Back to The Drawing Board (sort of)

Last Friday I wrote 250 words or so of a very important beginning scene. When I returned to it I realized it wasn't going to work. After a few sick days and four days of brainstorming, I realize that I need to do a little more prep work before I can go back to writing the manuscript.


It may take me just a few more days or it may take a couple of weeks. It all depends on how sick I get in between and whether my muse will work with me on this.

It's really a good thing. It's going to make the story much richer and fuller. But it also means the little bar on the side isn't going to up for awhile, and I was having such fun watching it go up. I'm working on my antagonist's character pre-planning now. I figure that the more I do this, the more I'll realize when I need to keep prepping and when I have enough to start the first draft.

Yum-Yum's been helping me.

Word-Per-Day Update

Great day. I didn't sleep well last night and didn't want to do much today, but I had a goal of writing 1000 words today. It's funny because I got up, fed the cats, and took a little rest. After a short while I started writing and just zipped through those scenes. I'm not saying they were great. In fact, the main scene I'm not very happy with, but that's for revision. It'll do for now.

I didn't quite make my goal of 1000 words though, unless you count this post. I finished the scenes I was working on, set everything up for the next scene, looked at the cards and realized that it didn't work. I need to have at least one more scene in between the one I did today and the one I have mapped out.

No big deal, really. I just need to brainstorm some more and I have one idea that's simmering at the back of my mind already.

So I didn't make my goal, but I got so close to it and did so much than I would have otherwise that I feel good about it all. You can almost see the pink in the little bar!   

Word-Per-Day

I just started actually writing the first draft of what I'm tentatively calling Nettle's Twist. That's not the title it will go by. Just a working title. When I was thinking what to save the file as those two words were on my notepad. I always have a really hard time coming up with great titles and names. But no matter.

What does matter is that I have a word-per-day meter on the sidebar. I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up-dated every day, but I'll try. It doesn't matter if I miss a day.

I wish I could say I was done with all the prep work, but it just doesn't work like that. I've gotten enough prep work done to start, but it's the sort of thing that never really finishes. Even into revision. It's an odd process, but enjoyable.

I was pretty stressed this afternoon, because I didn't get as much done as I would like, but I just have to deal with days like that. There are plenty of them. It was a cloudy day, the kind where it doesn't rain, it just feels achy and fatigued. Still it's enjoyable work, and I'm grateful for that. 

Work Station Part 2

Last week I showed what my writing desk currently looks like. I said I would show where I write when I'm too sick to sit up, but just well enough to be creative and hold a pen.

I am rather ashamed of showing it, I have to admit. I didn't realize till I took this picture how shabby everything looks and not in a chic way.

Of course, any bed made by me is going to look wrinkly, that's a given. Because I'm so often in the bed looking out, I pay more attention to the other three walls. There's nothing behind the bed but a big blank beige canvas. The shelves on the side and the table look makeshift (which they are). I'm definitely gonna have to do something about that. It makes a difference to me now that I'm able to sit at my desk more often and look at this view.

On the bright side, working with a blank canvas allows you to do all kinds of things you might not think of otherwise. These should make really good before pictures.

I use to hate that this was a full size bed since it's such a small room. Now I like it. They say not to work or do problem solving in bed because it can affect your sleep. So I sleep on one side and work on the other. I really think that helps.

The blanket and teddy bear is Yum-Yum's. She kneads it and sleeps with her head on it. I hardly ever hear her purr except when she's kneading her teddy. 

Work Station Part 1

Pitti-Sing is beautifully demonstrating my work station. The table is one of those medical tables that slide over the bed. Great invention, but when you're not using it you've got to have a place to store it. I crocheted the tablecloth and the chair covers.

My room is incredibly tiny, 10x11'. And it has to serve several functions. That's my dresser in the foreground, a good, strong piece of pine furniture that's stood up through several moves. It obviously doubles as a bulletin board.

And here the lovely Pitti-Sing is demonstrating an alternative use of the notebook -- as a seat cushion.

The pink notebook on the right is my To-Do list. That stays open on the desk so I know what I'm doing each day.

This was today's list. I've done more than this, but these were important things I wanted to get done. Yes, breakfast is an important thing that I have to be reminded to do. Helps me get my day started right.

But this is only where I work when I can sit up. Well, sometimes I take my things to the couch and work there. In part 2, I'll show where I work when I'm too sick to sit up.
 

Relax

Nobody can relax like a cat. I love to see the look of bliss on her face. She's twelve years old, but she still acts like a kitten.

Thursdays were supposed to be my blogging days, but I can't work like that. (Of course, nobody actually reads it, but you still have to write it as if somebody does. It's a mental thing.) So I relaxed and said to myself, "Self, how do I work?" The answer is I have to have wide margins in my deadlines. So, I'll plan to to write the post on Mondays and tell it to publish it on Thursday. If I'm sick Monday, then I can do it on Tuesday,  etc.

That's how I've been getting done a lot of other stuff. This week I used the same method for changing the cat's litter boxes. It took me three days, but it finally got done.

Well, I completely finished Lesson 7 of How To Think Sideways. I'm now working on the Lesson 8 modules. (You've really got to work each lesson as marked and not skip about.) This lesson is all about coming up with just the write amount of worldbuilding before you start. Fortunately I've never been a big world builder, but I've gone to the other end of the spectrum and wrote 'by-the-seat-of-the-pants,' and gotten no finished product out of it.
 

I tried to go to the other end and build thirty cultures on six worlds and figure out the meal plan for the main character for three weeks, but I just couldn't do it. I get too anxious and want to write. Anyway, that's what this lesson is about. Doing just enough worldbuilding you need to started.

I've always been a very secretive writer, not showing anybody anything. Well, I'm trying to get over that at least to some extent. I don't have anything to show you right now, but I hope to maybe in a month or so. Maybe a little longer (see my work system above). When the times comes to actually start writing the manuscript I'll put up a word-per-day counter here.

Happy Color

I love color. These are Swish worsted and Swish tonal worsted yarns from Knit Picks. They make me happy when I look at them. I've started an afghan using the pattern on Attic24. I love the way she puts colors together.

This is the start of mine. It's actually progressed since this, but I haven't taken a picture of it. It'll probably go in the sun room, which is a mess right now so there won't be any pictures of that any time soon.

Yesterday I finished an interesting but grueling exercise from Lesson 7 of How To Think Side Ways. All of her writing instruction are fantastic and this one is no exception, but that doesn't mean it's easy. I haven't finished all the exercises from Lesson 7, just the word exercise that took me more than a week. I'm looking forward to working on the rest but I've scheduled aside Thursdays for blogging and oh, several other things. 

I was rather anxious when I got up this morning. Sometimes it just happens that way without any specific reason. I prayed, of course, and started playing one of those entrainment albums. This one's called Music To Promote Stress Relief by Dr. Lee Bartel and John Herberman. Sorry I don't have a link.The first track has these beats that are like listening to someone's heart beat in a slow, even fashion. Normally I don't like new age music, but this is for a specific purpose and somehow I don't mind that as much.

They say petting a cat helps to lower one's blood pressure and relieve anxiety. (I can't give a resource for this information. It's just 'they.' Someone must have said it sometime or else how would I have heard somewhere?)  Pitti-Sing is a real lap cat and it's hard to get pictures of her as a general rule. As soon as I snapped this one she got up, and I didn't even use a flash. She just doesn't like the camera, what can I say?