Countdown: 1!
The past week has thrown my writing schedule for a loop, but tomorrow should see a good 5 hours of silence. It’ll probably be TOO quiet. I won’t know what to do with myself again. I’ve been rethinking things since showing the first several pages to the DH the other night. Don’tcha hate it when they’re right? It’s even worse when it’s something you knew all along too. This means I have a week and a half to write this story and get it to Bria to trade. Yikes! I mean, I’ll make it!
In the meantime, I’m also contemplating more time for learning and studying for myself. No, I still haven’t caved to sign up for that Conversational Spanish class. But with the copious amounts of free time in my future, I will be adding more study time back into my weekly goals. I just need to figure out some practical methods instead of just cramming in more theory.
I’ve also been listening to random lectures from the 2007 RWA Nationals disc that Jodi sent me from this years. Thanks again, Jodi! It’s interesting to hear some of the people I’ve read speak and wonder how they can sound so good on the page, but so stilted and boring at the podium.
The one that caught my attention the most so far was Todd A. Stone’s Novelist’s Boot Camp. The idea of “Who is the Opposition?” really drove home a problem I keep running up against. Maybe I’m just too nice to my characters. I mean really, I made them to go together like a matched salt-n-pepper set, so umm… what do you mean I have to keep them from getting together, but not let them get too far apart? *sigh* I know it can be done, it’s just figuring out the puzzle of it and applying the pressure and shaping the conflict in meaningful ways.
Back to the drawing board…
lol, some lectures are horrible, and some don’t last long enough. I think it depends on how passionate you are about your soapbox, and how much thought you’ve put into it.
I’ve noticed I can learn a lot of stuff when I put on one ear bud, turn on my mp3 player and do random stuff that needs to be done anyway, like dishes, laundry, driving and shopping. I learned German that way. One word. Pimsleur. The very best in audio only (now in a library near you) learning systems.
I’m learning Spanish the old fashioned way, from trying to figure it out. In other words, I can swear six ways to Sunday, lol…
See, my problem with Spanish is I understand it in context pretty well. (I can hear DH laughing now *sigh*) Anyway, it’s when I try to think in it and speak it that I have problems. See, I learned French in High School. The wrong way. More by translating in my head first than really just letting go and thinking in it. So, now when I try to think in Spanish, it comes out, unasked for, in French. Quite annoying and kinda humorous. I’ve surprised my MIL a couple of times because she’ll be talking with her sons in Spanish and then turn to ask me something and I’ll answer her in English (she would understand the French too of course, but I haven’t done that outloud). The look on her face was priceless. It took her a second to register the language switch.
Of course the kids find it amusing to test my French vocabulary much more often than they test their dad’s Spanish vocab. It’s much more fun to watch mom admit she has no clue (in french no less).