Tight Schedule

I feel the need to make this post extra special because I've gained over forty new readers this week, so here it goes! For my new readers, here's what you need to know: I'm an aspiring author. I have finished my first novel titled Promise, and it's part of a four book series. I am looking for a publisher who would be willing to publish my work, and I hope that by getting enough readers on my blog and enough Twitter followers will help prove that people actually want to read my work. That being said, please feel free to tweet my blog and share it with your friends. You can also follow me on Twitter @DianaK_books. I try to make my weekly blog posts as interesting as possible, although that's not always easy.

So, what have I been up to this week? A lot, to sum it up. One of our servers at work got hurt and she'll be off for 4-6 weeks and so I've got her shifts to work, which leaves me with one day off every week. Other than that, I have been working a lot on trying to get my second novel done. Treason is, as of today, 13.33% done. I have a whole system in place now to get the first draft done by Labour Day weekend! I have broken down the novel in 29 major parts, and I wrote each of these parts down on cue cards. 

The front has the number of the idea (I am currently at number 6) and a short summary of what it is (sorry, no spoilers here!)

The back of the card has the deadline for the completed idea (Treason is due by September first) along with the date I started working on whatever is on the front of the card, the date I finished it, along with an estimated word count. Treason has an estimated 60,000 words, but I think that it might be higher. Each card has a minimum 2,000 words, and someone them can go up to eight or even nine thousand words. You can do the math. 

I have also put together a list of fourteen rules that I will need to follow in order to have everything done on time, although I think I should add a fifteenth, being "Get blog updated on time". Here's the new regime that I'll have to follow over the next three months.

1. Keep room clean - This is simply so that I won't end up spinning on my office chair looking for anything cool that I haven't seen in a few years to use as an excuse for procrastinating. I'm bad for that.

2. Leave all electronics in basket - I have a basket on a table right by my door to drop in any form of electronics, mostly my cell phone and iPod, so that I won't be tempted to use them while working.

3. Disable Internet connection while working - I found that I was often going on Facebook or updating my Twitter account while writing, and that was costing me valuable time. For that reason, I am forcing myself to disable my Internet connection every time that I want to write.

4. No text messages - This goes along with rule number two, but I wanted to be specific about it. Sometimes I'll come up with what I think is a great idea, and I want to text someone about it right away to get their input, and it ends up turning into an hour-long conversation. Now, I'll have to text them only when I'll have finished putting the idea into words.

5. No food in room - I like food. Food distracts me from writing because I don't want to touch my MacBook while I'm eating in case I get it dirty.

6. No drinks other than water on desk - This is for the simple reason that anything other than water will make me thirsty, and I don't want to be wasting writing time by running back and forth between my office and my kitchen to get more to drink.

7. Take 30-minute breaks every hour - Have you ever just said something and realized that it made absolutely no sense the minute that it left your mouth? Well, that happens to me when I write, except that I don't notice it right away, and I have to suffer the embarrassment of someone else finding my mistake. By forcing myself to take breaks, that doesn't happen. I have also found that it helps keep me motivated to write for a full hour at a time. 

8. No lying in bed while writing - this is a big one. I often find myself unconsciously ending up in my bed when I want to write because it's comfortable. This is bad because it makes me feel lazy and makes me want to do something other than write. For that reason, it is forbidden.

9. Try to do two hours of work per day - try being the key word, because sometimes I don't have a lot of inspiration. Some days I'll write more, some days less.

10. Sleep - Writing a novel while sleep deprived is never a good idea. I would know. That's how I tried to finish Promise.

11. Eat three meals - A well fed author is a happy author.

12. Listen only to music from iTunes while working - I need music to concentrate. This is just to discourage me from enabling my Internet connection to go on YouTube.

13. Stick to deadlines - This one pretty much explains itself. 

14. Have fun!

Well, I must be off because I haven't done my two hours of work today. Thank you for stopping by and a warm welcome to my new readers! Check back in next week for more!

Love,

Di

This week's song is Give Your Heart a Break by Demi Lovato. I came on when I turned on the radio the other day while driving to work and I found it really catchy. Take a listen!

Embellishing Sentences

I recently had to do an activity where I was given a very simple sentence and my task was to turn it into the longest sentence possible, ensuring that it was grammatically correct. I thought that I'd share what I came up with. It's pretty long, but I'm sure that if I had really put my mind to it, I could have made it a lot longer.

The original sentence was The child kicked the cat.

Here's my embellished sentence: While running wildly around the small city apartment, the child, who was still very young in both age and mind, decided that it would be an excellent idea to kick his mother's tabby, which she had found in a back alley and brought home to nurture back to health, and, in doing so, sent the poor, gentle cat sailing across the room and through an open window, falling down into the crowded street, filled with rush-hour traffic, below before his mother, who came running quickly around the corner, sliding across the recently polished hardwood floor in her sock feet, could do anything to stop him; the child, who was now crying abundantly with tears steadily flowing down his cheeks, was promptly punished by his angry mother who was now leaning over the edge of the balcony to verify the fate of her poor feline friend.


And not one part of that is a run-on or a comma splice error.

Hope this inspired you,

Di

Back to Business!

Hello dear readers!

I hope you have had a good two weeks and I want to apologize again for not posting last week; things weren't going very well for me and I didn't have it in me to sit at the computer an blog. The effects of that might have been devestating.

So, what have I done in terms of Treason? A lot, actually, although no one would be able to know because I haven't actually put it down on paper or saved it to my laptop's hard drive. Nevertheless, the work that I do in my head - that isn't obvious to many - is perhaps the most important work that I could do. It's one thing to put words on paper mindlessly, but it takes real care and dedication and imagination to make those words mean something to a crowd of people.

I doubt that anyone would want to read about Sara and Nick if all they ever did was sit around and play go fish as the world slowly continued on normaly around them. No one would ever want to waste twenty dollars on something like that. So, it takes careful planning and plenty of mental work to make something interesting. On top of that, I've also been doing research, both with books and with my amazing anthropology skills. You know, so many people would be hesitant to agree that anthropology is one of the key points in writing. For me, I found it necessary to focus on anthro before I even started putting my thoughts into words. In order to create a story that is compelling and interesting, an author has to be able to study the lives of those around him or her, to register and carefully sort through a wide range of emotions, to experience a multitude - I like that word - of situations and record how every person involved responds. I once read something that said "Drama is life without the boring parts." Admittedly, it was about writing screenplays and not novels, but what's the difference? In both cases, the author had to come up with characters that are believable and that readers can associate with. If not one person is able to relate to the character that you have come up with, then no one will be able to feel empathy towards that character's situation. Without empathy, you have lost your audience.

The entire lovely speech was all to explain why I need to associate Nick with a certain smell. The sense of smell is the strongest sense that your body possesses and your brain is able to retain a certain smell years after the last time that you've encountered it. With this in mind, I find that the characters that I get attached to the most are always associated with a smell. Patch in Hush, Hush is said to smell like mint soap, Edward in Twilight is said to smell like sunshine - or am I getting that mixed up with another book? -, and I'm pretty sure that Sam in Shiver smells like laundry detergent - although I may be getting that one wrong, too. I've read too many books to keep track of! So after deliberating for days, I've decided that I'm going to associate Nick with cinnamon. Why cinnamon? Well, because I'm the author of these novels so I get to make executive decisions sometimes, and I like cinnamon. I haven't decided yet if it's going to be the artificial smell form say cinnahearts or cinnamon favoured gum, or the smell of real cinnamon found in grandma's spice cupboard. I feel weird saying that because I have my own spice cupboard that I worship and couldn't live without and I am nowhere near being a grandmother.

Well, since I didn't start off this posting by going on about my personal life, I'll give you a tip: wear sunblock. Whatever you do, wear sunblock. You will regret it if you don't. I was out in the sun over the course of the weeken and had the brilliant idea to wear a tank top to try and even out my farmer's tan. Not a good idea. Aside from the fact that I was wearing a ball cap and one arm is more burnt than the other, the arm that really got the sun is burnt to the second degree. That's right, it's blistering. And boy does it ever hurt. There are so many old wive's tales about how to make a sun burn feel better that I didn't know where to start so I did them all at once. Something I tried had to have worked because one arm is significantly better and the other doesn't hurt as much.

You're sunburnt and want to know what helps? Start with Advil, apply aloe to the burn as soon as you get inside, after that, I took a bath in cold water and eucalyptus oil to try and draw the heat out - hence the cold water - and heal a bit of the burn - hence the eucalyptus. After that, I coated the burn with zinc cream - more commonly known as diaper rash cream - and fell asleep. Somewhere between doing that and right now, the burn healed a bit.

The moral of this story? Enjoy the summer sunshine as much as you can but be safe while doing it. For the gingers like me, one word: SPF 110. I will post the song as soon as I get home. I am on my iPhone at the moment as I sit in a coffee shop feeling more like an author than I ever have before.

Have a good night, and remember: you need not be published to be a happy author, you need only to have written a book and enjoyed it.

Love,
Di

Song of the week! Tattoos On This Town by Jason Aldean. It reminds me of the time Sara spends with her friends in Brooksdell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-zks4FRlI

New Post Day

Mondays are just waaaay too busy for me! I have done some work on Treason that I am really, really, really excited to share with you guys but I just have so much to do! I have new shifts at work and that means that I'll be having to work every Monday. The bright side? Tuesdays are my days off. So, Tuesday will be my new date to post updates. Check back in tomorrow to see what's going on in Sara's life!

Love you all,
Di!

1 in 3

Too sick to blog. Check back on Monday for a new post.

Love,
Di

Brooksdell

Hey! Looks like I was on time this week! I've managed to get most of my stuff organized and mostly finished, so I finally have time to do some of my own work! Woo! Can you believe that it's already June? This is crazy! The year is already half over! Hmm... I seem to be using a lot of exclamation marks tonight; I didn't realize that I was in such a good mood...

~

Well, I'm not in a great mood anymore. I am extremely busy tonight, so I had written today's post last night and I saved it in my drafts so that I could actually post on time this week, but when I returned to my drafts today, only the above paragraph had been saved, even though I hit save about five times before turning off my MacBook last night. Sigh. Oh well, I'll start it again.

I'm sure that most of you are going to be reading this tomorrow since after two weeks, you're going to have gotten used to me posting a day late, and when you see this post, two thoughts are going to pop in to your head. The first will be "Woah! She actually posted on time!" and the second will be "What the heck is up with this week's title?" Well, I'm about to tell you! Surprising, isn't it! On a side note, I'm feeling kind of sarcastic at the moment; can you tell?

In earlier drafts of Promise, I had introduced Sara by saying that she was from Kingston, Ontario, but I changed my mind a little while back because of Treason. A lot of the second instalment of the PTSD series takes place in Sara's home town and I think that it would have been hard to place the story in a town that I knew nothing about. Hence, Brooksdell.

I stayed up late on Saturday trying to put together a name for a town that sounded realistic but didn't already exist in Canada, and preferably not at all. Around midnight, I came up with Brooksdell and after checking Google Maps, I found that it didn't exist anywhere - other than a street named Brookdell Drive somewhere in New York - and so Sara's home town was born. I fell asleep shortly after that, but the next morning I set to work drawing a map of the town so that I could have everything in order. The picture you just saw is a rough sketch of the town including some of the major key points that will be found in the novel including Sara's house, her school, the police station, and the diner where she works.

I have also found a name for the camp, and I drew a map for that, too. I decided that Camp Windon Lake seemed like an appropriate name for a summer camp. I placed it geographically west of Algonquin Park where there are many other lakes and summer camps. I'm sure that Windon Lake and its camp will fit right in. 

I was browsing through some pictures on the Internet the other day while procrastinating and I found this picture:

It seems like even the Avengers want me to get my lazy butt to work and finish writing my second novel. I don't know if I want to set myself a goal, such as having the first draft done by the end of the summer, or if that would just be setting myself up for disappointment. Thoughts? Leave them in the comment section.

Well, I am off! See you all next week!

Love you,
Di

This week's song was sent to me by a friend and I couldn't help but think of Sara and Nick's first night alone on the island. I think that this may be my song of the summer this year. Take a listen to Summer Paradise by Simple Plan featuring Sean Paul!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjHlgrGsLWQ