I usually pride myself on being able to put myself into the heads of my characters. I like to think it makes me more able to make them real people, even those who appear for a brief sentence or paragraph. Yet I have some areas that apparently I'm blind to.

For example, in my current WIP, I have a male character. I try to make him think the way I think a man thinks, but apparently men think of sex more than I do. At least, that's what a couple of my (female) beta readers tell me. Now, I realize that men and women do, to some extent, have differing priorities, but surely not so much as all that. I can understand the adolescent fixation on sex, what with having to deal with newly raging hormones, but surely eventually even men outgrow that particular thought process?

This particular story isn't about sex. This particular story is about exploration, about one's past catching up with one, and about growth. I don't particularly want to put in gratuitous sex scenes. I don't like reading them in other authors' works; I certainly don't want them in mine. Sexual tension, perhaps, but not the act.

Ah well, I'll work it out. Eventually. Maybe. Meh.

I was reading through my notes for my third-in-the-trilogy story, and I have hit a road block. I want to show (rather than tell) how sensing other's emotions has had an impact on my MMC. I can tell easily enough, but it's hard to show it.

I'm trying to think of actions that would indicate reactions to people, without repeating things like blinking, staring, wincing, and so forth. I have him blink too much, I think. Or wince. I'm really tired of him wincing, actually--he's not the wincing type!

So, my writerly friends out there--can you help me with a few other ways for him to show his reactions? I don't want to just write "He felt her surprise" or He sensed the other's anger."

I'm so fail here....

I have finished my first draft of the first part of the trilogy. Yay! Not complete yet--not till I have a chance to do some editing (I already know of some I can cut and some I need to add), but the arc works, and goes into part two the way it should.

So to step back for a bit, give it a chance to settle, I'm starting on the final part of the trilogy. Well, starting to continue on it...I have about 100 pages but they're mostly scenelets and they need to be connected into a coherent whole. I've already deleted one entire scene, except for a few paragraphs I morphed into a different scene.

Such a great feeling to be able to say I've gotten this far.

I gakked this from hotarunokokoro. It is surprisingly accurate, except that this particular demon doesn't always stay an inner demon...

Your Cute Monster Says Your Inner Demon is Depression

You are both a realist and an idealist. You're able to see the world as it is - and how it could be. You dream big, and you never give up on your beliefs. You have big plans. Sometimes you build things up in your head. People think you're cute because you're determined. You're a fighter, and that's charming.

Thank God I was diagnosed and received treatment for it. I'm not "cured" but I have learned how to sidetrack it, how to derail it once it hits, and how to deal with it if everything fails and it still hits.

Today I get to go back to work after a 4-day spring break (I'm not counting the weekend--I always get weekends). This is the time of year when the kids either pick up, thinking "OMG it's almost school out and I'm failing and I don't want to have Miss B again!" or they start fading back, thinking "Who cares, I don't want to study, it's too nice outside, and my boy/girl friend is much more important that any of my classes." Come to think of it, that's pretty much how the teachers are thinking, too. Heh.

On the writing front, I have about 2 more chapters to go...one for sure, and probably one more to wrap everything up. The cool thing is I found an old note that I wrote with this ending in mind, and it gave me a whole "Oh! Yes! That's how it needs to go!" so I expect this last chapter (or two) to go rather quickly. Then it's a matter of editing so that it fits with the central story (which may mean editing the central story a bit, too), and then I can start on finishing the sequel. So go me!

I got another chapter in my prequel finished, so go me! I now have to kill off a major character (he has to be dead before the original story's start), and I know how it's going to happen...already wrote that part. I just have to figure out how to get him to where he dies. Then I have to have my protag recover from the trauma of the death, meet her previously unmet half-brother, and set her up to a point where only a few months separate the end of the prequel with the start of the original.

I didn't use to think I could effectively write "Scene X" first, then go figure a way to fit it into my universe. But now I find it's actually making the composition of the interim scenes easier. So I have about 4 scenes pre-written, as it were, and now just have to connect the dots. I figure about 4 or five chapters will finish up this prequel, and then I can work on the editing of it so that it smoothly matches my protag's past with her present. After I've done that, I can start concentrating on the sequel, of which I have about 5 chapters already finished (approximately 1/4 of the story) and another three scenes written that will need the dots connected.

I'm good at writing scenes; I need to improve on finales and on introducing necessary world-building without getting too much exposition so that the reader gets bored. I think (thinking back over the trilogy) that I have perhaps seven or eight spots that I need to split up so that the exposition isn't all in one chunk. The challenge when writing new worlds that are not earth is you want to let your readers know why this isn't earth and how it's different, but you can't drop the action for long or you lose your reader's attention.

And I just want to say a public thank you to my beta readers--you have been a huge help by giving me feedback that's more than just nice words to make me feel good. I realize that one chapter needs more conflict--that's where the editing comes in and I've already got some ideas on how to fix it percolating in my brain.

Anyone planning on participating?

I've tried two years running and failed spectacularly both times. So I figure, third time's the charm, right?

We'll see.

I have a titlte for it, and the genre, and a one-sentence premise to get me going. I figure by the end of October I'll have a slightly more detailed synopsis and maybe even a vague outline of the highlights.

For those of you who've managed to do NaNo successfully before, what sorts of things do you attribute your success to? Did you ever sell your final product? Inquiring minds want to know...

Thanks to my brother, I now have a Facebook thing. If I knew how to direct anyone there, I'd send out a 'join my friendlist' notice, but I'm not sure how that works yet. About the only people I've added have been relatives so far.

So if you want to be added to my friends on Facebook, let me know how I go about doing that.

Yeah, yeah, I'm technologically challenged...

On another front, we're winding down our first quarter at school. Next Tuesday/Wednesday we have a special bell schedule for testing purposes. We're to give 2-hour tests to the kiddos, so it means we meet with half the classes on Tuesday and the other half on Wednesday. My problem with that is: what sort of test can I give in a class that emphasizes speaking and listening that would take 2 hours? Multiple-guess can only get you so far, and while yes, I could have them give an oral presentation--in one class that would mean (assuming at most a 5 minute presentation) they'd all be finished in 45 minutes, while in my largest, it would take an hour and 50 minutes--hardly equitable. So I'm trying to figure out what to do. Maybe a mix of listening activities and conversation activities, with the grading being on a rubric for an observed behavior type of thing. Hmmm...

As for my writing, I think I am finally happy with my original SF novel. Now to find me a place to submit it and/or an agent to help me find a happy home for it. I've been editing it to update the technology (I originally wrote it in the early 80s, so some of our now current technology didn't exist and I hadn't planned for it). I also machoed up my male protagonist so he's not so much of a pushover, and smoothed out some awkward sections by either rewriting or cutting. The final result has about 80K words, which is short by today's 200K+ wordcount tomes. I suppose that could either work for or against it. Also going against trend, it has no sex scenes, though I did put in some sexual tension. It's not about the sex, after all--it's about the adventure and the emotional growth of the characters.

And with that finished, I can direct my energies to some of my other stories in progress.

Today I'll be going to town to pick up one of my prescriptions, and while I'm there I'll check on the status of my new shoes I ordered. I have to wear arch supports for my plantar faciitis, and these shoes should have room for them. I think they looked nice in the catalog--we'll see how they look on my feet.

Best stop now, or I'll have my whole life's story here...

I just came back from spending three weeks at my dad's place. He's in the process of getting it ready for sale, so he asked me to go through stuff and if I saw anything I wanted, that one of my brother's hadn't claimed or that he didn't want himself, I could take it.

One of the most full of memories is a doll that was my grandmother's. This doll has a whole wardrobe that the ladies auxilliary at her church made--everything from swimsuit to wedding dress, and mostly fashions of the forties and fifties. I used to play with her when I was 8 to 15 years old. Her name is Cathy.

Another item that has memories attached is her set of silver--coffee server, teapot, creamer, sugar bowl, butter tray...all the accouterments. It's a bit tarnished, but once I shine it up, I'll have it displayed nicely in my living room.

I also nabbed two sets of recipe cards--one a series she ordered that has big, laminated cards so if you spill they are easy to clean. The other is all her old old recipes she picked up from her mother, grandmother, aunts, old magazines and so on. I've been having fun just going through them and remembering which ones she liked to prepare.

Mom taught me to cook early. I was maybe five years old when she gave my my own cookbook. (The title, if I remember right, was My Very First Cookbook. I got an Easy Bake Oven when I was six, and mom would let me use her batter to make my own cookies and cakes, which my brothers promptly devoured. When I was 15/16 they got me The Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery (which I still have)--twenty-three volumes of recipes and cooking tips from A to Z. I've always loved puttering in the kitchen, and I'm sure enough of my skills to experiment with recipes that aren't quite what I want.

Now that I've been diagnosed with diabetes, I have an even more pressing reason to cook and bake my own stuff, so I can be sure it's something that won't aggravate my condition. My kitchen is small, but adequate, and tends to be messy as I am always doing something in there.

Also while I was at dad's I added at least 5000 words to my story I'm working on. I could have done more, but I did lots of other stuff while visiting, so I think I did well with the time I gave myself.

Our school district had three weeks of extra long days to make up our snow and mud days. Basically, the Board decided rather than take days from our spring break, they'd just add an hour a day to each school day for a while and make up the missing days that way. So instead of the students getting through at 3:30 (our normal dismissal time), they were released at 4:30, and teachers were to stay till 5:00 (after arriving by 8:00). That wasn't too bad, but when you add on the after school programs, well, the busses left school at 7:00 pm.

Howsomever, we finally had our last extra long day, and next Monday we get to go back to the normal schedule--just in time for the state math exams. Then two weeks after that we have the AZELLA test for our English Language Learners. Sometimes I get the impression I'm not teaching, I'm testing, we have so many of these assessments to administer. I'm hopeful that at least a decent percentage of my current ELL students will test out proficient, and not have to have the 4 (!) hours of English instruction the state is requiring. Seems that if somewhere in their schooling, when they were collecting demographics, a parent indicated (proudly, I'm sure) that they spoke Navajo at home, when in essence the main language is actually English, and the Navajo is used primarily to speak with the grandparents. Whatever the case, even though the student may not really know Navajo, he's been labled English Language Learner, and thus must pass this particular assessment. For a native speaker, the test is simple enough, and I think many of them would just blow it off in the past. Now, however, they realize that if they want to graduate with their classmates, they're going to have to pass that assessment. I hope so, at least.

On the writing front, I've been lax. What with the extra long days, and the fun of exploring the internet, I've done a ton of researching, but not much composing. Now that I'll be back on normal schedule, I'll see if I can start the composing part again.

Healthwise, I'm doing better. Thanks to the Lantus, my morning blood sugar readings are now under 100 (mostly 90s, though this morning I had a 74--a bit *too* low, so I had oatmeal for breakfast) instead of the low and mid 200s a couple weeks back. Also, and I think this is just me finally getting serious about my caloric intake again, I've lost 8 pounds in the last 2 weeks. So go me! My short term goal is another 10-15 pounds by the end of school, and then just try and keep that off over the summer (which seems to be when I tend to gain weight the most easily). Eventually, I would like to drop another 70 or even 80 pounds, but that is a ways off. I figure it took me 15 years to put it all on, so taking a few to get it off is acceptable.

On Monday I have an appointment to see the dietician my endo wants me to see. She's the one who showed me how to administer my Lantus, and she wanted to see me again to check up on me and my sugars and progress. So I'll have good things to report, it seems.

Yorkie, my cat, is enjoying the warmer weather we've been having. He'll happily lay in the spot of sunshine all day, and when I peek in on him, he'll roll around in pleasure, then go back to his snooze. He's an all-indoor cat, though I let him out on the balcony for some fresh air every day, and seems to be pretty happy and healthy. I need to take him for an annual checkup, but that will have to wait till school's out for the summer, I think. If he starts being weird, of course, I would take the time immediately, but as I said, he seems happy and healthy. Just fat, like his caregiver. :D

So that's my weekly update. I hope all who read this have a lovely weekend.

My NaNo project is going well. I may not get as much in today, as I will be staying late at work so some students can stay after and get caught up on assignments.

At any rate, as of late last night, I have reached a wordcount of:

12,697!!

Lemme think...divide that by 5 (days in November) and we get...almost 2,540 words per day. Yeah!

It's now bedtime (okay I could stay up another hour, but that would just waste the extra hour I got when we moved the clocks back), and I have a new total for my wordcount on my NaNo novel:

10432!

That's a bit over 2K/day still. So I'm doing well.

Anyone else doing NaNo, my membership name is Eaglet (don't ask...it had to do with last years novel).

So the site is down, but at least now I get a message saying that the site is down. Must be improving.

Anyhoo...my wordcount so far (I'm doing a running tally rather than a daily thingy...easier for me to do anyway)...

6078!

Sooooo...that's a bit over 2000/day, so I'm on track for my unspoken goal of 1700/day. A little ahead, actually. I'll need to get a bit ahead, I bet, just in case I have another day or two where I can't get time to write.

And now to bed.

First the NaNoWriMo update.

For some reason I'm really having trouble accessing their website. I keep getting the "Failure to connect" message, and I'm on a DSL line. I don't get it.

At any rate as of RIGHT NOW (and I still will be writing for a bit) my word count on this thing is

5229

A little under my goal, but as I said earlier, I wasn't able to work yesterday. So that's why I'm still gonna write on it some more today before I finish for the day.

And the quiz:

You are a Social Moderate (55% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (38% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist (38e/55s) Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Yes, I'm trying again. I hope this year I don't have any health problems to keep me from keeping up.

So, as of day 1 (yesterday), my word count is...

2457

I have started a new project, based on an old short story I once posted on the OWW (at that time it was called "A Sparrow Falls" or some such). I didn't read it to remind me--I figured by starting brand new fresh I will be able to come to it with a fresh mind.

I won't have time today to work on more of it today, but I hope to make up for that on Saturday, as I am caught up on my paper grading and housework. I can therefore happily write away for most of the weekend.

Go me!

I got this from an email from a published author in a writing group I correspond with. I thought it resonated a lot, even though they don't ALL apply to me...

( 15 signs )

In the writing group attached to the OWW, the topic of rules of writing came up. Having read through a lot of complaints (mostly) on the subject of following the rules, I had to respond.

So this post is because I received some positive feedback on how I stated my thoughts about the whole 'follow the rules' issue.

(Drags the soapbox into the room, and stands on it.)

I have never understood the antithesis some people have to following rules. You say you can't do rules? You live with rules every day. One reason we are reasonably safe walking down a city street is that there are rules that keep cars on the roadway and people on the sidewalks. One reason we are reasonably safe at work is that there are rules as to how buildings are built to make sure they stay up.

All games have rules; otherwise, you have chaos. I may not like that three outs means the end of an inning, and I could play the game otherwise, but no one would want to play with me for long, now would they?

Something similar occurs with languages. All languages have rules or no one would understand anyone. For the sake of simplification, I'll stick to the English language rules (with occasionall forays for comparison's sake), as that is what *most* of us are writing in in this group.

English writing rules are markedly different from spoken English rules. As an English Language Learner teacher, I see this all the time. The majority of my students are orally competent in English, as they are able to speak and be spoken to with a minimum of misunderstandings. One reason (in my experience) is that they get immediate feedback as to whether an utterance is understandable or not, and they can then adjust as necessary to make sure they do get their meaning across.

Writing, on the other hand, lacks this immediacy of feedback. They may think they're making perfect sense, yet because of ambiguities in their sentence structure or vocabulary, the meaning they thought they had doesn't come across clearly and their audience is confused, bored, or angry.

The above is, of course, directed mostly at the nuts and bolts of English--grammar, word choice, and sentence structure. Punctuation may also come into play.

But the issue at hand is more the rules for keeping a story on track, of making sure every sentence belongs and none that might be needed are missing. What rules might you consider that would help you to plot out a story?

1. You need a protagonist of some sort. (Who [sometimes what])
2. You need a setting of sorts. (Where/when)
3. You need conflict. (What/why)
4. You need rising and falling action. (How)
5. You need a climax wherein the conflict is resolved. (How)
6. You need a denouement. (Now what)

Okay then. Those are all rules of good plotting. If you neglect to include any one of those things, the story will fall flat. If you put them together properly, you can have a story worth reading. And if you're really good, you may even have a theme when you're done.

You're tellling me that following these rules is scary? I don't get it. Maybe you prefer to call them "guidelines" rather than rules. Or "things that are good for getting a story on paper."

If you know the rules, you know when you can safely break them and when it's better to follow them. Or when you can bend them a bit. Or when you can toss them out entirely.

One of my favorite short stories is Ray Bradbury's "And There Shall Come Soft Rains." He has everything in that story, even a protagonist, even though he has no living people in the story. If you have never read it, I highly, *highly* recommend it as a stellar example of tight plotting.

Okay. If you read through all that, thanks. I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

(Gets off the soapbox and drags it back out of the room.)

Friday night three collegues and I left for a training workshop on bargaining which was sponsored by our union. The workshop was all day Saturday, and then we came back up to town on Saturday night. I am not good at budgeting, so I actually found a lot of it interesting, especially the part about the state's budget for education and how each school district calculates budgets. I was saddened and surprised to learn that Arizona ranks 50th of 50 states in per-student spending. To even reach "average" we would have to spend $2000 more per student. I later looked at the national results and see we are actually 49th of 50 (Utah is the only state lower.)

Anyway I got to attend two breakout sessions. The first was on creating polls that are professional and pertinent to what we want to learn from our staff. The second was on creating an agreement between the school board and the staff on how the budget is to be spent. (Our school district did away with meet-and-confer, so we at present have no way of airing our wishes/needs to the board.) Although I was very sleepy, I did enjoy both sessions and I learned quite a bit. I will have to practice the poll making, as I am secretary of our local and I can see that particular task devolving to me.

I will also likely be going to a "meet the legislators" day early next month (if the school approves my leave) and will have an opportunity to ask questions of our state representatives. I don't usually consider myself all that politically active, so this is a step out of my comfort zone. Just don't expect to see me running for political office any time soon.

Today I have been having trouble with my school gradebook program. The techie is supposed to come in and fix the program, but until he does, I can't input grades or print out reports. So annoying.

I haven't had time to do much writing lately. I think I might have gotten in 100 words or so last week. I hope to get more time after we get grades out next week.

My weight is the same as before the weekend, but on the good side, my sugars were in normal ranges. So yay for small improvements.

And the quiz for the day:

Your Attitude is Better than 75% of the Population

You have a good attitude. While a realist, you do see the positive side of most things. People love to be around you.

Back at work today. I'm rather stiff and sore but I'm here. My shoulder muscles are sore, too--probably because I was so tense trying to move without being in pain.

One the writing front, I've managed to add about 250 words (a whole page!) to my prequel. My beta readers should be happy. I've been looking and looking at this chapter, though, and today I was thinking, "Why is this chapter here? I could start it 3/4 of the way in and it wouldn't mess up continuity, and it would be so much tighter!" So I maybe will go back and do some slashing of text before I finish. That will mean the beta readers will have to wait a little longer, but if it improves the story...

The good thing about first drafts is, you aren't obligated to keep anything, it's all still fluid.

We're having parent/teacher conferences tonight. With the way the roads have been, though, I sort of wonder if anyone will actually make it from the outlying areas. The in town folks, sure, but we have many who live at the end of long dirt (and now mud) roads.

Well, students are coming back in, so I'd best direct my energies to them. First, though, a quiz (of course)...

Your Extroversion Profile:

Cheerfulness: High

Friendliness: High

Assertiveness: Medium

Activity Level: Low

Sociability: Low

Excitement Seeking: Very Low

...and I'm willing to trade for it. I'd buy one outright, but I can't afford one right now. Give me about 4 more years and I may have some mad money I can use...

Dear Body:

Headaches are not a way to get me to slow down. On the contrary, I have to work that much harder to get things done. If you really want me to slow down, you need to feel much, much better.

Nolove,

Me

Writing notes: My goal was to write at least 1000 new words this week. I have just under 600...and only two more days to get in that last 200 words. I did, however, get some old words into a computer file so I can futz with them a bit later on.

New Words: 250
Total Words: 400
Pages: 1
Reason for stopping: headache :(

Stimulants: water, coffee, Peanut M&Ms
Exercise: 30 minutes of walking.

Today's words Word don't know: Terran
Words I'm surprised Word do know: n/a

Mean Things: Conked Sarthin over the head and gave him a raging headache; Jana had to give birth alone in an isolation chamber.
Typo: n/a
Darling: And what is Jana thinking, making a trip all the way out here to the galaxy’s edge when she is about to hatch?

Reviews posted: none today (yet)

Today's quiz:

You Are Jean Grey

Although your fate is often unknown, you always seem to survive (even after death). Your mind is your greatest weapon, literally! Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, the ability to project thoughts into the mind of others, communication with animals

I got most of my papers graded and into the gradebook. At least I'll have something "official" for our every-three-week grade checks for the students. Today they were to work on answering motivation questions about a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (at least, the more advanced kiddos were). Tomorrow they'll be reading more of To Kill A Mockingbird, and I'm going to make them do character studies. Yes, I'm evil!

On the writing front, I managed to add about 200 words to a chapter, while deleting about 50. Sounds a bit better to my ear now, anyway. Any time I can sneak in a 5-minute "fixit" while making sure the students are working is a good thing.

Quiz for today...

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are a warm hearted and open minded person. It's easy for you to forgive and forget. You are a grounded person, but you also leave room for imagination and dreams. You feet may be on the ground, but you're head is in the clouds. You believe that people see you as larger than life and important. While this is true, they also think you're a bit full of yourself. Your near future is still unknown, and a little scary. You'll get through wild times - and you'll textually enjoy it. For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Oh, dear. I'm full of myself? I do try not to be...