I have never been good at managing stress. This just isn't one of the things I have learned to do very well, and it is really hard to let go of the stress in situations when I can't do anything about it, such as on the bus or in the shower. However these moments do happen and I am slowly learning how to let go. Writing I have found can be a great way to get away from the stress because my mind is completely occupied by the characters and the setting. Who knew it could be so comforting?

Of course you do have to make sure that the inner critic is off on a break because otherwise the writing itself can become insanely stressful. But I have also learned that sometimes you just need to write and worry about making it perfect later! It will all work out in the end, one way or another!

I have been doing a lot of research over the past few days on how people organize to write a book. I have read through papges and pages of author interviews on Romance Writers on the Journey, and it seems like everyone does it differently, which is not helpful at all! There seem to be dozens of accepted ways of going about it.

I have finally decieded to make a really detailed outline of events so that I know exactly where the story is going and I can write to that. I believe that this is going to be very helpful for created a really well rounded story.

I have also set a task for myself. I am going to write one scene completely, edit and reedit and then have it critiqued. I will also post it on here so that you can see it. I think that this will be a good way to get my writing into a more descriptive style. Wish me luck!

There never seems to be enough time in the day for everything. Have you noticed this? For me between classes, homework, work, eating and sleeping, I am having a hard time finding time to write on a regular basis. I have a lot of ideas though for the plot and who my characters are going to be, I just have to write them down now. If you write, when do you find time for it? My life is hopefully going to get a lot calmer in a month or so when I get done with college. This however depends on if I get a new job or keep my current one. Too many unknowns. I believe that is why that I like writing, because there is no uncertainty about where my characters are going to end up and I have complete control over how they get there. I know real life is not always like this but it is reassuring that it is out there somewhere.

I miss calculated, and I didn't realize it until I checked how many words were in my word document. 1,075. This is way more than the 833 per chapter that I had computed before! But only equals a page and a half. Something was not right. So I did it again and realized that I left off a zero in 10,000. Surprising how a number that means nothing can have such a huge effect. The chapters are suddenly looking much longer! Next time I will have my sister, who is an aspiring accountant, check my math for me....