Jamie DeBree's Blog, page 4

Writer’s Notes, July 3, 2021

100 Daily Words for 100 (Week) Days Counter: 4
Words This Week: 433

It’s been a good writing week. Really good, actually. I’ve written at least a hundred words every night, and finished another story in the flash collection I’m working on. The only thing I didn’t get done is work on the novel I want to rewrite and release this fall, and time is not my friend on that one (can you believe it’s already July?!). I have to write around 800 words per day to get it done, so…we’ll see, but I’m going to try.

I have a plan. I even have some time set aside specifically for working on it, daily. I’ve spent the last week recognizing the time, and then being so sure I was going to be interrupted or need to do something else that I didn’t take advantage of it. But now that I’m fairly certain it’s routinely “open”, I’ll definitely be *using* it, starting next week.

I regularly read the blogs of two major writers who work differently from each other, and “watching” how they work, and how they see the writing “world” as a whole is helping me to figure out my new workflow. While I’m still hashing my own routines out, I can definitely see a difference in how my words are coming together, and how I think about them as I write, which feels like an improvement. I still have a lot to learn and I need to make some time for more writing courses (I’ve already purchased several, just need to *take* them), but I feel like I’m getting better, and that my overall writing is improving too. And all that is really helping with my confidence issues.

I’m setting slightly higher goals for next week, since the past couple of weeks have gone so well. I want to finish another flash story, which will require doubling my nightly word count from 100 to 200 (I have Monday off work, which should help with that).

For the novel, I want to finish the scene outline for the second chapter, and write (rewrite) 800 words per day. This is a book that I wrote several years ago, finished the manuscript, and decided after all this time I don’t want to just clean it up, I want to take the main plot and rewrite it completely. Which is ambitious, but I think that will be better for the story as a whole, and I hate editing, so rewriting will fix the major plot problems and leave less of a mess to clean up at the end.

So, ambitious goals for next week that total 1000 words per day. Which shouldn’t even be difficult at all, and wouldn’t have been for me several years ago, but it definitely seems…out of reach at the moment. I’m still going to try, and we’ll see how far I get. Even half that will be more than last week, so…I can’t really lose unless I write nothing.

Support your author:
This House of Books (my local bookstore!) | Bookshop.org
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks | Audible

Writing Notes: June 26th, 2021

100 Daily Words for 100 Days Counter: 4
Words This Week: 437

It’s been a good writing week. And it feels really good to be able to type that, too. I managed to write at least 100 words every day this week, and even though a couple nights were a serious struggle, I pushed through, which is something I really, really needed to do in order to build some momentum again.

I am taking weekend days out of the mix as far as the 100 words/100 days thing goes. I just…can’t seem to remember or find the 15 minutes in front of my computer on the weekend days. I don’t like it, but it’s been driving me nuts trying to write on the weekends, and I need to just…not worry about that anymore.

I don’t know what’s causing it, but it feels like things are clicking back together again in my life after being a chaotic jumble for the past several years. And writing is one of those things, thank goodness. Fingers crossed I can get enough momentum going to keep moving even when things get jumbled again (as they always do)…or at least pick it up faster on the flip side.

I’ve been working on the anthologies flash stories this week, and making good progress. I’m way, way behind (only two out of twelve or thirteen done), but the nice thing about flash fiction is, when you’re in the zone, it’s pretty fast writing relatively speaking, and I’m getting faster again by the day.

Part of that has been setting up a new workflow. I’m a “pantser” (no planning before I write), but I’m trying to be more of a “plan-then-pants” type of writer. So I’ve been playing with making a skeleton plot/outline to start, and then I don’t sweat it if I start writing and just go way off the “plan”. While I can’t know the ending before I start (in any detail, anyways – I get bored), it definitely helps to have a place to start from. So I’m trying to do that and figure out a good workflow for not outlining too far ahead of where I’m writing, but far enough that I have something to reach for when I start typing, if that makes sense.

The goal for this week? Keep doing what I’m doing. And if possible, work on the novel I want to release this fall alongside the flash stories I’m writing. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m definitely optimistic.

Support your author:
This House of Books (my local bookstore!) | Bookshop.org
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks | Audible

Writing Notes: June 19th, 2021

100 Daily Words for 100 Days Counter: 0
Words This Week: 179

Well there’s an embarrassing word count for you. It was a rough week, but truly, there’s no excuse for this. I sabotaged myself a couple of nights, and I really do have the occasional five minutes to jot a few words down. I just…didn’t, obviously. I am so far out of the writing habit it’s like learning to write all over again.

I wrote my first novel in 250 word blocks at night during commercials on TV. My focus has gotten worse, and commercials aren’t even really a thing now with streaming. But I still have the occasional break at work (though those have been pretty non-existent this week), and I have my writing time late at night, so…seriously. I just need to kick things into gear.

I have noticed that with the story I’m working on now, I’m not as engaged with it. So there isn’t enough depth to hold my interest, which is something only I can fix, obviously. I’ve been working on my descriptive writing, but it’s not automatic yet, so too much focus on that, not enough on the plot, and those two things mean I’m falling asleep as I try to write. So I need to re-plot that story, which in turn will help me stay awake while writing it. Seems important, since I can’t pipe my dreams to the computer (yet).

So, the goals for this week are pretty simple: write every day, and replot the bunny story to be interesting as well as descriptive. Neither of those should be too difficult, I just need to be disciplined about it.

If I get that figured out, I’ll have better news to report next time!

Support your author:
This House of Books (my local bookstore!) | Bookshop.org
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks | Audible

Writer’s Notes: June 12th, 2021

“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.”
―Franz Kafka

100 Daily Words for 100 Days Counter: 0

In my defense, I have been writing. Just not finishing or publishing (or blogging much, actually). I’ve gotten hopelessly mired in the pursuit of…”better” writing (ie, making my own writing better), and have been pretty much mired there for quite some time. It’s not a good place to be.

I mean, it’s good to want to be better, but that is a lifetime pursuit. I need to re-learn how to just do the best I can, and publish, and then do better with the next one, and publish…with the understanding that the next one will/should always be “better”, but I will never actually know if they’re “good” or not, simply because “good” is such a subjective thing with reading.

I’ve added a goal to my resolutions this year to “publish something”. It doesn’t matter what it is, or what length, or when it gets done, aside from it has to be published and available for the public to read before Dec. 31st, 2021.

So, publishing. Along with creating a regular writing habit again. I’ve got a goal to write a minimum of 100 words every day for 100 days straight, and I’m…well, I”m having a hard time with that too. Which I shouldn’t be – it’s totally a mental thing, and once I get around it I’ll be fine, but…man. It’s tough this time. I go a day or two, and miss a day. Start over. Go a day or two, and miss a day, repeat. Ugh. Yes, any progress is good progress, but I really want to make a daily habit of it, so it’s something I miss if I don’t do, rather than something I have to really work at remembering to do.

I am determined to get myself back on track, and writing/finishing/publishing this year. I’ve finished two of 12 themed flash stories that will become a collection in December (I should be half-done with that project by this time, but…yeah. The struggle is real.).

I’m also determined to get back to blogging, and the other things that make me feel more like a “real writer”. I’ve let these things fall away thinking it would give me more time to write, but…it really just lets me slide further from the author mindset, and that isn’t helping.

I am, like my drafts, a “work in progress”. And I’ve been wallowing long enough. Time to crawl out of my brain and get back to work. Feel free to watch, if you’d like…with any luck, this will be a regular blog spot again (and a less whiny one, eventually).

Support your author:
This House of Books (my local bookstore!) | Bookshop.org
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks | Audible

Writing Report June 29, 2020

New Words: 1,331 (Beet Down)

Editing Page Count: Starting at pg 34 this week

I started this year off on a very good writing “note”. Things started spiraling downhill before the pandemic was even a thing with projects sort of exploding at work in Jan/Feb, and I was sick with something I couldn’t shake probably due to the stress (Early covid? The common cold? Mono? We’ll never know, I suppose). I was just sort of starting to feel better and be able to think about writing again when…Pandemic! Life changes every single day!

Ugh. No fun. Headspace for writing? I barely had the headspace to pick out clothes in the morning, much less string two sentences together coherently.

Thankfully, things are finally starting to normalize a little (except the weather – I swear, we have two modes available this year: fry or drown), and I’ve spent the last few weeks building a writing habit, and the last two trying to gain foothold on an editing habit. I am cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to keep both going long enough to…you know…finish and maybe even publish a couple of books this year. Things actual “writers” do. And something I’ve not done in far, far too long.

Surprisingly, my new writing time is in the morning before work. Fifteen minutes is all I’ve got (20 if I really push into my shower time), but my minimum is 250 words, and I can often push into the 300’s without too much extra work or time spent. I’m working on one of Alex’s Death by Veggie stories (because it’s fun, and I needed something just “fun” to get that habit set again), and I’m on track to finish it this week. That feels…excellent.

As far as editing goes, I’m editing late at night right before my reading time four days a week (Mon-Thurs). I also have 15 minutes allotted for that, though if I push into 20, no big deal. I’m working on Animal, one of Alex’s books I wrote several years ago and put away because it sort of goes off the rails towards the end and it needs to be fixed. I honestly can’t remember which page I stopped on when I was editing before, but I started over a few weeks back, and I’m now on page 34 of 90 (manuscript pages, not formatted pages). It’s going pretty well, and I have to say, the first part is better than I remembered it being. So even though I know I have to tear a lot of it up and re-point the entire plot later on, I feel good about this early part of the story.

I mean, the immature writing is kind of punching me in the face, and I’m trying to fix that as much as possible, but while I can recognize it, I’m still not one hundred percent certain of how to actually fix it, so…there’s that. But I’m working on it. Which is the whole point.

And now that I have a good handle on “writing time” and a flimsy but somewhat sticky handle on “editing time”, I’m trying to fit “blogging time” back in as well. That’s a story for another blog (my main one, probably), but it’s probably still going to be hit and miss for awhile as I hash out time and methods.

We’ll see how I do, but the important parts are writing and editing. That’s the focus, and I feel good about getting as far as I have in the past few weeks.

Support your author – buy a book!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

Writer’s Notes: Friday, Oct. 18, 2019 & Excerpt

Current draft: MM

Words today: 2666

Total words: 35,593

It’s been a good writing week! I can’t tell you how good it feels to type that. Because it’s not just that I’m getting the words down, it’s that I’ve re-started this story three times now, and finally, this time, it “feels” like I wanted it to feel from the beginning. The tone is more what I’d hoped it would be, and it’s moving along really nicely.

Tonight is editing night, and after I post this, it’s back to editing my transcription files into a more formal draft with good punctuation and proper structure. I’ve got one scene to finish in chapter one, and then I’m hoping to get through all of chapter two tonight before I go to bed. We’ll see how it goes.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the cleaned-up draft scenes (note, this still isn’t the final draft, so it’s still a work in progress):

The woman disappeared through the french doors and as soon as she was gone, a pale girl with long black hair in a blue and white checked apron was standing on Jane’s left, sliding a plate onto the table in front of her.

“Calamari, ma’am. Breaded, fried, and served over a bed of spaghetti with a fresh cream sauce. Bon Appetit!”

The girl flounced off before Jane could ask any questions. She could have introduced herself. Jane picked up a fork and moved to spear a piece of octopus. She’d never had it, but she had told the cook she could be adventurous, and apparently there was no time like the present to test that out.

Except…her fork hit the table, and the very real looking plate of food and its contents had disappeared just like the girl who’d served it.

Jane set her fork down slowly and looked around, right and then left. The room was empty and just a little chilly.

Her heart pumping quite a bit faster than ti should, Jane stood, intent on asking the cook what was going on. Just then, the door to the kitchen opened.

Now, off to do some more editing.

Support your author – buy a book!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

Writer’s Notes – Thursday, Oct. 17th, 2019

Current draft: MM

Words today: 2560

Total words: 32,927

I never thought I’d be looking forward to editing (in any way, shape or form), but I have to admit…I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s long editing session. I’m getting all these words down through dictation/transcription, and for once, I find myself looking forward to fixing the punctuation and formatting, and rewriting sentences and paragraphs as I go…it’s actually more fun to edit sloppier work, if that makes any sense.

It’s weird, I know, but this story is finally shaping up to be what I wanted it to be in the beginning, and I’m really excited to see how it ends up.

Tomorrow, an excerpt! Tonight…sleep.

Support your author – buy a book!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

Wednesday – October 16, 2019

Current draft: MM

Words today: 2361

Total words: 30,367

MM is a ghost story, and it’s getting really fun to write. I’m really hoping to finish it by the end of October, because right away on Nov. 1st, I’ll be starting my novel for NaNoWriMo, and MM started as a NaNo novel two, maybe even three years ago. I’m excited to get this first draft done, finally, and work on editing it while I write the novel in November.

That’s the goal I reminded myself of when I wasn’t really feeling like writing on the way home from work tonight. By the time I got to Taco Johns, I’d talked myself into getting at least a few more words in, and while I was sitting in the drive thru lane waiting for our food, I started up Otter so I could dictate all the way home.

Now, to bed, because none of this works if I’m not well-rested. Crazy how that one little thing can affect so many not-so-little things in my life. Annoying, too!

Support your author – buy a book!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

Almost One Year Later

Current draft: MM

Words today: 1649

Total words: 28,006

Yes, I’m still writing. It was pretty slow going there for a long time, and I had to shake things up a bit. I’m now dictating my first drafts in the car on the way to and from work…and unlike everything else I’ve tried, it’s working.  Despite the amount of editing it requires because no transcription is perfect (especially not AI transcription), it’s been a godsend as far as productivity goes.

In short, I’ve written more in the last couple of weeks than I have in the last several years. It feels good. Really good. Like I’m back to doing what I’m supposed to be doing: getting the stories out of my head and on “paper”. It’s very motivating.

In any case, my goal is to keep this blog updated on a regular basis again, and with a few tweaks to the nightly routine, I might just be able to do that. If you’re still reading, I hope you’ll stay tuned!

Support your author – buy a book!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks

Weekly Writing 11/25 – 11/30/18

Weekly Word Counts

TIK: 278

DD: 477

TBS: 154

BD: 0

Total: 909

Editing hours: 0

Clearly, the higher word count goals aren’t working for me, so I’m going back to basics with a standard 250 words per day goal. I’m still under a lot of the time, but getting better, and a big part of that is managing both my morning and evening routines more efficiently.

I will say that since I’ve been “playing” more, I’ve had an easier time writing. By playing, I mean playing video games, mostly. We got a hand-me-down PlayStation a month or so ago, and the hubby and I have been playing an adventure game on that in the evenings, and I’ve been playing games on my phone too. The only thing I can think to explain it is that the games get my mind out of work mode, and into “storytelling”/creative mode. I may only write for half an hour most nights, but while I’m writing, my mind is fully and completely in the story, and I could easily keep writing if I didn’t have to get to bed so I could get up the next day.

One night this week, I even got my chores done early enough to have a whole hour of writing time, which was fun. If I could do that more often, these stories would be flying. But I’m just happy that I’m moving them all forward, even if it’s just a little bit, every week.

I’m writing on the Alphasmart Neo again, because the netbook was just too hard on my wrists. I’ve pre-ordered a Freewrite Traveler, but that won’t ship until next summer. I’m on the fence about ordering a full-sized Freewrite after the first of the year. There are no arrow keys, so making minor edits will be impossible, but the keyboard and e-ink screen might be worth the outlay. I have a hard time seeing the Neo screen with the light I have in my office. We’ll see. The Freewrite is an expensive piece of equipment, so that purchase is going to require a bit more thought (and saving).

In the meantime, the Neo’s working well enough, and next week, maybe I’ll actually hit that 250 words per day goal. I’ll do my best!

Support your author – buy a book!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBooks