Category Archives: Writing

Whirlwind = Exhausted

The boy officially begins preschool on Monday, but we’ve spent the last two days doing trial periods and acclimatising and mounds of paper-signing (government forms, sigh). He loves it, loves it so much he cried when it was time to leave on Thursday. His teacher is wonderful, and knew just what to do to help him: she offered the opportunity to borrow one of the school’s train cars. When he accepted and chose one they made up a little card together that had a drawing of the train and a sentence outlining the deal: Liam would borrow it overnight, take good care of it, and bring it back the next morning. Liam was so fascinated with the card that his attention was completely redirected and he left all smiles, looking forward to showing HRH the train he’d chosen. This morning he ran in and held the train out to his teacher with a huge grin, saying, “See, here it is, I brought it back for you!” Today he signed a book out of the library and promised to bring it back on Monday. He’s made new friends already, and his teacher has already remarked positively on his language skills (er, yeah, sorry about that), sharing, behaving well, and helping with clean-up. (Possibly because it’s a novelty with new toys and equipment. We’ll see.)

This morning after he’d given the train back to his teacher he practically ran in, heading for the classroom; I had to call him back into the cloakroom to take off his shoes, and then again so he could give me a kiss before I “left” (to go sit in the yard and read for two hours, but he didn’t know that). He loves it. Evidently the timing of a classroom environment is perfect. He’s already made friends who were thrilled to see him again this morning. I’m very proud of him. And very thankful to have found this wonderful place last spring, and to have been offered a spot for the upcoming school year, and that it’s all going so very smoothly for everyone involved.

What with all the sudden rushing about and handling of things that cropped up at the last minute as well as the normal running of the house I’ve managed to get absolutely no work done this week. I’ll make up for it next week, of course, because I’ve just realised that the boy is gone all five work days (there’s a grandma day and a day with the caregiver, too). Incredible.

Anyway, I’m headachy and exhausted, which is why I haven’t been at the computer very often since Monday (or I have been but haven’t been able to do much more than scan news and blogs and try to make sense of Facebook). Also, I have a new reading chair in my office which I’ve been using. I was looking forward to writing longhand in it, but the Clairefontaine notebooks I picked up yesterday don’t have plain lines; they have five slightly lighter lines in each regular ruled line as well as vertical ruled lines, and just looking at the density of lines on the page makes my eyes hurt. (Apparently it’s called French Rule.) So it’s back to the shop to return them this weekend. Yes, I’m an idiot for not opening the notebooks to double-check before I bought them. I was so thrilled to actually find the right size that I grabbed three while chasing after the boy. Lesson learned. No, I don’t know why I’m suddenly taken with the obsession to use Clairefontaine books. I have one A4 size that I bought years ago from a little corner store in NDG and I love how the pen travels across the paper and the size of the rule. I’ve become disenchanted with the little 5×8 hardcover notebooks I’ve used for years; I want something bigger, and I particularly want the brushed vellum paper so the ink from my fountain pens don’t bleed. And my subconscious has decided that this is what it Must Have to work on Orchestrated.

Wow. I have three hours before I have to leave, and nothing concretely scheduled with which to fill them. I may just go lie down and hope the headache goes away, with a bit of help from Advil. My work ethic tells me I should try to bang out some words in the book, but my health monitor is telling me that lying down would be better than trying to force things out at this point. Going to pick up the boy in an exhausted state helps no one.

Today:

1. I have a new printer. Completely functional! Copying, scanning, printing without stress, at last. And for the low price of two ink cartridges too. Thank you, back to school sales. And I purchased an extended warranty, thankyouverymuch. No way this one is going to conk out on me without recourse. Now if I could just isolate what’s clogging up my CPU after startup…

2. The boy has secured a two-day slot in the preschool we wanted for him! This will likely be confirmed as a three-day position tomorrow. I think I’m going to continue with the local caregiver one day a week for now anyway, because the boy hasn’t seen two of his friends in ages. And this way I can get tons of work done (read: get back on the manuscript review wagon) and sock away some funds.

3. I am making a kick-ass pot roast for dinner. You wish you were here. No, really.

4. I finally did the Facebook thing. Except not quite. The pro name is a Public Person page; my alter-ego Autumn is the regular page. This should calm my wibbles about the whole thing. Also, this way I get to be a fan of myself. This is important for building self-confidence and belief in one’s own validity.

5. EMILY THE-PIRATE-QUEEN HORNER HAS JUST SOLD HER FIRST BOOK AND A SECOND AS-YET-UNWRITTEN BOOK!!! Yes, this deserves all-caps. I capered madly about the office when I read the news. If you were a YUL NaNo back in 2002 you might remember Emily as my personal quota bar and word count nemesis. I ended up passing 50K before she did, but she’s absolutely beaten me to the publishing of fiction. And I couldn’t be more thrilled by the news.

Orchestrated Update

Total word count, Orchestrated: 4,050
New words today: Math tells me that there were 989, which isn’t the 1,000 I wanted but close enough for government work.

I shoved the story forward and started writing the next major plot point, and you know what? The story works perfectly well this way. I usually need to figure out how the story gets from A to B and I usually do it through writing. The in-between stuff often gets cut out, although it gives me valuable insight into character make-up and lives and motivation and secret dreams and so forth. This time, I just stepped over where the in-between stuff would normally be and picked the story up again. Maybe this synopsis thing will work for me after all. Whatever the reason, today it was easier to write the plot point than the stuff that would bridge to it.

So it feels like the actual story has begun. That’s a good feeling. Not that the previous 3K words weren’t story; it’s just that they were set-up and background and initial propulsion of character trajectory, and today’s work begins the setup of the Conflict part of the story. Or introduces the character who will initiate the series of events that build into Actual Conflict and create An Obstacle for my protagonist.

I would have had many more words had I not needed to refer to a list of characters that I knew I’d worked up. I couldn’t find the file anywhere. I searched through three sets of backups, to no avail. Then, after forty minutes of tearing out my hair, I realized that I’d wanted to print it out for ready reference. Where would I have put a printout like that if I’d managed to make one? I wondered, then spun my chair around, leaned forward, and pulled a file folder out from between two research books on the shelf reserved for my ongoing writing research. Voila: One file of hard copy reference stuff. I have no idea what happened to the computer file. I’ll have to retype it all, but at least I don’t have to do all the work of thinking characters up again and naming them and giving them quirks.

Jan brought me a USB hub that my computer recognises! Huzzah!

Busy

Yesterday was mostly good, with one huge time-out-worthy aberration just before dinner. Ten minutes’ worth of time out, in fact.

I made a single jar of jam this morning. I ordered new glasses, paid some bills, crossed another couple of things off my To-Do list, and now have (of course!) run out of steam, twenty minutes before Jan is due to show up for our weekly writing jam. If I am completely useless at the writing thing I may switch to doing the local freelance stuff that landed in my inbox at lunchtime.

I also had a half-hour conversation with an orchestra contact this morning. Looks like we have an executive meeting next week, and while I’m not an official member of the executive I seem to be invited along like last time because I have Valuable Input.

I need to reformat the laptop at some point today (or possibly tomorrow) as well, so I can give Liam something to do while I work (he is in love with Youtube because it has Veggie Tales and Thomas episodes, and there is always Peep!). Because if I’m on the computer he wants to be on the computer, which makes working while he’s at home somewhat of a challenge.

Off to write, come what may. There’s a thousand words of Orchestrated on my list of Things To Do that needs to crossed off.

Orchestrated Update

Total word count, Orchestrated: 3,061
New words today: Erm, no idea. Forgot to count before I started, then messed around with the existing stuff. Possibly 700? Not a lot, at any rate.

But I did a bunch of thinking and longhand note-jotting, discovered that my protagonist’s mom is a single mother, and made a rough schedule of events that occur within the six-month spread of the novel. All of this is very important. Now I can just refer to the timeline if I need to know what next majorish event occurs and jump to writing that if I need to. I also compressed the events from a full school year into a half year. Much better.

Jan was back for our weekly writing date! Hurrah! Only another week or so of it before she moves to Ontario, though.

Non-Cello Content

I discovered yesterday, while the boy and I tested the new bike and trailer for the first time, that the trip to the library involves going uphill both ways.

I am serious. I will be using this fact as guilt trip material somewhere down the line.

The good news is that I am not dead today. This is huge, because of the limited energy/chronic fatigue thing. And despite the bike being a one-speed (while reverting to the use of coaster brakes was surprisingly easy, many were the times I forgot I could not simply reverse the pedalling to reset my legs) it generally handles well. Sure, I wish I had at least three speeds when going uphill from a stop (which, as I pointed out above, happens an awful lot), but it’s very good for what it is. The boy decrees the trailer Very Cool. I was somewhat surprised to find that we can carry on a conversation at a regular decibel level and hear one another while cycling.

The boy had his first ever Official Pro Haircut yesterday. I’ve been trimming it when necessary, but I lack the knowhow to do it properly. So off all those lovely curls across his brow came. He was very, very good, and got a certificate and a lollipop.

Saw the doctor this morning (and a medical student, who played the role of main doctor while my doctor oversaw the appointment) and we’re upping the dosage of my meds a wee bit to help with the lack of deep sleep thing that’s creeping up again.

I have just discovered Schumann’s string quartets. Not sure why it took me this long.

I picked up Guitar Hero: On Tour last week for my DS (after wibbling about it since its release, but Ceri finally told me I could do it, so I did). After failing miserably for a few practice songs I suddenly understood what the game was asking me to do and how I could do it. Even though most of the songs are unfamiliar to me I have an advantage in being able to absorb rhythm and therefore hit things at the right time. I flew through two levels on Monday night. The grip is made for someone whose hand is slightly larger than mine, and I have to lie my left forearm on a pillow in my lap to keep my hand relaxed enough to play, though. There’s a decent amount of humour involved in it too, so it’s not as annoying as I feared it might be.

Gryffindor went to the vet last evening for what looked like an abscess that was leaking on his tail. Turns out one of our sweet little hellion girls bit him, and the bite became infected while we were gone. When we came home it was bald from his obsessive licking. He got a huge antibiotic shot and came home in a little Elizabethan collar, which he managed to ditch within the first four minutes at home. Not only did he ditch it, he hid the damn thing. After searching for it allover we found it on the lampshade of my little reading lamp next to the bed.

Monday saw 1300 words added to Orchestrated. They were transcribed from my longhand work. Maybe today there will be new words. Despite having a brief synopsis and expanded outline, I still don’t know exactly what happens where. This is frustrating, because I know how the overall story goes and how it ends (that’s new for me), and still can’t write the thing. Grr. I may choose key scenes that I know happen and write them, then figure out how to link them. Give me a break, I’m trying an entirely new process, here.

Mailbox Joy!

I just got my long-awaited delivery cheque for the hedge witch book! I am solvent again!

I could actually buy a Jay Haide 7/8 cello next week. Not that I’m going to, but I could. I feel much relief.

I have to make this last as long as possible, though, because I don’t know when I’ll be doing another book, what with the imprint I worked with being closed down and the publisher’s focus going vague and basic. Or if I’ll ever get around to finishing one of the several YA books on the go and shopping it around to agents so that they can shop it around to publishers. (Or, you know, get paid by the Big Corporation for whom I did work last May. Ahem. Not that the amount is large at all, but it’s all money and bills don’t stop coming just because a client doesn’t pay me.)