Outta My Way, Me

The Husband is out of town until Friday. I should have the whole week to get my edits done, right?

Except I have friends who want to make plans every night this week.

I like my friends. Normally I wouldn't have a problem being that social. (Ok, I would, but I'd still do it. I find groups of any real size to be very tiring.)

Problem is, I haven't worked on the novel in days. I have no real excuses except wanting to spend more time with The Husband before he had to go out of town. (Noble excuse, in my own mind.)

I'm back to being sick of the novel. Not because I think it's bad, but because I'm pretty happy with it. And I'm tired of working on it. Isn't this close enough???

No. I want this novel done. Done done done. Outta my hair and out into the ether for good or ill. But it still needs to be done right.

And the only thing standing in my way is...me.

So Monday I went out and was social. Tonight is my writing group, and while that isn't writing, it is useful. So I hereby pledge that I will work hard Wednesday night and Thursday night, and quite possibly Friday if The Husband crashes out when he gets home. (He'll either be a walking zombie or totally wired, I give it 50/50 odds.)

So outta my way, me. I want this thing done this week if I can at all humanly do it. Then it's off for copy editing while I (gulp!) try to find a cover.

Distractions and Some Cool Links

Yeah, I'm late. Sorry about that. Not only did I get my novel edits in the mail this week, but we signed up for NFL Game Rewind. All the football I can watch, whenever I want (mostly), no commercials. Dear God, when am I going to have time to write???

Anyway, here are two links, somewhat related, to get you thinking.

First, the ever-entertaining Blue sent me this link on 25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters. Not only amusing, but good advice too. (I liked this so much I had to buy Chuck's books.) Remember, author, you are the puppetmaster. And not only are you the puppetmaster, but you're a sadistic puppetmaster at that. Revel in it.

Second, the ever-insightful Lori Devoti has a post over at the Writer's Salon about how to create conflict and shift power between characters using dialogue. What, me play with power dynamics? Never!

Have fun kids, I'm off to try to get some edits done on 1794 before The Husband gets home. 'Cause after that it's gonna be nothin' but pigskin.

Image: Marcus74id / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Post-Activity Slump

I've written about patience many times, as I truly believe that patience is one of the most important skills a writer can nurture. But right now I'm kinda caught up in the insidious flip-side of patience: the post-activity slump.

I have a novel and four short stories out to editors, as well as two short stories out on submission. It's hard not to check the email every five minutes, but I have to have patience.

The problem I'm having right now is that I have a ton of stuff to do - a novella to finish, rewrites on another, six covers to make, blurbs to write, and I still haven't come up with a good title for the novel - but it's really hard to get motivated. I've gotten so much done in the last couple months, and I'm waiting waiting waiting to hear back from the editors so I know how much more work I have to do and can start planning a more firm timeline...and all I want to do is chill out for a couple weeks while I wait.

It almost even makes sense. Once I know my timeline, it'll be easier to prioritize, right? And I've spent so much time recently writing and doing business stuff, surely it would be good to take some time off for research and catching up on other authors. (Especially since my one research book is due back at the library any day now and I've used up all my renewals.)

Granted, I did spend a lot of hours last week learning Paint.NET and getting two covers mostly done, but I still sorta feel like I'm slacking, because I'm not writing. I haven't written anything new in months. It's all been edits and rewrites. And I keep looking forward to when all these stories are up and epubbed, because then things should slow down. I can get back to writing. I just want to know when. And until I know when, it's hard to concentrate.

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Things I Would Like to Do

As I sit here staring at my monitor, wondering what to blog about, I am struck by all the stuff I want to do that I keep pushing off.

I want to clean out the house, first off: a really thorough deep cleaning that involves getting rid of a lot of the crap I've accumulated over the years. Clothes, games, books, knick-knacks, all of it. Fine toothed comb. But that would take a good solid week, I think, to do it like I want to, and if I took a whole week off, shouldn't I be writing?

I want to weed my garden. When we first started looking at houses I couldn't wait to have a garden. But by the time I got a house, I didn't have the energy to garden. I can't even keep up with the small flower-bed that I do have, much less keep the landscaping looking the way it should.

I want to make a wiki for my world-building. Oh, that would be fun. I could spend hours cataloging, cross-referencing, researching... It might even be helpful. But it's not writing.

I want to make a new hat. I lost my old hat. It really wouldn't take more than a few hours. (I haven't made this pattern before.) I used to do a lot of sewing, but it's a lot like writing: it always takes longer than I think it will, and it's a whole lotta work while I'm doing it even if I do love the results. I'm not sure which the Husband dislikes more: me when I've started a sewing project, or me when I have a writing deadline coming up.

I sort of miss having hobbies. I get to game a little bit, but other than that, most of my "hobbies" are related to writing anymore. And I volunteer, when the writing doesn't get in the way. But I don't really consider the volunteering as a hobby. It's above hobby but below writing and day job. I miss feeling like I had time to waste. Not that I don't waste time, but I feel guilty. I should be getting something done! Even though sometimes you really just need to do nothing.

Maybe I need to come up with the envelope-method version of budgeting time. Except whenever I try to schedule my time like that I end up making myself crazy because I try to fit too much in. Hmm, ok, maybe the Husband should budget my time...

Distractions and Writer's Block

So we have a loose cable on the outside of the house. We thought it was the power line, but they came out and checked it and said no, it wasn't theirs. They thought it was the cable TV line, but the cable guy is here now and he says nope, not theirs either. He thinks it's the phone line. (Although he did find that our cable line is improperly situated so he's fixing that while he's here.) So next we get to call the phone company and have them out. I feel like I should throw a party for all my utilities homies.

Man, good thing I'm unemployed or I'd be pretty cranky about all the time off of work.

So.

Still working on the same stupid short story that I was working on before my cousin died. I'm just having a devil of a time focusing lately.

Yesterday I spent most of the day working on an edit for a short story that hopefully will be published in late September. I've sent in the contract but I made changes to it so I'm waiting to get a copy back before I post that one. More when I have it.

Wednesday is LAN party night for the husband, so it's just me and the dog. Which means we get to go for a nice long walk as soon as her energy level gets too high, which should be around 5pm. Which is of course right in the middle of my peak writing time. Ah well.

Back to 1794. Really. Honestly.

Distractions

Distractions abound. Between refinancing, birthday parties, home maintenance, and some long overdue one-on-one with the husband, I'm hardly getting any writing done. Bah! No one said this writing life was easy - but at least my office is repainted and the closets are cleaned out. Now just to haul all that stuff down to St. Vinnie's, and I'll have a viable guest bedroom again. Amazing how much you can get done when you are avoiding doing other things!

I'll be heading to that writer's conference I mentioned last time at the end of March. Should be interesting. I'd love to have an agent but I'm not going to let that stop me - e-publishing may not be as glamorous as print, but I do think it's a growing field. I'll be very interested to see how much the industry grows in the next five years or so. I had never thought I would want to buy anything in a download-only format, but the Teaching Company cured me of that! I love those guys, especially because I can log into my account and download my lectures again no matter where I am or what computer I am using. This is particularly nice when I'm traveling and just have my laptop - I can download the lectures I want to listen to without having to plan ahead, or hook up my laptop to our network at home. (I leave all that networking stuff to the husband.) So, while I'm not quite kosher with downloading music yet (partly because there is no RIAA for audiobooks, as far as I know, so I'm not worried about proving that yes, I really did pay for that. Yes, RIAA, you have helped me just stop buying music ALL THE WAY AROUND! Good job! Thank the gods for internet radio!) I am more than happy to download audiobooks. I have bought one digital CD and one digital non-audio book (PDF that I printed out). I guess it will be a race to see which happens first - I get a digital book reader of some sort for free, or the RIAA gets brought down by RICO charges.

I can dream, right?