Friday Five: Looking for the Positive

1. This week has been full of ups and downs. It involved a car repair, walking in the rain and just general back and forth. Isn't it funny how things can swing from one side to another depending on what you hear. Fortunately this week I've had a positive attitude the entire week.Walking my son to preschool was a chance for exercise, not a burden. And we were blessed that though it rained throughout the day, the times I had to be out walking it was sunny. It was just that kind of week. We got a bit of bad news, but then good news would show up a little bit later to make up for it. So this week my glass was a little more than half full.

2. On the writer front, I still just don't know Jason very well. I don't know what scares me so much about writing him. Maybe it's the name. I've actually been friends with a few different Jasons. All nice guys. This Jason is a nice guy as well, but something isn't working. I may need to change the name. So I'm up for suggestions--seriously if you have any that'd be great. The other main character names are Lexy, and Kaden if that helps. On the other hand I've been able to work out some major information surrounding Jason and Lexy and their relationship to make it much more believable. Really neat stuff--still I can't seem to get inside of Jason's head enough.

3. I've already begun planning on how to entertain my kids over the summer. The goal is to wear them out as quickly as I can at the beginning of each and every day. I really want them to have a fun summer, soI'm going to schedule play dates, and take them to the parks. But we have to go out early, and be done by 11:00 or the heat will kill us. It should be a good summer.

4. When we moved a few months ago we went ahead and got T.V when we had the Internet hooked up. This was to save us money, since we would get rebates back that would pay for the t.v. portion of the bill for a few months. I grew up in a cable free home. At the time it didn't seem like a big deal. Most of my friends didn't have cable when I was young, so I didn't realize that I had missed out on so much until I was in college and people would talk about that show or this show. But I didn't really feel like I'd missed out on anything. So I'm torn on the whole T.V. thing now. I like having a DVR, but I was using Hulu to do that. Basically now we are trying to decide whether or not to cancel the cable. The kids like it, but I think they watch too much T.V. Rob is torn as well--since he is very media obsessed, but he's not positive it's worth the money, which is actually really something coming from him. We'll have to see what to do.

5. Strangely enough I started this post in the morning, and now it's midnight. So I guess I'm slow or something. But that's okay, as least it got written today. That's better than most things I've managed to try to do today.

Happy Writing!

Friday Five: Finally!

1. So I almost didn't do another Friday five this week. Shameful I know, but today has been one of THOSE days. I haven't showered yet, and it's 10:30. I didn't do it this morning because I was going to exercise, but things kept coming up, again, and again and again. The biggest of which was running Caleb, my five year old, in for a breathing treatment. He should be fine, and it's not the first time I've taken him in--though it has been three years. We are stocked up on Albuterol for awhile, and hopefully he won't need it. Talk about hyper!

2. Last week I gave myself the week off--completely off from my writing. The reason I was feeling a little burned out, a bit stuck and just frustrated in general. Was my plot not the awesome I thought it was? Was I overextending my current writing capabilities? That is still up for debate, but I came back, and I flew through some of my best first draft writing ever! So it felt good. I used to be afraid of breaks, but now I think they are good every now and then.

3. One of the best things about critique groups is how much you learn. I learn from reading and other people's work, and recognizing weaknesses and strengths. Sometimes it's easier to find a problem in someone else's writing, and then look to see if you have it in yours. I don't know if that makes sense, but I learn just as much from the critiques I give to others as I do from the critiques people give to me. It's great to stretch and work, and grow as a writer.

4. So there has been some crazy news this week. The fireball that flew over the midwest (you've got to watch the footage), the ash cloud shutting down travel in a large part of Europe, another earthquake, (well two actually, though one was quite small in comparison.) And I can come up with three to four plot ideas for each one of them. Wow! Awesome stories too. The thing i like to remember that these events aren't much except for the way that they affect the people. Choose a few, throw them into the scenario and bam the perfect story plot.

5. And now I'm off to get to know my zombie. His name is Jason, he is seventeen years old. He likes the color blue, and his favorite sport is football. He works out on a regular basis and he is madly in love with Lexy. But he is also infected. Let's see what I can come up with.

Happy Writing!

Contest!

I know I've been missing in action. I gave myself some time off to get refocused. So expect a good post from me on Friday. In the meantime, here's a great contest that you may want to enter. It invovles critiques of queries and pages, twizzlers and books. Should be fun! Go check it out at Sarah Wylie's blog.