A Not-So-Fond Farewell to 2012

The old adage goes that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. 2012 has been quite hellish, but I don't think all of my good intentions had anything to do with how this past year passed. I've obviously been very MIA, and most of my writing goals for the year (5/7 to be exact) went unrealized. A bunch of crap is to blame, some of it surrounding personal losses, but all of it got blanketed by the fact that I've spent the past year coping with a crazy little thing called depression. Post-partum depression, to be exact.

I'm not sharing this as a dig for sympathy, or as a means to excuse my lack of productivity this year. But I am sharing it because mental illness is real, and it needs to be talked about. And it needs to be treated. I've been very lucky to have a great doctor, and family and friends who have wowed me with their support. Slowly but surely I'm feeling better, and I'm getting my act together enough to make time for writing again. I'm excited to have a much happier and more productive 2013!

In June (was it June?) I did attend the writing workshop with the literary agent, and it was so excellent and encouraging. My pages were randomly drawn from the pile of submissions, and Kristin read them and gave feedback. Of the maybe 30 excerpts she read during the workshop, mine was one of only three that she said she would consider reading on past the first two pages. Not going to lie, that felt AMAZING.

But then I couldn't get my mojo together to keep at it and send her the partial that she requested from those of us she said she wanted to read more of. CLEARLY, acting upon this is my one and only goal for 2013.

I did attempt NaNoWriMo this past November. I was hoping that the competition and camaraderie of the event would rekindle my writing productivity, but I was obviously delusional thinking it was a wise thing to attempt while still messing around with medication dosages and traveling for 2 weeks out of the month to boot. Needless to say, a win did not happen this year. But I did get around 12K words written (remember that SNI I blogged about way back when that was inspired by a nightmare I had? That's what I drafted for NaNo.), which is pretty darned good, all things considered. I have decided, though, to put this story aside for the time being and get my act together and finish the original WIP.

So, that's my completely lame 2012 year in writing. Bah.



Fingers crossed 2013 does a 180 from the epic fail that 2012 has been in general.



Cheers, everyone!

Rheana

Its Time To Get Things Started

I kind of have a thing for The Muppets. So much so that I refer to my children in the online world by names of OG Muppets. Since I've already mentioned them a few times here on the blog, I figured some back story and an introduction was in order.

It all started way back in 2007 when I was expecting my first baby. His due date was leap day, and some gals from an online message board I had belonged to at the time took to calling him Kermit (leap day --> leap frog --> Kermit the frog is a natural progression of assumption, right? RIGHT?) and it just always stuck. Even IRL people got in on the action - to this day my own mother sometimes calls my son Kermie as a nickname.

Kermie is almost 4 (we're seriously counting the sleeps until his birthday over here), very bright, obsessed with playing online games on Nick Jr and PBS Kids, talks non-stop, lives for getting to build stuff with his daddy, and loves to read just as much as I do. He's also turning into a gifted fibber. Combine that with his smarts, and this one keeps me on my toes. I started this writing thing shortly after he was born, and his late night feedings were how I marked the end of my first NaNoWriMo writing nights.

Once we were expecting baby #2, it was a natural fit to choose another Muppet moniker. Fozzie was the first name to stick, even before we knew whether we were being blessed with another boy or a girl. Ironically, Fozzie is the PERFECT name for our second son. This kid is 2.5 years old and is Mr. Personality. He tells jokes ("Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Cockadoodle apple chicken BEER!"), is always laughing about something, staggers around everywhere with a cup of some kind of liquid in his hands just like a little frat boy, and is just generally very "look at me". He also has zero sense of self-preservation and screams allthedamntime. He will, in short, be the child we lay awake at night wondering if he's actually in his bed, or out on the prowl drinking Red Bull and everclear, knocking up girls, and TPing his principal's house.

My trouble-maker boys:

Sigh. I love them.

Finding a nickname for baby #3 turned out to be tricky. We knew we were having a girl, and girl Muppet names blow. Like, seriously. I'm not calling my girl Miss Piggy, and Janice just isn't fun. So, after much hemming and hawing, we settled on Beaker. He's an awesome character, and even though he's (presumably) a boy, the name works for our little babe.  Beaker is now 9 months old, has the most kissable chubby cheeks ever, eats cheese like it's going out of style, and lights up when her brothers pay attention to her. She also completely sucked the creative mojo out of me while I was pregnant with her, and I'm still struggling to get it back.

A rad hairdo, sassy clothes, and already planning to be a doctor. Is it any wonder I have a massive crush on this girl?

So, those are my babies. They are the joys of my life, and the primary culprits for my lack of time and energy to do anything, let alone write. Some day, some far away day, I will dedicate my first book to them. 

What's The Story?

(And now I've got that Oasis song stuck in my head...)

So, here's the low down about the writing project I'm working on and usually will be referencing as my WIP (Work In Progress).

A few years back I was reading the fascinating NF book "Stiff" by Mary Roach for my online book club's monthly discussion, and a section about people who believed they began taking on new personality traits after receiving an organ transplant was the genesis for a plot bunny. I instantly wanted to write a story about a girl who becomes endowed with the empathic abilities of her donor after receiving a heart transplant. I'd been wanting to attempt YA SciFi with a mystery element, and this was the perfect vehicle to do that.

I began drafting this story during NaNoWriMo 2010. I wrote just over 52K that November, but the story was not complete. After NaNo I was forced to take a break from writing, finding that the endurance event known as the third trimester of pregnancy had completely sapped me of all my energy, both physical and creative.

The WIP lingered, untouched, for many months. Occasionally I would open the document, sometimes to re-read parts, sometimes just to stare at the blinking cursor, trying to will new words out onto the page. I constantly was thinking about my story, making mental notes about problems that needed fixing and whatnot, but no actual progress happened for months. OK, the truth is that nothing happened for a year.

Enter NaNoWriMo 2011. I desperately wanted to participate, having done so for the past 3 years. But, I couldn't in good conscience begin drafting a new story when that other one was dangling out there, unfinished and still full of promise. Despite a year away from that novel, I still loved it, still wanted to fix it, still wanted to finish its story.

I became a NaNo Rebel - I decided to use NaNo 2011 to finish the draft of my novel. This past November I finally dug back into the story, slashed and hacked out sections that needed to go, and drafted the remainder of the story. Between the deleting and the new writing, I added roughly 25K to the novel. It is by no means complete, but it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. (This is where I admit that this is actually a huge accomplishment for me - seeing one of my attempts at a novel through the drafting of the entire main story arc.)

So, what's the plan? Basically, a LOT of revising and still quite a bit of drafting. The mystery element needs tweaking to raise the stakes, the swoony boy (there should ALWAYS be a swoony boy, right?) needs his character development moved out of my brain and onto the page, the logistics of my protagonist's new abilities needs fleshing out (pun intended), and some plot points necessary for potential sequel development need to be sprinkled throughout. Lots of work yet to do, I'm afraid.

Only, I'm not just afraid (fear will be a future topic I'll write about), I'm excited. More than a year after putting the first words of this story on the page, I still feel a compulsion to finish this. To tell this story. And to do it well. My passion for this story has sustained me through long droughts of inactivity, but I always knew I'd come back and finish it.

So, that's my story (morning glory)...