No Knack for Happiness

Well, Book Three is no longer book three anymore. I even know what the ending might be like. Not the scene or anything, but defiantly the feel. Been quite a weekend for things coming together. I had a quick look over the first six chapters of The Manda, and came to the realisation that I may not be finished line-editing wise, but I am sick to death of looking at it. I don't think the prose is terrible by any means. Is it the best it could be? Probably not, but because my idea of what is good prose and what is not is influenced by whether I yawn or not, all I know is that it holds my interest.
Also, it's a fantasy book, for crying out loud. Not a literary one either. I might as well make sure the bloody thing is readable, and then give it to other people to read. They will have different perspectives and tell me if it's shit or not.
Five times I've rewritten that thing, four times from scratch. There are still three chapters, I think, that need fixing. I came up with a solution to a major plot problem, where the character gets on a ship because the plot needs her too, not for any other reason.
Now I have her stowing away, being found by the man who in the original draft took her in because it was implied that he recognised the same terrible things from his life, in hers. What a load of crock.
Anyway, after she's found, he needs a messenger and filer, so he uses her.
Why that took me five drafts to think of, I have no idea.
So, the Book Three, the one that is going to need a hell of a lot of research, now has a name. No Knack for Happiness. Got a nice ring to it I think.
I've also realised something strange. The books that I'm writing (at the moment, The Manda and Varrick) and the books I'm planning (No Knack for Happiness and a thrillery thing) follow a strange pattern.
The Manda was the book I wanted to read. Varrick is also I book I enjoy reading and writing, but I imagine it being the book my father would give me after he'd read it.
No Knack for Happiness is not something my father would ever read, but my mother defiantly would. Then the thriller (it does actually have more plot in my head then "No Knack for Happiness" at the moment. I didn’t say: oh, thriller is the next genre I should try out. I just think "No Knack for Happiness" will be harder to write for me, so it's coming first, before I go to Med school, while I still have time on my hands）
The thriller is something I hope my brother would like.
So, I have subconsciously been working my way through my family in the ideas that materialise and take form in my head. I enjoy all the things and idea I have, but each one is slanted slightly more to one family member than another.
Uncanny, huh. Well. The next thing I get to do is make up spaceships. I'm writing the Varrick book so fast that I'm trying to describe things that are not only imaginary, but I have no idea what they look like.
Amazing fun. Bloody hard work.

Plans, plans, plans

Well. I get home in three weeks. Kind of weird, actually. My parents probably think I've forgotten about them, simply because there isn't that much to write emails about, and I keep thinking "well, I'll see them in 3 weeks."
I will write to them tommorow. That's plan number 1
Plan number two - stop swearing. It's a habit that is easy to pick up when no one understands you.
And then what to do with the next six months.
If I don't force myself, I will just waste all that time.
I have people reading: The Manda. I will get more people to read it.
Then I have tow other books. One is Sci-fi, pure and simple, but more the sort of Sci-fi I like than what my father reads, which involves lots of figthing and spaceships.
My book still involves a fair amount of fighting and spaceships, but focases on the relationship between three key people. That's what I'm most interested in. The fighting plays a large part in that, so I'm going to have to figure out how to write a space battle. Good luck to me. Hugo award winners, here I come.
Then there is another book. This one won't be plotted, not in the way the scifi one has already been. I'm not even sure how it's going to go.
All I have at the moment is a aborigional girl of 18 meeting a white australian boy by the sides of the river. What happened to get them there - has something to do with a book. His brother is somehow going to be involved with the girl. She doesn't even have a name yet.
I can write this book from the boys perspective. I would fall flat on my face from the girls perspectibve. As it is, I'm going to have enough trouble getting her right.
Something tells me I have to get her right. And the boy. I make him a stereotype and the whole point of it all will be lost.
Weird, isn't it, that I can go from young adult speculative to something that is firmly sci-fi, to something that has no magic, and what seems already to be a lot of themes.
That's what I want to do, in the next six months. I want to edit and finsh the Manda, so I can send it to someone. I want to write my sci-fi book (after reading a ton of sci-fi fiction. Not that I haven't before, but being 18, it's been decidely more young then what I'm aiming for)
And I want to finish the research for this book. at the moment all I have is a scene. I hope something grows from that, because I really want it to.
Motivation is what I lack. That or structure. So I have to do two things - come up with a structure, and then get motivation.
Sound simple. I will obviously also work. Not as much as I did previously - 40 hrs was too much when I was working at a nothing job. I admire those who put in the hours for their family's - maybe one day I'll do similar. But not while I have other options. 30 hrs sounds good, especially for a checkout chick job.
Please let this work. I want to achive something this year - something more than : I went to china.
Please