Ray's House of Love (Volume II)

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Perle_Rare

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Thank you my friends. This, combined with Uncle Jim's answer (take my rambling manuscript, flowchart it, identify the areas that need to be changed, etc.), should be enough to get me started again without the fear of heading down the wrong path again. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Merry Christmas!
 

Cassiopeia

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We have a sweet and very dedicated 16 year old writer that chats in the AW chatroom. She taught me something recently. She was preparing to edit her first draft and wasn't liking what she'd found so far so she got out Excel and as she went through the draft paragraph by paragraph and did a small summary of what happened in it. It took her a week and she hated every minute of it but then, she was so glad she did it.

I will be doing a rough outline in January of the WIP I've committed to finish in February and that way, I can find my plot holes and work out how I want to finish the story.
 

Grrarrgh

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Happy Christmas to all who are celebrating!!! I'm still here lurking, although I've been slacking on the posting. :)
 

Maryn

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We are have internet trouble, but for this moment it's working and I want to say hi to everybody, since this won't last.

Maryn, who had a lovely Christmas
 

Grrarrgh

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Morning, all. I'm enjoying a very lazy day-after-Christmas, trying to talk myself into getting up and starting to put away at least some of the mess that's all over the lower level of our house. It's a disaster.

I've been going back and trying to catch up on some of the stuff I've missed. The posts on outlining were great. I find myself in the same position as Perle a lot. Ten of fifteen thousand words into a WIP I realize that I'm rambling. A simple "Hi, how are you?" scene taking two thousand words because I just keep spewing. That link you put up, Maryn, looks interesting. I think I'll check that out and see if it helps.

Have a great day, everyone!
 

Maryn

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Hello, HOL. Got our internet back, but still got holiday doings which keep me away except when people are sleeping in, like they are now.

Maryn, who really should deal with the kitchen
 

NeuroFizz

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Funny, Maryn. I got a DVD of the movie Napoleon Dynamite from the kids, so I just ordered a "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt (from Amazon).
 

Cassiopeia

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Grades are in. A and A-.

I emailed the professor that gave me a 67 on the final exam that was all essay to ask how I managed that one. To find out if I missed something or what went wrong. I've not gotten that low of a mark in YEARS.

I hope she's not offended but I HAVE to know how I didn't do exactly what she asked, given that all my other essays were full marks and one was even 5 extra points awarded.

Kim, obsessed and thinking she needs a break from studying HR Law today.
 

Maryn

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Kim, Mr. Maryn is a former professor and I know he would have been more than willing to explain to any student how he arrived at the grade he did, what was lacking or missing, etc. Even when his class and grading is complete for the semester, his long-term goal of teaching the students certain material never ended.

He's convinced me that I went about college all wrong. I never wanted to reveal to a professor that I was struggling with material despite my best efforts. I didn't want to look stupid, and I was (and am) shy, too. But Herr Doktor Professor Maryn says most, if not all, my professors or TAs would have made an extra effort to help me comprehend, giving me a small grading edge because I'd sought help, and some of my B's might have been A's.

Maryn, who'll do it differently in the next life
 

sassandgroove

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I walked the dog a hour today, but I didn't walk her everyday last week. With Mr. Groove home it was easy to put it off. We worked on the basement and it looks a lot better, but we aren't done either. I feel good about it.

It is my first day off all by myself and I am having trouble getting moving. I promised to take Mr. Groove's car to get an oil change. (Oh woes me, I have to go to the place next to the coffee shop!)

I haven't had a chance to just watch tv in a while.
 

Cassiopeia

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Gah, i actually left off one of the questions for the essay that I had written. I remember writing it, but it's not shown in the field where I submitted my answers. I was in such a hurry to get it posted and done...my gosh.

*face plant* Okay *sigh* I still got my A-

Kim, shaking her head and writing a note to SLOW THE FREAK DOWN.
 

Maryn

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Also, "Check your work."

Mr. Maryn and I spent an hour packing things in Kid Two's room. He hasn't lived here for 18 months but has done nothing about his things, which are strewn and crammed into every available space. He's still got picture books in the bookcases (or did until a few hours ago) and toys cramming the shelves. (He's 23.)

Anyway, it's depressing and demoralizing. You work for an hour and see almost no progress. At this rate, we'll never finish.

But we have a dream. We'll empty his room, storing his things in well-labeled boxes, tear out the nasty carpet, and paint the walls with the leftover paint from the basement. We'll move our present bed in there and live in that room while we re-do our own bedroom, which is desperately in need of new everything. We'll buy a new bed for ourselves and leave Kid Two's room set up as a guest room for adults, usually with its door and heating vents closed. It will accommodate Kid Two when he visits, with or without his girlfriend, or my brother-in-law and his wife, much more comfortably than the toy-cluttered room.

If I put out a buffet lunch, maybe everybody in HOL will come over and help me finish the job, right?

Maryn, ordering cold cuts
 

NeuroFizz

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Gah, i actually left off one of the questions for the essay that I had written. I remember writing it, but it's not shown in the field where I submitted my answers. I was in such a hurry to get it posted and done...my gosh.

*face plant* Okay *sigh* I still got my A-

Kim, shaking her head and writing a note to SLOW THE FREAK DOWN.
Sometimes perfection is best spelled noitcefrep (sorry I can't write the letters backwards). Not everyone will have a mirror, and those who do will see the beauty in it. [We get so wrapped up in chasing perfection, we forget that maybe being a little off perfect is more beautiful than hitting it dead on, because it's so much more human.]
 
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Cassiopeia

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Sometimes perfection is best spelled noitcefrep (sorry I can't write the letters backwards). Not everyone will have a mirror, and those who do will see the beauty in it. [We get so wrapped up in chasing perfection, we forget that maybe being a little off perfect is more beautiful than hitting it dead on, because it's so much more human.]
I know, Fizzy and one day, maybe, it will be okay for me to be less than perfect. I somehow don't think that day is today though. :(

I do need to work on it though, I just don't know how to. But thank you for always supporting me.

And that goes for the rest of you HOL-nutters. :)

Love you!
 

Maryn

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Good morning, my pretties!

Cold-cold-cold here. Mr. Maryn (who's taking vacation days until after the new year) and I were smart and ran errands last night. Not only was it kind of fun, with somebody else, but now we don't have to go out for days and days.

The down-side is I feel like baking, and who needs the calories? Not me, that's for sure.

Maryn, whose feet are cold
 

tjwriter

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Good morning!

Wee bit chilly here, too, but we're okay. It's supposed to get colder and snow, I think.

I'm feeling great. I did about half of a prenatal yoga video this morning and it left me really feeling good.

This surprise pregnancy couldn't have come at a worse time, but we both seem to have the mindset that we'll make the best of it, so I think it's going to be okay. I've been seeing a lot of good signs and I'm hopeful.
 

maestrowork

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Merry Christmas (belated) and Happy New Year, everyone. I don't come on AW much anymore (you can also Facebook me). Just wanted to say hi and glad to know the house is still in order. Thank gawd for cheap labor.

As for outlining... I'm in the camp of "light outlining" ... just to let myself know where the story is going and if I'm on track. But 10 out of 10 times I change the story anyway, but at least a roadmap could be helpful if I do end up detouring a lot. Writing completely without a map is disorienting to me and may result in pure anxiety. My outlines (as brief as they are) serve as my sanity checks.

Anyway, miss you folks and be good. Have a great 2010 (I plan to FINALLY finish the WIP -- I'm at 140K right now).
 

Maryn

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Was it something I said?

Nice to see you, Ray-Ray. Happy New Year to you, too!

Maryn, keeping a candle in the window
 

sassandgroove

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Hi Everyone!

TJ did I miss when you announced said pregnancy?! Good luck to you.

Maryn- your plan sounds good. I know how frustrating it can be at times but the pay off will be nice.

Sass- mellow this week.
 

Maryn

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Someone keep me from killing Mr. Maryn, please.

He's been all gung-ho about clearing out Kid Two's room and turning it into a guest room before we have guests in two weeks. (It's sat empty for 18 months, but now we have two weeks?) He's been careless about packing up Kid Two's possessions, separating items which go together and not labeling boxes as completely as he could, so Kid Two (who should have packed his own things up, of course) has little chance of finding anything without unpacking everything.

So anyway, last night I got snippy about his vacuuming the carpet in there, which we will be tearing out. Kid Two is a tinkerer, big-time, and the carpet is full of screws, nails, thumbtacks, bits of wire, and other vacuum killers. My vacuum is fairly new and has already needed repair twice (because of the family's long hair, which wraps the beater bar until it can't turn, then burns out the parts that keep trying). I am not eager to have a third repair because we damaged the beater bar with metal.

So, while I'm out grocery shopping this morning, Mr. Maryn decides he'll vacuum this rug we're ripping out anyway. He breaks the vacuum. Unable to vacuum any more, he decides he will remove the phone line running along the baseboard, since we don't plan to have a phone in that room. He somehow manages to disconnect the phone to his study and to my study, so now when it rings, we have to dash downstairs to answer it.

I told him to quit fucking around in there, but he's still doing something, only now with the door closed, which makes me fear his next announcement.

Maryn, happily married but not joyous every freakin' minute
 
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