This has been a very hard week for me. It might not seem like that through the posts I've put up, but I put those up in advance sometimes because that's easier for me. This week has been exhausting and frustrating for me.

I work a part time job outside of my writing so that my husband and I would have a place to get our car fixed and some extra money in our pocket (I work for a cab company). But with all the drama here in the last week, I've been at the office for my part time job than at Fang Marked for my full time job. With deadlines hanging over my head and a lot of research still left to do, this hasn't been a good time for this to happen.

Some of you might be asking me "So how do you write a novel when you have to work outside the home at a full time job to make ends meet?". Here's the only solution I could come up with.

I'm working before I leave for my regular job. Granted, I work second shift. But if I had a first shift job, I'd work for an hour when I got home. You may not make three pages a day doing that, but you have a good excuse don't you? It's harder to write when you have other demands on your time. But if you want it bad enough, or if your characters won't leave you alone, you'll find a way. Some people work better at night. I'm more of a morning person and like to be done by 11 AM. I'll write later than that, but the bulk of it is done. And it helps that I have a netbook and can write on the fly.

How would you try to balance a full time job with writing a novel?

I loved a recent post on Coffee Stained Writer (http://coffee-stainedwriter.blogspot.com/) about when a work is finished. Since my internet connection is not allowing me to put what I really think as a comment on her blog, I'm throwing it on here.

How do you really know when a work is finished? It's a long process.

Since I've only published the one novel, I'll talk about my experience with that one. Prophecy was hard to let go of. It was my first novel ever and I felt there was so much more to add. I even wrote 10 pages of useless scene at the end because I couldn't let it go. But finally, I'd told the story and it felt done. Then the edits began.

Before I did my first edit, I finished Forbidden and participated in Nano for the first time. I didn't go back to Prophecy until late December/early January. I couldn't believe the disaster that was my first novel. I pulled about 30 pages out, wrote another 30-40 to replace what was cut, moved scenes around, added new characters, and rewrote the ending. Twice. It was finally done with the first round of edits when my husband said to me "is there anything of the original novel left?". That's when I knew it was time to stop and take a step back.

The last round of edits before publication were done in late April/early May. That was a lot quicker because I just had to make sure it was flowing and the new stuff went with the old stuff. But even when I was sure it was the novel it is today, I didn't want to let it go. The only way I stopped picking at it was the deadline I was under. But I'm glad I didn't pick it apart again because so far, the feedback has been fantastic.

So how do you know when it's really done? I can't describe it academically, but I can tell you that Prophecy was done because it felt done. It was ready. It's like cooking or what I imagine pregnancy would be. When it's done, it's done. The turkey comes out of the oven, the baby is born. There's no more you can do to it.

Forbidden has been editted three times because of computer malfunction. It's getting one more combing out before it's completely ready to go. It just hasn't required as much in the way of revision. Now the prequel, Legacy, I'm scared I'm going to have to rewrite that book from the beginning all over again.

But when it's done, it's done.

Imagine this: You walk into a place you frequent often, whether that's a coffee house or the library or a bar, it's not a big deal. Put yourself there and think about what's going on around you. Do you see it? There's one thing I'm sure you're forgetting and it's not your fault that you don't notice it. More often than not, you aren't supposed to notice it.

I'm talking about the background noise. The music playing in the coffee house or the sound of people typing on computers in the library. If you're in a bar, well that changes from night to night and hopefully you aren't too drunk to notice it. Why don't you notice it? Because it's there to influence your mood.

When writing a scene like this in a novel, you have to remember that background noise is there and use it to your advantage. I put a couple bar and club scenes in Prophecy and I actually name the song I'm thinking of playing in the background. When Seven walks into the bar the first time he sees Rhoswen, he enters to Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole". All of a sudden, you get a picture of what is really going on. When Seven and Rhoswen go out for their first date, I describe the song playing on the dance floor of the club (because it's in Japanese and I honestly didn't have the title with me, but you understand where I'm coming from here).

This adds realism to your writing. No one walks around in a bubble of silence. We all have our favorite bands and we all sing along in the car (well, most of us). If you have a character driving around without music playing in the background, he's probably talking to the other character sitting right next to him or reflecting on the aliens that just abducted his dog.

Make sure you remember what should be there and take the opportunity to show off some of your own personality if you want to. Lincoln listens to Linkin Park in Forbidden because it's A: Funny (you'll get it in a minute. If you don't, leave a comment and I'll explain), B: A personal favorite of mine, and C: He's an angry teenage boy. But if he's driving around listening to the sounds of silence (that isn't really a band is it?), then it's no longer believable.

Here's how crazy this month is already. And it's only the first.

-I need to finish research for nanowrimo. That means many trips to the library and a lot of time on the internet at Fireworks.
-It's time to finish transcribing a novel for a friend of mine. He wants to be able to release it to family and friends by Christmas and if I don't finish it this month, it won't be ready.
-I have to get ready for the book club meeting October 3rd. I need to go through Prophecy and be prepared to hit various parts of the novel and I have to go through Forbidden and pick out what part is going to be previewed at the meeting.
-I need to finish the revisions on Forbidden and do one more real time edit of it to make sure that the new stuff flows with the rest of the story and clear up any formatting mistakes.
-Hubby and I have to go out and take the pictures for the cover of Forbidden. I want a lot to choose from.
-Awakening needs to start winding down. Deadline to finish it is November 1st so it isn't hanging over my head for nanowrimo.
-Shipping out books to family and friends who wanted copies of Prophecy. I'm so behind!
-I have to get with Hubby and design the logo for Fank Marked since we're using that as my office now and we want to make t-shirts. Yeah, we're weird.

Whatever doesn't get done this month will get crammed into next month. Argh.