February Wrap-Up

Seeing as today is the last day of February, here are my stats:
Pages Edited:177
Words Written: 7K
Rejections racked up: None. As in, I have three subs out and I haven't heard from anyone! Is that good, or bad?

Goals for March:

Pages Edited: 200+
Words Written: 20K
Rejections racked up: NONE

Gotta keep steaming along!

It's In the Blood.

I was walking by Thing One last night, who was finishing up her paper on DNA for school. She was sitting still, staring at the computer screen.

"I can't think of a good way to end it," she told me. That was code for "can you help me write an ending for my paper?"

Since I was in the middle of something, I didn't go there. I said to her. "You'll think of something. You're a writer."

She did, a few minutes later. And it was great. Because she is a writer. Just like her mom is a writer. And just like her great great great Grandpa, Nephi Anderson, was a well-known writer. 

She's got the genes. She just needs to USE them! How's that for DNA??

A Visual Writer

One of my friends asked me once how I write. I wasn't sure what she meant, so I told her "I have a movie in my head, and I write what the movie shows." She said "Oh, you're a VISUAL writer, then!"

She's right. Once I've outlined a novel, I go and peruse the internet for photos of actors who come close to how I envision my characters will look. Then I print them out, and have a little "posterboard" of characters close by. It helps me see them side by side and visualize how they'll interact. (Usually, they just tell me what is going to happen, but that's not something I like to tell non-writing people. Because it makes me Schizophrenic.  ;-) Which I'm not.

Some writers write by the seat of their pants, and go with it. No linear plot, just bits and pieces. Not me. I have to have a "vision." I have to have that "movie" in my head. Sometimes it's there without any effort. Sometimes I have to work for it. Sometimes Life gets in the way and I have to set the popcorn down and press "pause" until I can get back to it.

But I always come back. ;-)

Three In, Three Out.

I sort of have an "unspoken rule" about queries. I only do three at a time. Three is doable, for me. I noticed last night I'd received responses from my last batch of queries, so, I sent out three more this morning. Well, early this morning, because I couldn't sleep. (Yes. That is the VERY LAST time I take Excedrin before bed. I keep forgetting the copious amounts of caffeine it contains!!)

Some people are comfortable with sending out mass-queries. A sort of "shotgun approach" if you will. Some prefer to query one agent at a time, and wait until they've received the rejection before querying another. I can't do that. I'm not hard-wired to be THAT patient. ;-) So, three is my magic number. Because sometimes good (not all bad) things happen in threes. Where else did the saying "Third Time's the Charm" come from?

:-)

Anne Boleyn Portrait Needs Conservation Work

This is a little OT but close to my heart--as anything Tudor related (Especially Anne Boleyn!) usually is. ;-) As you can see, this portrait needs some help:



From the National Portrait Gallery:

This important portrait of Anne Boleyn is in urgent need of conservation treatment. It is in a particularly vulnerable and unstable condition as a result of structural problems with the wooden panel. Vertical cracking has occurred across the picture causing minor paint loss where the wood has split (see the photograph taken in raking light above). We need to act now as the damage is being caused by the long term effects of an unsuitable cradle (an applied wooden panel support) which must be removed. Therefore this important and much loved painting needs urgent conservation treatment to ensure it can be put back on public display.
The Gallery hopes to raise £4,000 for conservation work on this picture, and with your help we very much hope to be able to undertake this work in early 2011.

You can donate to the effort here. There is also a portrait of the poet John Donne in need of work that you can support as well.

January Stats

Well, THAT was a "Blink-and-miss-it" month! So, drumroll please:


Pages Edited: 213
Words Written: 9K
Rejections racked up (including one that eeked in on the 31st, yesterday!): 4

January was a productive month for me! Goals for February:


Pages Edited: 200+
Words Written: 20K
Rejections racked up: NONE (Hey, I can hope!)

Onward and upward...