I’m really, REALLY tired of Charter “High Speed” Internet. I’ve had problems here with it cutting out or just going slower than dial up. For months. I get permanently put on hold when I call “customer service” :crazy2:

They do this “automatic” testing of the line, etc when you call. But I haven’t had the good luck to actually talk to a real live person. Someone suggested calling after midnight…yeah, that works for this 5:30 am riser

I was thinking of switching to DSL…AT&T here, but after the problems I had with AT&T trying to hook my parents…well, they don’t know “customer service” either.

Do all internet companies just take you money and not deliver?? ::rant off::

Anyway, Happy 4th of July!

• They Can Take Away Our Internet
• A Little Rain Must Fall
• Really Happy Person-Recheck
• Vacation Internet the Hard Way
• Photo of 2008 Contest

My critique group is doing a challenge. At least 250 words a day for 25 continuous days. If you miss a day, you start over. You know how hard it is sometimes to make yourself just open the damn file? You think of chores to do, laundry calling your name, bills to pay. Hell, I’ve been known to scrub the kitchen floor when avoiding writing…

Anyway, the whole idea of this is to motivate ourselves into opening the file every single day. For 25 days. And most days, we write more…even much more…than our 250 words. At the very least we have our one page. 250 words. We nag each other to GET ‘EM DONE. My critique buddies cheer me on. I cheer them on. And sometimes, all a writer needs is a little encouragement.

• Artful Blogging
• A New Theme-A New Direction
• DandelionBlog
• I Hope You Dance
• Help Me…

The Me Me Me weekend was a great success. Didn’t do half the things I planned to do. Didn’t care. In a weird twist, I totally cleaned my bedroom and bathroom. Deep cleaned. Not what I was expecting to do, but it’s so nice to have that all done! Various kids were in and out this weekend, so it was nice to chat with them. Just a great time.

This week I finally figured out what was wrong with my proposal. I think So I hope to get that mailed out next week, after one more pass through the synopsis. And a bit of research on trees in Mississippi

• Mississippi Road Trip
• Reforesting the Neighborhood
• Learning Curve
• Moving On
• I Want My Garage Back

I’m taking the weekend off for a me weekend. I’m going to read, watch chick flicks, eat chocolate. I’m going to write on whatever I want–putting aside my proposal for 3 days. I’m claiming the remote, and the choice of music. It’s all about me this weekend, baby!

• I Hope You Dance
• Life in Focus-Slow Down
• And the winner is
• A Day at the Spa
• A weekend at home

I’ve actually had a great writing week so far…but I did catch myself procrastinating a few times when the writing wasn’t going so well.

Like the top of my refrigerator is now perfectly clean… When is the last time you cleaned the top of YOUR fridge… I also washed my front door. Yes, I know, but it needed it

So what unusual things have you done in an effort to procrastinate??

• Signs of the Times
• What can I do to help, Honey?
• Dead, dead, dead
• A Whole Lot of Work Left to Do
• I Don’t Know What it is, but I want it

So in an effort to figure just what I really have out here on my computer writing-wise…SCARY THING I went through my computer files this past weekend. Listed off all the partially written stories I have, if there’s a synopsis and or blurb, how many pages.

I have a lot of unfinished stories.. I have my fair share of completed books, but just tons of stories I’ve started and abandoned for one reason or another. But I do like having them listed all out. Now I can weed out what stories are viable. Throw the list of vague ideas in a file to simmer. Yes, organization. Who would have thought?? I did find some awesome start of stories. I’ve printed them out and dropped them in files in my writing drawer. I’ll look through them periodically to see if any of them catch my attention again and beg to be written out to completes.

and don’t listen to this if obsessively anal things bug you…

I listed them all…everyone of them… on a spreadsheet…

• My Scrivener Setup for Novel Writing
• Weimaraner Puppy
• Sneak Peak from Wedding
• Memory Problems
• Lost in Computer Hades

So I have been beating my head against the wall. Trying to figure out the internal conflict for my hero in my story. And I had this LIGHTBULB moment. Here I am trying to whip my story into a category proposal. Cut out some secondary characters. Scale back the heroine’s POV. Figure out the hero’s goal. Then it came to me…this ISN’T a category story. No matter how much I want it to be. It’s a single title. DUH. Just because I want to get a proposal back on the desk of an editor from a category house who has been giving me good feedback on my submissions…doesn’t mean this story is going to fit the bill. It so isn’t.

Single Title. That is all there is to it. I can at least admit this now

• Bill the Housewife
• Chasing Light
• Bill the Bride
• Out my office window
• Call for Submissions for November Photo of the Month

Yes, it’s Magic March. Time to make magic with our writing. Of course, the only way to make magic is to put your butt in the chair and write…

So I’m once again stuck on internal GMC for my characters. I don’t know why this hangs me up. But it does. Every time. I’ve told myself to get over it and just learn to do it. But EVERY TIME it happens again. I usually get one the characters pretty nailed down. But then I have the hardest time with the other character.

This time my heroine has trust issues. She’s been hurt. People she loves leave her. (yes, trite and done a lot, but I think I handled it well). But then the hero? Well, right now he doesn’t have any flaws and is pretty damn perfect. Yes, I know, this is a problem isn’t it??:crazy2:

• Magic
• The Perfect Knife
• New Camcorder
• Tell me a secret
• In Search of the Perfect Lighthouse Photo

Yes, name that month. Focus February. Let’s Focus. Let’s Focus on WRITING, not all the other things calling to us. You know, laundry, cleaning, food on the table, day jobs. All those things are going to be there. Day after day. (after day, after day…). If I don’t make writing a focus of my day…it just gets swept away in the tide of “real life”.

So this month I’m commited to focusing on my writing. Pages, brainstorming, synopsis writing, affirmations. “I’m a GREAT, TALENTED synopsis writer!”

I’m willing to give up a clean house for my writing this month too…

So what are you going to do this month to focus on your writing??

• The Best Vacuum Cleaner
• Just Say No to Housework
• For Mother’s Day I Got
• Life in Focus-Focus
• Out of Focus

So I jumped right past that whole fear of first page, and I’m busy on a proposal for Super Romance. It’s a little cutting edge, so we’ll see how it flies. Anyway I’m at the point where I have to write the synopsis

My usual method is to get an idea, mull it over, write the first 3 chapters or so to get to know the charcters. Write the synopsis, then rewrite the first 3 chapters

I find that if I can really nail down the GMC for both the hero and heroine, and their character arc, I can really get a handle on the story and avoid the whole sagging middle. But I just beat my head against the wall trying to really, REALLY nail down the whole GMC/ Character arc thing. I sometimes think I over analyze this. But I also know that if I DON’T really nail this down, I wander off in tangents on my manuscript.

Now, I don’t plan out every detail. I find that just know the above will allow me to sit down and write the book. Quite often the black moment changes by the time the book is finished though.

How about you? Do you really think about this stuff? Know the GMC and what the character has to learn before you’re very far into the book?

• Chasing Light
• My Scrivener Setup for Novel Writing
• Out my office window
• A Bit of Cruise News
• males