petal happiness (and other Monday mood-lifters)

Monday started off a little wet, but thankfully I managed to get some swim time in. Nothing like a good long swim to put you in a terrific mood!

It's been a busy start to the week so far, with a writing assignment I'm doing on the side, a novel I'm writing on the side (more on that later), and my regular full-time job. Plus, blogging. Still, I'm not complaining, because all these tasks require me to write. And I'm just doing what I love.



LOOOOOVE! Happy happy Monday, everyone!

So, a quick recap of the weekend (hope yours was great!):

Saturday morning, I woke up to an email from a literary agent who had expressed interest in a manuscript I sent her previously (I think it was Blood Promise):


Dear Joyce,

Happy New Year! 
How is Neverland coming along...? If it is ready, may I request the manuscript? In the current market climate, I think it is the most saleable of the three.

Best,
Emmanuelle




Squeeeee! I think I squealed out loud on the way to the bathroom as I checked my email. It was seven a.m. Still, it's never too early for good news.

Now comes the not-so-good news.

It's not ready yet. Neverland is still half-baked. In the works. (And other annoying cliches.) It's going to take me at least a month before I dare to send it out to an agent, to get it perfect. AT LEAST a month.

But I'm afraid her interest in my manuscript would have waned by then and she decides she's not going to want to look at it by the time I'm done.

So I'm going to pound this monster out at top speed, notwithstanding my other assignments and tasks.



No time to wait for inspiration to strike. No time to wallow. No time to whine about writer's block and complain about the mid-story goblin chewing up my story. (Yet, there's still time for blogging. There is always time for blogging!)

Which explains why I spent the better part of my Saturday writing Neverland. After brunch with my dad, who had the weekend off (a rarity), I wrote.

My dad took evidence:

Why yes, I always look this gorgeous when I'm working. Thanks for noticing.

And here's a piece of the result of my work:

I clocked in 3,500 words on my first day! Which, while has been done before (back in my Lambs For Dinner days), is rare. And you know how when you see good results upon embarking on something that you become more spurred on to keep it up?

So I did the math. To keep up this productive streak, I'll write about 500 words on my lunch break, and another 1,500 after work, or just all 2,000 after work. An average of 2,000 words a day on weekdays, and an average of 3,000 on weekends, that would add up to 16,000 a week and *gasp* a full-length novel in less than 5 weeks!

Of course, give or take a few days, since it would be impossible to keep to this schedule everyday, what with Chinese New Year coming up (which means time for socialising) and what with the need to preserve my sanity (which means spending time with my family, reading, and ogling at pretty faces things).

Family

Reading

More reading

Pretty ... okay, pretty faces.

I wanted to get the same amount of writing done on Sunday, too, but it's not every day that my dad has a weekend off and we wanted to make good of it.

So after our brunch (yes, with my dad, there can only be brunch, not breakfast, because he likes - and needs - to sleep in), we rambled around town, ran errands, went shopping for flowers, then ran some more errands before finishing off with a simple but lovely dinner.

We didn't get anything at the nursery because it's still too early to buy the tangerine plant and everything would fall off the branches by the time Chinese New Year rolls around. But! We did get a little shutter-happy.

Shutter-happy and petal-happy!

Gotta love flowers. Such a mood-lifter!

(If you recall, When the Lilies Turn Orange, my first standalone novel I wrote when I was 18, was set in a nursery. I may or may not go back and rewrite it - hint hint - if I have the time. Which I don't. At least, not now.)

Now for some lovely quotes to end this post:


Anne Lamott on writing:

Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong.

And Lovely Laini is inspiring once again:

I would guess that the major problem writers face when getting their novels finished is the doldrums. They lose their initial excitement and let this get the better of them. The most common question I get in emails is some form of: how do I get back into my story? How do I fall in love with it again? Well, this is my answer, these two methods. You could just slog it out as is, determined to finish at all costs, but the things is: if you are bored, your readers will be too. So don't be bored! Ever! Shake your brain like a snow globe and make the glitter swirl. Yes, you will be picking glitter out of your brain for years to come, but it is worth it!
Brainstorm brainstorm brainglittersnowstorm!

Some writing advice by Eric Vance Walton:

It’s very easy to romanticize the writer’s life but most times it is far from glamorous and is one of the most difficult things you will ever do. To be a successful writer requires a mega dose of hard work, commitment, good networking skills, optimism, and also a healthy dose of luck. If you have the discipline to hone your craft writing can be equally as rewarding as it is difficult.

And finally:

(Wow, this post was supposed to be a quick one. Where did all that time go?)

And have a great week!