I live to write...

YouTube videos

ilivetowrite — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:37:06 +0000

Bach – Allemande

Bach – Corrente

Celtic Waltzes I

Celtic Waltzes II

Play Ethic Sinfonietta

ilivetowrite — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:35:43 +0000

This is from our performance at The Forum at the Crossing, a retirement community in Indianapolis.

Hiatus

ilivetowrite — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:53:13 +0000

It’s not been deliberate, but it seems that I’ve taken a hiatus from writing. I suppose there are a variety of reasons, but I think it really comes down to one thing: I think I’m burned out. I’ve been writing almost non-stop–working on one project or another, be it a new story or revision–since November of 2006. This is why I’m certainly not cut out for a writing life where I’m expected to produce constantly, with deadlines looming and finished drafts expected. I think I’m finally simply coming to terms with that. I love to write. Imagined characters have been my constant companions for most of my life. And they are now, too. They’re just not doing anything worth writing about. They’re simply up there, living their lives happily, and there’s nothing for me to do with them. So I let them be. And the strangest thing is, I don’t feel really guilty about it. I suppose I feel more guilty about that fact–that I don’t feel guilty about not writing. Instead I’m playing, practicing, taking pictures, starting to train for a half-marathon, in short, doing other things. I wonder if I’ll even do any work on anything before November. I suppose eventually one of these sets of characters will start to grab me and demand my attention. I think before too long I’ll start to really miss it. But right now, I don’t, really. And yet I also don’t feel as if I’ve lost my muse. I think she just needs a break.

Coloring

ilivetowrite — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:25:09 +0000

What to do when I don’t feel like starting on my monster of a 2008 novel rewrite? I color. Templates from Geometrip.

What to do next.

ilivetowrite — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:35:57 +0000

I’ve just discovered, downloaded, and purchased an awesome writing program called Scrivener. It was offered at 1/2 price to NaNoWriMo winners this year, and I’m not sure it would have appealed to me in the past, but now that I’ve been using a program called Journler for the last two Novembers, it’s perfect for me. It does everything that I do with Journler, only it’s actually designed to be used for writing a novel (rather than for keeping a journal). I love it. I actually downloaded the trial version and went through the tutorial. About halfway through, I purchased the program and started importing all of my writing/notes/research into it. It’s awesome. It’s as if someone sat down with me, asked me how I write…no, watched how I write, and then designed the program based on that. The only shortfall is the lack of a timeline function, which Write it Now had and I loved, but Write it Now is not Mac native, and was a little scary. A person could conceivably quit the program without saving, and it wouldn’t alert, it would just close. Scrivener is only available for Mac OS.

Anyway, so I spent a day importing my last four NaNoWriMo novels into it, as well as one partial novel that I started–but never finished–outside of November. (This is typical…November is my rough draft writing time. Any other time of the year it just doesn’t happen.) Now I’m faced with what to work on next. I have four complete novels:

Night Music – 2006 novel. Ready for 4th (and final, I hope) read through and revision. Frankly, I’m tired of messing with this one, so one more go-through will do it, whether it’s good or not.

The Third Time’s the Charm - 2007 novel. Ready for 2nd read through/revision. This might only need one more go-through. It was a pretty solid rough draft, except the last quarter or so that was rewritten in 2009.

Mancunian Waltz – 2008 novel. Needs complete rewrite (1st). This is on the 2010 agenda. Probably the sooner the better.

Friends and Lovers – 2009 novel. Resting. Will need a complete rewrite, probably after November 2010.

Love Bytes – 2007 idea that never saw a completed rough draft. This might end up to be my 2010 November novel, just to get the completed rough draft. I like the idea, like the characters, just couldn’t come up with a solid story, and that’s something that just doesn’t stop me during November. (This year, case in point.)

Not sure where to start, but now that I’ve written nearly every day for an entire month again (I took about eight weeks off from writing before NaNo) I feel empty not working on something. Not writing just isn’t normal for me.

So… What to tackle first?