Monday, September 8, 2008

Oh, cheeky cheeky...

Daily Stats:
Words: 1700
Caffeine: morning cup so far
Evil Calories: really yum-tastic sugar cookies I made yesterday
Reality TV: meh...mondays suck

...oh, naughty sneaky. (It's a Brian Eno song for those who don't know. It popped into my head yesterday, and now it won't go away, so I thought maybe if I wrote it, it would vacate my melon. I'll let you know if it works...)

So, as you can see over there, After Charlie is scooting right along. Now, I may or may not have actually started officially writing it, and instead I may or may not have spent the entire weekend pounding out a very long winded outline. This is completely out of step with how I normally write, but holy crap on a crap cracker, it's totally working for me! Maybe because I spent almost 50K words on what the story shouldn't be, and now I know what it should be and I need to lay it out for myself so I don't get 10K works into this new version and start falling back into the same little "fanciful/gag-me-salad-tongs" potholes.

This is also the time where I get very anxious, because if I had my druthers (whatever the crap those are), I'd write all day, only stopping to take coffee and scones breaks. But, I've got this little thing called an "almost three year old". He hates the silver little box that mommy's always tapping on. He either walks up to me and closes the lid or tells me he has to check his email so he can talk to Aunt Amy (yes, yes, Ms. Ellis, it's cute and all, but annoying as hell!). So, I'm back to sprinting to my computer at breakneck speed the moment the boy's head hits the pillow for nap time. If anyone has a spare nanny, could you be so kind as to send her my way?

5 comments:

Ray Veen said...

Outlines really do it for me. It's like building a ladder that you can just keep climbing higher and higher. It's like lubricating your engine with high-grade motor oil so it keeps firing and firing.

It's like not doing a thing that makes you stop and not do more stuff cuz you don't know what stuff is next or if the other stuff you got shouldn't have ought to gone there. See how an outline simplifies things?

Good for you, Vivi. That word-count meter should start flying now. Assuming your lil' critter cooperates.

Elizabeth said...

I pay my super nanny 5$/hr. I'm sure even the most poor writer could afford that weighed against a few extra hours of writing time.
She's a 15 year old and I put an ad in my community paper for her, weeded through several applicants and my kids adore her!
Anyway, I digress....
I started usuing an outline this year and it changed my life. Not that I will follow it, it seems to evolve with the story and rewritten several times, but it is all part of the fun now.
Good for you!

Amy said...

Awwww! He's the cutest nephew ever!

Just invite the Obamas over this evening. I'm sure he'd love to play with their girls.

Eileen said...

Interesting- I'm trying an outline for the first time with my next project. I'm hoping it will save me from my usual "huh, this is a tricky bit I've written myself into" block.

Alas no nanny here- we have dogs. Have you considered draping the child in faux fur and dropping him off at the kennel? Are there rules against that?

Tracey said...

Wishing I had the focus to sit and write and outline. Good to know that it might actually work ... once I get around to writing one.