Charlotte’s Room

And now, as I slog through line-editing this manuscript by Monday’s due date, I point you to a beautiful, and surprising post on Charlotte’s Web.

Help Me with My Vacation Reading List?

Three years at my company and, as a reward, I got an extra week off. So, what to do with the week? Go to an undisclosed location overlooking a notoriously turquoise sea, sit with E on the sand, and read as many books as I can fit in my suitcase. (Note to self: Bring extra [...]

Forgot to Mention

I finished the YA novel yesterday morning. I lie. I didn’t exactly finish—I just wrote through to the end. It’s about 6,000 words too long and choppy in some places, but now I have the weekend to get it in reading shape for Monday. Also it’s only a first draft, so a revision is a [...]

The Day I Said No

I was asked if I wanted to write another one of these series books for next season. (The first draft of the one I’m writing now is due on Monday.)
I considered. I sat there a minute or two, looking at the email, feeling inside myself to see how I should respond.
I wanted to say no, [...]

Flailing

I had an awful day at work. Aside from the usual stress, I was reminded again of the reasons why I should be looking elsewhere. I’m not looking. I don’t know why. Probably because I’m tired, and I keep thinking things will get better. I’m naive that way. Also, today, I was scattered and made [...]

Lesson Learned from Stopping Before I Was Done Yesterday

That maybe sometimes that’s not so bad? I did the scene I couldn’t complete this morning and I’m extremely happy with it. There was a moment where I moved even myself and was smiling inanely at my Starbucks table, to the confused looks of the people around me. I’m glad I waited. It turned out [...]

Sometimes It Happens…

…that you just can’t write another word.
I think it’s happening right now.
Regarding distractions—hence the name of this blog—in the last hour I started thinking up ideas for a YA series I would like to pitch, the novel I would like to write, and a short story I would really like to finish. It’s always easier [...]

A Must-Link

Susan over at ReadingWritingLiving has found an animated version of how I’ve been feeling this week. Apparently I’m not alone. The animation is grotesque. And so true.

Stop Means Go

I’ve been quiet for some days. It’s because I’ve been madly trying to reach this writing deadline, now about a week away, and then tackle multiple deadlines after that. I won’t go into detail yet again about how I screwed myself by saying yes to too many things. I’m boring even myself. This is just [...]

And So It Goes (it has to… it’s due 10/2)

Write a sentence. Ugh. Write another. Ick. Stop. Scratch mysterious mosquito bite. Open Safari to check messages, no, bad, don’t do that, close Safari. Stare at wall. Stare out window. Return to screen. Start another sentence. It becomes a paragraph, a whole page, you’re on a roll! Oh, um, no you’re not. You just stopped [...]

Off-topic

I hate this skinny jeans fad. I’m just saying.

My Dueling Personalities

I had a little battle with myself early this morning about going out to write before work. This took place on the couch in the living room where I stumbled before I was able to focus my eyes and make it to the shower. (That was strike one.)
Bad Me: Let’s stay here and just not [...]

The Intense Writer in the Room

There’s a writer here who likes to stare out the window. The window looks north toward the Empire State Building. Between it and us are apartment buildings and people walking on Broadway and rooftop parties and streams of yellow cabs and above it the bright blue sky seeming absolutely clear of smog. She gets up [...]

Outline Not Set in Stone

So my outline fell apart this morning. Realizing I have just two weeks to finish the rest of the first draft of YA Book #3 I sort of had a little meltdown. It lasted maybe five seconds. Because then I realized that I am the one who wrote the outline. I am the one who [...]

Left to My Own Devices

E has been working on many shoots lately and is out again tonight. All alone with myself I’ve already:

Cleaned up half of the living room then collapsed on the couch
Made a meal of cheese and crackers, cherry tomatoes, and cereal for dinner
Watched back-to-back TV shows on a borrowed DVD instead of writing
Broke our last nice [...]

Who Am I, Anyway?

I am preparing a writing résumé to send to someone important on Monday that admits all. Not just the usual short story pubs and awards and degrees, but the writing for the YA set, too, the list of books published under psuedonyms. It makes me seem either (1) very versatile, prolific, and maybe (if you [...]

The Maybe-Yes Before the No

Before I open a response to a short story submission, I always hope it might be a yes. Who doesn’t? The latest was an email with the innocuous subject line of “Your submission to [Magazine].” You would think this is an automatic rejection, but the last time I got an email with the subject “Your [...]

Trickster Motivation

I have to trick myself into being good. If I go to my writing spot on a weekend morning, knowing I have the whole entire day ahead of me in which to write, I tend to take it slow and easy. I read a short story from the new Zoetrope. I research weird things on Wikipedia for no reason. I goof off on Myspace. I read blogs on my blogroll below and see what other writers are up to. I do anything, it seems, but dive straight in to the chapter I am there to write. Then I look at the clock hours later and see all the time I wasted and the panic begins. I’m bad, bad, bad.

The Long Mile

You have a day like yesterday (my heart gets all pitter-patter just thinking of how inspired I felt). And then you have a day like today: a day in which four, five, six hours have been spent trying to write and, worse, trying not to write this one page because it hurts to write it, [...]

Public Writing

I had one of those fantastic writing mornings where I started with very low expectations and yet the lines kept flowing and the story was shaping itself right before my eyes and the characters would say things and I would respond “Yes! Exactly!” and by the time I knew I was nearing the time to [...]