Zimmy Sunday #19: The Secret Life of Walter Zimmy

Happy Sunday dear readers! Zimmy and I are officially in holiday mode, if you couldn’t tell by the picture (and yes, he really does love it when you rub his belly with your foot. He’s a rather derpy dog), and very much looking forward to spending quality time with our family eating all the things in all the land and watching whatever Christmas movies happen to be on cable. Writing will slow a bit until after Christmas, but that is fine, because I made a *lot* of progress on the novel last week! I cut about 70% of the work I’d written during NaNoWriMo and have replaced just about all of the cut content with new material, material that I’m actually happy with quality-wise (gasp!). I’m not completely done yet, but I’m hoping to find time to add some things here and there in between celebrating with friends and family, and then go back to full time work on Thursday. In the meantime, though, time to enjoy the holidays. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend, dear readers, and happy holidays!

Zimmy Sunday #18: The Zim of Wall Street

Happy Sunday dear readers! It has been a long week for Zim and me, with being stuck at home due to a cold and a sprained foot causing me to get more than a little stir crazy. As it turns out, I can only handle sitting around on a couch for so long before I get twitchy and start bugging people to entertain me (sorry, friends who’ve had to deal with that all this week!).

It wasn’t all bad, though, because some of that stir craziness led to me actually buckling down and making real progress on my novel! Woo! I spent most of this week re-structuring and re-outlining all of my male psychopath’s chapters, and two thirds of my female’s. But in much more exciting news (for me, anyway), I’ve decided to revise my female psychopath’s initial motivation with the intention of having it morph over the course of the story, which (hopefully) will amplify the conflict in the plot. If this works out the way I think it will it’ll solve a *lot* of problems I’ve been having with the plot the last few weeks, so I’m really crossing my fingers on this one.

The only bad part is that changing her initial motivation means I have to gut about 60% of the chapters I’ve drafted for her and completely re-write them, which is something that I’m not looking forward to doing. Cutting large chunks of work is a painful experience for me, even when I know doing it will make the story better, so I’m not looking forward to doing it. But them’s the breaks, and at least if I get down I know I’ll have Zim ready and waiting to cheer me up and get me ready to get back to work.

Zimmy Sunday #17: Being John Zimovich

Happy Sunday dear readers! I hope your weekends thus far have been relaxing and that you’re keeping warm, especially if you’re in the Bay Area. Seriously, how is it this cold here?? As you can see, I’m relying on puppy cuddles to keep me warm this days, which are proving to be very effective indeed (though as you can see, Zimmy is a teensy bit grumpy and unamused by me squishing him so much).

Writing has been a bit slow this week, unfortunately, so there isn’t much to report there. Most of this week has been spent trying to do chapter outlining and figuring out how to simplify an increasingly convoluted plot, which has been more than a little bit frustrating. I’m hoping to work through the worst of it this week, though, so fingers crossed I can stop repeatedly banging my head into my desk sooner rather than later…or at the very least, move on to a different problem with the novel, of which there are ever so many to choose from. Ugh.

But that will be Monday Alex’s problem; until then, I’m spending today curled up with the Zimster watching football, because it is too cold right now to do anything else (and because I’m feeling lazy). Have a fabulous rest of your weekend, dear readers!

Zimmy Sunday #16: Crouching Tiger Hidden Zim

Prey spotted: cow toy!

Happy Sunday dear readers! Its been a fun week of eating and family time for Zim and me, which means that not a whole lot of writing has gotten done. So, predictably, I did not in fact hit 50K words for November’s NaNoWriMo. I didn’t come remotely close, in fact. And that is 100% okay with me! Novel writing begins again tomorrow, though, and I’m more than a little bit excited to get back to work on it. I’ve been missing my little psychopathic couple (which never happens!), so I’m hoping that’s a sign that this next week will be a productive one.

In the meantime, though, must find a way to keep Zim from doing this (he really wants that cow!):

 

Zimmy Sunday #15: Beverly Hills Zim

Happy Sunday dear readers! And what a happy Sunday it is, because I am in Los Angeles today for a friend’s wedding! Happy days! Alas, Zim is not fond of wearing a suit and tie and therefore could not be my date today (among other reasons), so in his honor here is another flashback picture from the first night he joined the family. I tried to teach him high five, and he made it halfway. The rest, as they say, is history. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend, dear readers, and early congratulations to Nathan and May, the happy couple who’ll be tying the knot in just a few hours!

Zimmy Sunday #14: Zimster’s Game

Happy Sunday dear readers! I hope your Sunday is restful and relaxing, and that you’ve had a fantastic weekend thus far. Earlier this week I published a post about how I was revising my approach to NaNoWriMo and no longer trying to hit the 50k word count. I must say, dear readers, I am *really* happy I did this. Work is progressing on my novel, albeit slower than before, and I am no longer ripping out my hair and contemplating tossing out the story. Always a good thing when that happens!

On a somber note, Nobel-prize winning author Doris Lessing died today at the age of 94. She published over 55 works over her lifetime, although she is most known for her 1962 novel The Golden Notebook, which is considered a feminist classic. RIP Doris Lessing. You will be missed.

Zimmy Sunday #13: A Streetcar Named Zim

Happy Sunday dear readers! Well, it is officially Day 10 of NaNoWriMo…and I have under 10k words as of this post. Boo city! I am *very* behind on my word count due to being sickly earlier in the week and a very irritating writing slump that made me question why I was writing this story (still am questioning it, if I’m being perfectly honest). The entire situation is more than a little bit frustrating and discouraging. I am a very stubborn person, however, and refuse to give up so early in the game, so Zim and I are spending today trying to frantically catch up, with the goal of hitting 25k+ words by Friday. It most likely won’t happen, but I sure am going to try, and whatever words I don’t hit by Friday I’ll make up during the weekend. So, enjoy your Sunday, dear readers, and wish me luck! I sure need it.

Zimmy Sunday #12: Zimmy Potter and the Prisoner of Zimskaban

A giant black puppy nose that’s so close to the camera lens the picture is blurry? Must mean it’s Sunday! This week’s Zimmy Sunday post will be shorter than usual, because NaNoWriMo is in full swing and I have yet to hit my daily word count of 2k words. Whoops! I will publish a post later this week documenting both my strategy for tackling the 50,000 word count later this week, as well as an update on how WriMo is going, so keep an eye out for those in the upcoming days. Apart from that, I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween and a relaxing weekend, and that all of you who are doing NaNoWriMo are making great progress on your novels! Now, back to work for me. NaNoWriMo waits for no blogger! Happy Sunday, dear readers!

Zimmy Sunday #11: The Legend of Sleepy Zim

Happy Sunday, dear readers! As you can see, Zim and I are a bit tuckered out from a long weekend of Halloween fun and NaNoWriMo prepwork, but with Halloween on Thursday and November starting in only five days, there’s no time for anything other than a quick puppy nap for either of us! There’s so much to do and so little time, so it’s time to put our noses to the grindstone on this windy and foggy Bay Area Sunday…but first, a little bit of 49er football. You can’t work the *entire* Sunday, right dear readers?

Zimmy Sunday #10: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Zim

It’s going to be another adventure-filled Sunday for me and Zim, dear readers! After Zim stows his most recent stick find in his special spot in the backyard, we are off on a quest to the local pumpkin patch to pick up some nice big pumpkins for Halloween. Yes! I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it!

I’m not quite sure what sort of Jack O’Lanterns we’ll make this year, so does anyone have any epic stencil/pattern suggestions? Maybe some literature-inspired ones? Write me and let me know, and if I can carve them (keyword being “if”; alas, I am not exactly a pumpkin carving wunderkind) I’ll take a picture and post them here on Halloween. 

Have a wonderful Sunday dear readers!