Round One, Week Two — Ups and Downs

Medieval Writing, by Hans Splinter, WANA Commons

Last Wednesday, I didn’t have a lot more than a WIPpet to offer as progress  toward my goals. At least it did get me the two blog posts that I have been trying to achieve for a while, so that was good.  It was also fun to start to investigate a different aspect of a character I’ve been thinking about for a long time. A serendipitous find in a reference work opened up a whole story that has been unwinding itself in a lovely way.

I also took a brief look at some notes I wrote a few months ago about what might be an interesting A-Z blog challenge and thought about some possibilities for some more letters.

With a nudge here and there, I have been writing five sentences a day on fiction. I have been concentrating on the character mentioned above, but I also had a lightning strike about one of my World War II characters as well.

And as my pivot point from ups to downs, I did a decent job disengaging from the day job, although I realized I have to do some work tomorrow, even though it is officially a day off. Sigh.

On Friday, I had to go to New York City for a doctor’s appointment, and had planned to stay overnight to visit some of the bookstores and favorite restaurants. Unfortunately, the escalator to the track level was very slick, and I did a masterful free fall down the entire thing, managing an acrobatic split that I haven’t achieved since I was a teenager. Luckily, my doctor checked me out, and I’ve done nothing more serious than strained the ligaments in my knee, and several back muscles. Who knew I was that athletic? So, the other half and I didn’t make it to the Strand bookstore, but we did find a very nice Italian restaurant just a block away from the hotel.

I have had a pretty quiet day here, not getting the cleaning done that I had planned, but organizing lots of electronic files (some of which I had misplaced for about five years, so that was a victory). I suppose, now that I write it all down, it wasn’t a bad week, well, except for the banged up knee.

Round Four, Week Three — More Ideas Than Time

Autumn has remained in our neighborhood far longer than usual, with many trees still in full leaf. Unfortunately, rain and winds are forecast for tomorrow, so autumn may be on its way south. I’m a bit sad to see autumn go, but winter has its charms.

I have really fallen off the blogging wagon the past few weeks. I have swarms of ideas, but they tend to evaporate when I try to grasp them and wrestle them into words. Also, I am far too Type A for my own good, putting too much time and effort into the day job. It is crazy that I do so, because it is not neurosurgery, and no one will be harmed if I don’t do everything perfectly. Even so, it’s a hard habit to break.

Despite the pressures at work, this was a pretty good week, because I did manage to fit in some writing things. Saturday, I  went as Eden’s guest to the local chapter program of the Romance Writers of America. I have been reluctant, due to imposter syndrome, but I screwed up my courage. The program was very helpful, and all the members of the chapter were friendly, so I’m glad I finally convinced myself to go. It felt self-indulgent, but hey, it’s not as bad as chocolate, right?

So, other than falling on my face with blogging once a week, I did pretty well on my goals. I didn’t manage five pages of non-fiction, but I reworked the outline and schedule to make up for getting behind a couple of months ago. which was a necessary step to going forward. I met all my health and organizing goals as well. Of course, last night I managed to think of roughly six more projects so I need to set up folders and profiles for all of those projects as well.

Writing Goals:

Write one blog post every week. 

Write three pages of fiction every week. 

Write five pages of nonfiction every week.

Health Goals:

Walk forty minutes a day.

Use the standing desk at least three hours a day.

Keep up with medical appointments.

Organizing Goals:

Create project folders for each writing project.

Create a coloring book profile for each character in the novella.

Round Four 2017 Goals

My Round Four plan is to put some time and effort into organizing and planning. I tend to rush into writing without thinking things through.  While there are many people who can do that successfully, but I am not one of those people. Therefore,  I am going to pull back and try to go more slowly.

Grounding mantra: Organize, plan, contemplate

Writing Goals:

Write one blog post every week.

Write three pages of fiction every week.

Write five pages of non-fiction every week.

Health Goals:

Walk forty minutes a day.

Use the standing desk at least three hours a day.

Keep up with medical appointments.

Organizing Goals:

Create project folders for each writing project.

Create a coloring book profile for each character in the novella.

 

Week Three–Digging In

It was a meeting-rich week at the day job, and the sort of meetings that leave one absent a brain at the end of the day. At some point during the week, my husband sent me a picture of socks which said “This meeting is b***s**t.”  Later in the week, I saw a similar pair and other wonderful ones at a book/gift shop next to where Eden and I met for writing time. It is always dangerous for me to enter a bookshop, because I am so torn between getting ALL the books, and being guilty about buying any books that I cannot justify sitting down to read. I do listen to audio books, and read e-books, but I find it difficult to sit with a print book and read for pleasure.  I hope this inability passes soon, since I usually love to read physical books.

I am not in the best place with the day job right now, in that I am constantly pulled away from the work that matters to attend meetings about things that do not matter. The good thing is that my muse sometimes performs well under stress. Thus I am at times madly writing in my head, jotting down a phrase or two so as not to forget what I was thinking. On the negative side, I am starting to slide back into the Slough of Despond. I plan to investigate medications and/or therapy again, to see if I can moderate the slide before it gets too entrenched. 

So, how did I do on my goals:

One blog post per week. Some weeks this will probably be my account of how I progressed on my goals, but I hope to expand to other posts. Last Friday I went back to my Lapidary Prose blog, and posted a very short piece about hope. Most of my former followers have unfollowed the blog, and I don’t blame them.  I plan to continue to post there and put the links on Facebook and Twitter, slowly building followers again. I have a Mother’s Day post written, and a Father’s Day post drafted.

Five sentences of fiction every day. More will be cherished and coddled, but five is required. My return to the day job disrupted my daily writing routines, but I am slowly getting it back. Thursday I met Eden after work, and ironed out more details about my hero and heroine in the World War II novella, figuring out where and how they might have met, and further details about their backgrounds. I’m still struggling to find a good time to work on the daily writing. After brainstorming with the husband, I am going to try a different approach and write in the mornings before the day job.  I’ll report on my progress next week.

Half an hour of editing the non-fiction book every day. Yes, it’s not always pretty or fun, but necessary. This editing did not happen every day, which was disheartening.  I had planned to do it during lunch break at the day job, but I sometimes get pulled into meetings so that I don’t get a lunch break.  I am involved with an academic writing group that keeps me somewhat on task for that sphere of writing, but we are on a break right now, and I don’t have the incentive to keep up as much as I do when we are reporting every week. 

Have a great, fruitful week, everyone!

 

 

Week Two–Still Writing

Two weeks in.  Happy Easter, happy Passover, happy April 16th, however you may be inclined. I’ve been doing well on my goals, so I’m in a pretty good mood. Last night, I wrote 2916 words on a set of blog posts for next year’s A-Z challenge.  Yes, I know that’s a year away, but I find I should write things when I want to write them.  Well, I write every day, but I sometimes let inspiration guide what I write.  I also wrote 643 words yesterday on a different blog post that should go up reasonably soon, and last Wednesday I wrote about 300 words for a Mother’s Day post (handwritten, so harder to count) and spent a lively few hours discussing my characters in the World War II novella with Eden.  It was good to discuss and share on such a bittersweet day–Wednesday was the third anniversary of my mother’s passing, as well as my youngest son’s 24th birthday.  It was also very good to write.  

I am clearly still awash with blog post ideas, but hope to dust off my story toolkit/outline/coloring book even further after the discussion of the characters and their respective backgrounds. I took notes like mad as we talked, but I know I can refine some things when I type them in. I’m glad to be back writing and thinking about writing on a regular basis

Oh, and because I saw an interest in writing spaces mentioned on Facebook, here’s the writing space I had in the last house (we moved in July 2016).

Left side of the writing desk

As for my goals, which I will probably start monkeying with now that they seem attainable:

One blog post per week. Nothing posted this week except for this one.  I do have seven more in draft that I hope to post soon.

Five sentences of fiction every day. Yes, most of it on Wednesday, but I’ll definitely take it.

Half an hour of editing the non-fiction book every day. Four days this week.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Back from the tired

A rare Wednesday check-in from me, totally due to meeting Eden who (kindly) informed me I was going to write and post tonight.  I needed that accountability, and here I am.

RoW80

Until today, I hadn’t written anything outside of the day job.  I have been exhausted and needing to fill the well for over a month.  I now understand on a cellular level that good stress is as debilitating as bad stress, because moving into this lovely new house and neighborhood has beaten me to a pulp. I come home from the day job exhausted, and do nothing but play computer games and read.  

The good part?  I do spend a lot of weekend time going through boxes in the garage.  It will be a nice, efficient, welcoming house when I am done. The bad part? I’m not writing. I have yet to find the correct configuration for my office that allows me to retreat without guilt. It doesn’t help that it has been one of the hottest few weeks I’ve weathered here in the past four years. I wake up thinking I’m back in north central Florida.  Well, I’m tough, and I will persevere!

Please visit the other RoWers here if you have a chance–the accountability is a key piece of the challenge. If you are interested in joining the RoW80 challenge, this FAQ will give you all the details. Feel free to jump in anytime.

WIPpet Wednesday 

After a long absence, Eden made me write this scene this afternoon (thank you, Eden).  I added the 8 + 10 + 2 +1 + 6 for 27 sentences, and one more that had to be there for sense.

 

Carol leaned across the table. “So, how are things with Johnny?”

Linda sighed. “Even from across the room, he’s cute. Strong and silent.  Just my type.” She smiled at Helen.  “So, give! When is his platoon coming back?”

Helen sighed as well, not wanting to talk about it. “It’s called a flight in the Army Air Forces.”

“You say tom-ah-to, I say, well, to-mah-to.  When are you going to see him?”

“I’m not sure I’m going to see him again.”

“What?” Carol gaped at her.

Linda asked, “Did he dump you?”

“No, things were just going a bit fast.”

“I like fast.” Carol grinned.

Linda swatted her arm. “This isn’t about you.” Turning to Helen, she asked, “Did he pull that ‘I could die tomorrow, so sleep with me tonight’?”

Helen shook her head. “No, nothing like that. He was just getting too serious.”

Carol asked, “But isn’t serious good?”

Linda laid her hand on Carol’s arm. “Not always.”

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where writers share part of their WIP here. The only requirement is that the length have something to do with the date, hence the maths above.  Feel free to read, comment, or join in!

RoW80 Check-in Ahead and Behind

Illumination from Morgan Library MS 775

It continued to be a crazy week, but that is starting to feel normal. DH and I spent yesterday planting flowers in the brick planter by the front door, and in a couple of concrete urns in the back yard, as well as putting up some hanging baskets.  It helped greatly to make it feel more like home.

Settling into the house is taking a fair amount of time and energy, but it feels good.  I have been keeping up with some of the writing I planned to do, but not all.  I plan to work more on it this week, and have some inter-library loan books awaiting me tomorrow. I realize several of you have more than five projects going at one time, but I encourage you to check out Pacemaker (https://pacemaker.press/).  I really like it.

I spent five hours on the train to and from New York City on Friday, and despite best intentions to be productive, I slept most of the trip.  I can only accept that I must have needed the sleep.

So far, I have rather spotty progress on my goals, but I’m settling into the rhythm, and am not terribly worried yet. I am behind on my fiction, which should be at 960 words, and is at 0.  I have thought about it every day, teasing apart some of the conflict to see if it is strong enough. I wish the book could be delivered like the one in the illumination above, but I haven’t figured out how to tap into that delivery service.

I am ahead on my blog posts, since I am at 2,198 words, and am supposed to be at 1,250. I am behind on my article, which is supposed to be at 385, and is at 0, but I can catch up tonight and tomorrow.  I have read through what I have written, and targeted some holes in the argument.

I have some doctors’ appointments to make pursuant to the doctor’s visit I had Friday, and must call tomorrow.

Check out the goals of other ROWers, which you can find here. If you’re interested in joining ROW80 challenge, the FAQ will give you all the details. Feel free to jump in anytime.

 

What? Yesterday was Wednesday?

RoW80

As the lateness of this post attests, things have been crazy lately. I have to be content with baby steps right now.  I am writing every day, even if some days it is only a handful of sentences.  I am continuing to discard, pack, and plan for the move, in the face of having to travel for several days next week.  I have donned my hiking boots to scale the mountain that lies between today and two weeks from today when the trip will be done, the old place will be empty and the new place will be festooned with boxes and possibilities.  Until then, I can only plead sleep deprivation and stress have robbed me of any interesting developments to offer my readers.  All my words are going into my writing, it seems, so here is a small offering.

WIPpet Wednesday

I have 12 sentences for this snippet, 6+(1+5)=12. It follows right after the snippet from last Wednesday.

I shook off the worst of the disappointment—I could cry in my beer later.  “I needed an honest answer, and I got one; I can’t complain.”

She put her hand on my cheek, turning my face to hers, as I had done to her earlier.  “I do love you, Johnny, I just . . .” her voice died away.

“It’s okay, really.  Let’s not spoil the evening.”  I pulled her into my arms, burying my face in her hair, breathing the scent of her, praying that she wouldn’t disappear.  I didn’t regret asking; I couldn’t have spent another hour with Helen without asking. “I won’t badger you about it, I promise,”  I said, although I wasn’t sure I could bear to ask her again.

Helen pulled away just enough to reach up to kiss me; she had no idea what she was doing to me, but I was amazed that my heart didn’t explode or just stop. I had grown up among people who lived hard lives, and romance did not prosper among such arid conditions.  Yes, there was love, but it was hard-won, worn smooth by adversity.

Want to read other works-in-progress?  Want to share snippets of your work?  WIPpet Wednesday is hosted by Emily Witt here  Check out the other offerings here, or add your own.

RoW80 and WIPpet Wednesday Still Writing

Writing Desk

RoW80

It is Wednesday, and therefore time for a RoW80 update. Life continues to be crazy, but also provides an object lesson.  For years, I would have said that a crazy time like now would make it impossible for me to write–clearly I had too much on my plate.  This year, after being reminded by this post, I realized that I chose all sorts of tasks in the past that made excuses for my not writing, when  I could have chosen writing.  Am I perfect and writing 10K a day?  Far from it, but I am writing at least 5 days out of 7, slowly and in little pieces, keeping the well primed.  I can also recommend inner dialogues with one’s characters while packing dishes, clearly a task from some lower circle of hell.

There are a few blog posts in that paragraph, but I will write those a bit later. Please go encourage the other RoWers, who are sliding into the home stretch here.  What is RoW80, you ask?  It is an accountability group, with flexible goals and good companions.  If you’re interested, check it out here.

WIPpet Wednesday

My contribution to WIPpet Wednesday follows immediately after last week’s cliffhanger.  Yes, I was evil. My math is 6+8=14, so 14 sentences.

“That I’m falling in love with you.”

Over the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears, I said, “I loved you before you even looked my way.  Marry me.”  Those last two words were unexpected, but now that I heard them, I would never take them back. Helen’s face stilled. Her body froze.  I prepared myself for her rejection and perhaps even her anger.

“I don’t know.  Let me think about it.”

Well, she hadn’t handed me my head, but the axe had certainly nicked me.  Even while telling myself that she hadn’t gotten mad, or turned me down flat, I felt my heart shrink from the hurt.  I couldn’t hide my disappointment from her, either. It mattered too damn much.

Helen smiled wistfully,  saying softly,  “I’m sorry. “

Want to read other works-in-progress?  Want to share snippets of your work?  WIPpet Wednesday is hosted by Emily Witt here. Check out the other offerings, or add your own.

 

RoW80 and WIPpet Wednesday Plodding

Honestly, I don’t have a lot to update in RoW80.  I’m plodding along in the writing, and actually signed up as a JuNoWriMo rebel.  I have a couple of scholarly articles I want to work on, as well as this rebel piece, so I don’t want to go down in flames. I’m not complaining, trust me.  I am delighted that the words are still coming and the characters still talking to me.

I am steadfastly working to pull back from the day job.  I have the bad habit of working through lunch and breaks, but want that to stop. I did have Monday off, and got most of the china packed–an impressively intricate and slow job!

Please go encourage the rest of the RoWers here.

And for WIPpet Wednesday:

My last two snippets have been from the point of view of my female protagonist, but this is from the male POV.  There are 7 short paragraphs (6+1) of dialogue between the main characters, a very few dates after the earlier snippets:

“You haven’t said much of anything about what you want to do with your life,” I said.

“Oh, I haven’t thought about it very much.  I suppose the usual, husband and family.”  

Suddenly, she began to shiver uncontrollably.  I thought she might be cold, even though it was rather mild, so I gathered her into my arms, but only close enough to warm her.

“I’m not cold,” Helen muttered into my chest, so I let her pull away.  

“But you’re shaking.”  She wouldn’t look at me, staring at the ground, or down the street, anywhere but at me.  All of a sudden, I realized she was scared, and said so.

“Yes, I am.”  She still would not look at me.

“Of what?”  I tipped her face up with a finger so that she had to look at me.  I was searching her face, her eyes, trying to read her expression.  The understanding hit me the second before she said it.

WIPpet Wednesday is curated by Emily Witt at Keyboard and an Open Mind. If you’d like to contribute, or want to read other offerings, they are here.