12.5.13

We did it! The book is now totally outlined, all the way to the end. Lots of happy dancing around here, especially because neither of us are outliners. But having a real live roadmap might be a welcome change, to be honest. And trust me when I say, two heads are definitely better than one. 

Over the past three days I've added 7000 to the manuscript. Love this forward momentum. Flying home tomorrow and I think I'm going to read and chill, then start again in earnest Saturday. I am now officially on deadline. I want my draft done in mid January so I have lots of time to edit, so I'm going monk for a while. Early to bed, early to rise, as few distractions as possible. 

Sigh. Best do my Christmas shopping on the plane, huh?  

We had a fabulous Christmas lunch with some of the coolest writers in the Bay Area today, too. There is nothing better than hanging around a bunch of authors. I've done it twice this week, and I'm telling you, I am energized and inspired by the amazing ladies I've been blessed to hang with.

Sweet dreams, chickens! 

12.4.13

Bleary eyed after a long day. We have plotted, and revised, and cooked up all sorts of fabulous things. But my brain is broken now, and I can hardly think straight. I have visions of Nicholas Drummond dancing through my head - not that I'm complaining, Nicholas is really rather divine - and boy, how, does he get himself into it this time.

Must find a better way of keeping notes, I have scraps of paper and new pages in Scrivener and notes in the chapter documents and my spreadsheet/chessboard has grown into a behemoth. Tomorrow I may try for a simple notebook. The problem is I type faster than I write. I wish we could videotape a brainstorming session, it is fun as all get out.

Also went to the High Cholesterol Factory for lunch, and a little bit of retail therapy to wake us up. California has the cutest clothes, slightly different than Nashville's selection, so I always come home with a few new goodies. Bought an adorable dress at Anthropologie. I'm in love with that store. 

Hear tell there's a big big winter storm winging its way toward Nashville. Send a prayer to the weather gods that I get home Friday evening before it hits.  

Sweet dreams!

12.3.13

Safe and sound in sunny, albeit chilly, Northern California. We had a headwind on the flight out which added an extra hour to the flight, but that was a good thing. I'm telling you, no Internet = enhanced productivity. Hands down. I'm wondering if I should have Randy take my router to work with him in the morning. Yes, I wouldn't be able to research, but I'd also not be able to futz around.

Had an interesting idea for how to manage the plot of the new book. Spent a large portion of the flight pulling it together, and I was surprised by how well the method worked. Once I've given it some real thought, and if it still makes sense to me, I may be able to use it to teach in January at the Tennessee Mountain Writers' January Jumpstart. Last time I taught there, I ended up writing the opening and a huge chunk of the plot for THE COLD ROOM - oh yes, my pretties, if you're taking a class from me, you are expected to WRITE! 

Catherine made sure I was properly fed and watered (had a lovely Langhe Nebbiolo, a Piedmonte grape which is so luscious!) But I miss the kitties and my man, and we have a long work day tomorrow, so I'm headed to bed.

Sweet dreams to you!

12.2.13

There is nothing better than stumbling across a quote that resonates in your head, a moment of clarity, of truth, which gongs like a bell through your brain. I ran across this on the fabulous Quo Vadis Blog yesterday and had to share. 

“Many of us keep diaries or journals full of our individual thoughts, experiences, and feelings. The art of writing out ones thoughts has a therapeutic side to it (as in narrative therapy): in the process of writing the thoughts or emotions are somewhat ‘distanced’ from the “I” experiencing them. There arises a tiny ‘space’ between the ‘I’ and the experience so that we can explore, study, evaluate the experience and its effects more objectively.”

— Dr. Susan Smalley, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA.  

I've mentioned before that I am not a natural journaler. I try. I buy pretty notebooks, leather covers, special pens. I'll stick to it for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, then I'll skip a day, and boom, I'm off the path. There's something weird about putting all my thoughts, my personal stuff, down on paper. Maybe it makes it too real for me. I don't know.

But what I do like is what Dr. Smalley talks about above. Narrative therapy. Allowing myself a broad scope view of my work, my process, my artistic life.

And it hit me. THIS is why I blog. THIS is why I post these little evening updates. It's a mirror of my creative soul. This has become an important part of my process, these few moments at the end of the day, when I ruminate on my work. It allows me to be present, to gather my thoughts, to assess what's important, and what's working, or not.

Narrative therapy.

"A-ha!" said the writer with the shiny lightbulb above her head...

Sweet dreams!

12.1.13

I've been working most of the weekend, though I have precious little to show for it. Only an net additional 3K words, but the first 15 chapters are now solidly in place, make sense, flow, all that jazz. This morning, I realized I needed to delete all of yesterday's work, over 1000 words gone to the gutter. I hate doing it, but I went off the rails yesterday, and thank goodness I woke up this morning and realized it before I continued the thread any further. Happily, a new solution presented itself, so I grabbed that thread and wove it in, and voilá, we have liftoff.

I'm heading out to Cali this week to sit down with CC and talk about the book, where it is now, how all our planning and plotting has come together, and what happens next. Communication is absolutely vital to a collaboration, and while we've been talking constantly, a little face to face never hurt anything. Plus, there is a Christmas party to attend! A holiday treat for us both, for sure.

Speaking of face to faces, I had coffee with my über cool buddy Meg Gardiner yesterday. (Best grab her latest, THE SHADOW TRACER, ASAP)  Talk about a treat. There's nothing better than being able to sit down in person with your friends. So many of my buds I only get to see at conferences, so I was tickled we were able to hook up. And tomorrow there's a writer's brunch here in town, so it's more in person action with like-minded folk.

And you know what? It's a very good thing. Being isolated behind a computer screen all the time is terribly unhealthy. Facebook and Twitter will never be enough of a substitute for seeing the light gleam in another writer's eyes as they tell you a story.

Cheers, mates!