12.10.13

It has been quite a day. An ice/snow storm to start things off, which was beautiful, but shot my morning plan to hell, because Randy was home, and it wasn't exactly fair to ask him to tiptoe around and not watch the local news reports on the weather to see when he could venture downtown because I had a PLAN. Which meant I ended up online until he left, but he scooted at 9 or so, and I got down to work at 9:15.

1250 net before lunch. This is a good thing. Dani Shapiro wrote an essay called Gravy, in which she talks about Donald Hall's memoir LIFE'S WORK. He discusses his perfect day, which sums up to he gets up really early and does his work. By 10 a.m., he's finished the creative stuff, and the rest of the day is gravy.

This is my PLAN. Morning writing, no matter what, so I am guaranteed decent word counts. And on days like today, where the disruptions are massive - ice storm, afternoon haircut, wallowing about Christmas - this habit served me well.

Now look away, this next bit is rather personal. 

I bought a Christmas tree this evening. I wasn't going to this year - what with the kittens, and the travel plans, it seemed silly to decorate the house for two weeks. And when you don't put up a tree, there's no reason to do much else. But CC's house was awe inspiringly decorated, like an incredible fancy Christmas shop, and a friend asked how I was handling the kittens with my tree, and I told her I'd forgone the tree, and she mentioned her three kids and why that wasn't an option.

It burned. It did. We don't have kids, but not through any choice of our own. Child-oriented holidays are... difficult. Happily, I get to go to my parents and BE the child, which helps, but it's still hard sometimes. We do all sorts of things to alleviate this externally, with charities and such, but internally, well, I've become a bit apathetic toward Christmas. And Halloween. 

Which is rather stupid, because I adore both holidays. 

Christmas is also difficult because I'm on deadline, every year, without fail, so I don't have the month to dedicate to getting in the spirit of things. It's the 10th now, and I have most of my shopping done, but that's it. No cards written, no carols sung. CBS aired Rudolph the night before Thanksgiving, so I have to stream it. I did buy a wad of chocolate chips and white chocolate chips and candy canes for peppermint bark, and hung my favorite wreath, the felt leaves with the mommy and daddy cardinal, above the fireplace, where it nestles into the tibetan prayer bells I put up for Christmas two years ago and never took down.  

And now I have a tree.

I want to thank my anonymous friend here for her comment this morning. I was shaken, all day, recognizing I was using the kittens as an excuse, a whopping, nasty big excuse, and that the real reason I didn't want to put up a tree is my own apathy, my own demon I need to wrestle with. And the only way to wrestle demons is to face them head on.

Thank you, darling husband, for jumping headlong into the Christmas tree lot on a moment's notice tonight, and helping me pick out a lovely little spruce that looks so pretty in the bookcase corner, Buddha sitting beside him. 

And fuck you, holiday apathy. I am done with you.

Now, where are those lights?

Sweet dreams!

12.9.13

Net 1K today, and now I've got 8 chapters revised out of the 25 I needed to fix. Had a horrible time getting started this morning -- up too late last night, I suspect, so tonight I'll be crashing early. And I had such grand plans for the day, too. 

Net, you notice, which means I had to delete some stuff. I do so despise deleting, but sometimes, you have to, especially when it benefits the story. The story is King, Queen and Executioner in my life, and what I took out today certainly gave what I was trying to do have greater impact. I tucked it away, I will be able to use part of it later.

And of course, as I type this, it hits me exactly where I can use those words, and so I jumped over to the manuscript and put them back in. They'll need to be edited, but -- hurrah! Word count is doubled for the day!

Had the awful pleasure of needing to buy a new chair for my office - my lovely chair has bit the ghost, all the lumbar support is gone. I decided to get myself a good chair. A really good chair. I don't write at a desk, I much prefer my laptop in my lap and my legs up -- it puts the least pressure on my back. I've been looking around half-heartedly, knowing exactly which brand I should go with, hoping something else will capture my fancy. I nearly bought one out in Cali that CC and I found, but talked myself out of it -- the fabric was twill, and the kittens would like that a little too much. Leather is much less likely to impel scratching.

So to the Ekornes store I went. I found the perfect chair, one that's long enough in the seat to accommodate my legs, both straight and folded under me, and tall enough in the back to support my head, and worked out a decent deal, and it should arrive for the new year. I very nearly purchased the purple floor model, but I didn't get a price break on it, so went ahead with the black. I love purple, I do, but I can only imagine ten years down the road, deciding I hate purple and loathing the poor beast.

So in the meantime, Randy will have to put up with me parked in his chair. Sorry, darling!

Have so many things to talk about, will have to save them for later in the week. So I leave you, for now, with ...

Sweet dreams!

12.7.13

So nice to be home. The kittens grew whilst I was gone, Jameson actually growing taller, which tells us we don't have a little cat, like we thought we might. They've both gained some weight, and seem happy and sassy, so clearly Randy did a good job with them this week. They've both been on me all day, draped around my neck and asleep in my lap, so I'm feeling wanted as well. 

Got up this morning, did a bunch of overdo Christmas shopping, settled in at noon to work, then realize my laptop was still on Pacific time. Two hours lost! So I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I got a start on the revisions I need to make to the first third of the book before I go on to write the rest. 

One of the many things I find fascinating about Catherine is her work set up. Her work computer does not have Internet, and it's in a different part of the house from the computer that does. (She also has the willpower of a General, and laughs at my difficulty keeping work and life separate) I've been trying to decide a good way to handle this, realizing that it's very important not to have the constant siren's call of distraction in my lap at all times. CC has a great, non-connected rhythm to her days, one I effortlessly fall into while I'm there, and quickly fall out of when I'm home. 

This isn't a new problem for me. I'm a laptop addict, though, and can't imagine not having Internet on it - plus I use Dropbox, which constantly updates during the day. Yes, I use Freedom quite a bit, but by shutting my Internet off completely, I don't have the backups.

What if there was another way to create a distraction free environment?

Before Dropbox, I used to email myself the manuscript at the end of each day as a backup.  I had a Sony Vaio several years ago, and I set up a separate user account on it, with parental controls that severely limited the Internet and weren't easily circumvented, and an email account that I could use to mail the manuscript back each day. It worked rather well. But with Dropbox, all I need is a wireless connection, and the work is immediately backed up each time I save.

So I created a new user on my MacAir, took everything out but the wireless, Scrivener and Wunderlist (because I add stuff to my to do list at random throughout the day) And voila, a distraction free environment, sans bookmarks, Safari, and anything else that calls to me through the day.

We'll see how this works. I spent an hour in it this afternoon, and while I was tempted to go back over and check my mail, I didn't.  It's not a perfect solution, but it's elegant and simple enough to try for a while.

I'd love to hear if you have a good hack for distraction-free work time.

Sweet dreams!

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!