You can help!  You can mock when I fail to tweet!

Okay, maybe not.  I need positive reinforcement.  I had a rough day.  That said, I clearly need to do something.  I realized when I updated my motivational spreadsheet of doom/outline that it had been five days since I last wrote (because that’s one of the formulas).

My spreadsheet is also predicting that my story will end up being 20398 words, but I have a little trouble believing that.

They can look human, talk and perhaps even feel human.  But are they?  Can an Artificial Intelligence truly have sentience, or is it just clever programming that mimics conscious thought?  A clone may be a match for human DNA, but does a clone have a soul?  Is an android merely a possession, no more entitled to rights than a toaster?

http://broadpod.posterous.com/may-not-quite-human-automatons-ai-and-clones

Those were some fast words, too.  I may have to up my daily goal if this continues.

I have an outline spreadsheet based on the Snowflake method to which I’ve added wordcount secret sauce formulas.  I downloaded it for NaNoWriMo many years ago.  I then have a tab that’s nothing but date, wordcount, and then it generates for you words remaining, words over goal, and days since last written.  If you plug the wordcounts into the scene listings, the spreadsheet will tell you if you’re on track or likely to end up long or short.

Apparently, however, this doesn’t help unless you put “finish outline” on your to-do list.  You know, the one that also has your laundry and work-related projects all in one big lump.  With–this is important–a deadline.

Now, “Finish story” is on the to-do list, so I have an appointment with Write Or Die every day.  I’m going to go for 250 words a day.  That worked well for me.  (NaNoWriMo requires about 1500 a day, and that’s fall asleep while typing time.)

I’m a fitness metrics junkie, too.  Write it down or it didn’t happen.  For example, I already have 115 miles on my new running shoes (yikes, already?).

New job.  New job means new schedule.  New schedule means figuring out how to work all the other, non-job things I want to do into my life. Yeah.  It’s a process.

First up:  running.  Since I’m off the evil early morning schedule (OMG SO not a morning person!) that means that I can go run in the mornings.  That may seem counter-intuitive, but the idea is that I have very little brain in the mornings and therefore it’s more efficient to do tasks that don’t require brain then.  Trotting along on mechanical conveyances does not require brain.  This also means I often get in 10,000 steps before noon, and have my evenings available for having an actual social life.  This week I ran 14.9 miles total, so I declare the new running plan a success.

Next up:  scheduling writing time.  My lunch hour might work.  Hmmmm.  I’ll have to try that.

Other things that need scheduling:  Weights and yoga.  Since running is Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday, there’s a logical Tuesday-Thursday or Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday slot for that.  Hmm.

May 26, 1pm, Conference 2, Concourse Hotel, Madison, Wisconsin.

A chance to meet the writers and hear the work of some of the most exciting new talent in our genres. The readers of Broad Universe will drop you into their fictional universes with dynamic readings. You will need warp drive because within the session you will hear from ten writers who will transubstantiate you from the subgenres of space opera, speculative fiction, alternative history, steampunk, fantasy, intergalactic romance and generation starship to new mythologies and the paranormal. Come prepared to lengthen your To-Read-Immediately list.

Moderator: Karon Crow Rilling. Kimberley Long-Ewing, Karon Crow Rilling, Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, Ada Milenkovic Brown, Gwynne Garfinkle, Deirdre M. Murphy, Michelle Murrain, Larissa N. Niec, Katherine Mankiller, Phoebe Wray

Which means, of course, that it’s time to get back on the writing horse.  And the running horse, because working 40 hours a week + 4 hours a day commuting doesn’t leave one a lot of running time.  I have a new story partially outlined, and it’s been that way for months, so it’s time to finish that outline.

In other news, I’ll be in the Broad Universe sampler and will read with Broad Universe at WisCon on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

Rumor had it that the Mirosians worshipped some kind of monster as a God, and that he was to be a human sacrifice. Ted lowered his eyes to avoid glaring at the bald green glare of his captor’s head, and found himself staring at his wings instead. There were other rumors, too, tales of insectoid hive minds and such, although those might have been an overactive imagination’s response to the exoskeleton. The guards spoke among themselves in a soft murmur that Ted couldn’t understand, so they must have some kind of individuality.

(Fret not, it was for a good cause, and it paid off.  All will be shared in the fullness of time.)

You know I was busy if I have five stories piled up.  I try not to let them sit around my house with their feet up drinking my beer for more than 24 hours.

Um.  Yeah.  Trust me on this.  Heh.

In other news, I have a huge pile of stories that need to go back out because of commute hell.  Maybe I should go do that now.