Tag: procrastination

Procrastination abounds

Sorta. So I didn’t get any writing done since I last popped in here, more or less… I have a start on chapter five, Allison met Kara and they clashed – more later. On my last update I mentioned a planned writing spree. That turned into major computer maintenance, actually… hours of updates (both laptops) and then routine work like defragging and stuff on the laptop I’ve started using for writing (the silver one). So I thought I’d use my desktop, but found it needed some updates, too. *sighs* So I played PlayStation 2, Harry Potter the Prisoner of Azkaban. And some Skyrim on my xBox 360.

But, I also read three books and wrote reviews on them at Amazon, and am in the beginning of a short story anthology – loved the first story, btw, so am sure I’ll be giving a glowing review! One of the books I reviewed was actually my first truly negative review. I found the writing awful, full of spelling errors (especially misuse of “your” and “you’re”) and tense issues, mixing past and present tense, often within the same sentence, and ever changing POV making it impossible to follow the story, let alone develop any interest of feelings towards the various characters. It’s a shame, too, cause I’ve been scouting around for new-to-me writers of paranormal romances. The writer gave highly improbable character descriptions as well, which might have been adequate for the animal form, but not the human form. Like the weretiger, described as 6’7″ tall (that part is okay) weighing in at 600 pounds. Uh, what? All I could picture was a tall rotund male, just a blob of a man; the same for the Alpha, a six foot tall 300 pound werelion… oh! And a female wereleopard described as having four breasts! I mean, c’mon… if it was listed as an alien (i.e. from outer space, an unknown species) it would have been more acceptable, palatable….

As far as the spelling errors… I read another book that I made a few negative/correctional comments concerning spelling errors, but was no where near as harsh because it was obvious the book was written by someone that English was not their first language. In fact, I gave her kudos for trying to tackle the language to tell her story. Besides, she at least had an obvious plot. The other book however, like I mentioned in my review – I literally forced myself to read the first ten chapters, the halfway point of the book, and I still have no idea what the story was suppose to be about! The writer filled page after page with mundane, boring dialogue describing a meal, that did nothing to move the story forward or give this reader a chance to learn more about the various characters speaking. They all sounded exactly the same. *sighs*

Any-hoo, that’s how I spent the last two weeks, basically. Oh, and I also watched a few movies, too. M’kay, enough of an update, I am so outtie….

Block, or Procrastination

Yeah, that is the question.

So, classes officially ended on February 28, 2016. I’m done, fini, completed my Masters. Awesome. [Note: this is not sarcasm, I really am proud.] I also completed the novel I had been working on, my fiction thesis. Lynette has made her choice finally and is settling down with Lachlan. Very sweet paranormal romance, i.e. no sex scenes just a sweet kiss towards the end of the story. I still have to revise chapters 10-15. I still have to find an online critique/reading group to join. I still have to decide whether I am self-publishing or using a traditional publisher – knowing my work may not be accepted and have many rejection slips heading my way. I mean, I know I am not guaranteed being accepted/published simply because I have completed my Masters now. I am not stupid, nor am I naive. I am also still needing to transfer all of the writings into my Scrivener program. I mean, I did buy the program to use for writing but continued using Word while in school….

I’ve joked and said my brain is tired… been sleeping extremely odd hours… playing the damn dragon game, too much… on Facebook watching videos and “liking” various things… watching YouTube documentaries… watched all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager over a few days [watched final episode, this morning, btw.] So, went “to bed” around noon today, awoke around 6:30p.m. or so – so yes, this is roughly my ‘mid-morning’ today. Still drinking coffee, obviously. Need to do massive domain updates, all accounts/domains.

I figured I just needed to push myself, and opened CoffeeCup last night to start doing text updates to my main account – where this blog is housed… ran into a confusing issue before upload and instead of figuring it out and solving it, shut program down and watched Voyager! *sighs* Well, that excuse to avoid work is gone, since I watched the final episode.

M’kay, tackle this. I’m not blocked. Nope. I’ve already started thinking about and begun working on the next female protagonist in this planned series; Allison Bolden, a werewolf to be with the other werewolf Lynette met and did not choose, Robert. Allison’s backstory is getting fairly well developed in my mind and some has been committed to writing via Evernote. I know I need to go back and do the final revision/editing for Lynette’s story and do actually prefer to take a break before a final revision so as to read with ‘fresh eyes,’ that of a reader and not the writer. So, maybe this is more along the lines that I have not created and developed a new writing routine where I actually get things done. I had a workable routine geared towards class assignments; now that I no longer have that ‘pressure,’ perhaps I am allowing myself to get too lax?

So, dinner now then shut off television and head back to my writing desk. Tomorrow I’ll push myself to redesign one domain. Plan set, push for follow through… so I am so outtie….