Friday, July 23, 2010

What have I been up to...

...since I haven't been posting?

Writing mostly. And working sort of. It's very slow around here, which I don't mind on the one hand, but means, on the other, that we are not making very much money. :(

But the writing is going quite well. I wrote 14,197 new words between June 19th and July 17th. That equals approximately 57 official manuscript pages (250 words per double spaced page at Courier New size 12 font).

What's so special about those dates? My RWA chapter meetings. At each meeting we share our page counts. Those with the highest count for the previous month get a little a something at the meeting and then in December our chapter gives out awards for those with the highest cumulative total.

I decided to shoot for 16K words for this month. I crested the 5K mark yesterday and in only a week. Cool, huh? The downside is it's all fan fiction. I can't sell it for money. Not that the interaction and feedback from my fellow fen aren't actually just as gratifying. However. I talked with another chapter mate and he mentioned he was expecting a royalty check. I asked how much, being nosy and said as much, hundreds or thousands? He said thousands. What??? I want some checks like that. And his book was e-pubbed and came out last fall. Hmm... The kicker here is that he writes erotic romance. I'm not sure I can pull that off. But that's where the money is apparently.

I did finally get an idea for a piece of original fiction and will be meeting with my writing friend this weekend to brainstorm. I'm woefully weak in the plot/conflict department.

I know I can churn out the words. I can leave readers hanging on hooks at the end of chapters. My stories are clean--little or no spelling, punctuation, or grammar issues. But do I write the emotion well? Do I capture setting? Can I create my own compelling characters? I don't know, I haven't done it in awhile.

I also need a critique partner who knows the genre and the rules. I think this weekend when I meet with my friend, I may pitch formalizing our relationship into that of critique partners.

And then, of course, I need to start writing original fiction again. Oh, boy...

4 comments:

mtnchild said...

time is a wastin' !!! git 'er done.

I know you can do it!!! You need to make the big bucks so you guys can have a wonderful life after ALL the kids move out!

Did you ever check out ezine.com? Check out some of their articles that deal with writing.

Love you lots,
Mom

Jen FitzGerald said...

Hi Mom!

Haven't looked at ezine, but I'll check it out...

Regina Richards said...

Glad that you are finding the time to write, Jen. Write on!

Wendy S Marcus said...

Hi Jen!
Kudos on all the words! I recommend you go to the RWA website, go to conference 2010 then I think it's handouts. Most of the workshops have outlines posted online. You can print them out. Some are very detailed and may help with your plotting/conflict. I attended a lecture that said...conflict is your plot. I'll be posting some of the info. I learned at workshops over the next few days/week. Stop by. Maybe I've got some info that will help!
Good luck!!!