A New Chapter Awaits!......editing.....

Goodness! I've gotten about 200 hits since last week! I never get that many hits! So I guess that means everyone is appreciating the new Handy Links page. I'm glad. I really hope that page helps you guys out.

If you haven't noticed yet, I have a new page: Handy Links For Fellow Aspiring Writers. There will be more links added to it as I find them, and when I update the page those fancy "New" icons will then only be by the links added that day.... I'll also try to remember to comment about any updates in that week's blog update.

Sure, now I have no clue who's reading my actual blog and who's just hopping by to get some helpful tidbits for themselves, but part of me doesn't really care. Yes, it would be fantastic to have more readers. Yes, it would be wonderful to know more and more people care about what I have to say. Yet, I kind of like the idea of helping fellow writers out more. One of the reasons I find beta-reading so fulfilling. So if you're enjoying the links - and if any in particular are helpful - don't forget to leave some comments. Same goes for if you find a helpful link that I don't have listed. Shoot me a comment so I can add the link. :-D

As for my own writing news, well, it's been a bit of a struggle but I managed to finally finish my chapter! ChibiSunnie now has it for beta-reading and she should get her notes back to me by tomorrow-ish. With any luck and massive determination I should be able to polish it up and manage to post by Thursday! So, those of you who have been waiting since friggen APRIL for my latest update, you shouldn't have to wait much longer. Also, I'm hoping this year I'll break this supposed cycle of writing monthly until May/June and then waiting almost a year for a new update....

I'll talk about it more in the author's notes of the latest chapter, but my issue this time was the format I locked myself in to - the chapters each based off of lyrics of a song. I had a spot where the chapter felt like it naturally wanted to end, and it was an exciting chapter to write up to that point. I actually had it written by the beginning of July if I can recall properly. So the update would have been MONTHS ago except for one major issue - the point where I had stopped left about half of the song lyrics untouched. So I avoided, and struggled, and worked on other writings, and beta-read, and looked for a new place to live.

Thank god I decided one of my New Years Resolutions would be to update once a month. That deadline really pushed me the last two days. That, and letting you guys know that the chapter would be sent to Chibi by today.... I was still stuck and didn't like how I was ending the chapter. I even remembered the advice "If you're bored writing it, the reader will be bored reading it" and wondered if I should bother with the "missing lyrics". I was actually dreading writing the ending of this chapter, as well as nervous that the advice would be true and everyone would find the chapter dragged out and the ending anti-climactic.

I was staring at the chapter like it was a school paper I waited until the last minute to write. I just wanted to do ANYTHING else but work on it - including cleaning and packing. What made everything worse is that my poor netbook pretty much died on me. The battery doesn't hold power for more than about 45min and there's something wrong with the fans not starting up with the computer so it auto-shuts off as soon as I turn the thing on. So I have to go through a dance of turning the computer back on repetitively about five times before it actually stays on, and then transfer everything over to my desktop so I could actually use the files saved on the netbook. It was tiring and drove me insane. All the more reason I wanted to avoid working on the story that was saved on my netbook.

Thankfully, Chibi helped me through it. She motivated me and gave me mini-breaks every once in a while as she asked me for advice on her drawing entry for the Valentine's Day contest. So thank you once again, Chibi, for helping me get back in to writing.

And speaking of the V-day contest, now that the chapter is almost out of the way I just need to focus on packing and moving this week and by next Sunday I should be able to start up on my contest entry. YAY, more Brainy writing! He's not in my latest chapter at all, so it will be fun to get back to him.