Escape

My brain is looking for escape routes.  Yesterday I wanted to write on anything except what I was supposed to.  Last night I even came up with a new story idea.  This morning I came up with more ideas--luckily one was for Masks--but the primary idea was for a project that has been on a backburner and will probably stay there for a long time.  I can blame my heavy schedule for this bout of escapism, but that would be just an excuse.  I know how to kick this.  Write anyway.

Definitely owe INK a dollar, and considering Radcon, that'll be another dollar because I'm not going to get a sub in by next Monday either.  Might as well pay up now.  But hey, after Radcon I'll be home free for quite a while.  With two day jobs days of work a week, three max, and the fact that lately my schedule has been arranged so that the workdays are consecutive, I'll have a lot more free time to get writing projects done.  I'm really, really looking forward to that.  Radcon has become my Thunderdome, and all I want to do is get beyond it (she said, dating herself yet again.)  I'm sure once I get there, though, I'll have such a blast that I'll forget all about these silly things called deadlines and goals, at least for a while.

Behind Door Two

It's good to have focus again. I've gotten two scenes edited on Trinket Box and I'm well on my way to reaching 100 pages on The Trunk (which was Mummy Case). My brilliant plan is to have the first 50 pages of Trinket Box ready for the group for the first March meeting and to have all 75 pages for February written for The Trunk.

If I can do the same in March, I'll feel ahead enough on both to be able to work on Script Frenzy in April. I might even be able to keep editing Trinket Box along with writing my script, but I'm not going to hold myself to that quite yet.

After all, there is Reven to consider as well. And I still have a chapter to finish revising for it. I'm hoping to get a little work done on that today.

I can't believe I'm already thinking about Script Frenzy. Actually, I've been thinking about Nanowrimo already, and contemplated putting off The Trunk until then, but reconsidered. That's just too long to wait and I'd rather have the pages now. I'll find something else to write by then. Something new and fresh, because I think I'll need it about then.

As for Script Frenzy, I'm still toying around with the haunted house idea TC and I came up with last June (longer, really, but that was when we fleshed it out--was that a pun?). I'm keeping my option open, though, but nothing else has yet to materialize. In March, I'll add another 5 or 10 pages to my monthly goal to be closer to what I'll need to write in April (100 pages).

Honestly, though, Trinket Box is eating up most of my enthusiasm. I love working on this story. I'm amazed how much of it clings to me, even now. Scenes I was planning on ditching I'm now finding too compelling and so I'm trying to find a way to work them into the flow of the plot. And thank god for Creepy Frenchman! He's going to be my failsafe for plotting when all else fails.

Focusing on these novels is going to destroy my chances of having another short story ready for WotF, though. I need to look up the next submission deadline if I'm going to make it. I'll need all the time I can to work in another revision.

UPDATE: The deadline is April 1st. Whew. Won't have to worry about it during Script Frenzy. But that only leaves me about a month and a half! Gotta start working on something for it.

A Quiet Pleasure

It's weird to be so pleased with myself when I know Kami and her family are grieving. I feel so badly for their losing Mojo.

So I'm holding back my snoopy dance for finishing my first short story in over two years. Oddly enough, it didn't feel like that huge of an accomplishment. I think because I know I have lots of revising to do on it before it is really close to finished. So I'll save the snoopy dance for when I finish the edit.

I have spent the last two days catching up on missed work. I wrote 13 pages yesterday, which puts me even with my best Nano writing days. For some reason, 13 seems to be the highest number I can achieve in a day, at least at this point. By the 13th page, my brain is mushy, my back aches, and my fingertips are numb. It's no slouch of number, approximating 3250 words of writing. While I'm pleased I got that far along, I really did want to finish the story yesterday, but I had to wait until today to write the last 7 pages of the story.

I was close to my guess on the length of the story, too, which surprises me. I figured about 30 pages and I ended up with 37 pages, thanks in part to a nice little twist at the end. We like little twists that take the story one step further. This one worked out well and kept with the theme that managed to develop in the story.

My plans now are reading Reven, which I haven't started yet (bad me), finishing the [title withheld for sheer perversion] revision to get it ready for the WotF contest, and coming up with something to fill the 28 pages I have left to write for the month. It will be spent on another short story. I have some prep work to do on my current novels before I can pick them up again.

Kicking Frustration Out of My Way

Today is not starting as well as I'd like, so I'm taking aim and kicking the frustrating out of my way. And mainly, that is all computer stuff.

I tell you, if it weren't for needing an email to do quick correspondence, I'd be sore tempted to rid myself of the internet altogether. Sure, blogging is fun, but its been sporadic of late, both the ones I write and the ones I read. Email is fun to check, but usually its just my daily doses of newsletter stuff, like the weekly weather updates and my notes from the universe (which I do love) and the Ideal Bites on green living. Pretty much everything else is just time-taking stuff, like cruising through cool merchandise sites that encourage me to spend money (I ordered toys yesterday) or reading up on news I'd rather not read anyway, just because its there.

Which explains why I haven't been online much at all lately. No Messenger, just online once or twice a day to check email and cruise blogs. If I leave the computer on, I end up checking email everytime I pass (though if I checked earlier that morning, that's pretty much it for the day). I can feel myself slowly phasing out of the internet altogether and while I'm sure writer who depend on internet connections would poo-poo this, I can't help but feel that this is a much better state of mind for me to be in. I think if it weren't for my daily newsletters and blogging, I wouldn't be online much at all.

Which makes me think . . . would that be so bad? So far, I've gotten more writing done by not doing it on the computer. Can't surf the net as a distraction if there is no internet hooked up to your typewriter. My procrastination now end with clean cabinets and organized files rather than three hours wasted online with nothing to show except three lost hours. And nearly 75% of my stress comes from the computer. The antivirus won't work, the monitor freezes, the Word doc closes on me . . . I can't think of anything else in my life that causes me as much regular frustration as the computer does.

So I find myself getting away from it more and more. Thinking about how easy it would be to just pop down the hill and check email from the library computer. How much space I would have in the sitting room if we got rid of the computer desk.

Sure, I'll need a computer to plug in my ms's after I've finished with the rough draft, but that would be a swell thing for a laptop to do. Not connected to the internet and sitting back at the kitchen table like I do with my typewriter. Heck, I could even get one with a wireless modem and go hang out on the neighbor's porch and ride their wi-fi like they invited the neighborhood to do, or go have a sit down at Starbucks, do my email and call it good.

Man, it's a good thought. I really like that thought. I think I'll aim for that. Then I can add another rocking chair to the sitting room and maybe a low set of bookshelves for the expanding collecting of books and toys and when folks come over, we can hang out in the sitting room with tea and biscuits and the desk won't jut out into people's hips and the computer hum won't be an obnoxious drone. And I bet I could even keep up my blogs by writing them during my downtime here, then sending them when I wi-fi.

Hee. And now all my techie friends are shaking their heads because once again Ris is plunging herself three steps further back into the 80s.

Did I mention the toys I ordered are updates of the 1982 G.I. Joe articulated action figures?

Yo Joe!

Full House

We've added a dog into the household mix Monday. He's a sweet, clever, friendly, loves to be cuddled boy. Part lab mix, two years old (as opposed to the original estimate of 9 months), very gentle with Kate and a little scared of the cats (a fact they use to their advantage).

The household has been a little turned on its ear this week. Not much else getting done around here, though I finally managed to do most of the dishes yesterday. Today feels like we're getting back to normal, well, a new normal since there is now lots to do with Beau that didn't exist before. Luckily, several of the things we do with him happened before he came, like going outside and taking walks and feeding the animals. But tossing a ball around for him is completely new (and very fun, he's so polite about dropping it). And the cats need lots of extra attention (demanding it, actually).

Today, though, I'm getting myself back into the daily routines. I will get my writing done. I'll finish laundry and dishes. I'll work on drafting up my script outline for Script Frenzy. I'll do finances and send in our payments. And I think I'll still manage to spend lots of time with Kate and Beau and TC. And write. Did I already mention writing?

Finishing a Month

There is something very satisfying about finishing out a monthly word count goal. I've felt it enough with NaNo to recognize that gleeful buzzing inside me for what it is. I thought that I wouldn't feel it so strongly with a word count goal just barely a third of NaNo's hefty goal, but when I finished out March after a 3,000 word push on the last day, I was insanely pleased. Now I've finished out April and I'm just as pleased, only this time I saw it coming over a week ago.

This morning, thanks to my HUGE writing day in the middle of the month and the fact that I kept up with my writing since then, I only needed 18 words to finish out the month. No pressure at all to sit down to peck them out and end up writing over 300 instead. It was such a pleasant change to that desperate final push that I'm more accustom to facing that I simply must do it again. I can handle leisurely completely a deadline rather than making a mad rush of it.

But the only reason I was able to do that this month was because of that unheard of 8,000 word day. I'm wondering if I can make those come more frequently than, say, once in a lifetime. And without starting a whole new story to do so.

Though I do have this one idea about an alien crash landing in lovely young woman's garden . . .

Time for Sale

I've figured out a back door onto blogger so that I can post--hopefully this will do until I can update my confuter sometime in the distant future.

Working even part time has opened my eyes to the world of the writer-while-worker. I know that some folks, once they quit their day jobs and are able to devote full time to writing, get writer's block. (Oh, the humanity!!) Others blossom (go Ris!) though even those sweat and plan and juggle until they can really hit their stride. Coming from the other side, as a writer who had an entire day in which to work in writing, every day, year 'round, I've hit the wall of work interference and my nose is bruised.

It's not so much the five-to-nine hours I'm out of the house (up to ten hours if you include days that we close late due to customers plus commuting time and the leeway I give myself for arrival at the shift start) and can't write because I'm on duty. Well, all right, it is that because sh*t rolls downhill. At the top, by necessity, is work where I make money and where hours are regimented by The Big Man (aka Dan aka The Big Guy) and this presses aside all other duties normally assigned to me, including housework, laundry, gardening, and making sure the animals are properly tended to (never mind actually getting to play with and train the dogs, cuddle with the cats, do sudoku, watch videos with the family, and enjoy the occasional sit down dinner.) Before and after work, my other duties must be performed. Back in the day of total freedom, I could pick away at chores or even neglect them for days and later come back to them in a frenzy of cleaning. Well, if I do that now then more often than not the frenzy of cleaning must be put off until my next day off, which may not be until the end of the week. Then I have to prioritize for the day. Is it sunny outside? Garden! Is it cold/windy/rainy/all of the above? Tackle the laundry and dishes. Strip the beds and change the sheets. Vacuum. Clear away clutter and try to get something, anything organized. The day off is gone, and I haven't written a word except in my head where it doesn't much count.

I used to juggle writing and work. I used to work full time and write. Of course, back then, my house was even more gross than it is now and I got about four hours of sleep at a stretch. I can't do four hours of sleep or less anymore.

It doesn't help that my current job verges on full time more often than not. They're hiring again because we lost our receiving manager, which shuffled our hardware manager over to that department (he's actually trying to work both jobs at the same time, currently, which is fun to watch the tall thin man run all day.) As spaces get filled in as best they can, the hours shuffle around and land squarely on the part time staff.

Am I saying I can't write? No. I am saying it's hard, harder than I remember, and bushwacking my way toward editing Masks with my handy-dandy MacMachete (with a dull blade) is slow going. When I'm not working anymore, whether it's because I get published and need to meet deadlines, or work conflicts with daily life build to the point that I'm not willing to continue working (even for my fabulous employee discount and the ability to hammer away harder at debts and enjoy more vacations in Victoria or the coast,) I will definitely appreciate my freedom more. And get a helluva lot done in a day. I was such a slacker ...

So, a word of caution to those of you who have full time writing ability and are considering returning to work for grocery money or whatever--money is indeed not everything. Time is everything. Time.