Survived another Monday at work, actually got some stuff done, received my first set of edits by the development team and now am busy correcting my misconceptions of how this system works and making new pictures to help me demonstrate my new-found knowledge.

There are times I wish I could just make the developers write some of this stuff and let me clean it up. They probably spend more time trying to explain stuff to me than they would just breaking down and typing up a few paragraphs.

I didn't get any work done on the book yesterday. wishweaver and I went out for a "short" trip to Tyson's Corner, VA. I had intended to get home around 6pm and get back to work. Instead we wound up meeting friends for dinner and I got home after 9pm. Had a great time, but really didn't have the time to spare. Still, it was nice to meet up with mollymorrison, sorerutenshi and April (my co-author on Shattered Mirror) and much good Japanese food was eaten by all.

Came home from work tonight ready to make up for lost time.

That was, until Chapter 11 reared its ugly head. I spent three hours tonight working on the one chapter. I wrote, re-wrote, added, shifted, deleted . . . In general, this chapter looks only vaguely like it did at the start. Officially, I've added 373 words to Shadows, but there was probably a couple of thousand words written tonight all told.

I'm hoping I get the corrections made on the document at work tomorrow early. I'll be taking in a few chapters with me to try and edit in any slack time I can get. Just need to ask Wish where she's hiding the "Red Pen of Doom" (pat. pend.)
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Words for Today (officially)

373 / 1000 words. 37%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

85570 / 80000 words. 107%

Progress on Shadows of the Heart's revisions

11 / 25 chapters. 44%

Words for 2009

77066 / 365000 words. 21%

The editing/re-write of Shadows kicked off tonight. I only made my way through three of the 24 chapters tonight, but with the adding details, deleting superfluous dialog and reorganizing some of my thoughts (as well as some of those of my characters), I wound up adding 984 words. I'm hoping I can devote more time to this tomorrow night. I'd like to get through at least five chapters worth of revisions going into the weekend.

I finished two of my quarterly reports today at work, so they're out of my hair until late June/early July. Huzzah! I have one more deliverable that's due on Friday, but it's short and mostly done already. Now, if I can just get going on a couple of major deliverables I have that aren't tied to production cycles. Ah, the joys of tech writing.

I'm sure I had more things to say earlier, but the brain tends to get fuzzy this time of the morning.

Night, LJ.
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Words for Today

984 / 1000 words. 98%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

79323 / 80000 words. 99%

Words for 2009

70819 / 365000 words. 19%

I thought I was working on the last chapter of the book. (Yes, I did say I want to go back in and add a couple of chapters, but they're in the middle of the book. Work with me here.)

Ahem, let me start that again. I thought i was working on the last chapter of the book. Until one of the characters sprung a last plot twist on me. I swear they're doing this to me on purpose. Oh sure, we'll meander around and do what you want us to do in the early part of the book. Now that you're trying to wrap it up for editing/rewrites, now we're going to take over and write the story for you.

*sigh*

I did manage to survive another day of making screen shots and editing the user's manual at work. Got my first set of edits back, so I'm hoping I can put the manual mostly to rest by the middle of next week. Of course, they'll do something to make me re-write a section before this is all over. No code is ever permanently frozen.
Then I can get back to the other systemic documents I need to finish writing/re-writing.

Even with the distractions by my characters, I added another 2087 words to Shadows tonight. I'm about halfway through what's now Chapter 22. Hopefully, I'll finish up soon. If anything else comes up, I'm saving it for the sequel. No more new ideas, you guys!
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Words for Today

2087 / 1000 words. 209%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

74589 / 80000 words. 93%

Words for 2009

66025 / 365000 words. 18%

Things went a little better at work today. Mainly because I got left alone for a lot of it to work, but I'll take my victories where I can get them. I did identify a large bug in the system though as I was trying to take my screen shots, so I got an attaboy for that.

Went out to the mailbox and my signed contract with Fandemonium was there. Huzzah! Took the family out to dinner at one of the local Japanese restaurants and enjoyed some new dishes. Along with various rolls, I tried Toro Tartare, which is basically uncooked tuna in a special sauce with some tempura flakes to give it shape. Very interesting dish. Not necessarily something I'd like to order every time but definitely worth trying. Finished off the meal with a dish of Green Tea ice cream. Nom.

Came home and started working on the last chapter of Shadows. Well, actually, I started working on it this morning. As you may recall, I mentioned two people appeared in the last chapter who hadn't been in the book earlier? Well, I was going over some stuff while getting ready for work and all of a sudden I realized why a couple of sections earlier in the book just didn't seem "right". It was something I was going to go back over in the edits, but although it was O.K., it just felt like there was something I was missing.

Eureka moments are cool.

All of a sudden, I knew why those guys were there. I also knew I needed to add in another chapter and a bridge chapter and two chapters needed X re-written . . . so I was scrambling around, bouncing ideas off of wishweaver and as soon as I got to work, I scribbled all my ideas down so I wouldn't forget them. Then tonight, on Shadows, I decided to go ahead and finish the last chapter before going back to add in the other stuff (I'll just tie it in with the regular re-write) and WOW, some other stuff popped up in a conversation between two characters that ties in so well with the stuff from this morning. I've added that to the notes too.

It's strange. Now that I've reached the end of the story, I now know what the story is I'm trying to tell.

Yes, I had an outline.

Yes, I had a pitch I had to give to the publisher.

None of that has been superseded. What's happened is I now know how to best focus the story to meet the approved plot points.

Writing is a bizarre little business.

I added another 1734 words to Shadows tonight. Might have gotten some more in, but ran into daytonward on Twitter. He was trying to test his new Skype account, so I buzzed him as soon as he'd finished downloading everything. We visited a bit about his Star Trek projects, his other projects, writing in general, our military experiences, especially in basic training (or boot camp for the Marines out there), watching old PBS shows, Doctor Who, Stargate, The Unit, the 4400, and god knows what else.

Two hours later, we decided his Skype system was working. And, the germ of a Star Trek proposal is percolating in the back of my brain. Definitely need to work on the idea and I may have to pigeon-hole kradical at Shore Leave. I'm thinking copious amounts of scotch might help.

It's amazing. Get two writers together and all of a sudden story ideas just appear out of thin air. *grin*
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Words for Today

1753 / 1000 words. 175%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

72502 / 80000 words. 91%

Words for 2009

63938 / 365000 words. 18%

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but it was just tough getting going tonight. I've been fighting a document at work (not computer-related this time, more stylistic issues). The problem is, they sorta know what they want in the document, but not really and it's becoming a "I'll know it when I see it" issue. Plus, my supervisor and I are disagreeing on the screen shots I'm using and I have a feeling I'm going to be re-shooting about 75 of them between now and Thursday.

(Notes the divot in the desk seems to get a little deeper every day from the head pounding.)

So, I'm a little grumpy when I get home, I mess around a bit with the interwebs, watch a little TV with the daughter-unit and finally set down to write . . .

. . . and I just don't wanna do it.

The conversation in my head has been like this most of the evening:

Rich: But you have to do it. The deadline's coming and we need all the time we can get for edits.
Motivation: Screw you.
Rich: That's all well and good, but we have to do it.
Motivation: No, I want to goof off and not have to concentrate.
Greed: But, we don't get paid if we don't finish.
Motivation: Rassenfrassen, all right, but I'm not going out of my way to help.
Concentration: Huh? Were you guys talking? I was watching sparkly things.
Rich: *sigh*

So, with Greed holding the business end of the cat-o-nine-tails, we finally beat Motivation and Concentration into doing some work tonight. I wound up adding 1550 words to Shadows, leaving me a bit over a third of the way done with this chapter. Of course, two characters who hadn't been in the book up to now decided to invite themselves for the last chapter. Gee thanks guys.

Still, given the day, I shouldn't complain. When I go back through for the edits, I may have to add a few more scenes in, depending on the feedback I get from wishweaver. But, I hope tomorrow goes a little better. I want to spend some time on Wednesday listening to the UCM Mules playing in the Div II Elite Eight. Keeping the ol' fingers crossed.

Think I'll call it a little early tonight.
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Words for Today

1550 / 1000 words. 155%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

70768 / 80000 words. 88%

Words for 2009

62204 / 365000 words. 17%

That's what I feel like right now.

Between working on a User's Manual at work (to include all the accompanying screen shots) and then adding 3016 words to Shadows tonight after dinner (to include having the computer crash twice), I am wore out brain-wise.

(Yes, I know I left myself open. Feel free to drive Mack truck through opening.)

I have one more scene left in this chapter and then two or three chapters to go to until I type -30- on this one. Then it's go back in with a fine tooth comb to try and catch all the nit-noid stuff and spend a little more time with descriptions and story flow. I'm so close though, I can taste it and believe me, with all the starts and stops and other stuff, this one is going to be especially sweet.

Which is, of course, why I've already started putting together my next pitch for this franchise. *sigh*

At least the horde of teenagers will NOT be descending on the house tomorrow. I intend to get up, take daughter-unit to her vision therapy class, drop her off here for wishweaver to take to her group appointment while I hie unto B&N or maybe Mad City Coffee and find a corner and type until I can't see straight. (I started to say a quiet corner, but who's kidding who there.)

But now, check e-mail and go to bed.

Tomorrow, writing day from hell.
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Words for Today

3016 / 1000 words. 302%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

59068 / 80000 words. 74%

Words for 2009

50514 / 365000 words. 14%

O.K., today wasn't the most exciting time to be had by your local friendly tech writer. No swinging from buildings, righting wrongs or even splitting the occasional infinitive. Nope, today was "let's write a software requirements document".

X 1: The system will . . .

X 2: The system will . . .

and then spend the rest of the day translating developerese into pseudo-English.

Can you say, "I want to pull my hair out"? Sure you can.

Once I get this darn document done, it'll be a breeze to maintain, but as the first full-time tech writer on this project, I've got a LOT of catch-up to do on basic documentation. I'm collating sources, trying to read notes on Excel spreadsheets and tracking down people who used to be on the project to make sure I know exactly what these darn requirements actually mean and did we/will we meet them.

Needless to say, even though the typing is not exciting, trying to put this to bed on time may become so.

Luckily for me, I think the conversation I was worrying about writing last night for Shadows went pretty well. I need to go back over it tomorrow and pump up Samantha's part, but I think I nailed the other character pretty well. *keeps fingers crossed* I added 1667 words to the chapter tonight and I think I brought it to a natural stopping point. It might be a little short though, so I'm going to try and add a little more conversation before we get to the "main event". A little more description might work well too, although sitting in a lean-to at night with no light source doesn't give me a lot to work with there. *grin*

Had a nice little conversation with Yasmine Galenorn on Twitter tonight. Along with being a pretty cool writer, she's got a gorgeous set of kitties; one that looks it could be my cat's twin sister. I wasn't exactly a "cat person" when I was growing up, but given our lifestyle and where we live, cats are definitely the better option than a dog right now. Now, when I can get that piece of property with about four or five acres for a dog to roam, then we'll talk.

I hit my writing goal early and I may actually get to bed on time for once. Go me!
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Words for Today

1667 / 1000 words. 167%

Progress on Stargate SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

24075 / 100000 words. 24%


Words for 2009

16521 / 365000 words. 5%

Actually, it's going to be a very busy next few weeks. I have four documents at work I need to have finished by 06 April and then the first draft of Shadows of the Heart is due at Fandemonium on 12 April. So, I predict a LOT OF WRITING in my future over the next six weeks. I am anticipating my stress level going through the roof during this time, but hey, the tech writing pays the bills so I can afford to actually write for myself.

At least, I have a new vice to go along with the stress. There's a store at the mall called Teavanna, and I found a very nice tea mixture that they were giving away samples of. It's a mixture of Samurai Chai Mate and White Ayurvedic Chai. It's a white tea with 100% the caffeine equivalent of coffee. So, now I can supplement the coffee IV with this stuff. Whoo hoo!!!!

Just got back from the auto body shop. The insurance adjuster agreed with the estimate so, in a week or so, my car goes into the shop for a few days. Here's hoping they don't spot any more damage while they're in there.

Of course, I nearly got creamed again today. I was turning left at a different intersection, but still two lanes go left here also. I was in the outside lane and as I made my turn, I noticed the car next to me was swinging INTO MY LANE from the interior lane. Luckily, there was a small shoulder, so I was able to duck and brake to get away from them. I caught up to them at the next light and the (insert curse word of choice) person was talking on her cell phone, completely oblivious to the fact she damn near took the front end off of my car.

GAAAAAHHH!!!!!

When I have the car in the shop, I'm going to ask them to see if they can find the idiot magnets in it and get rid of them.

We had company parts of the holiday weekend, so I didn't get as much writing done as I had hoped. The majority came in a trek to B&N on Sunday and then tonight. Still, I'm happy with the 5492 words and since there are no more three-day weekends between now and then, I'm hoping we can keep the distractions down to a minimum. The operative word is "hoping".

Oh, and if I didn't need another time sink, I've finally gone to the dark side and picked up a Twitter account. We'll see how long that lasts or if it becomes too much of a distraction. Still, if you're vaguely interested, you can either search for me or @nightwolfwriter.
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Words for Today (2 day total)

5492 / 2000 words. 275%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

21078 / 100000 words. 21%

Words for 2009

13524 / 365000 words. 4%

I survived one of those endless meeting days at work. I was never so glad that I had leftovers from the night before either, because my technical lead decided to pass his changes to one of my documents an hour before I had to present it to our customers. So, I was busy making corrections, printing and stapling while I was snarfing bites where I could. However, the customers approved my proposed changes to one of our deliverables, so I guess in the end it was worth it.

Like I mentioned last entry, as I get back into Shadows of the Heart, the story is starting to re-coalesce in my mind. Today's writing came a lot easier and I'm recapturing Jack O'Neil's patented snarkiness. As wishweaver likes to point out, I do enjoy writing the smart-aleck types. Course, she claims I'm just channeling my inner curmudgeon, but I have no clue what she's referring to.

I hit 1759 words tonight, which makes me a little more comfortable about meeting my deadline. While I expect to get big chunks done on the weekend, I would love to average 1500 words during the week. That would let me finish this story with enough time to give it a good scrub before I have to submit it. Probably won't have time for a major rewrite, but every edit helps.

And now, it's time for bed.

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Words for Today

1759 / 1000 words. 176%

Progress on SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

10494 / 100000 words. 10%

Words for 2009

2940 / 365000 words. 1%

Just got home from helping Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss do the "How to Find a REAL Agent" panel at Capclave and decided it was time for me to get off the sidelines and back into this stuff. Been battling a mild case of writer block (aka too damn lazy to write) and a bit of depression/"my writing sucks, why am I doing this?" Not looking for sympathy because I'm not being sympathetic to myself. It's my lost time and it's damn time I got back to doing something productive.

Not going to go into great details about the last four and a half months, so I'll pass on the highlights in semi-chronological order:

1) Started playing Guild Wars as a way to recharge the old batteries (Old D&D geeks need to get their fixes somehow *grin*)
2) My truck started to die, so I am now the proud owner of a 2008 Mazda MX-5 (Miata). Pictures to follow.
3) The Daughter-Unit had to go to summer school, so I had to take off an hour a day during the summer to pick her up and get her home
4) Had a good time at Shore Leave (personally, not so much professionally)
4a) Getting the feeling my days of writing Star Trek are pretty much over barring something I don't expect
5) Looks like I'll be moving to a new contract at work . . . current assignment coming to an end right after Thanksgiving
6) Wrote to an editor regarding doing a Guild Wars novel . . . no response yea or nay yet.
7) Heard back from the secret project which isn't a secret any more. Unless something weird happens, I should be getting a contract from Fandemonium in the next week or so for a Stargate SG-1 novel. First draft due March 9.
8) Finishing my application paperwork for the MFA program at the University of Baltimore. If I'm accepted, I start Fall 2009

I think that summarizes what's been going on so far.

For those of you who've stuck with me (out of friendship or inertia) I thank you. I'll try not to take such an extended vacation again.

Now . . . go do something productive.

When I got into work this morning, I was informed that I was being transferred to one of my projects full time instead of splitting my time across two of them. Now, some people might have taken it the wrong way, but I think this is much better for all concerned. The project I'm on now is good at giving me specific deadlines and not worrying about things as long as I hit those deadlines. Plus, the manager I'm supporting is good at giving me very specific feedback to what he wants and doesn't want.

The other project, while interesting, was depending on me being more "self-motivating", which would be really cool if I was one of the developers or if I had been with the project from the beginning. However, as the tech writer, I have to work with the SMEs to develop the papers and I sorta need to know when they expect me to have them done. Otherwise, projects with no deadlines tend to slip so I can meet projects with clear deadlines. We were just a bad fit and while I'm pleased about the work I did for them, I can't say I'm heartbroken that "they don't have any work for me in the foreseeable future".

So, hopefully, with only having to answer to one manager, my stress level will go down and I can get back into the "I want to write when I get home" mode again.

And, in honor of this, I did write another 1000+ words on Harbinger of Darkness on my lunch break. I just didn't get a chance to type it in at home, so I can't officially count it on my word production for the day. I did, however, add 1616 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. I know I need to get started on the sekrit project soon, but after nights like this, it's going to be hard to put this one away to concentrate on the one that hopefully has real money attached to it.

In non-work/non-writing talk, I enjoyed going to see Prince Caspian with the family and dzeytoun. I enjoyed the story and some of the symbolism behind the various events. wishweaver and I have been discussing some of the different themes we saw in the movie and even if it's not "haute-cuisine" as far as movies go, if you're still talking about it a couple of days later, it's done it's job in my opinion.

Also, Daughter-unit is still geeking on her new computer and the manga drawing software she got, so we're counting this as "Mom and Dad did good." *grin*
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Words for Today

1616 / 1000 words. 162%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

41343 / 90000 words. 46%

Words for 2008

145772 / 366000 words. 40%

Not a lot to report about tonight.

First off, congratulations to Rich Berlew who's fine web comic, Order of the Stick, won an Eagle Award for best web comic of 2007. He didn't win the best Graphic Novel of 2007, but somehow he didn't mind losing to Alan Moore. Huzzah, Rich and hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out at another convention here in the near future!

Worked with one of the developer leads at work and created a template for his team to use to do all their reports. That took about half the day to get everything "just right". But, it was a nice change of pace from the other assignments I've been dealing with lately. No frantic deadlines, no fate of the world rests on this, just a "hey, if you have a bit, could you work on this?"

While I was getting ready for work this morning, I had one of those blinding revelations regarding Harbinger of Darkness. I understand now where I need to go with its rewrite. Chapter 7 is really Chapter 1, Chapter 1 is probably around Chapter 4, the sub-villain is actually one of the more important villains, the whole church thing needs to come out and be saved for the second book and we can't kill off one of the characters until much later in the book, and he MUST be introduced in Chapter One, not Chapter Four like he is now.

(Yeah, I know, this doesn't mean anything to you guys because I think the only person who's read this thing and my blog is wishweaver, but work with me. I'm on a roll.)

Of course, I'm already stretched for time to write on the various projects I have going, so what the heck am I doing even considering another writing project? Heck if I know. Still, when the answers just reach up and slap you in the face, you have to pay attention. So, I'm going to stick to my current strategy about writing for the rest of the year, but I'm taking copious notes on what I want to do with Harbinger and working on the new Chapter One in my spare time at work.

*sigh*

Have I mentioned I'm a glutton for punishment.

And speaking of projects and stuff, I added another 1,152 words to Steel on Target tonight. I was a bit distracted tonight and it took me a long time to get into the flow of the story. I don't know if it's the changing weather, the rather uncomfortable chair I'm sitting in or what, but I need to figure out a way to try and get more focused on my writing when I'm at the house. If I can do 4,000+ at a coffeehouse, I should be able to do better than just over 1000 when I have two hours plus to write at home.

*grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter*

I think it's time to go to bed.

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Words for Today

1152 / 1000 words. 115%

Progress on Steel on Target

50703 / 95000 words. 53%

Words for 2008

140597 / 366000 words. 38%

Nothing too exciting to report today. Work went pretty well, got a couple of small assignments. Which in their own way was good since they'll help prevent there being humongous assignments toward the end of this build on the project. I'm also helping format a document that'll become a template for a different team.

None of these are going to take a lot of my time, so I may be able to work in a little writing here in the near future.

Came home to fight with my current web provider (Sitelutions.com) and the owner of the domain name I really want to use (Register.com). See, I bought richardcwhite.com in an auction last year. I'm trying to transfer it from Register to Sitelutions. Actually, I've been trying to transfer it for a couple of weeks now but it keeps failing. I've already been on the phone with Register.com and if I have to call them back I'm not going to be happy. It seems the "transfer number" they issued me keeps coming back as invalid when Sitelutions tries to secure my address.

I came home, read through everything on both sites, re-watched the tutorial that Sitelutions provided on how to get stuff from Register.com to them, copied down pertinent notes, had one in one tab and one in the other so I could verify the fact that I can copy stuff down on paper, typed in the number the lady had given me on the phone (which did match the e-mail Register sent me) and now we wait. If I get a failed message again in the morning, I'm going to be a very unhappy camper when I get Register's help desk on the phone again.

This should NOT be that hard.

*sigh*

Oh, and I did do some writing this evening. Added another 1263 words to Steel on Target, which has taken another turn I wasn't suspecting. This could be good or it might be a prime target for the cutting block when we do the rewrite, but I figure I might as well see where it's going to lead.

And with that, I'm going to read another couple of chapters in Cruel Zinc Melodies and call it a night.
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Words for Today

1263 / 1000 words. 126%

Progress on Steel on Target

49551 / 95000 words. 52%

Words for 2008

139445 / 366000 words. 38%

Wow, to those of you who stuck with this blog in my absence, thank you.

Like the song says, "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making plans."

When last we saw our intrepid writer, I was preparing for the Maryland Writer's Association's Annual Conference on 3 May. It was my first time representing Writer Beware at a con and I think everything went well, even in spite of the audio-visual glitches. One of the people who attended my talk said if he got nothing else out of the conference, my talk was worth the price of admission (and folks, this wasn't a cheap conference *grin*). Needless to say, that made the day for me right there.

I left the conference all fired up myself and ready to get right back to work.

Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on my real work getting in the way. I had two major deadlines last week and I was putting in some hours. Basically, I was coming home, eating dinner, reading my blog and then passing out. There was no staying up until midnight working on stories. I was so burnt out from writing all day that the last thing I wanted to do was write at home. So I read my wife's For Better or For Worse collections, a few web comics and otherwise accomplished nothing last week.

Oh, and enjoyed going out to see Iron Man (4+/5 stars) and Speed Racer (2.5/5 stars). Iron Man was an outstanding time and I look forward to adding that one to my DVD collection when it becomes available. I was impressed by how true they were to the origins of Iron Man and still managed to move it forward into time. Although to tell you the truth, I thought the two robots assisting Tony Stark stole the show, and wishweaver wants his holographic interface with Jarvis. Hell, I think she'd take Jarvis also. Plus the easter egg at the end made sitting through the credits worth the wait. *grin*

Speed was an enjoyable romp and I thought once we got past Speed's childhood, the movie really got back into the stuff that made watching Speed the cartoon fun (family and the cars). Plus, you had the GRX, the Monster Car, the Inspector, the Acrobatic Racing Team (in a cameo unfortunately), over the top villains, Segways, ninjas, and all the other strangeness that made the Speed Racer cartoon fun.

On Saturday, I did finally get motivated and hit one of the local coffee shops. I added 4029 words to Steel on Target, nearly finishing the next chapter. I followed that up with tonight's return to Childhood's Tears adding 1138 words. Hopefully, with things settling down at work for a bit, I expect to get back on track here soon. I may have a few lapses (especially with the new Garrett, P.I. book from Glen Cook (Cruel Zinc Melodies) sitting here waiting for me to read it.), but I'm feeling better, the clients like the end results of the last week's projects and the world has continued to spin.

Now, if the squirrels would stop lining up by twos, practicing getting onto a boat.

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Words for Today

1138 / 1000 words. 114%

Progress on Steel on Target

48288 / 95000 words. 51%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

38216 / 90000 words. 42%

Words for 2008

136671 / 366000 words. 37%

Long day today.

Spent today either finishing up the web site at work, going to meetings or working on a user's manual for the other project I support. Of course, my meeting was at noon and I can't even complain because I'm the one who scheduled it. (Only time the conference room with the projector was available.) I was pretty brain-dead when I got home, but there was no rest for the weary . . .

I needed to finish up my slides for my presentation to the Maryland Writer's Association Annual Conference this upcoming Saturday. As usual, I've probably gone overboard (I'm sitting on 19 slides, although several of them have only two bullets on them), so I'll be spending some time tomorrow evening winnowing through everything, photocopying some handouts and finishing all my notes to myself. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

And, against my better judgment (and the bed whispering sweet nothings to me), I still managed to get some writing in. I added 1027 words to Steel on Target, getting May off to a good start. I'll post my April totals tomorrow, but I think they'll look a lot better than March's did.

And with that . . . it's off to bed.
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Words for Today

1027 / 1000 words. 103%

Progress on Steel on Target

44259 / 90000 words. 49%

Words for 2008

131504 / 366000 words. 36%

Work went pretty well today. Nothing spectacular, nothing horrible. Reviewed one of the documents I've been working on, got a few course corrections on one section, but overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming together.

Came home, had dinner, watched a little TV, played a little Xenosaga II and then came upstairs to write.

Probably spend a little too much time going back and forth from the document to some writer web sites, but I still finished Chapter Eight for Steel on Target, adding 1371 words tonight. I don't know how many of them will make the cut when I do the rewrite because I'm pretty tired right now and I did a lot of typing with my eyes closed (which is always an adventure since I'm an average typist at best). Still words were put on paper, plot was advanced and new threat suddenly reared its ugly head to threaten our intrepid band of cavalry troopers.

And once again, I remind myself, no matter how bad my life gets, my poor cav unit's life is so much worse. I know, I'm an evil writer. *cues evil laughter here and twirling of mustache.*

Now, I can really tell I'm tired when I resort to cheap theatrics like that.

Say good night, LiveJournal.

Good night, LiveJournal.
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Words for Today

1371 / 1000 words. 137%

Progress on Steel on Target

38282 / 90000 words. 43%

Words for 2008

119203 / 366000 words. 33%

Busy day at work. Worked on documents, coordinated with developers to get information to expand document, tried to web design only to find out I'm going to have to go to another building tomorrow to reset my password (stupid firewalls) and met with computer technicians to try and work a few bugs out of my system (he'll get back to me -- I'm afraid I stumped the poor man).

Then, wishweaver and I got to spend some quality time at the insurance agent's working on updating our life insurance policies. Ouch and more ouch. I guess I shouldn't complain because we can afford them, but getting updated life insurance when you're just shy of 50 is not a thing for the faint of heart. Took a tad longer than I thought it would, but I think we covered everything, looked at almost all the options and I feel pretty comfortable with how it all worked out.

After Wish retired to her computer to try and finish her term paper on Identity Theft, I intended to get right to working on Steel on Target. Yeah, well, that didn't happen. Apparently I'm not as over the gastro-intestinal what-ever-the-hell I've picked up a few days ago as I had hoped. I was really having doubts that I could get anything written tonight, but about 11pm it started settling down and I managed to knock out 1354 words. Not as much as I had hoped, but more than I thought I'd get considering how I feel.

Is it Friday yet? (looks at the clock) Wow, I guess it is. *yipes*
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Words for Today

1354 / 1000 words. 135%

Progress on Steel on Target

30030 / 90000 words. 33%

Words for 2008

85932 / 366000 words. 23%

I was a little concerned when I went into work today given my general malaise about everything that happened yesterday. However, I got a good start on one of my projects and have someone going through one of the sections to give it a sanity check as well as pointing out areas where illustrations/screen shots would be useful. Also, I got into one of the web sites I'm maintaining and edited four of the eleven pages I need to rewrite. I am hoping I'll have this web site done no later than Friday next week, because I can see a few major projects barreling at me that'll have to be dealt with sooner rather than later. Especially a paper that's going to wind up somewhere between 50 and 100 pages in length and odd are, we're going to have to write it from scratch.

Yep, that'll be fun.

Still, it was nice to see things actually flowing at work and both Microsoft Word and Dreamweaver behaved for me today. Go me.

Working on my military SF story tonight. Finished Chapter Six of Steel on Target and got started on Chapter Seven for a total of 1423 words tonight. I may not be writing "every" night, but at least I seem to be coming in well over my goal of 1000 words a night when I do write. I'll take my victories where I can.

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Words for Today

1423 / 1000 words. 142%

Progress on Steel on Target

28676 / 90000 words. 32% done!

Words for 2008

84578 / 366000 words. 23%

The title pretty much describes my day at work.

I finished off the last two little assignments I had as well as making up the weekly status reports that didn't get turned in on Friday because I was here babysitting the appraiser. Poured myself a second cup of coffee and prepared to hit one of the big assignments I have staring at me.

And that's when my friend, Mr. Microsoft Word, began acting up on me again.

First off, the headings styles were acting up. I went into the style formatting, set up the numbering system exactly the way I wanted it and what happened? Word numbered my headings the way IT wanted them to look. It didn't matter if I set the numbers, if I went in and told it to restart the numbering, if I went in and manually set the numbers . . . Microsoft Word blithely ignored me and did whatever the hell it wanted.

But, that was only the beginning of its tricks.

After I finally got the headings almost exactly where I wanted them . . . I got the infamous, "Microsoft Word has encountered an unexpected error and will be shutting down" box.

Not once.

Not twice.

Six times . . .

. . . in a row.

I finally had to shut down my machine and restart it, hoping it would clear whatever was making the persnickety Word program so upset. At least when it came back up, I got a little smarter. I grabbed the document that I did have set up the way I wanted and carefully cut and pasted the words from the body of the offending document into the clean version and then just re-wrote the heading titles by hand rather than importing any bad formatting into the good document.

So far, so good.

But by then, I had squandered a lot of the afternoon and damn near all my desire to work on this particular document any more today. I have a meeting with the team leader about this tomorrow and hopefully when I return to my desk, armed with clearer guidance (I hope), I'll give it another try. However, if it keeps screwing up, I'll probably have to call our IT guys and see if they have any suggestions besides mine, which would be to wipe Word off my machine and give me a fresh reload. (I have to use Word, it's on the baseline and the government is unlikely to spring for a Word Perfect X3 license to make a lowly contractor happy.)

Still, even with the frustrations at work today, I still was in a better mood tonight than I have been in a while. Spent some good time with my family and then wandered upstairs to write. I may have piddled around on some blogs and web sites longer than I needed to, but I still added 1027 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. I'm happy with what I wrote and I hope to add quite a bit more tomorrow night.

And not a crash in sight. Thank you, WP X3. *grin*

Oh, and I also worked on a pitch for a possible ghostwriting project. I'm not adding the words tonight since they're still in pencil and not on the computer, but hopefully I'll be typing them up tomorrow night before my regular writing session. And I do need to start to work on my slides for the Writer Beware presentation I'm giving to the Maryland Writer's Association in May.

*wibble*
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Words for Today

1027 / 1000 words. 103%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

25826 / 90000 words. 29%

Words for 2008

81991 / 366000 words. 22%

First of all, I can say, picking up that book on Word 2003 has already paid for itself. Yeah, it took some flipping through pages and reading print that's entirely too small, but I got one of those monster documents I've been working on properly formatted, edited and off for final review.

Course, that took almost all the morning, but that was too be expected.

This afternoon, I started working on on redesigning one of the two web pages I'm going to be supporting at work. Now, those who know me know I'd rather start from scratch with a web site rather than spending lots of time trying to re-do someone else's design. However, the Program Manager likes this particular set-up with its neat little CSS pages and etc., so I'm stuck plastering over someone else's masterpiece. This is going to add several layers of complexity and a whole lot of time to this project, but, I'm just the hired gun.

Still, there's something rather mesmerizing about web design. I had taken a short break about 1600 and was hoping to leave by 1630, but still, there was something about this one page I wanted to look at again . . . 1715 rolls around before I come up for air again. *sigh*

Decided to pick Steel on Target up tonight instead of working on Shattered Mirror, since I neglected it last night for my Writer Beware project. Added 1523 words to the story, although it's heading off in a different direction than I thought it would. Oh the joys of writing without an outline. Hopefully, I won't fall off and kill myself without my outline safety net. I'll try and do some catch up on Mirror tomorrow while wishweaver works on a term paper for one of her Master's classes, before starting on CSD.

OH, and by the way, tomorrow is Wish's birthday. I anticipate at least a cool birthday dinner. Wish she didn't have to work on her college stuff tomorrow, but we're planning on getting together with my Mirror co-author, April, and her husband next weekend. That'll be the real "celebration" weekend. Tomorrow will be more of a subdued celebration, but hopefully still a lot of fun.
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Words for Today

1523 / 1000 words. 152%

Progress on Steel on Target

27253 / 90000 words. 30%

Words for 2008

77619 / 366000 words. 21%

Put in a nine and a half hour day at work. Shouldn't have been quite as stressful as it was, but Microbroke's Word '03 continues to NOT DO what I tell it to do. I do O.K. with the regular body of the documents I'm working on, but I'm still having problems with formatting (did I mention I'm about the fourth tech writer to work on these documents?) and trying to get things like appendices to format properly (to include headings so the Table of Contents will recognize them) is kicking my butt.

Luckily, my company authorized myself to go out and pick up some manuals tonight at the bookstore. Picked up some good books on Word 2003, Visio and Dreamweaver 8. Now I just have to figure out how to do the electronic expense reports to get reimbursed for them.

That was the good part.

The bad part started when wishweaver and I got back to the car. (What? You thought I would go buy books about computers without taking the local computer scientist?) I set the books in the back seat, opened the driver's door, sat down and nearly screamed.

I don't know what I did to my knee, but boys and girls, I do not recommend anyone else doing what I did.

No, I didn't break it or sprain it. But, the shooting pain has been going up and down my leg since 2030 this evening. It took at least an hour before I could even begin to bend it without wincing. Yeah, I had a bad right knee when I joined the Army (taking a line drive off of your knee cap will do that) and I'm certain all those years ruck marching with the 101st didn't do much for it either. And yes, I could stand to lose a little weight.

But, holy crap, I wish I knew what was causing the problem. It's not a consistent pain. Just every often I'll sit down wrong, or go down the stairs wrong, or stand wrong and *BAM* there's the pain again. It's days like this I wish I still was getting those 1000mg of Motrin free from the Army again.

It's hurting less now and I expect it'll be fine by morning, but GEEZ, I wanted to just go to bed and forget about this whole writing thing. But, I managed to get the knee propped up on the guest bed and dug out Steel on Target. It took a little bit to get going on it tonight. I missed a couple of weeks worth of writing on this story to work on the sekrit tie-in project and it took me a bit to track down some of the stuff I had mentioned a few chapters back that's coming home to roost for my intrepid band of cavalry troopers.

Wound up adding in 1321 words tonight and as far as I'm concerned, that's a wrap for the night.
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Words for Today

1321 / 1000 words. 132%

Progress on Steel on Target

25730 / 90000 words. 29%

Words for 2008

73073 / 366000 words. 20%

Well, I wanted to get away from the help desk and back into a tech writing position.

I'm currently up to my eyeballs editing Internal Control Documents, revision notes, web pages and wikis. Let's just say, if I'm bored at work now, it's my own fault. To quote Jerry Reed, "we've got a long way to go and a short time to get there."

Still it's coming in handy. Even though I got home late this evening, I read through Childhood's Tears from Chapter One and caught several small errors. Some were minor like using the same name for two different characters. Sure, it could happen, but it might confuse the readers into thinking the two were the same person. Better to just go ahead and give the first one a new name (since he's called by name the least). The other wasn't major as in "stop the book" major but it would have been embarrassing. I have one of the characters mention they don't have a telescope at the start of a chapter and then six pages later, they're pulling out the telescope they didn't have to observe something. Unless I'm giving that character magical abilities I didn't know they had, that's not going to happen. So, I rewrote things a bit, making her wish she had it with her.

Yeah, a minor glitch, but still something I should have caught.

I think I added in the major edits I wanted to before starting tonight's writing session. I added 1677 words to the story tonight and almost finished Chapter Six. With this, I'm almost 100% back on track with the story outline and now it's time to see how long it takes for me to jump the tracks again. That's the joys of these outlines versus the ones I have to do for media tie-in work.

With those, I have to stay pretty close to the pitch and chapter breakdowns I do before I start writing because that's what the licensor has already approved. If I wander too far afield, then he has to really go over the manuscript with a fine-toothed comb wondering what I've done with their property. It's just easier to stick to the script and not ad lib with media work.

With my own story, I can ad lib to my heart's content. Now, as you've probably guessed, I'm a little particular when it comes to outlining and world building, (all right, I'm a little anal about it), but it helps me keep from chasing too many rabbits while I'm working. Still, sometimes the characters have a different story to tell me than where I thought they were headed. It's best to follow their suggestions rather than giving them a lobotomy to force them back onto the path (ala Hermione Granger in the last two HP books).

Sometimes rabbit trails lead to diamond mines. Sometimes they lead to rabbit poop.

But if you don't follow them, you'll never know.

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Words for Today

1677 / 1000 words. 168%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

21849 / 90000 words. 24%

Words for 2008

62038 / 366000 words. 17%

Well, first stumble at the new assignment today. Not a big deal, but it was still aggravating. I coordinated with my partner at the old assignment to make sure I could cut out at 0930 instead of 1200 to meet with the person who is currently in charge of the program web sites. Took off in plenty of time, caught the shuttle bus, grabbed my car, got to the new site . . . and she was gone. Apparently the person who was supposed to coordinate the meeting got sick, so the current web master was at another set of meetings across town.

*sigh*

We're trying to reschedule for Monday. Hopefully she'll be in tomorrow and will check her e-mail. Right now it's hard for me to coordinate with her directly since she's a 0500-1330 person. *insert jaw drop here. Hell some nights I'm not getting to bed much before she's waking up to come to work.* Since I don't get to the new assignment until 1300, she's in the process of wrapping up for the day, so coordinating a morning meeting is important since they really want me to start in on the web pages as soon as possible.

Hmm, tech writer = web master. Yep, I've seen this scenario before.

However, the good news is I started cooking on Steel on Target tonight. I added another 1176 words and could easily stay up another couple of hours with this story. I'm finding something interesting with this story. As I get to the more exciting or tension-filled parts, I can feel my typing starting to pick up speed as the characters start talking in shorter sentences. It's like I'm actually in the tent or the turret watching the upcoming battle unfolding.

Now, I was a cavalry trooper, but I admit, I was in the MI company, not driving an M1A1 or an APC or a self-propelled howitzer. But, I still remember those night maneuvers, hunkering down next to the over-sized tires of my M35A2 6x6 2.5 ton truck, cargo w/winch with my M16 in hand as some OPFOR tried to overrun the camp, and the joys of being in an observation post with an F-5 screaming down the valley at NTC, strafing the camp just below me.

Steel on Target, while a Military SF story using futuristic tanks and such, is still a very real experience for me. Hopefully, it'll feel real to someone else when they read it.

Course, that presupposes that I'm going to finish the damn thing.

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Words for Today

1176 / 1000 words. 118%

Progress on Steel on Target

18671 / 90000 words. 21%

Words for 2008

29709 / 366000 words. 8%

. . . is great in theory, but tactical planning is ultimately what wins out in the short term.

Yes, we did write this evening. No, we did not work on Shattered Mirror because I'm waiting for feedback from April before I begin revising Chapter Six. So, to build on the momentum of last night, I started in on Chapter Four for Steel on Target. 1506 words later, I realize I may be sending the poor cavalry squadron I'm writing about on a dangerous wild goose chase, but desperation and low supplies tend to bring out the foolhardiness in many a soldier's heart.

Besides, don't blame me. I was working on one scene and the S3,(Operations Officer for you non-military types), just popped onto the page and proposed this plan without any suggestions from me. I (the acting commander) just happened to agree that it was a good idea . . . not a smart idea, but a good idea . . . and now they're gearing up to go gallivanting off in a direction I hadn't foreseen.

Wow, this pantsing thing is a lot more tricky than I thought.

I'm going in to work for a while tomorrow to finish writing the updated SOP for the help desk. Probably won't be there as long as I'd initially planned, but it shouldn't take forever to get this finished off. I just figured on the weekend, I wouldn't be bothered very much with people calling wanting me to do X or Y for them so they wouldn't have to drive over to the building themselves.

But, I also have another reason for getting this SOP finished. I found out today that on Jan 14, I move to the new contract. Yep, it's time to put twenty months of a six-month "help desk" assignment behind me and get back to being tech writer. I'm looking forward to it, let me tell you.

*again spares LJ of any pictures of me doing the happy dance*

But, if I'm going to work, I need to get some sleep in tonight, so I'll let my poor cavalry troopers have the rest of the evening off to plan their upcoming raid.

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Words for Today

1502 / 1000 words. 150%

Progress on Steel on Target

11767 / 90000 words. 13%

Words for 2008

5222 / 365000 words. 1%