This week I have packed up most of my things and semi moved out of California to Utah. Yeah I know it's Utah and most people have given me a lot of crap about it. One thing that they really don't realize is that the job market in California really sucks right now and I can't get a job any where. And after 6 months of that it gets a little depressing. Writing my novel has helped a lot as well as writing for TALI. Since the holidays are rolling around and Sundance Film Festival soon after means that I'm going to be in Utah anyways, so why spend the money on traveling back and forth? So I am now living with some family up here and once Sundance is done will reevaluate things and decide if I should stay or go back to California.
I will admit that deciding to come here even for a two months was really hard. Half of my extended family lives up here and most of my close family lives in California and hate Utah. The fact that they all are upset and don't understand what I'm doing is really frustrating.
So here I am giving it a shot. My cat at my side making sure I don't lose my sanity and going to see if I find a job. If I do great, I'll stay. If not. Well I can always go back to California.
The drive up here was a long one at about 11 hours long, and with a cat who gets car sick wasn't super fun. The first three hours of the drive is very bumpy and made the kitty not happy. Lets say that I had to pull over several times to clean up the carrier. Poor kitty was such a trooper after surviving all of that. She was half asleep the rest of the way and made sure I was wide awake for the rest of the drive. Needless to say that once we got here we were both more than happy to be out of the car. Most cats would be hell to live with after that, but in the last five years my cat has lived with me and my sister (when I wasn't allowed pets in my apt while in school) she has done road trips from Cali to New Mexico, New Mexico to Portland and back, and then New Mexico to Utah and Utah to Cali. I'm sure I'm missing a few, other road trips. Lets just say that between the two of us we have moved around a lot. Ok I'm done talking about my cat and how amazing she is. Such a good little supervisor kitty.
Well I should really be editing. I was wanting to get my novel edited in time for Christmas and well at this pace its not looking like I can get it done. But I'm still going to work my butt off and try to get it done.
Hope you all have a happy holidays.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
What about Bob?
Sitting here, I'm trying to get motivated to edit another chapter in the book that I've been working on getting done. And to be honest I'm a little freaked out that I'm not going to get it done in time for Christmas. My goal is to be able to print copies with a nice binding to give to family and friends for holiday gifts. But I'm not sure if it will be finished enough for me to feel comfortable for people to read yet. There is still a lot to be done when it comes to cleaning things up, fixing the flow, plot holes, over explaining, etc. Then again when it comes down to it no matter how much I edit it, I'm always going to be nervous about people reading my work. Its just a fact. And its also something that I have to get over if I want to be a writer. People are either going to like my work or not. I can't control how people will react to what I do. But I can control how I let it effect my work.
I am a first time author and the only way to learn to be better is by doing. I have to start somewhere and this is it. This is my first book and I hope its not my last, published or not. Everything that I do after this is going to be better, cause I will take what I have learned from this and put it to everything else that I write.
This is when the movie What about Bob? pops in to my head. Baby steps! It is all about baby steps. When something is daunting, just take baby steps towards it. Before you even know it you are there and its all done. So I'm going to take this book in the words of Bob, in baby steps.
So, I'm going to not look at how many more pages I have to edit or how many more chapters, but one paragraph at a time. Before I know it I will be done. One other challenge that I will have is to not over edit things. No matter how many times I go over it I will want to change something. Then again what writer doesn't see changes that they want to make when they reread their work.
Now I am off to take my baby steps towards finishing my first novel and I wish everyone else luck in the baby steps that they take to whatever goals they have for themselves.
I am a first time author and the only way to learn to be better is by doing. I have to start somewhere and this is it. This is my first book and I hope its not my last, published or not. Everything that I do after this is going to be better, cause I will take what I have learned from this and put it to everything else that I write.
This is when the movie What about Bob? pops in to my head. Baby steps! It is all about baby steps. When something is daunting, just take baby steps towards it. Before you even know it you are there and its all done. So I'm going to take this book in the words of Bob, in baby steps.
So, I'm going to not look at how many more pages I have to edit or how many more chapters, but one paragraph at a time. Before I know it I will be done. One other challenge that I will have is to not over edit things. No matter how many times I go over it I will want to change something. Then again what writer doesn't see changes that they want to make when they reread their work.
Now I am off to take my baby steps towards finishing my first novel and I wish everyone else luck in the baby steps that they take to whatever goals they have for themselves.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Long time no blog
Life has definitely been interesting since I've last posted. I quit an internship and have been hunting for work ever since. I've also spent my summer time helping my sister who had broken her ankle. Which wasn't so fun for her, but it was great to spend time with her and being her driver as we went on an epic road trip. When not helping family out I've been spending a lot of time writing and reading. I have reworked a screenplay, that I've done for school and been working on for like 3 years, is now a novel. The first rough draft is done! It's crazy to think about it. Now the edits are underway. A good friend is helping me fix the book up before I send it out to literary agents and see if I can get it published.
I've always enjoyed writing, but never really thought that I would ever attempt to get anything published. Yet, since I've been unemployed like the rest of America, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. I mean why not try it. I've always enjoyed diving into another world, so why not try to put it on paper and let others join in. Screw all the teachers who have said that they don't like my writing. Course those were mostly analytical papers, but when I actually enjoy writing something then the outcome in totally different. So I'm going to try and see if I can become a published author. And so far I've really enjoyed the whole writing process. Editing isn't the most exciting thing, but seeing that the changes are only making it better is exciting. Not to mention going over it with Haley is great. Time consuming but great in the end. We both have found out that reading it out loud is the best, that way we can make sure it sounds right. And its always great to be able to try to see how someone else might reword a sentence here or there and in the end it turns out better. I don't know what I would do without Haley, plus we always seem to go off on tangents on times, so we make sure to keep each other in check.
I'll admit I do have dyslexia and it sometimes it really shows when I'm typing quickly. It is hard to deal with at times, but in the end more times than not I just have to rearrange a few things and then it will click perfectly in to place. But just being able to write something without having someone telling me what I have to do and that its all not working. In the end I write to make me happy and if I'm able to publish it I will be ecstatic. If not. Hey I can always self publish, or just be happy that I finished a novel on my own. How many finish a novel that they start in the first place. Not many that I know of.
Other than working on my novel, I've been asked to help a friend out who has started her own online magazine, called Think And Loving It. Or TALI for short. I've done three articles for her so far and having a great time doing it. The whole magazine is that just because your a big girl doesn't mean that you can't be sexy and healthy. In other words its a woman's magazine geared towards the plus sized woman. I think that it could end up being a great thing and already has come a long way and I can't wait to see where it goes from there.
So I'll cut things off here and keep from having a long rant. All in all I think I'm taking a turn in my career path from film to author. And we will see if I can find a way to do both. Wish me luck and good luck to the rest of the world as they head in to the stressful holiday season.
I've always enjoyed writing, but never really thought that I would ever attempt to get anything published. Yet, since I've been unemployed like the rest of America, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. I mean why not try it. I've always enjoyed diving into another world, so why not try to put it on paper and let others join in. Screw all the teachers who have said that they don't like my writing. Course those were mostly analytical papers, but when I actually enjoy writing something then the outcome in totally different. So I'm going to try and see if I can become a published author. And so far I've really enjoyed the whole writing process. Editing isn't the most exciting thing, but seeing that the changes are only making it better is exciting. Not to mention going over it with Haley is great. Time consuming but great in the end. We both have found out that reading it out loud is the best, that way we can make sure it sounds right. And its always great to be able to try to see how someone else might reword a sentence here or there and in the end it turns out better. I don't know what I would do without Haley, plus we always seem to go off on tangents on times, so we make sure to keep each other in check.
I'll admit I do have dyslexia and it sometimes it really shows when I'm typing quickly. It is hard to deal with at times, but in the end more times than not I just have to rearrange a few things and then it will click perfectly in to place. But just being able to write something without having someone telling me what I have to do and that its all not working. In the end I write to make me happy and if I'm able to publish it I will be ecstatic. If not. Hey I can always self publish, or just be happy that I finished a novel on my own. How many finish a novel that they start in the first place. Not many that I know of.
Other than working on my novel, I've been asked to help a friend out who has started her own online magazine, called Think And Loving It. Or TALI for short. I've done three articles for her so far and having a great time doing it. The whole magazine is that just because your a big girl doesn't mean that you can't be sexy and healthy. In other words its a woman's magazine geared towards the plus sized woman. I think that it could end up being a great thing and already has come a long way and I can't wait to see where it goes from there.
So I'll cut things off here and keep from having a long rant. All in all I think I'm taking a turn in my career path from film to author. And we will see if I can find a way to do both. Wish me luck and good luck to the rest of the world as they head in to the stressful holiday season.
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