Denial

                         

                                                                        

(You want to see my REAL handwriting?)

(Oh, really?)

(Yeah, I totally did. Can you read it?

I hardly can, and I WROTE it.)

                      

                                 

(Guilty as charged.)

(If you need me, I'll be doing laundry.)

I Have Returned!

This post is here to tell you all I'M BACK!!!

And also to tell you my blogging plans. Because I have plans. Obviously.

Um. Plans?

I plan to blog. Tomorrow. About my family reunion. And this time, I'll actually have pictures.

After that, I'll take Aunt Ardie's advice (because she was the only one awesome enough to offer it) (just joking, I love you anyway) and talk about a pet peeve. And not just any pet peeve. This one is fluffy. And doesn't bark.

After that, I will have new ideas. Unless, of course, they are sucked up by my book. Again. People talk about baby brain? Try book brain sometime. Hyper-active, one-track, overtired book brain. It's like ... like ...

Ooh, look! A butterfly! OH MY GOODNESS BUTTERFLIES WOULD BE SO CUTE IN THAT ONE SCENE ... AND THEN HE WOULD SAY ... HA HA HA THIS IS SO AWESOME!!! WHO CARES ABOUT BLOGGING WHEN THERE ARE BUTTERFLIES?!

(See what I mean? Writing is hard.) (Scratch that. Writing is easy. Writing good stuff? That's hard.)

Maybe Later

I know, I know. I promised I'd write a post about procrastination today. But, well … I really ought to shower. And check my Facebook. And doodle in a notebook, and read the archives of a gazillion blogs, and name all [character's name omitted] and [character's name omitted]'s children. (They're going to have eight. And only the two who are actually ALIVE in the SERIES are named. Poor dears.) After that, I don't really know what I'll do. But I'm sure there will be something, and I'm not going to get around to writing that post today.

Maybe tomorrow. Or next year. I don't know.

It's not my fault! Mom hasn't personally made me cookies that taste good yet. Until she's fulfilled her bargain, I really can't be productive. (She keeps making excuses, like 'I have to clean the house'. Seriously. Like she wants to clean the house.)

Now I'm going to go eat breakfast. Healthy breakfast, with no sugar and … ooh. Is that pie I smell? Never mind.

What Have I Been Doing? Well ... Err ...

I started a blog, right? That's a good thing, right?

Let's have a quick recap of the last couple weeks:

June 11: Got around to doing some editing I had been thinking about for a long time (on Sarawen, my too-long YA fantasy). Loved it. Shortened book by 5k words.

June 14: CAME UP WITH BRILLIANT IDEA FOR SEQUEL!!! Did absolutely no editing.

June 15: DAYDREAMED ABOUT BRILLIANT SEQUEL!!! Did absolutely no editing.

June 16: Realized I can't write a sequel until I've edited this book and finished four others. Cried a little. Shortened book by 3.5k words.

June 17: Added something I had cut ages ago back in. Book became 7k longer.

June 18-21: Um. Surely I didn't do nothing all that time? I must have done something, right? Man, I need to keep better records. Oh, yeah. I named the parents of the MCs in my prequel. That's important. Kind of.

June 22: Decided I wasn't getting anywhere and worked on Kaz (my humerous-middle-grade-fantasy-in-progress). Wrote about a thousand words. Made myself laugh.

June 23: Wrote 6k on Kaz. Freaked myself out so much I had to wake up little sister so she could turn off my light. She read last scene. Freaked her out so much she had to sleep on my floor.

June 24: Realized freaky scene wasn't all that freaky. Corrected that. In my mind. Did not correct it in manuscript. Realized that I really ought to work on Sarawen.

June 25: Had killer sinus headache. Beat my high score on Tiki Lavalanche. Repented. Rewrote a few scenes, cut 2k, made Mom and Megrat cry. Felt good. But sick.

June 26: Went to church. Thought about what I was going to write next day.

June 27: Didn't actually write anything. Instead, went to construction site and injured myself. Talked with brother Bam-Bam about his WIP.

June 28: Went to Girls' Camp. Became very ill. Came home from Girls' Camp. Created blog.

Wow! It looks a lot better written out like that! I guess I'm productive after all!

Lest you totally despair of me, I did do more things than I have written here. I just … didn't record them. Like I ate. And slept. And merged all my writing PAF files into a monstrous collection of 1,128 characters. (Yes, I am fully aware of how ridiculous it is to create and name 1,128 characters. But I have to do it. It's important to me.) (Don't worry, only a tenth of them will make it into the books. Most of them died a few decades before the series starts.) I discovered that one sneaky character had been flirting with another character I had already consigned to eternal maidenhood. Behind my back! I grumbled. I let them get married. I worked out a way to generate surnames for a group of people I won't be dealing with until B3. Yessiree, I was productive! Just not in any way that will further my efforts to get published.

And that's why I have you! Your job is to make me write. Productively. By badgering me. And being awesome. And bringing me cookies. (Scientific fact: All sixteen-year-old girls write better with a big plate of chocolate chip cookies beside them.) I also wouldn't mind if you cleaned my room.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go check my Facebook again.

Sarah Blogs (And The World Trembles)

So, I've decided to start a blog. There are numerous reasons. I'll just list the top three:

1. I love too many wonderful people. And too many wonderful people love me and are interested in what's going on in my life and my writing. I want to interact with everyone and keep you all up-to-date, but I simply don't have the time or brainpower to write that many emails, and someone always gets left out. This way, I can keep up with you all! And you don't have your inbox cluttered!

2. I need to keep better records. I wish I could tell you the number of times I've thought 'Oh, I wish I knew when I thought of that!' Unfortunately, I haven't recorded them, so I can't. And as portable as spiral-bound notebooks are, they are easily lost. Or destroyed. (Remind me to tell you about the time Megrat wrote all HER book notes over top of MY important cartoon.) A blog is more accessible, more stable, and, hopefully, more memorable than my scattered scribblings.

3. I obviously don't spend enough time on the Internet. I mean, I only check my Facebook … what? Every ten minutes? WHAT DO I DO WITH THE OTHER NINE MINUTES? Heaven forbid I actually spend that time WRITING? This must stop!

With those important reasons all on top of each other, I think it's safe to say this blog will be seeing a lot of me. Or a little of me, in which case I'll have stopped procrastinating and decided to get serious about editing Sarawen. Either way, you win, right?