writing about writing

For a blog about writing, I sure haven't been posting a lot about it recently. Maybe that's because I'm doing a lot of it and don't want to take the time to write about it. But here is an update just for you. Yes, you.

I'm in the middle of revising my NaNoWriMo novel*. I haven't actually finished it, so I don't know if this counts as revisions. But what I have written I wrote so fast that I can't seem to go forward until I go back. But it's a fun story, and I really like the characters. It's not something I'm willing to give up just because my writing in the moment wasn't the best.

Preparations for the SCBWI WIP Grant are underway. I'm having the hardest time with my synopsis. The novel I'm applying with is complex, and I can't seem to describe it in a way to make it work for the application. I keep trying to envision what the book jacket would say, but that doesn't seem to be helping. I'll get it eventually.

My writers' groups have started up again. With the holidays, everyone was in and out of town, attending parties and doing hoards of other things that prevented us from getting together. I can't tell you how happy I am to be meeting with other writers again! It's been far too long since we've traded manuscripts, bounced ideas off each other or given book recommendations. While writing is a solitary pursuit, writers are more often than not a sociable people. We are just people who need people. Does that make us the luckiest people in the world?

I've been spending a lot of time in my ideas folders. Literally. I have a folder on my computer called "Ideas Box" and a file folder labeled "Writing Ideas". I have been reading a lot of things in both this folders and seeing what ideas need to be dumped (at least for now) and which ones I'm ready to work on again. Sometimes the best ideas are old ideas.

And if all that wasn't enough, I start tutoring again this week, and I'm registered for an art class at the community college. I get so much inspiration when I'm learning. Because I tutor a junior in high school and we mostly work on SAT prep, I'm constantly exposed to new words and concepts through our work together. And this will be the first art class I have taken since, well, grade school. Luckily, it is a graphic art class, and I've done a lot of layout and design classes, so I think it will push me just far enough outside of my comfort zone without being too overwhelming.

*I really need to come up with a better title than that. Especially since NaNoWriMo has been over for more than a month now. And most of the novel has been written after the fact.