Words On Paper: What’s Up Wednesday No. 5: The Underdone Edition

For the uninitiated, What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk to ~~give writers something to blog about~~ help writers share what they’ve been up to with other really awesome writers. Here’s what’s been going on with me this week:

What I’m Reading: Because I often hate myself and don’t consider hours of work without play punishment enough, I have been harboring a copy of Crown of Midnight for over a week. An unread copy. Do you know what this means?

It’s like a YA boy, all dark and alluring, sitting on my nightstand and batting its lashes at me like I’m some kind of cheap floozy. (That is, if YA boys spent their time sitting on girls’ nightstands. They might, but I always imagine they watch their ~~prey~~ crushes sleep from a comfy chair or something.)

Because I am a special snowflake gifted with super-human resolve, I didn’t even crack the cover while I was on deadline. Not even when my work became tedious and the clock passed 11 p.m. and the illustration of Celaena on the spine started to resemble a wraith with the ability to suck my soul from my eyeballs. Even then I resisted. (Also, I covered the book because with sleep depravation and an eyeglass prescription a couple years past useful, that is one creepy ~~assassin girl~~ soul-sucking ghost.)

So now my deadline has passed and my weekend is free and you better believe I’m faking a serious but not life-threatening illness so I can read in peace.

What I’m Writing: Over a week ago I entered this phase all writers go through called Absolute Bliss. It’s short lived and usually only achieved after multiple doses of self-delusion. Anyhow, I technically finished the WIP I’ve been writing this summer. And when I say technically I mean that, technically, I wrote about 50,000 words and finished with the end.

But I write wicked short drafts, so in this case the book is just as “done” as undercooked chicken. Right now I’m working out the chapters I need to add, world-building details I need to include, and other tasks related to de-suckifying this draft.

What Else I’ve Been Up To: I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I started this raw diet where I’m basically eating fruits and vegetables and air. I’m still doing it because it seems to be helping my erythromelalgia and, let’s be honest, when your body gives itself second-degree burns there comes a time when you consider revenge in the form of a ban on nachos and pizza and red velvet cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting. NOW WHO’S THE BOSS?

In case you can’t read between the lines, The Boss would be my body because I haven’t hit that blissful moment when I will start craving fruits and vegetables instead of nachos dripping with cheese and sour cream or pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil or BLEEPING RED VELVET CUPCAKES WITH BLEEPING CREAM-CHEESE FROSTING.

But, you know, figs. Mmmmm...

On the plus side, my food is awfully pretty. So there’s that.

What’s Inspiring Me: As a writer who struggles with pacing, this post by Kendra Leighton on visualizing the tension in your story is incredibly helpful. Once I’m done filling in the rest of this story, I plan to go back and map the tension. It will be tedious, but at least I won’t have the ghost of Celaena trying to siphon out my soul while I do it.

What I’m Laughing At: I know, it’s not a real What’s Up Wednesday category. High school Tracey would be ashamed at my rule-breaking.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes writing is really, really hard and sometimes my brain is like, “Hey, Trace, I might explode in a couple seconds. Might want to move away from your computer so The Man can still use it after you finish oozing.”

In those cases, I need a smile. Maybe you do, too. So here’s what I’ve been laughing at. They’re even literary, which makes me feel clever.