GandK's journal

[GandK]

Good to hear the news on the novel! Is this the same one you wrote from NaNoWriMo last year? Or something new? Anyways, I'm looking forward to trying it out for myself this year.

It's 2012's NaNo. 2013's was the sequel to the 2012 work. And this year's will be the third in the series. I have a rough outline for this year's work, just waiting for November 1st to begin that one. But the real prize for me will be finding an agent for the first book.

I love doing NaNo. I think my first year was 2006, and I spent more time in the forums than on my work, so I lost. Now I know better! I skipped a few years in there but I loved every year I participated. Even if you look at your novel draft six months later and go "What was I thinking?!" you will have gained 50,000 words of very valuable experience.

[GandK]

July and August were our two best months on record financially (since January 2010), by a wide margin. In both months, our net worth increased by more than $20k. w00t! Last month's gained amount was mostly due to the case getting settled, but this month was entirely due to G's investing decisions, as we have added no savings to the pot in August. School supplies/clothes and household item replacement costs ate every dollar of our regular income surplus.

On the writing front, I am writing and editing in every spare moment, still trying to get my WIP in good enough shape to market. Still aiming for mid October, hoping to start a new novel on November 1st. I'm in that frustrating phase at the end of a book where I'm changing more things in my existing work than I'm writing new material. Although I'm doing a lot of work, my word count isn't going up by much. Sometimes that makes me feel as though I'm spinning my wheels. Some say to save all edits for the end of the first draft; however, when the mistake or better idea is structural and far-reaching, my experience is that it's better to change it at once so the old material doesn't continue propagating forward.

[jennypenny]

I'm in that frustrating phase at the end of a book where I'm changing more things in my existing work than I'm writing new material. Although I'm doing a lot of work, my word count isn't going up by much. Sometimes that makes me feel as though I'm spinning my wheels. Some say to save all edits for the end of the first draft; however, when the mistake or better idea is structural and far-reaching, my experience is that it's better to change it at once so the old material doesn't continue propagating forward.

There's a compromise. Just add notes at the beginning of the chapter or section detailing the changes you want to come back and make. Then keep going and finish the book. Come back later for substantial edits.

If you find this happening often, you might need to develop a better system for mapping out the novels before writing manuscript copy. You could write detailed descriptions of each chapter first, or outline or storyboard depending on what works best for you.* It really helps to have a solid blueprint before you begin to write the copy.

Many writers think the muse will bail them out or show them where to go with the story as they write. In my experience, only a lucky few have the ability to sit down and just start writing. Most successful writers know they have to work with both their muse and manager (what I call them) if they want to go beyond writing to actual production.

[Ian]

I'd say there's a balance. Some structural problems really are so substantial that they'll mess up the rest of your book, but the tip about making notes is what I generally advocate. Of course, I'm far on the planning end of the spectrum, so I try to work out all the major problems during the outlining phase.

[jennypenny]

Ian is right ... there is a balance. My post sounds a little harsh. My point was that sometimes people think that they aren't good writers because they can't work things out of the fly, and that's incorrect. Many successful writers have to work just as hard on the outline and structure as they do on the creative writing. That doesn't make them a bad writer.

[GandK]

I can't ever recall you sounding harsh, Jenny. And you're right... I'm one of those who cannot work without a plan. I can get started that way, but eventually I need an outline. Otherwise when I sit down to work it takes me too long to reorient myself to where I left off last time. Normally that IS the way I work.

I always get a handful of new ideas when working, but my big problem at present is that my research on this novel did not all happen before I began. I'm writing a Native American fantasy, and after months of trying, I finally got in touch with a tribal elder (long after I began the novel) who, after discussing my WIP with me and figuring out what sort of information I was hunting for, generously pointed me toward some out of print books that would help me answer my very specific and largely off-the-wall questions about tribal history and symbolism. After I bought and read the books, I decided to change some things in the story so it would better match the facts, in part because the facts gave me some new ideas and in part because by tweaking a few things I could make the story much more realistic. Not sure how I could have avoided this problem other than to postpone the rest of the writing process (indefinitely?) until I was in touch with a tribal historian. I was working off the data available online, hoping it was comprehensive enough for my purposes. Glad I checked with an elder, because it turned out that it wasn't.

On another note, it occurred to me as I was driving my older son to school this morning that driving (of all things) has become much more fun since I retired. It's much less stressful to drive, to sit in traffic, and even to get cut off when you don't feel like any of that is going to make you late for something. I no longer remember the last time I was stressed out behind the wheel.

It's the little things.

[Spartan_Warrior]

I start with two documents, the manuscript and the plan/notes. The plan starts as a bare bones version of the story that I basically write off the top of my head. Then I start the manuscript, simultaneously fleshing out the future plot in the plan. Often, by the time I get to the end of the manuscript, the plan has become so detailed that I can paste a lot of it directly into the manuscript with only a little extra polishing.

[GandK]

I'm proud. This week I made great progress with my editing in spite of the fact that the amount of time I spent wandering around outside playing Ingress has been excessive. I tell myself I'm doing it all for the exercise... the book for the mental, the game for the physical.

[Tyler9000]

Googled Ingress. Now I know what I'll be doing all weekend.

[GandK]

No way, dude. Smurfs all the way!

[GandK]

Semi-retirement for G

Good news! G has officially downshifted his law practice. He's now scheduling his work so that he's only working every other week. Our income has only dropped by 10% due to this change. Our quality of life has gone up far more than that. Yay!

Our retirement pot has not grown appreciably since July. A couple of bad investment choices and some unexpected bills have kept us in place. That's frustrating. G has recently tossed around the idea of purchasing a second condo in Florida near our parents and us spending larger blocks of time down there. I'm not convinced that will add value. TBC...

Condo Love

We've been in our current condo since March. I'm still on cloud nine. The floor plan we ended up with has 1440 sq ft. We only lost 300 sq ft when we downsized. But the space is so much more usable that we don't notice the loss. No more formal living room, for example... and does anybody actually use those for their original purpose? Just wondering.

We're on the second of three floors, but it's really floor 1.5 because in our building when you walk in the front door, you either go down half a flight to the first floor, or up half a flight to the second. I would not originally have chosen to be on the second floor because of potential noise issues, but our building - primarily full of retirees - is blissfully quiet. They claim not to be able to hear us either.

It's been good for the utility bill, too. It's been less than $60 the last few months. We rarely turn the lights on during the day because we get so much natural light. And so far we only need the heat on when it drops into the 30s outside... our downstairs neighbors' heat is otherwise enough for us, it seems.

I continue to get rid of things. Linens were the last thing to get a purge. Now that I can see all my things - nothing else in unmarked storage boxes or buried other other things in closets we never open - it's easier to see where we've gotten too redundant. Beach towels? One per person and two spares. Sheet sets? Two per bed. Tupperware... don't get me started. In a nutshell: anything we haven't used since we moved in here is now a candidate for Goodwill.

Writing

I'm doing great. This month I'm writing a new draft, which is part three of a series. Once the holidays are over I plan to go back to polishing part one and then try to find an agent for it. When I get to that point, I'm sure I'll post an update.

[GandK]

One family, two homes?
We're in Florida now, partially on vacation and partially for Thanksgiving. My parents live in Venice and are keeping the kiddos for the next few days before the turkey so G and I can have our regularly scheduled sex getaway. Like most women I've polled, I find it impossible to let loose if I think there's the slightest possibility that my kids will hear. I show up and participate, but that's about it... I don't get much out of it. G's response to my paranoia about noise, apart from copious teasing, is frequent child-free vacations for the two of us.

Anyway, on this trip, he's been going on about buying a second condo in Florida. He's thinking that, now that he's semi-retired, the kids and I could live down here full time - near both sets of in-laws - and he could fly to Ohio every other week for his work. Basically he'd spend 6 days in Ohio, working, and 8 days in Florida with us, retired. He knows, and occasionally collaborates with, more than one Ohio attorney who does this... works in Ohio from a tiny condo or apartment about 50% of the month but actually lives in Florida somewhere and commutes by plane.

Anyway, while buying a second condo in Florida is a seductive idea (especially when November in Ohio is the alternative), it would push back his retirement date by anywhere from 3-8 years. He's bouncing back and forth between thinking that's too long to work "extra" and the belief that a greater separation between his work time and his down time would make the down time much more fulfilling.

My opinions on this idea are still unfixed. I'd love a place in Florida but I'm not crazy about the ideas of splitting our household up, extra bills, or being a single parent for half the month. I suggested renting for a while to try it out. My teenage son, already not crazy about the idea of leaving his friends, was even less crazy about the idea of a trial run. He didn't want to bounce back and forth. Most of our stepkids are now old enough that they visit infrequently these days because of work... I'm sure they'd rather Dad lived in Florida and flew them down occasionally. So the kids who'd go with us are my two... both boys, ages 15 and 4.

Has anyone here lived like this? The two households thing, with or without being semi-retired? I'd love some advice/thoughts/opinions. Money won't be the deciding factor for us on this issue. We could certainly buy another inexpensive condo and cover all the new bills. This will boil down to a lifestyle decision.

[C40]

One family, two homes?
We're in Florida now, partially on vacation and partially for Thanksgiving. My parents live in Venice and are keeping the kiddos for the next few days before the turkey so G and I can have our regularly scheduled sex getaway. Like most women I've polled, I find it impossible to let loose if I think there's the slightest possibility that my kids will hear. I show up and participate, but that's about it... I don't get much out of it. G's response to my paranoia about noise, apart from copious teasing, is frequent child-free vacations for the two of us.

We must help you solve this sex problem. There's got to be ways of having no holds (or sounds) barred sex without needing to wait for a vacation.

How old are your kids? What kind of options are there for getting them out of the house for a known amount of time?

[1taskaday]

I don't really know much about your situation so any opinions given are just from my life perspective.

I hate Winter, both the cold and the endless darkness-it really gets to me.Therefore I would do anything to escape to a place that has milder winters ...
But as a parent of 2 teens (particularly the male) I would never survive without my DH here to play his part (all the time) as well.It is just too difficult on my own-even when he works late.I think raising kids is the toughest job in the world and needs both hands on deck all the time.

[GandK]

@cimorene12... yeah, I'm thinking it will be hard on us, too. G's very social, and I think we will both be unhappy with the amount of work we have to put into meeting his need for face time at that distance.

We must help you solve this sex problem. There's got to be ways of having no holds (or sounds) barred sex without needing to wait for a vacation.

How old are your kids? What kind of options are there for getting them out of the house for a known amount of time?

LOL. My sons (the two who live with us full time) are 15 and 4. I also have stepkids who stay with us on the weekends.

The 4 year old hasn't started preschool yet, but will in January for 2 days a week. That will be very helpful.

Sometimes when you're a parent and you don't have doting grandparents nearby who always want the kids, there really isn't much you can do except wait for sex. It's either vacations, or regular (and sometimes exorbitant) babysitting expenses for little ones, or expecting on-demand performance of both partners at two in the morning so the teenagers remain unaware. (Or the sex just sucks, at least for women.) And that's before you get to the fact that many parents are running on empty to begin with. Physical and emotional exhaustion are not a good starting point for mediocre sex, let alone enthusiastic sex.

And sometimes - maybe it's just me - even after I get the kids out of the house, I need some transition time before I'm in the mood. Fetishes that I do not have aside, Mommy and Lover can't exist in the same mental space. And I can't flip a switch to go from one to the other. It can take hours and multiple glasses of wine and a hot shower. Sometimes even a good night's sleep. Way beyond the scope of your average teenage sitter who has to be home by nine.

I wish I could get what I want when I want it, but that went right out the window when I had kids. I know this is a phase of my life and it will pass. My mom informed me (smugly) that my sex life will improve dramatically once the kids are out of the house. "You can run around naked again!" I didn't really need that mental image of my parents, but I appreciated the heads up.

In the meantime I'm committed to seeking quality over quantity.

We go on vacation a lot.

[GandK]

2014 Review

Last January 1st I wrote:

I'm certain that 2014 will be better financially. We haven't been able to sell our house yet, but we're still trying, and once we downsize into a condo our monthly bills will decrease by about 10%. Also, we expect a nice windfall sometime in the June-July timeframe (a lucrative case that G has been working on for quite some time will settle then). Even if we saved no other money at all this year, that windfall would make our 2014 savings percentage higher than 2013's.

My predictions for 2014 were all accurate. We did sell the house and get a condo, and our monthly bills went down (by much more than 10%). And we got the expected windfall. Apart from banking that, our savings rate has otherwise stayed the same this year as it was in 2013, at around 15%.

The big accomplishment for 2014: this was the first year our net worth went up by 6 figures. I'm pleased to say that only 40% of that number was deposits; the rest was growth. Another note: apart from a tiny forced pension contribution of G's, this is the first year we have not contributed any money to qualified/retirement plans. That snowball is now rolling all on its own, and our focus has shifted to building the taxable sum that we need to get G retired too.

2015 Predictions

This year's savings and growth will be less. We have medical bills coming for one of the kids (surgery after a broken leg), and our health insurance plan is less than generous. We expect the final bill to be $10k-$12k. G will have 2 daughters in college at the same time this fall. I believe the younger will get a free ride academically, but there will still be associated expenses. We are paying $6k this year for the elder; I anticipate paying roughly half that for the younger***. And we have a big tax bill coming from last year's unusually large income.

With no major windfalls on the 2015 horizon and some large bills coming due, I estimate this year's savings and growth will be about $75k, much less than 2014's. Our overall net worth should rise by $100k. We've tweaked our budget lately to increase our savings rate to 20%, but the bills will rein in our progress. It will suck to go backwards from 2014, but it's very cool to be far enough along our journey that I'm fairly certain our net worth for the year will rise by more than I made while working.

Talk about getting a place in Florida has died down. I don't think we will discuss it again until our next visit to Florida.

On the writing front, after a year of waffling, I've decided to pursue traditional publication instead of self-publication. Therefore, my 2015 writing goal is to finish editing book one of my series and find an agent for it.

Finally, from the "first world problems" arena, G accidentally broke my phone a few days ago. And phones are the one thing in my life that I'm a princess about. I insist on owning a high-end, high-quality, recent model non-iPhone. (A holdover from my software development days when I actually needed such a thing.) So replacing it won't be cheap at all. I'm thinking Xperia. Luckily, my birthday is this week.

*** Our agreement with all of our children except the youngest is that if they will commit to a path that will allow them to graduate debt free, we will pay one third of their college expenses. Their other parent is also responsible for one third, and the child must pay for the remaining third through scholarships and/or work. The other caveat: we're not going to take loans out either... we have way too many kids to cover everyone's full price college tuition at trendy private schools. Our third of the costs has to be doable within our budget. If they want to take a different path and they take out student loans instead, they get nothing but books and fees from us. (After paying off student loans into his late thirties, G is very passionate about this issue!) Anyway, the 2 that have hit college so far have happily agreed to the no debt plan, and have received enough in scholarships to cover their third and then some, making college costs extremely reasonable, and we've just split the remaining bills with their mother. #3 starts college in the fall. Of the eight, she's been our best student so far, and we anticipate more of the same low-cost goodness in her financial aid packages. And in case you're wondering, the youngest child is an exception because he's the only one who's both of ours. We plan to pick up two thirds in his case, leaving him with one third of the burden like his siblings.

[henrik]

I have to try and remember your college finance arrangement for when I'll need it. Sounds very reasonable.

[GandK]

February Update

No real financial achievements going on at present. We're saving every dollar we can in the hopes of paying a huge tax bill without cashing anything out. Beans and rice... rice and beans.

Two weeks ago, a couple from our church was referred to us for Budgeting 101. G and I spent 5 hours with them teaching them the ins and outs of financial planning for those with an irregular income. They're doing quite nicely, and believe they will end the month in the black for the first time in a long time. w00t for planning and execution!

Critique Group and Technical Difficulties

Last month, I joined an online critique group for fantasy writers. That's been an adventure! It's a talented and motivated group. Just what I need to keep myself motivated. I'm really glad I joined. Twenty writers, give or take... one of whom is my crit partner of many years.

We had some real problems getting our environment set up, though.

We met and started out on Yahoo Groups. Nobody really liked YG as an environment. The interface is antiquated and file permissions were a problem.

We soon took a poll and realized that most of us were keeping our files in Google Docs. So then there was an attempt to migrate everyone into Google and do everything there. Bad idea. Google Docs is awesome, and it's great to do comments and revisions inside people's stories, but there's no common environment for web-based conversations to take place in GD. And some people didn't want to use Hangouts for chat, because it's texting, and texting makes people feel exposed or some such. Now... there used to be a Google Groups. That would have been ideal for us if it had been kept up, but it was retired by Google a few years back. Anyway, the non-Google people became frustrated with being forced to use Google. A few dropped out of the group entirely over it.

I finally put my developer hat back on, did some research, and set up a new organization for us on Trello. That worked. Now we seem to be getting settled in. Trello isn't perfect as a platform, but it does about 90% of what we want. We have workflow and online conversations, we can link to documents instead of uploading, and people can use Google Docs or Dropbox or whatever. There are even Android and iPhone apps that alert you when someone posts a critique or comments on your stuff. The interface is a little unusual. You have to scroll horizontally to see a lot of what's on Trello, and that's not how people are used to looking for information. But that's my only major gripe. There's also no chat component to it, but everyone who wants to chat is using Google Hangouts. 10 of us had a video chat last Sunday afternoon. We didn't do much besides introduce ourselves and officially decide to dump Yahoo, but I hope in future we can "meet" about bigger issues, like publication and plotting and whether it's viable to write novels entirely in Haiku.

My hope is that now that we've stopped jumping from platform to platform, we can concentrate on building better stories. Or rather, that was my hope until someone started putting up Pinterest links in the Inspiration room. Now we're all off track again, myself included.

Shiny things for the win!

[GandK]

March 1 Update

Well... February sucked. Many of our investments tanked, and the month ended by G going to Vegas with a buddy and having way more fun than he intended. Like $1,300 worth of unplanned, not-in-his-agreed-upon-trip-budget fun. So between the two, we're back at January 1 again financially, and the markets haven't even had a good nose dive yet. If we didn't have a trip to Florida coming up soon, I know I'd do something crazy over all this. I hate going backwards when the stock market isn't having a sale!

Writing Workshop

On a positive note, I'm participating in a writing workshop this month, which I'm loving:

At-Home Workshop: Revise Your Novel in 31 Days

So, in a nutshell: my portfolio is looking anemic, but my novel is getting healthier by the day!

[spoonman]

Ahh, Vegas. It can be so difficult to not bleed money when hanging out with buddies. I remember when I went there back in 2007 with some friends...every drink was at least $10, so it was easy to end up with a $100-$150 bill at the end of the night and not even be all that drunk.