Diana's Writing Blog

Wow, it’s been an eventful day. I had a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Apparently I’m ten pounds lighter than I was last time this year. Everyone was like “Good job!” But then I had to get blood drawn. >< I hate needles.

In other news, I finished the novel I was working on. It’s about 7,500 words short, but as reflected in my post title, at least I finished it before March. Of course, on the down side, I’ve looked in every notebook and Word file I own and I can’t find the outline or character sketches for the novel I wanted to work on next. Which means I’ll have to recreate it all from memory. ><

Anyway, here’s the final tally:

Writing Progress:
Title: Haven
Words: 42,504 of 50,000
Progress Today: 2,504 of 2,000

So, I’ve decided I need a new car. There are several compelling reasons. Mostly, I get the feeling all of the insides are going to fall out on a trip home someday and I’ll be stranded. My poor car is just too old to be trucking back and forth across the U.P. Also there may or may not be a mysterious burning smell when I get out of the car. I’m gonna donate it to my bro because it needs so much work.

For my next car I really want a PT Cruiser. And something less than 5 years old. In the long run, it’s better to get a decent car that’ll last for ten years than to keep jumping from junker to junker and paying more in unexpected repair costs. I already got pre-approved at my bank for a loan to pay for it. Now, I’m just waiting for my tax refund so I can scrape together the rest of the money.

Of course the loan means shaving some fat off my budget. I basically cut my discretionary and food budget in half. I can totally live on $25 a week for food. Really. I tried it Monday and ended up spending only $23. And that’s with getting fresh veg and fruit and lunch and breakfast fixings, plus snacks. And I plan to make double payments on my loan and be done paying it off by 2010.

In writing news, I’m plugging along:

Now that I can feel Spring coming (Shut up! Yes it is! I can’t hear you. ><), I’m all energetic and hopeful about the future. Maybe I have that Seasonal Affective thing…

So, the theater up here FINALLY has Sweeney Todd. Wow. Good job people. Only about two–two and a half?–months late? And it’s at The Lode, which is in Downtown Houghton. Which is an ever loving NIGHTMARE to park in, especially when it’s snowy or icy. I’m not going to go. I might as well just save myself the time and money and wait till I can buy it on DVD.

In other news, I’m falling further behind on my writing quota. I’ll probably still be working on it in the first week of March. Oh, well. I’m still finding my stride. Speaking of, here’s my sad progress for today. I think I’m supposed to be somewhere near 42,000 this evening. Yeesh.

Um, okay, how did I not know about Stargate Worlds before today? An MMORPG set in the Stargate universe? Didn’t I sign up to have this sort of news beamed directly into my brain while I sleep?

Coming Fall 2008? Jeebus, between this and Spore I may not even have time to watch tv. I know, it scares me too.

Oh, yeah, and I’m still doing that writing thing:

ETA: I just got a call from the Social Security Office about a resume I submitted in May 2007. Wow…I always thought the whole “I’ll keep your resume on file” line was just a polite brush off. Anyway, I like my current job and I don’t want to work in Sault St. Marie or Escanaba really.

So, I’m going to be pingpong-ing across the U.P. for the next few weekends since my friends and family can’t seem to coordinate their visits. Hopefully I’ll squeeze in some time to write. I’ve got a week and a half before the end of the month and about 20,000 more words to go. Yeah, I fell behind last weekend.

In other news, I was all psyched up to continue my NanoWrimo novel from 2005 next. Except I can’t find my outline or character notes. I can find the 2,500 words I wrote (I got a boyfriend that month) but not the pre-work that I could swear I did. Plus, I’m missing any trace of the other novel I was interested in. I’m thinking I cooked them up back when I was still writing things hard copy. Which means I have to take a little trip into the file cabinet. Yikes.

Anyway, here’s my progress, such as it is:

It’s cold and snowy up here. I know, shocker. We did have Subway for lunch today, on the company, which is always nice. Plus, Janelle stocked up on soda which I NEED to function, so that was good.

Speaking of stocking up, I should go across the bridge and get more soda and refill my prescription. But I probably won’t because it is snowy and I am lazy.

Oh, and I learned we all get evaluations this month here at the company. That’s kind of worrisome. It’s not like I’ve missed deadlines or anything, but as you can tell, I sometimes blog or write during company time. Mostly when I’m watching the phones for Janelle or waiting for stuff I’m working on to print, but still. Plus, my boss is out of the country until next Tuesday, so I’m running low on stuff to keep me busy. And that just makes me feel kind of useless in general.

In a completely unrelated turn of events, I’m done with my writing quota for today:

Well, off to sneak left over sub and chips out of the break room for supper.

Well, my writing is kicking along nicely. Editing has kind of stalled. It’s just not easy to go from doing the get-it-down-fix-it-later type of writing to hard core editing. I find myself just reading through my editing novel without stopping to try and work out the parts that bother me. Maybe I’ll reserve Saturday for editing and write 4,000 Sunday.

But I’m going home this weekend, and that’s where I had my new books shipped, so maybe my new editing book will inspire me to edit properly.