Making a start

It's a long weekend here in Australia, and I've been having an at home weekend, puttering around doing things that needed doing (well, apart from hanging out with my awesome crit buddies on Sunday...minus the fabulous Keri who is swanning around in Ohio, getting ready to party at the Romantic Times conference).

One of the things I tackled was clearing out my spare room, which had become pretty much full of junk over the last few years. A task I've been avoiding forever because it seemed like too big a job. But this weekend I reached that point of "enough is enough", girded up my virgo loins, grabbed my handy dandy kitchen timer and attacked.

And here's the thing. It took nowhere near as long as I thought. I still haven't finished completely, I need to sort through two bookcases to identify books to go to the Salvos or somewhere so I have a bit more space but tackling the junk took maybe 2 and half hours. (Trust me, there was plenty of junk!) In fifteen minute spurts so I'm not exhausted at the end of the weekend and I had plenty of time to relax and do other things. I've probably spent far longer over the last few years looking at it and thinking "too hard".

Getting rid of stuff is good for the brain. It gives you space to breathe. And Nike has it right. Just do it is a pretty good motto. Starting something gets rid of the niggling "I should do x or y, or I need to tackle x or clean" thoughts that take up so much space in our heads.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Saturday night, after I'd finished, a shiny new book idea popped into my head. Sure, I don't have time for it right now but new ideas are always a good thing. Space is a good thing for writers. It's easier to be creative when you're not worrying about everything else you "should" be doing.

So that's my wisdom for the weekend. Getting started always makes you feel better and you can tackle anything (even something huge like writing a book) in fifteen minute bursts and it will get done. You don't have to kill yourself putting in twelve hour days (well, maybe sometimes on a deadline you do..but even then if you're in the regular habit, you shouldn't have to do so much to meet a deadline), it doesn't have to be perfect straight away, you just have to make the effort to start and keep going. Maybe not particularly earth shattering (particularly if you've ever listened/read any Flylady stuff) but well worth remembering when writing or anything else seems overwhelming. Just do it.

Hopefully I'll remember all this if I have to disappear into the depths of the revision cave over the next few weeks!

No rest for the wicked

Usually the girls give (or demand) a bit of down time between books but for the last little while this one's been prowling around my head and the heroine hasn't been all that happy about being told to wait and kept right on whispering in my ear. So I guess I'll be starting this when I get a chance to do some writing and now that she's relatively hapy with the collage and the soundtrack. She's kind of bossy. Kind of screwed up and he's just pure sunshine...this could be fun.




PS For those of you counting alone, we're down to four more sleeps and, even more exciting, one more day of work!!

Famous last words

So this afternoon I settled down to read some of Wolf 2 and go over my notes from the last pass on structural stuff. Which was fine. Then I did the Sunday afternoon read for a bit and meditate. Of course, the girls being contrary beasts suddenly decided that maybe, just maybe, they could stop sulking about Steamy Weather. I got some scene snippets and some additions to the soundtrack and a collage.

Not sure where this fits in the grand plan but I'm going to go along with it for now and see how far I get and will do some Wolf 2 thinking/revising at the same time. It will be interesting swinging backwards and forwards between two completely different books and genres but I'll see how it goes.

I'm not planning to talk much about SW in case I voodoo myself, even though keeping the metrics worked well for Witch. I liked seeing the stats each day. I find it motivating to record them, like page counts. It's my Virgo side I guess. All statistical and analytical. So I'll keep some stats and report occasionally but probably not as much as Witch. Who knows, I could wake up tomorrow and the girls will retreat into sulking again but let's hope not, I was having great fun with it when it was flowing well.

Trust the girls

You know, writing and the way your brain puts together a story can be endlessly intriguing. Like today. I came back to a scene that was stalling a few days ago, to tweak it because I tweaked an earlier scene. And this is a scene I wrote the start of maybe three or four years ago, when I first had the idea for these characters. A scene and a character I actually thought would start book 2. But now, even though I've tweaked the premise and story a fair bit, this scene still works, not just works but is necessary to the story. And today, the direction it went kind of gave me my key to how I can make this a series. All from a snippet written years ago, when I only had the vaguest idea about this book and in fact had only written the opening scene and a love scene both of which were largely experiments in trying out first person POV.

It's days like this that I feel like maybe I (or at least my subconscious) know what I'm doing with this writing thing. Days like this feel right. And I'm starting to suspect that the fact that I'm having a pretty good writing week after getting back into meditation is not necessarily a coincidence. Writer brain works better when rest of brain is not hyper virgo brain, I think. Taking care of yourself is probably as important to creativity as actually doing the creative stuff.

But that's enough deep thoughts for now. This is the lunchtime update. I have stuff to do this afternoon but hopefully I may be able to edit this page count later on.


Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Six. So far Ten
Intriguing things - Wise witches. Bigger things.
Annoyances - Not annoying.
Music - Moby again. I think Moby is the mother song. Headphones.
Linear/Non-linear - Non
Location - At the desk. Scrivener. Full screen.
Taking care of Mel - Slept in. Planning meditation and exercise. Yes to meditation. No to exercise
Muse food - Some couch time with a book or two. Patrick later on. Maybe some iTunes playtime. I did all of this but no Patrick. Dopey TV programmers have stolen my Grey's!!! I protest.

Focus

I may have mentioned before that my girls in the basement can be slightly contrary. They want to play all over the place and don't necessarily care about my views or plans.

Like today. Today I'm standing in the shower (a frequent book-puzzling-out location for most writers I'd guess) trying to figure out some stuff for the book when the girls started playing the song which I know goes with the last scene of Wolf 3 very loudly in my head (it's still playing), and start my h/h from those books talking. Gah.

No! I have taken notes but I'm not writing Wolf 3 now. Though I'm thinking that my plan that next I'd revise Wolf 2 might be altering to write Wolf 3 and revise Wolf 2 at the same time. Because 3 is becoming more and more insistent in my head.

But no more werewolves until we sort out the witch and her boy and the demon. Into the fog once more for me. Maybe if I go back to Moby I can drown out this other song.

Speedy

Well, today has been a good writing day. Which you can see from the below. But this book is weird. Even though it's coming fast, it's not like Wolf where I knew where things were going and kind of had the book playing in the back of my brain at all times and could feel scenes rising up in front of me as I wrote. No, this still feels like I'm driving in heavy fog and my headlights are showing maybe a foot in front of me. It's very first drafty but hey, I'm not arguing at this point. I can figure out what it's all about when I get to the end. At this point, I'm hoping to hit 40k by the end of tomorrow. And maybe fifty k by the end of Easter. We'll see.

Now it's time for grocery shopping and going out for dinner.

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Fifteen (don't ask me how)
Intriguing things - Demons. Finally. Kissing. Finally.
Annoyances - Not annoying. Apart from having no idea what it's all about of course.
Music - Oxygene Part 11 and Wicked Games. No idea why this single song repeat thing is what this book wants but one does not argue with the girls. Headphones.
Linear/Non-linear - Back and forth. So non.
Location - At the desk. Scrivener. Full screen.
Taking care of Mel - Walking (hell must be freezing over even if Melbourne if melting. Meditation and naps.
Muse food - They definitely liked Robert. Today they wanted lolcats. They found this and this especially hilarious. What can I say. The girls are SF and fantasy nerds. Tonight fun with friends.

Saturday and the weather is contrary

I had to get up early (well, early for me on a Saturday) to do a chat for the class I'm doing with Barbara Samuel. So I thought I'd be virtuous and chuck some washing on. After all, it's meant to be 36 today (the weather has not yet cottoned on to the fact it's autumn here downunder), good sheet and towel drying weather.

Famous last words. The load was just finishing when thunder arrived. Soon after rain joined in the party. Sigh. It's now sunny again but there are ominous grey clouds lurking just daring me to try hanging anything out. Which means I now have the dryer running. On a 36 degree day. Only in Melbourne.

In other news, I took myself off to see Music and Lyrics yesterday. Hugh Grant in fine form and a very funny movie if you were a teenager in the eighties and into pop music along the lines of Wham et al. Interestingly it's also about blocked writers, and following your path and what it takes to succeed. I'll admit to getting quite impatient with Drew's character's woe is me line. I almost applauded "Inspiration is for amateurs". It's true. It is. Inspiration is wonderful and fabulous and there's nothing better than writing a book that pours onto the page. But not all books do and sometimes you've just gotta sit and grit your teeth and write through the tough patches. Particularly if you want to do this for a living. You've gotta get the book done. And honestly, often if you go back and read the stuff from days when it feels like you're trying to carve the words onto granite with a rubber toothpick, you often can't tell the difference from the days when you are grinning and telling yourself you are the best writer ever in the history of any universe anywhere. So sit ye down and hands on keyboard. Taking satisfaction in a progress bar is sometimes more helpful than waiting for the muse.

Elsewhere, Kelly Hunter's second book, Priceless, comes out in Australia this month (or you can go order it now from eharlequin.com.au like I just did). Kelly is a fabulous, fresh, funny writer and a great gal too, so go forth and purchase.

And finally, Wolfy has made the final six of RWAustralia's Emerald Single Title comp. Which is not the final round but still, chuffedness. I think I can call that a competition hat trick. Let's hope that editors like it too.

Fat and happy

No, not me. At least not the outer me. But the girls in the basement or the muse or the flow or the inner artist or whatever you want to call them. That's what I want them to be.

To further that aim, I'm doing a course with Barbara Samuel on looking after that side of yourself. You can read more about it on Barbara's blog. But anyway, I was out today doing some homework when I came across this:



I think she's great. She's round and calm and strong and completely satisfied. She's knows stuff (I mean, look at the size of the head). She's got what she wants. Exactly my goal for the girls.

So now she's sitting with my other writing icons, watching over my desk and reminding me of what I'm aiming for. Fat and happy. Sounds good to me!