Wow, John! That sounds just like what I’ve been doing, but the way you put it, I wonder if things would work better for me if I go in with the idea of using that first draft to build an outline, instead of expecting it to be a full-fledged story that makes sense. Hmmmmm…

Plantsing seems to work for me, too!

I’ve become a “plantser”: I’ll pants through the first draft and use it to build my outline for subsequent drafts. Seems to work for me.

Thanks, LadyJai! It really helps to take the leap knowing others have gone before!

I like to call myself a plantser LOL

Good luck with the plotting. I do it as a basic guideline. There’s nothing set in stone and getting to each step is all up in the air as I write.

Yay for progress! Remember, you don’t *have* to complete everything. Life always has a way of interfering in what we *want* to do. I think progress in any amount is grand!

Anything that motivates you, Valerie. I find that sour gummy worms work wonders as well.

As I explained here,  I’m a pantser. That means I don’t plot my stories before I write them. I start with a first sentence and go—without knowing characters, conflict, or anything else. I absolutely love writing like this. It feels like magic when characters start popping up out of nowhere, saying all kinds of crazy things that I would never say myself. I wrote the first draft of A Duchess is Always Right like that, scene after scene after scene of beautiful, amazing discovery. The fact that many of those scenes had nothing whatsoever to do with each other didn’t bother me a bit, until I realized I’d written 50,000 words that went nowhere. My solution to that was a painful one: print the whole thing, cut out each scene, and cobble together a plot from a whole stack of random strips of paper.

Yep, really.

As you can imagine, there were holes in the plot, scenes that hadn’t been written. There were also scenes that had been written (scenes I loved) that wouldn’t fit the plot, no matter how hard I tried to shove them in there. Draft #1 was a disaster.

Draft #2: filling in the gaps.

Draft #3: working on transitions between scenes.

Draft #4: Fleshing out, smoothing out, and figuring out random bits that still needed to be worked on.

Draft #5: That’s the one I’m on now. Responding to Laine’s comments. Upping the emotion. Really working on the relationships between the characters.

Draft #6 and Draft #7 still to come. See that? I have at least 2 more drafts to go before I can get this book out there to readers. Ugghh.

While there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and I’m really enjoying crafting a better book, I’m also thinking this is no way to write a novel.

But Book #2 is calling to me. Flashes of my main character are starting to appear in my mind, kind of like when you see something out of the corner of your eye. Snippets of dialog on scraps of paper are starting to litter my bedside table. I even bought a book about corvids (crows, ravens, and rooks) because my main character has a pet rook.

I think I’m becoming a plotter.

And maybe breathing a serious sigh of relief. Maybe. I’m not quite sure yet whether this is a good thing.

I feel a bulleted list coming on.

The downside to pantsing:

1. Slow. Trust me, I’ve been working on Duchess for something like 7 years now, not always with the intention of writing a novel, or even the intention of finishing it, but still, I should’ve knocked this one out a long time ago.
2. Too many drafts. The fresher things are for you, the easier it is to see the work. I think one of the reasons this book has taken so long is because I’ve had to take breaks from it just to be able to see what the heck was going on.
3. Too easy to procrastinate. Without a plot, if it doesn’t “feel” right, it’s very easy to walk away from the computer and wait for the muse to want to hang out with you again.

The upside to plotting:

1. Faster. No, you don’t dive right in, but the work you put in up front seems to save you a whole lot of time and heartache.
2. Fewer drafts. FEWER DRAFTS! Just the thought makes me giddy.
3. Focus. If you know where you’re going, you can focus better and hopefully create the kind of discipline you need to get the book written. Plot out your book. Plot out your life. Here’s where I’m headed today kind of thing.

You can tell I’m trying to talk myself into this, can’t you? Or maybe trying to justify changing the way I write.

Like I need permission. Hah!

This coming week, I’ll be thinking about what plotting means to me. Will I know who my characters are? Will I know what happens to them and why? How much planning do I need to do, etc. What tools will I use to create my next book? I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, if anybody wants to share their plotting tips, I’d love to hear them.

The post A Pantser Repents: Confessions of a Slow Writer appeared first on GroggSpot.

1. Email editor to check on status of MFM.
2. Design cover for ADIAR.
3. Revise ADIAR if I get editorial comments back.
4. Plot next book.
5. Blog every Saturday.
6. Visit other #WriteMotivation blogs at least once.

We’re one week in. So, how am I doing?

1. Did it. Heard back. There may be good news coming. Or not. Either way, I get a margarita.
2. Done. Ish. I’ll need to tweak dimensions and file sizes for individual retailers, but I’m loving this cover and I can’t wait to show it to the world. I’ve made the commitment to go indie with this one- without even trying to get a publishing contract. My feelings on this subject change hourly, but here’s a good article about diversifying your portfolio at Chuck Wendig’s blog.
3. Started. Laine was super fast getting her comments back to me (yay her!). As usual, I need to up the emotion big time. I’m on Chapter 6 of the rewrite. 21 chapters to go. That’s about a chapter a day, which is the same break-neck pace as last month, but so far this round of revisions is a lot more fun: more love, more hate, more drama. Give me more!
5. Got this.
6. I’ve visited half a dozen or so, and commented on those blogs that had a #WriteMotivation post. I’m working my way around to everybody just so we all know we’re not doing this writing thing in a vacuum.

Sounds pretty good, right? I mean except for that glaring blank space beside number 4.

Plot next book.

It sounds easy, I know, maybe even fun, but I’m a pantser. A start-with-the-first-sentence-and-jump-off-the-cliff pantser. The idea of plotting a book scares the heck out of me. How can I possibly know what my characters are going to do before they do it? Ack!

So, I’ll be thinking more about the plotter vs. pantser thing this week. See if I can’t come up with some answers. If anybody has any thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

The post #WriteMotivation: Scary Goals and Status Update appeared first on GroggSpot.

A new month–the third month of the new year!–and I already feel behind. But it’s onward with #writemotivation, so here are my goals for March:

1. Finish full revision of AJ. Hand off to Bess on March 31^st.
2. Write a page every day.
3. Play with ideas for revision of E.
4. Read and critique Bess’s latest.

That last goal is a new one, added after I did the official sign-up for March. And it’s already done! Yay! Snowy weekends are good for reading your buddy’s novel.

Now it’s my turn for the finish-it-all pressure cooker. Let the games begin (and may the odds be ever in your favor!!).

The post #writemotivation: Onward appeared first on GroggSpot.

February was my first time to sign up with #WriteMotivation and I set myself two goals: one giant, crazy, over-the-top, keep-up-the-pressure goal and one little, shoulda-been-doin’-this-anyway goal.

1. Finish first rewrite of A DUCHESS IS ALWAYS RIGHT and send to beta bestie, Laine.
2. Blog once a week.

This is me (I think spell check wants me to put “tis I”) shouting from the rooftops: I DID IT!!!! I handed over my manuscript to Laine just before 5pm yesterday. And it felt really, really good to finally whip that W-I-P into shape.

Deep breath. Here we go again. My goals for #WriteMotivation March are as follows:

1. Email editor to check on status of MFM.
2. Design cover for ADIAR.
3. Revise ADIAR if I get editorial comments back.
4. Plot next book.
5. Blog every Saturday.
6. Visit other #WriteMotivation blogs at least once.

I’ve already made a start. Check #1 off the list. Did it last night. Yay. I’ll see you next Saturday.

The post #WriteMotivation February Wrap-up: Let March Madness Begin appeared first on GroggSpot.

The end of the month looms, and this is my final #writemotivation progress post for February. It’s also a chance to evaluate how #writemotivation has worked for me. Overall, I’m with Bess—setting specific goals for what I want to accomplish has made me much more productive. An unexpected bonus of sitting down and working every day is a rush of ideas unrelated to my actual goals. It’s as if just being in the chair and having my hands on the keyboard plugs me into a creativity power source.

How February worked out:

1. Finish half the revision of AJ. Bonus points for getting more than half done. Biggest challenge. I would say I am close to halfway done. Still have a couple days to get there all the way…
2. Write at least one page every morning before going to work. I’ve managed a page every day, just not always before work.
3. Complete a rough outline of my next book, CBH. Yes! I love the book Do the Work, by Steve Pressfield. One of my favorite pieces of advice from the book is this one: “Discipline yourself to boil down your story/new business/philanthropic enterprise to a single page.” Mission accomplished.

The post #writemotivation: Am I Done Yet? appeared first on GroggSpot.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a superstitious writer. These superstitions have nothing to do with Friday the 13th, walking under ladders, or black cats.

Nope. For me, these superstitions manifest primarily in a strong aversion to talking about my works in progress. I realized this at an SCBWI schmooze where the activity for the night was everyone telling the group about their WIP and any difficulties they wanted to brainstorm.

When it was my turn, my mouth barely worked. I lied about my story, and I lied about my difficulties. I did not encourage any discussion of my lied-about WIP. My rational mind was chagrined, but it was no match for the superstitious id running the show that night. Everything in me hated the entire ordeal.

And that’s what it was for me: an ordeal.

It got me wondering why, and I realized that I hold a couple strong superstitions about writing.

The first is the belief that if I talk about my story, it gets out. Escapes. Not that someone steals it or tells other people about it—just that I’ve released it into the collective unconscious, where someone else could find it. So beyond a general categorization (i.e., YA dystopian; new adult romance) I don’t say much about what I’m working on, or ideas for future projects. Once a story is done—once an idea has been actualized into a full draft—I can talk about it all I want. But not until then.

The other is my certainty that if I tell the story to someone, I’ll lose the drive to write it down. If I tell them the whole story, well, the story is told, and my job is done. Oh, I can pitch the story and tease my friends with pithy blurbs, but no more than that. I hold the story close and encourage my friends to harass me about getting the book done so they can read it. And bless their hearts, they do. Harass me, that is.

Hand-in-hand with both of these superstitions is a reluctance to hear what people think of my story or their ideas for what should happen in it. I need to figure things out for myself, know what the story is for me, before opening it up to input from others. This is why I avoid critique groups and don’t have anyone read a manuscript until a complete draft is done.

I am always surprised when I ask another writer what she’s working on, and instead of a general categorization, I get a full synopsis. It makes me want to cover my ears and say “la-la-la-la-la” to block it out, to keep her from releasing her story and losing the push to finish her WIP.

I don’t though, because I recognize that some writers are just the opposite of me. These writers thrive on discussing and brainstorming their WIPs with other writers. The things that send me running for the hills bring them running out of the hills. Which just confirms that finding out what works for you as a writer, and doing it, is half the battle.

So how about you? What superstitions do you have about writing?

The post The Superstitious Writer appeared first on GroggSpot.

Heard this quote on NPR the other day. It’s from Henry Blofeld, cricketer, commentator, and rocker of the orange bow tie .

“I regard each day as an orange that has to have as much juice squeezed out it as possible. And when I finish squeezing one day’s orange I go to bed and wait for the next day’s orange.”

Have you squeezed as much from this day as you possibly can?

And now because I’m a huge James Bond fan and Ian Fleming used the name Blofeld for one of his uber-villains:

The post GroggSpot Quote of the Week: from Henry Blofeld appeared first on GroggSpot.

Every morning I get out my stack of sticky notes and make a list of what I have to do today. Here’s what my lists used to look like:

Pretty simple, right? You’d think, but for me, not so much. Here’s what used to happen when I’d write myself that note:

• Make dinner: Oh the horror! Such a thing might have me chained to the stove for hours. It might involve lots of dishes and be something that the ungrateful rabble I have to feed makes faces at. I’m nowhere near the kitchen and I’m already bummed. I’ve set myself up to fail—and we’re just talking dinner. 

• Work out: 9 times out of 10, “work out” devolved into “it’s too cold to go running,” “I’m too tired to do yoga,” “I just ate, better wait a bit,” etc. In other words, it didn’t happen. I put it off and put it off until the day was completely gone. Then I’d feel guilty (and fat and unhealthy) because I hadn’t worked out.

• Write: To a procrastinator like me that could mean anything I wanted it to mean: 1 hour, 1 page, 1 minute. It didn’t even necessarily translate into words on paper. It could mean just daydreaming about my book. The less progress I made, the less I wanted to write because nothing was happening with my story. I felt like a failure.

That’s no way to finish a novel. Somehow I left the progress out of the work-in-progress.

Not only does the book not get written (and the fat not get burned), it sets up a cycle of failure and resentment that just isn’t healthy.

I’m happy to say I’ve changed my ways, my outlook, and my productivity, just by changing to specifics. Here’s what my new sticky notes look like:

Now why am I suddenly so much more productive? Because I can visualize exactly what I need to do in order to succeed.

Lasagna? I can make lasagna. I can see it in my head. Lasagna’s not hard. Noodles, ricotta, eggs, parsley, oregano and basil, mozzarella, parmesan, and sauce. Throw that sucker in the oven for an hour. Tell somebody else to make a salad. How hard is that?

Week 2, workout 1 of Zombies, Run! 5K Training? I walk for the most part, run when they tell me to, and have a great time pretending I’m surviving the zombie apocalypse. What’s not to love?

Finish revising Chapter 22 of my work-in-progress? I got this! I know exactly where my starting point is and where I need to stop in order to be able to say truthfully that I worked hard at being a writer today. If things go well, I might even start on Chapter 23.

See what I did there? I set myself do-able goals. These things I have to do today aren’t scary. They might challenging, but I’m up for a challenge. What I’m not up for is the worry and the fear and the insane amount of motivation I need to push myself forward when I’m dreading something.

#Write Motivation is excellent for helping you set specific, do-able goals. If you’re like me, and having trouble getting things done, give it a try. It’ll change your life (or at least help you get dinner on the table).

The post Setting Specific Goals to Finish Your Work-In-Progress (#WriteMotivation) appeared first on GroggSpot.

I have a soft spot for The Royal Ascot contest. Yes, I won it in 2012, and yes, that was freakin’ awesome, but that’s only one reason why I love this contest. The other reason is the feedback I received. It was detailed, profuse, and spot-on, and I am one grateful puppy. Those comments gave me what I needed to make my manuscript better. They also gave me the courage to keep writing, and that, my friends, is worth a whole lot more than the $25 entry fee. Now, the jury’s still out on whether my win will lead to a publishing contract (I’m still revising the thing, but I did have two agents and an editor request the full manuscript, so fingers crossed), but if you have a Regency manuscript, give it a shot. If you don’t, I’ll eat my short stays.

Here’s the official announcement:

The Royal Ascot is the only RWA chapter contest for unpublished writers devoted exclusively to the Regency, broadly defined for the purpose of the contest as between 1780 and 1840 and set within the United Kingdom. The contest goal is to promote Regency romances by encouraging the development of authors who set stories in the Regency period. The Royal Ascot provides feedback from first round judges who know the Regency period. Each panel of first-round judges includes at least one author published in Regency romance. The final-round judges are acquiring editors and agents who love historicals. In the past three years we have had a total of 25 requests from final round judges. Finaling in the Royal Ascot provides broad exposure—all six finalists are read and judged by all six final round judges. Did we mention cash prizes? $100 goes to our winner and $25 to the remaining finalists.

*new this year: Although works entered must be uncontracted and unpublished, the contest will be open to both unpublished and published writers seeking representation and/or a publisher.

IMPORTANT DATES

Opens for Entries February 21st

Deadline is Tuesday April 1st, midnight PST

Finalists Announced on Sunday May 25th

Entries returned to non-finalists by Sunday June 1st

Winner announced at the Beau Monde Soiree in San Antonio, July 23rd

ELIGIBILITY

• Open to unpublished authors and published writers seeking representation and/or a publisher.

• All entries must have at least partial Regency (Late Georgian) setting, broadly defined: within the United Kingdom between 1780 and 1840.

• Entrants may re-submit any entry that has finaled but not won the contest.

PRIZES

• $100.00 and a certificate for Grand Prize Winner

• $25.00 and a certificate for all Finalists

• Grand Prize Winner and Finalists will be featured in all publicity.

JUDGES

• First Round Judges: Three judges, at least one published in Regency Romance. Lowest score will be dropped. In the event of a tie, the third score will determine which entry moves on to the final round.

• Final Round Judges:

Editors

• Categories will be used to determine first round judges only.

• Categories are:

Regency Historical (longer Regency or Mainstream Regency-set)

Hot Regency (Very sensual to Erotic Regency, at author’s discretion)

Wild Regency (Paranormal, Time Travel, other similar Regency)

Sweet & Mild Regency (Traditional, Inspirational, Young Adult or other without explicit sex)

MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING

• Beginning of manuscript, maximum 7000 words in the text. Please note we are looking for openings that would normally be about 1 to 2 chapters long, with or without prologue.

• 12 point Courier or Times New Roman font.

• Standard manuscript formatting of 1″ margins.

• Double-spaced (No more than 25-lines per page)

• Headers: Category on the left side of the header and Title and page numbers on the right.

• Your name should not be anywhere on the entry.

• Save all entries as .rtf files. Entries must be electronic only. No paper entries.

HOW TO SUBMIT

• This year, the application & payment are completed in one step. To enter, please use this link: www.rwa.org/2014royalascot

• After Paying, automatic receipt will be emailed to you and will include instructions on how to email your entry to the coordinators. When you email, be sure to include your name (and/or Pen name) in your e-mail, although no name should appear on your manuscript.

• Please keep an un-altered copy of your submission in case of problems.

• Please email questions to [email protected]

FEES

• $25 for Beau Monde Members for the first entry.

• $30 for Non Beau Monde Members for the first entry.

• $20 for subsequent entries.

• Multiple submissions welcome provided separate entry form and fee accompanies each.

A copy of these rules can be found at bit.ly/RAcontest. If you have any questions or need help with your entry, please feel free to contact the contest coordinators at [email protected].

With thanks,

THE 2014 ROYAL ASCOT COMMITTEE

 Wendy LaCapra, Chair

Bess Gilmartin

Jillian Leigh

Alanna Lucas

Ellen O’Brien

The post Announcing The Beau Monde’s 2014 Royal Ascot Contest appeared first on GroggSpot.

First things first. If you don’t know about the website Author Earnings, you really need to check it out. Here’s what the site is about:

. . . our purpose is to gather and share information so that writers can make informed decisions. Our secondary mission is to call for change within the publishing community for better pay and fairer terms in all contracts. This is a website by authors and for authors.

Because writers are always advised to consider their writing a business, sites like this one are invaluable. And the latest report on the site, written by Hugh Howey, is a bombshell. The report analyzes, in great detail, data on Amazon book reviews,  sales, and revenues, all with an eye toward answering the question of whether authors should self-publish their books.

The data used were for best-selling genre fiction, including mystery/thriller, scifi/fantasy, and romance. If you write in any of those genres, you need to read this report.

Some of the surprising conclusions:

• E-book prices influence reviewer ratings.
• E-books comprise considerably more than 25% of the daily sales on Amazon. Considerably.
• On average, indie pub authors are making more money than traditionally published authors, from fewer books.
• Indie authors outnumber traditionally published authors in every earnings bracket but one (see graph below).
• Even stellar manuscripts are better off self-published.

Here is a sample graph from the report showing the number of authors in different earnings brackets–blue is indie published, purple, big 5:

Be sure to check the report to understand the details and the context of this graph. If you are having trouble believing these findings, read the report. The raw data are also available for free download at the site.

Go.

The post To Indie Pub or Not to Indie Pub: Is it Even a Question? appeared first on GroggSpot.

You always hear about how the middle of the novel is the hardest part to write. The beginning is fun, the ending is satisfying, but the middle…the middle is a painful slog.

Damn. Not only is it true for writing, it’s true of this month, for me. Witness the calendar of progress:

FOUR starless days. In a row. Four. And two of them were a weekend! Crap.

No excuses from me. Just determination to get back on track.

Goal 1: Finish half of my revision of AJ. Bonus points for getting more than half done. This is the goal I’ve fallen down on. Revision is stalled.

Goal 2: Write a page every day before work. Pages have been written daily, but not always before work. I just want more of those pages to be revision pages, instead of playing pages (see below).

Goal 3: Complete rough outline of next book. I aced this goal and spent a lot of time playing with the outline for CBH. Huzzah!

As the song says, two out of three ain’t bad.

The post #writemotivation: The Dreaded Middle appeared first on GroggSpot.

Two things did NOT happen yesterday: I didn’t get a book contract and Shaun White didn’t medal in the halfpipe.

Here’s what Shaun said to Matt Lauer this morning:

“I thought about it plenty of times, just countless, running it through my head what I could have done. I’m happy, though. I move on from here. I don’t think it makes or breaks my career this one night, but definitely a disappointment.”

The guy’s been snowboarding for a long time—something like 21 years. You bet he’s disappointed.

Now, I’ve only been writing for 13 1/2 years, but I know what it’s like to lose. Boy, do I know what it’s like. Let us count the ways and relive the painful details (without pictures because when I lose, nobody cares enough to show up with a camera and a microphone).

Manuscripts #1 and 2: Form rejections (ouch. nothing to see here).

Manuscript #3: Personalized rejection from an editor who connected with the story and tried to tell me nicely that the writing wasn’t working (a year later. By then I had already figured out it sucked).

Manuscript #4: One agent loved it, but didn’t think he could sell it (the only place zombies ever die is in publishing).

Manuscript #5: One editor loved it, but couldn’t buy it because the house had just bought a similar story from someone else. Another editor loved the writing, but not the plot. Another editor liked it, but not quite enough. One house sent a form rejection (yay! we’re back to those).

Manuscript #6: Won a contest! Two agents and an editor requested the full (which is still not done).

Manuscript #7: Form rejection. Another editor asked me to revise and resubmit (still waiting for the judges on this one).

This is what I have to show for 13 1/2 years of writing. These 7 manuscripts are my version of a bent board.

What to do when your book is rejected?

The way I see it, I have 3 options:

1) Put down the pen and pick up the knitting needles (because knitting is fun and nobody rejects the hats I give them).

2) Write more, better, faster (because writing is what I do and maybe someday somebody will want to pay me for it, but until then, I’ll just suck it up and keep trying).

3) There is no option 3.

You either do it, or you don’t. The world won’t end if Shaun White quits snowboarding. It won’t even notice if I quit writing.

Matt Lauer asked Shaun if he thought he could train for another 4 years so he could go out on top at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

What do you think White said? Let me grab my knitting needles? No way. He said, “I think so.”

And the crowd goes wild.

The post Give Up and Go Home or Go For the Gold? What to Do When Your Book is Rejected appeared first on GroggSpot.

Happy Darwin Day, everyone! Here is my calendar of progress, to demonstrate how the month has—uh—evolved for me and my #writemotivation goals.

Overall, so far so good. I’m getting some constellations!!

Goal 1: Finish half of my revision of AJ. Bonus points for getting more than half done. The revision is going forward and I’ve made it through Chapter 3, so I am on target for the goal of getting halfway through it this month.

Goal 2: Write a page every day before work. I only missed one day at the page. The hardest thing has been writing before work. I’m so geared to get going that actually stopping and writing makes me a little nervous. So I’ve let myself be flexible with that goal. If I write the page over my lunch hour, or after work, that’s okay. The main thing is to get at least one page written every day.

Goal 3: Complete rough outline of next book. I’ve worked on the outline for CBH twice in the past week, playing with the set-up for the novel and the characters. Feeling good about getting the outline done. The break from revising AJ is welcome. And oh, I love these characters!

Speaking of characters, I recently joined Romance Writers of America (RWA). For this month’s meeting, the morning session is on building characters, and everyone is supposed to show up with their favorite character-building tip.

Which reminded me of one of my favorite methods, at least for heroines: boots. Specifically, I ask myself “what boots would this woman wear?”

And then I have a great time observing the boots women wear, thinking about boots, maybe even buying boots (so I can walk in her shoes, right?), all the while nailing down some pertinent details of her character. Because I totally love boots, and will take any excuse to ponder them. Also because it works.

That book I’m outlining? Here’s a picture of the heroine’s boots:

See what I mean?

Try it. Are her boots made for walking? Climbing? Riding? Gardening? Strutting? Ankle boots, knee-high, or thigh-high? What are they made of? How high are the heels? What color are they? How much did they cost? Figure it out, and you’ll know lots more about your character.

I promise. (And no. I haven’t bought myself a pair of those boots. Yet.)

The post #writemotivation: These Boots Were Made For . . . appeared first on GroggSpot.

So, it’s one week into the #WriteMotivation February challenge, and I’ve only finished 4 of the 5 chapters I need to revise this week in order to stay on target for the month.

There was a lot going on this week:

Snow days

Buying presents

(Gee, I bought somebody books. There’s a shocker.)

And making this EPIC birthday cake!

(Yes, that’s chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle)

The cake was awesome, but I don’t mind telling you; spending so much time on other projects had me a little bit worried about finishing my work-in-progress.

Then I read this in an article about Shaun White:

“Everybody else is against Shaun,” said Iouri Podladtchikov, one of White’s toughest competitors in halfpipe and his closest friend among elite snowboarders.

“Everybody is jealous. He’s got all the money. He’s got everything that everyone could wish for.

“What they’re really jealous about is that commitment – that mindset that when you wake up, you can’t just let time pass. You have this mission in your head. You have these great ideas. You think about putting the run together or going a little higher. Making all those little extras that will work into the direction of your big picture.”

It’s really hard to read that and not be inspired. So, when I started to panic about getting behind in my revisions, what did I do? I put a run together, baby! Or at least my version of it: I volunteered to help with the Beau Monde’s Royal Ascot contest. Why? When I have so much to do this month?

Because I have a mission in my head, that’s why.

And so do you. I know you do. So, go put a run together. If Shaun White can do it, so can you.

The post Having Trouble Finishing Your Work-In-Progress? What You Need is Some Olympic Motivation appeared first on GroggSpot.

Here it is, Bess’s September review (part of the Austenprose Pride & Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge):

Bridget Jones’s Diary -Helen Fielding

I’m a big fan of the movie (yup, it’s that Colin Firth thing again), so I was really excited to finally read the book.

It did not disappoint, not by a long shot. The book is funny, people! Honestly, I had a very hard time putting this one down even though I’ve never thought of myself as a chick-lit kind of girl. Who knew? Not me, that’s for sure, but now I can’t wait to read Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (this last one is due out October 15- woohoo!).

The one thing (and there’s always a thing) is that the movie seemed a bit more romantic than the book. Since I’m all about the romance, that threw me off a tiny bit. Maybe it was just that the movie spread the romance out a bit more, whereas the book seemed to save most of the romance for the end. Either way, it’s not a problem. It may just be that the movie puts me in that Colin-induced daze I always find myself in when confronted with His Awesomeness.

Whatev. Watch it. Read it. Enjoy.

Verdict: 5 stars of funny.

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“It made him chuckle, it kept him glued to his chair till the small hours, it drifted along and he drifted along with it and time was not.”

Exactly what a good book should do.

Because I think this is a really good book (I’m only on page 14), here’s a link so you can go buy your own copy of Miss Buncle’s Book (Sourcebooks, the cover is freaking awesome).

http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Buncles-Book-D-E-Stevenson/dp/1402270828/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378504893&sr=8-1&keywords=miss+buncle%27s+book

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I write. He sleeps, and purrs. The perfect muse.

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One of my favorite writers is Robert Penn Warren, who was both poet and novelist. Here is the last stanza of his poem, “Fear and Trembling.” Make of it what you will. It’s definitely worthwhile to read the entire poem!

“Can the heart’s meditation wake us from life’s long sleep,

And instruct us how foolish and fond was our labor spent–

Us who now know that only at the death of ambition does the deep

Energy crack crust, spurt forth, and leap

From grottoes, dark–and from the caverned enchainment.”

~Robert Penn Warren, “Fear and Trembling”

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