where I’ve been and where I’m (hopefully) heading

(note: I actually started writing this post a few weeks ago but then I got sick w/ a really bad cold, not to mention I’ve been swamped w/ school work.)

I’ve been in a funk for the past few weeks (months?). I haven’t done much writing. I haven’t done much of anything (besides the bare minimum of school work I can get away with doing while keeping my grades up). I usually love summer, but this summer was kind of a downer. The basement apartment I live in was almost always hot and humid. Thank goodness for the AC we got for our bedroom or we never would’ve been able to sleep at night! But who wants to spend the whole freaking day in their bedroom to stay cool? So it’s been hot, and I’ve been lazy.

But now it’s October. It’s been 2011 for ten months and I haven’t accomplished any of my writing goals. I’ve continued to take online writing workshops, but as far as working on my manuscript goes... that went nowhere. I actually was planning on attending the NJRWA conference (which is in two weeks), but I cancelled my registration a few weeks ago. A lot of it has to do with my monetary situation (my debt is slowly increasing since unemployment barely covers the bills) – I just can’t logically afford to go to a conference right now. But also, it’s because I’d thought I’d have a manuscript ready to pitch by now, and I’m not even CLOSE.

With NaNoWriMo coming up again soon, I figure now is a good a time as any to try again. I also think I need to write a serious outline for the new novel that I want to right. I think a lot of my giving up on my past manuscripts is that I get stuck 5, 10, 20 thousand words in and I can’t figure out what’s supposed to happen next, or how it’s supposed to happen. While I usually have an idea of where the story’s headed, I tend to leave the details to figure themselves out. And, as you might’ve guessed by now, so far they haven’t done a great job of it!

I’ve been working on plotting my NaNo novel thanks to Jennifer from Procrastinating Writers. I signed up for her “Creating Your NaNoWriMo Road Map” workshop and have been plugging along with the help of her worksheets. I think my idea is coming together nicely. It’s going to be a post-apocalyptic romance, a bit different from the two previous sci-fi romance manuscripts I worked on.

(Which also explains the aesthetic changes I made to my blog. I wanted to give it a more “end of the world” type feel, instead of the sci-fi, outer space one. You like?)

NaNo is definitely going to be tough this year, though. I have two papers due soon (for one class, our first draft is due at the end of October, but the professor is going to make us revise it if she makes changes to our draft; the other paper is due the first week of December but if I wait ‘till Dec. 1 to start it I’ll be screwed).  Not to mention the usual school work and tests that come w/ five pretty hard classes (three of which have to do w/ accounting). So it’s definitely going to be a challenge, but I am gonna give it a shot!

So who else is w/ me this November? Leave me your NaNo name and once the buddy feature is working again, we can be friends!  :)