New Year's Resolutions

Okay, so I know some of you are frantically checking your Google Cal right now, trying to figure out if you missed Christmas and hey, why isn't it cold outside? Because, duh, Elana, resolutions happen in January.

For you.

See, my husband and I both teach school, so we function on an August to August calendar. When we start a new school year, it's a new year. Thus, resolutions.

1. I spent some time on the blogosphere on Monday. It caused a mini panic attack. Okay, not a mini panic attack. A full-blown, massive, what-have-I-been-missing? panic attack.

So resolution #1: I will get back to reading blogs. Your blogs. I'm sorry.

2. I've spent the last three years sitting at my computer, writing books. Publishing is a very up and down business, at least for the author. Yay! She likes my book! Let's go celebrate with cakes and chicken pot pies and bacon.

Boo! They hate my book. I can't cook dinner. Let's go to Wendy's and I'll eat two junior bacon cheeseburgers and forget about that person.

You can imagine where this is going.

Resolution #2: I will take better care of myself. I have been doing this for about 3 1/2 weeks already, and I've lost 11 pounds.

3. I have been writing for almost 4 years now, and I wrote a lot of books in the first 2 1/2 years, and not so many in the last little while. In fact, I've only written one book in the past 18 months.

I have scheduled time for writing, 9 - 11 PM.

Therefore, resolution #3: I will write another book by December. 

Do you have any resolutions at this time? Do tell.

Work In Progress - Will I Ever Finish?

I feel like EH is dragging on and on and on...and ON. I feel like I should be done with it already. I'm making slow and steady progress on it, but it's, well, slow. I think one of my problems is I'm not sure how to resolve it. Once the main battle is won, the bad guy (girl, in this case) is defeated, then what? I can't just say, "We moved to Aruba and Adam fed me coconut milk and shellfish everyday." can I? Somehow, I don't think so. *snarfage*

Because of this not-knowing-how-to-resolve issue, I feel like the progress I'm making is leading me toward the gallows. To my ultimate demise. Not only will I not be able to keep up in the Writing Throwdown (can't write if I don't know WHAT to write), but the book will still be unfinished!

Meanwhile, I've got this other story idea brewing in my head, and it actually wants to be written. So do I abandon EH yet again? How many times can you leave a story and it will be waiting patiently for you when you get back? Are they like lovers? Is once already one time too many? What about three times?

If only I could figure out where to go, then I could get there. Since I don't know, I feel like I'm writing more and more, bloating the darn thing to an unmanageable size, just to avoid writing the ending. Avoidance. That's what I'm doing. And my manuscript is paying the price.

So how do I snap out of this? *whines* Help! I've got resolution issues, abandonment, bloating and the very real danger of being thrown down into the seventh rung of writing hell and never climbing back out.

Someone throw me a ladder! Or at least some Oreos.