Monday, August 21, 2006

Brain on vacation

This actually doesn't bother me. It's been very nice not writing story, not thinking, not fretting for the past week. Just kicking back doing the other things life offers. Finishing a long story with a writing partner last week was very satisfying, have to bask in that for awhile before moving on. When my brain wants to work on serious stories again it will.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Perfection

Sometimes you read a story, and there's no words to describe how completely it satisfies. The story, the characters, the dialogue, the way the subplots cross and meet briefly, necessarily, but then go their own ways to their own conclusions, the sheer emotional impact, and the ending that makes you smile and cry all at once.

I read one of those tonight. It's a story I could never even conceive of, let alone write, and that's not a bad thing at all. On a story like this, I only ever want to be a reader.

Monday, August 07, 2006

And a saucer of milk please

Boy, nothing disrupts the writing routine (heck, routine in general) so quickly as a new kitten. Now mind you, I'm not in the market for another cat. I have plenty already, but on Friday, that didn't stop Grady from walking up and demanding a new home. And life has been topsy-turvy ever since. Because, of course, I took him in. What, I'm supposed to let an adorable kitten run loose in the neighborhood? With off-leash dogs and cars and raccoons and all else that would think a kitten is just a bite of lunch?

But I already have cats and dogs, so the weekend was spent acclimitizing everybody and breaking up minor spats. Elanor, the youngest of my indoor cats, warmed up first. She can't watch Grady playing soccer without wanting to get in on the game. Kit tolerates Grady, but with much hissing and swatting. Rosie, who is Elanor's mother, and was abandoned with her kittens in my backyard, is the most stand-offish. Brinja, my old dog, has renewed her resident household position as cat-defender, and has been trying to protect Grady from my younger dog's rough attempts to play. Maxie, thinks the new kitten is just grand, a perfect toy I brought home, just for him to stomp on and bowl over. Sigh.

And so, writing ground to a complete stop on Friday and Saturday. Yesterday, things started settling out, and when the whole gang crashed out for a siesta, I took advantage of the quiet to get 1000 words done. It was something anyway. Made me feel the weekend wasn't entirely a loss. I read a lot on Saturday, cuz it was easier to pick up and put down a book through the animal madness, then it was to attempt to stay grooved into writing.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

August!

I know exactly what my problem is right now, as far as writing. It's a committment issue. Other than fanfic, I'm unable to commit to a specific project. Now, I have a deadline on one fanfic piece I'm working on, so I'm sort of using that as a lame excuse. "After Aug 15, I'll get going again..."

I think after seven months of being committed body and soul to one project (the last novel I did), I haven't been ready to jump that heavily into something else. It's been vacation time, and it's been wonderful, but it's time to get back to business. I reviewed my pending projects last night, and it's come down to writing draft 2 of my fantasy novel, or working on two novellas. There's three months between now and November, when I'll start a new novel. That's a nice chunk of edit time. If I can commit to something.

I'm leaning towards the novellas, mostly because they're shorter projects. They're just as immersive, but less writing required... and that leaves me open to do what I REALLY want to do before Nov. 1st -- complete the final draft of "DTD." I'm just not distant from it yet to go back to it, and I'm waiting on feedback from one of the beta readers. And I haven't figured out how to solve a couple problems in it. See? Excuses, excuses... I can't truly commit to it yet either, although it's never left my brain. It dwells there, in the background, biding its time.

And here it is August.