Some Words Sunday–Date Night

Yes, I know that’s Back to the Future there…  There’s no video for that song I know of, but it works.

I went out on a date yesterday…and not with my husband.

No guilt, no worries…  My son and I spent a day together.  First we took in a butterfly conservatory and the raptor show they were promoting.  Then we drove north, listening to a-ha on the radio/mp3 player singing at the top of our lungs to songs like “Sun Always Shines on TV”, “Blue Sky” and “Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale”.  We had a quick but yummy bagel dinner at a local Bruegger’s  (it was playtime and he wanted bagels)….

All the world’s a Stage

Then my 7-year old son and I went to listen to the Albany Symphony Orchestra playing Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons.  Yeah, that same kid who is now watching episodes of  Dude, What Would Happen not only sat through two hours of orchestral music, but he enjoyed himself and talked with people (he has Asperger’s and often doesn’t speak to strangers…or if she does, he often “performs” at them quoting shows he knows) about the music and where he recognized the sounds of different instruments.

Can you say HAPPY?

That’s me.

It’s not just a pride thing, though I confess, I’m probably prouder than I should be that my son is this awesome.  It’s the joy of sharing one’s passions with someone and feeling that reciprocation that makes me extra happy.

And the best part came when we’re driving home, having been awake for almost sixteen hours of the day already, and the Boodle says “This was the happiest day I ever had.  Can we do it again?”

I may need to buy more tickets for the symphony.

row80 check-in

The Ruined Tower, one of my favorite images at the Albany Institute

Barring that I missed most of the #teamsprinty gatherings (even my Friday one was only a quick hop in to say “Hi” then I had to head out), this has been a great writing week.

I stuck to my five sentences plan and managed about 4 full pages of handwritten fiction and four typed pages of notes for potential blog posts.  Just five sentences…  at least to start.  It never feels insurmountable, even as I’m completely tuckered out and in need of sleep, the eyes almost closing on me…

I can write a lot if I tell myself all I need to get down is just five sentences.

There was also editing, commenting, blogging…  It was a busy writer’s week…. and photographer’s week  I edited a bunch of photos, learned a bunch more about how RAWTherapee and Photoshop work (not to mention how color pixels are mixed to create the images).

And it was great for my ROWFitness.  Lots of movement, a walk with the Boodle where we met a bunny (and he collected a bunch of rocks and two big clumps of rabbit tail–different rabbit), time with handweights and crunches…

Yeah!  That’s more like it.

How was your week?

 

Interrupting the ROW and Re-immersion

Another late ROW80 check-in.  I’m okay with that.  Life has been–well,  I’m tired…. tired of teeth that break near weekly; tired of the accompanying needles, the lost time, and appointment after appointment with my dentist.

I like my dentist.  He’s a nice guy, and seeing him three or four times a year would not bother me in the least.  But it’s over an hour drive to his office from home*, and the commute can get a bit overwhelming when it’s so frequent.

So I’m all out of whack.  My check-in is late.  A bunch of bills are late too**. It’s not a money issue, but rather one concerning that other more rare and precious currency…  time.

I need a Personal Assistant. :-/

The minutiae of this check in involve word counts, projects and personal discoveries.  What have I done since my Facebook Mini-check-in on Sunday….

Words Words Words

ROW80 in depth

Words Words Words

I’m squeaking by on my daily word count.  Squeaking by because I had increased it last week when I signed up for the February Challenge at 750words.com.  My actual wordcounts look weird when I see my progress charts because I’ve typed little notes hither and thither and copying and pasting them into 750words when I finally get a chance.  It keeps me moving at least.  And napkin notes now have a better place than shredding at the bottom of my purse.

I’ve managed about 800 words a day on average since the first of the month.  It’s real progress, but now the writing needs focus.

Editing

Release has taken back seat lately.  It’s hard to concentrate on the story with so many other things demanding to be done.  I need some help too–I need a reader, as in someone to read the story out loud to me.  I tried putting some of the text into the demonstration version of  Natural Readers, but the Microsoft voices mess with my head.  The British accent works “okay” and matches the voice in my head, but I don’t feel comfortable spending that much money on the software.

Another editing project I’m involved in is copy-editing a fellow fantasy writer’s manuscript before she submits it to an editor for final review.  I’m not moving on it a fast as I would like, but I’d rather take a bit longer than miss something.

Personal Discovery–Spelling and Immersion

To me, the spelling is huge–I’m starting to spell words right that I used to spell wrong all the time.

The squiggly red line that appears as I type has been good to me.  I see the mistake, and I retype it, and more and more I am getting that retyped word right without any other help.   As someone who has never been a naturally good speller, it’s wonderful to have found a way to “see” the correct word in a way I never could see “spelling words” in school.

Perhaps the passion just wasn’t there then.  Spelling matters to me now.  I have things to say, and I want people to pay attention to what I write.  It’s pretty rude to ask this of  people without giving something in return.  I shouldn’t make it a challenge for people to read what I’ve written–not right away.  I will draw them in slowly with great characters and the harrowing situations they are caught in…

…then I can spring weird place names and story-world languages on them!

What?  “No” you say?  NO?  Oh, ye of little faith…  It’ll be fun!  I promise.

It can be fun–can’t it?  Doesn’t everyone love the way Tolkien created several languages for his stories, how the appendices in the Return of the King took almost half the book?

No?

Oh….

Deep under

The geek in me loved those.  All of those little pieces and parts of the world that he didn’t place in the Silmarillion (which, imho, was just a bigger appendix for the Lord of the Rings, as was The Adventures of Tom Bombadil)…  well, I felt immersed.

And immersion as a personal necessity is something I’ve long suspected.  I love to be immersed.

Not just immersion in the mental sense, although that is sublime.  I love things that squeeze me, hold me in, surround me, swallow me…  Swimming deep under water with its weightless pressure…  Being held close or curled up with blankets mummy-wrapped about me…  Mmm!

I could probably give a psychiatrist a field day analyzing the reasons behind this, but I have done this from Day One.

Funny story as long as you aren’t my mother…

I was born nearly a month late (due on Thanksgiving, was born on Christmas), and Mom says she became a master at swaddling.  As a toddler, I loved being hugged so much that I would walk away with any adult that gave me one…  It didn’t matter who, or how many gray hairs it gave my mom.

Being a mother now myself, I can certainly see her concern.

I’m not writing this to say I’m special.  I’m just me, and this is part of who I am.  I’m starting to see and understand that person more.  And as part of last week’s post on revealing myself, I’m sharing this self-discovery with you.  Maybe it will help someone, maybe it’ll amuse if nothing more…  But it’s here, it’s me, and I think it’s pretty neat.

So, new week, similar directions…  and deeper discoveries.

Please visit some fellow ROWers and share some love…  Valentine’s Day is coming!

*he’s the dentist I had since high school, and though I’ve tried a few other dentists, I’ve had questionable experiences with most others

**though fortunately only by a few days

Photo credits:

•  Words Words Words (36/365) (Photo credit: Photosynthesised)
• Deep under (Photo credit: krystian_o)

Slush in Laptop-land

Process is a strange thing.  How we get things done…

Sunlight (Photo credit: zenera)

Do you wake up in the morning and pour your coffee before you can even think of opening your eyes?  Or are you one who needs to see the sun shine in your window at noon to know that it’s time to get moving on your day?

I’ve been slave to caffeine and the solar-powered alarm at various times in my life.  I’ve even had runs of being able to wake up in the dark of wintry pre-dawn and be able to just get about my day without any prodding from beyond.

I’ve never been one for consistency in my day-to-day schedule or habits, unless one wishes to call my inconsistency my habit.

For writing, however,  I am as close to being trapped in the process as any addict ever there was.  After years of playing tag, of cajoling the words on the page, throwing away more than 90% of what I did manage to get down, I discovered that one thing made it easier.  My process…

For me, everything starts with a notebook.  It must be spiral bound; I’ve never found myself able to compose in a so-called “Composition Notebook“.

It involves black ink pens.  My current favorites are Zebra brand 301(A and F) ball points.  I’ve had horrid luck with gel pens, and almost always end up tossing them out barely used.  A pity, because I love the colors.

The next part of the process moves my desktop computer where I will type in and expound on pretty much everything I wrote by hand.  It’s a matter of keyboard-love here.  The click of the keys, the shape and curve of them…  even the non-ergonomic height at which it sits upon my old-fashioned desk all work together to make things feel right for creating that perfect Draft1.5.

Next thing I have to do is give our laser printer a workout.  I can edit some on screen, but for the serious hacking and slashing involved in getting my WiPs in any sense of order, I need to hold papers in my hand and not be lured into any viable distractions such as solitaire or Facebook…  or pictures from one of the Safe For Work Porn reddits.

Then, after much defacing of pages and many scrawled epitaphs later, I head off with my laptop to type in the changes (the exception here is if I have a lot of typing to do, as in new scenes or chapters, in which case I write those in another spiral notebook and type them in on my Desktop PC).  I love my laptop, but I hate most any touch pad “mouse”, and the keyboard layout is, well, cramped.  But its flaws actually allow me more time to focus on the changes I am making…

My laptop isn’t the end of the process–usually it’s just the beginning.  The average cycle usually follows this pattern: Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 4, 3, 4, and so on.

It works, for the most part.

Which, leads me to where I am in my ROW80 progress:

Things are actually going quite well.  I’ve swum in my slush for a bit lately, trying to recover a sense of direction.  And in doing so, I’ve found myself able to focus more and more of my attention on Release.

I’ve finished reading another book for my Goodreads Challenge.  I’m glad I read the book, although I’m not delighted that dreams about the characters helped keep me up last night as my brain tried to “fan fiction” a happier ending fr the characters.  I guess I’m a sucker for the “Happily Ever After”.

Strange that, since one of the things I’ve been working on carefully is “killing my darlings” in my editing periods.  I know I probably have a long way to go, but I am working it.  Tightening up my writing would be a good thing.

Anyway, I think I’ve made excellent progress since my last check-in.  I could have written more new writing, but then I always could have.  Life intervened, and I still got plenty done.

It was a good week.

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Check out other ROW80 people here: at the linky