking up on you! (More on that later.)

The challenge is open to anyone writing in any genre, published and aspiring authors both. On the sidebar, you’ll find our logo if you’d like to put one on your blog. For now, let’s see a show of hands.

Who’s not afraid to sweat?

©2012 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.