Thursday, January 22, 2009

Nothing's ever easy...


Warning - rants and raves

Writing is hard work.

I've been barrelling along with my rewrites - some scenes needed barely a few sentences changed. Bam! Middle of the book. The hardest part to write in the first version. Now they don't fit into the book at all. This will definitely slow the forward momentum. Have to brainstorm some new ideas which I find difficult to do since my characters have already lived through all these scenes.

Transferring your domain name to a different provider is a pain in the ass.

I thought I could get it done in a flash. I'm using a different hosting company than my Annespired.com for www.annemacfarlane.com because I want to experiment with different programs that this new service provides. Signing up and paying my money was easy. It ended up costing almost twice as much as the web host for Annespired - it's American and offers more services but it was a little bit of sticker shock when the whole thing hit my credit card with the exchange rate. And getting the domain name from the old host to this one has been tedious. It still hasn't transferred - apparently it can take up to three days. Of course, I could've done something wrong and then I'll have to get on the phone to both hosting companies to sort it out.

Far away schools and bad bus service.

The schools my girls attend are so far away, that any trip to pick up/drop off takes about an hour out of my day. And I've done it at least twice everyday so far this week. I lied to them today and told them I had a meeting this afternoon so don't be making plans that need a drive - just so I could get a day to myself. Then my oldest daughter isn't feeling well and wants to skip her morning class. No bus in the pm. What time's my meeting? Could I drop her off on the way? Next time I'll lie and say I have a meeting the WHOLE day.

The school bus drivers for my youngest are planning strike action on Tues. It's already exam week so she only goes half day - which means she expects me to drive her. Of course, I did that for my oldest so I can't say no, can I? But, now it looks like she won't even be able to take the school bus home. Have I mentioned before that there's another highschool within spitting distance, maybe 5 minutes away? But that's not our catchment area. I'm praying they reach a contract agreement this weekend. In this case, I side with the bus drivers - they make pitiable wages for the job they do. Barely more than the hourly wage my daughter makes at her part time job.

Eating out is a bitch on a diet

My daughter's birthday was yesterday. We went out to supper. I'm on a diet. It sucked.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I usually stall out on chapter 4. Then 5 and 6 are a nightmare. Somewhere around 8 I roll again until 10. 11 is okay. I usually have to rewrite 12 a couple times. That's what happens on my short contemporaries.

I can't wait to see your new website. I need to update mine, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

I drive my daughter 20 minutes to school. Then I go another 20 minutes to work. One thing I like about where she goes to school is she takes the bus back to my parents house afterwards. She has a couple hours to do homework, etc before I pick her up. That works out really well.

Bummer about your bus situation. I hope it gets resolved quickly.

Unknown said...

Cat, that's great that your daughter can go to your parents after school.

I printed off the rest of the book to read today and figure out a plan.

Annette Gallant said...

Don't get discouraged, Anne. I've heard over and over again that revisions are way tougher than the actual writing, and I believe it.

So keep going. You'll get there! :-)

I need to change my domain provider too, but have been putting it off. I hate dealing with this kind of thing.

I'm also hoping this bus strike doesn't happen. We have two kids going to two different schools -- in opposite directions of each other. Plus, since my work schedule is the most flexible, I've agreed to take three other children as well.

Anyway, they still have the weekend to hammer things out, so fingers crossed they come up with a solution both sides can live with.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I hope someone else is helping out with the car pooling. The middle school goes in early enough parents should be able to drop off before school.

January 23, 2009 8:11 AM

Unknown said...

Annette, you have to transfer your domain name before 60 days of the renewal date.

Unknown said...

The middle is usually where I roll out my plotting chart, motivation chart, etc and look over what I had written at the start of the project. It's interesting to do because a lot of times, my characters' motivations etc have changed. Clarification comes in handy when I'm struggling through revisions.

Good luck, Anne.

Kelly Boyce said...

We have bday cake day at work today so I worked out extra hard at the gym today so I could justify having a piece.

The bus situation sucks. Hope if the do strike it doesn't last long. What a pain in the butt.