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.

Broken

I just broke the halfway point in Nano. I'd do the Snoopy dance to celebrate, but I'm feeling kind guh today, so I'll just grin slightly in pleasure and down some more ibuprofen.

I've decided that my goal before Orycon is 30,000. That would be where I need to be by end of day Sunday, so even if I don't get any writing done at Orycon, I won't be going into next week behind.

That means another 17 pages before I head off on Friday morning. I'm hoping to get in a few more pages tonight (five more would be good, seven more would be ideal), but I still have a chunk of other things (like, um, a critique) to do today. And then there's the Powell's sf/f authorfest tonight, though if I'm feeling like I am at the moment, I may have to stay home. I'd love to go, really, but I'm also trying to be realistic about what I can and can't accomplish.

Bleh. Screw reality! I'm a writer! I can write myself doing it all!!

Ignoring cramps of epic proportion, Carissa not only completed all her laundry, lugging the linens up the back stairs to fold and store away, but vacuumed the house and cleared the overflowing counters of their several days worth of dishes. She wrote a stellar critique for the writers workshop on both the synopsis and the excerpt of her fellow attendee, typing it up in a readable format and filling out a short form to organize her thoughts for presentation before printing off several excerpts to choose between for the ORCs. And then she drew up the packing list for gathering her items the night of packing, wrote up instructions for taking care of the animals for the neighbors, and still managed to finished writing seven more pages before getting dressed to head out for an authorfest across town. She fed her daughter and herself, cooking a nice turkey chili meal before depositing her daughter with the neighbors to play until her husband was home, took the dog out one last time, and then she was off to an evening of discussing books and writings and little book shopping. All the shape of [Carissa the writer checks clock] a mere three hours!

You know, I'm tired just writing about all that stuff to do. Thankfully, I still have another full day in which to get ready.

Knowledge is Power

If the back yard grows into a wild meadow before it gets mowed, I get foot rubs for all my hard work chopping it down.

If the bathtub doesn't get cleaned until it looks pink, I get backrubs for all the effort I put into it to make it white again.

If the dishes congeal in the sink until there are no clean glasses left, I get chocolate praises for making the dishes clean again.

What I've learned from all this? When I keep the house and yard spotless and up-to-date, no one notices. If I let it go to hell, then spend a week trying to get it back under control again, I get lots of rubbies, praises, and chocolate!

Hmm, wonder what I should do with this knowledge?

Staggering

I am awaking from a long sleep at last. I'm not sure the cause, but my actually sleeping hasn't been useful so I've been sleep-walking through the days, which have been packed with activities like cleaning, editing, watching five girls under the age of 10, cooking, taking the dog out, and trying not to yawn too big in case I dislocate my jaw.

I finally felt as though I slept through the night, with gentle dreams that didn't leave me breathlessly awake and wondering if it all really happened or if I was actually dreaming.

So today is a gift and I'm taking it easy. No rushing for me. I haven't written much of anything in the last few days, but I've been conspiring on stories in my head in a day-dream short of fashion. Now that I've chosen which story to submit to the Orycon writers workshop, I'm arguing with myself to change it. I think my original decision will win, if only because there are more words for the submission in that one. And I have the synopsis half thought out.

It was good to be editing again, even though I had to fight through the fog to make a coherent thought. Hopefully Carole got something useful out of my remarks and thank goodness I don't have to try to be useful on the second part of Masks for Kami until next week. That gives me time to read back through it. By the way, Kami, when I got to the end of the section, I didn't want it to be the end. I was tempted to e-mail you and demand more. How's that for a critique?

(For whatever reason, the Title bar isn't working here tonight).

Title: Writing? What's Writing?

It's been a week since I've done any writing whatsoever (other than blog writing or notes neither of which I count). That's the longest I've gone without writing something towards or on a story or novel since, hmmm, about January 2005. I think it was a Thursday when I picked it back up after a month break from the first NaNo.

Not to say I haven't had anything to work on; I'm in the early stages of screwing up a great short story idea which is the point just before I sort out what direction things are going to dart off in, and I still have that cat story that I'm not going to get back to before the end of the month.

Wednesday afternoon, before fireworks while sitting in a decidedly early 1970's decor steakhouse, we played one of my favorite games: Profiling characters in the room. There was Ida from the farm in Iowa who had flown in specifically to be with family for the 4th, Ed who with his 3rd trophy wife was trying to impress a new manager and his unimpressable wife fresh in from St. Louis, Joel at the bar was 2 sheets to the wind and working on the 3rd and trying to sound charming to the younger waitresses...until his wife showed up hot and sweaty from watching the kids down at the pool alone. And we can't forget Lana, the transsexual, who looked like she missed her turnoff to Las Vegas and wound up trying to get Joel's attention...and she did but honey, you'll need to work on that baritone voice if you don't want men spilling their drinks all over themselves.

Naturally, I took notes on them all. It's what I do best somedays.

After a major project completion here at home tomorrow/Monday, I should be back in the writing saddle again. And just for the record, I've checked five more books off the 'Read Books' list -- Joyce Carol Oates - Haunted, 2006 Best of SF&F, Sister Salty - Sister Sweet, and 2 Jack Ketchum horror tales. Man, is that last guy's writing smooth.