Writer's Group - May Round

Had our latest critique meeting tonight, was fun and educational as always. It's so cool how diverse our little group is.

Haven't been writing because I have a few more art projects that must get done. Hopefully I'll be back on the writing train again early next week. Maybe sooner if I can get motivated. Just been more in visual arts mode lately. I wonder what my writing productivity would be like if I was a writer only. Could I give up art...?

Silly question.

-k.

Change in scenery

So, last night I tried an experiment. My husband graciously gave me the night off from family time and mommy duties, and me and my Laptop pulled a J.K. Rowling -- we headed over to the nearest Starbucks, where I, with my coffee and sandwich, parked myself for a couple of hours of writing.

Guess what? Away from the clutter of kids toys and the distractions of internet and home, I was able to get focused and I actually got some writing accomplished. I still went round in circles, and it took me the first full hour to push past the resistance (why am I bothering, this sucks, etc) and get in the zone, but overall, I was relaxed, focused, and interested again. I was able to experiment with the opening of my MG story, switching voice and tense and POV, no one interrupted me when I needed to stare off into space and visualize what happened next, and I enjoyed myself.

Lesson learned? I can get back to that happy writing place that I haven't felt for 20 years. The writing inside me isn't dead, it's just all jumbled up by art projects, Mommy duties, and life.

I don't know if this makes me a wimp or not, but I guess I do need serious alone time to get work done. I'm going to try to get at least one night a week at the coffee house. I think the 'me' time is good for more than just the writing. And I'm going to see how I can get more of it daily. Do I go to bed at 9 pm so I can wake up at 4 or 5? If I managed it (it's against my night owl proclivities), I'd never see my husband. Do I continue as I am, but try to get a nap in so I stay up until 3 and only get 4 hours of sleep and then be a grumpy bear to my husband and son? Or should I just stop pressuring myself, write when I can, and if it takes five years until I can get my manuscript(s) finished, learn to be okay with that?

Maybe a combination of all of the above. But I'm not going to sweat it anymore. If I can't be truly productive until my son heads off to school in a year or to, so be it.

Read about the Elephant Coffee House, where Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter book.



-k

Another Late Night

Daily word goal: 500 words
Yesterday's total: 317
Today's total: TBD

I stayed up waaaayyyy too late last night working on painting, and 4 hours of sleep just isn't conducive to quick firing synapses, so I expect I'll get no writing accomplished today. However, I've wrangled a promise out of the husband to watch Billy for a couple hours this evening so maybe after an afternoon nap and some coffee I'll be rarin' to go.

I might actually not submit anything for my group this month. Maybe I'll just be an editor-only and give myself a break. I'm still trying to convince myself that until my son goes to school, it's okay that I don't have the time or energy to be fully committed to this endeavor right now. Maybe it's old age setting in, but I just can't multitask as effectively as I used to. The chaos and clutter affects me like it never used to before.

Or maybe I just need to man up!

-k

Oh crud

Apparently my critique group deadline is Friday. Oops. How did that happen?

Ruining my sleep

This is how you know that some of this writer stuff is starting to sink in.

Photo: Jensen Ackles (left) and Jared Padalecki from Supernatural

This morning as I'm sleeping, I've got this lovely little end-of-the-world dream going on (probably all Supernatural's fault), and I (well, me playing the part of a tough as nails cowgirl type) and this other character are trying to round up a few survivors. I pick up this old woman, real salt of the earth type and a recovering alcoholic. Apparently she can't even get a whiff of the stuff without going off her rocker.

Now the wise reader will say, aha! Foreshadowing! At some point this crazy old bat will fall off the wagon with dire consequences.

Meanwhile, I spend several dream pages deepening my relationship for the crazy old girl, so that when, as it inevetitably would, she sneaks just one tiny sip of vodka in a post apocalyptic western town we were rolling through, gets in our car, and smashes it through a store window not only were we

• horrified for her safety, because we had spent all those dream pages building our relationship with her
• she totalled the car, which was our sole means of transportation, thus making our situation go from bad, to hell of a lot worse.

So maybe this plotting thing is finally starting to sink in.

Because I included a supporting character in the story with a character with a fatal flaw, I advanced my plot in these ways:

• Plot complications arising out of character
• Successfully heaped more problems on my MC
• Built anticipation by introducing the drinking problem and having it come into play later in the story.

It was a nice change of pace from my recent tornado dreams. Now, if only I could get this down while awake!

-k