this morning on my way into work. I think I can expect this to continue for the next several months, and frankly I don't like it. I was excited to get to work, and see some data on a project, but on the other hand I just wanted to turn around, go home, and go back to bed. It's not that I overdid it this weekend, either, we have been working on resting and family time on the weekends.
I did write this weekend, which was the first time in a long time I've mustered the mental energy for that. You'll see in the sidebar that I've made some changes - removed the gallery slider of my book covers that some people had issues with, and added two 'work in progress' that will make me accountable for some progress here with my readers. I'm not making a lot of forward momentum, but there is some. And yes, I am working on two books at a time, although one will be a short novel, ala pulp mysteries of yore. Unless it runs away on me. Which it could. I'm also a little stuck with the East Witch. The First Reader is not reading along on this one, due to his work load and mental exhaustion, which means I'm beating my head on a section and can't ask him to Evil Muse me through it. I'll live. I'll just write slower on that.
I am not going to do NaNoWriMo. For one thing, the First Reader's response to my bringing it up was emphatic and slightly profane. For another thing, he's right. Two thousand words a day is roughly two hours, if I'm typing. And if the story is flowing, and if... too many ifs. Yes, I do have Dragon Naturally (I just bought the latest edition about 4 months ago) but for some reason my desktop does not allow me to use a microphone. I get an error with any microphone I try, from directly plugged-in to Bluetooth enabled (I set up a Bluetooth dongle, but still, no joy). So even that doesn't help any.
I can't write on my lunch break. I did, back when I was a new writer and doing NaNo for the first (and only) time to finish Vulcan's Kittens. I had an hour, it was a set time, there was a lunch room with enough space to pull out my laptop, and I had a desk where I could keep the laptop during the day. I have thirty minutes (or less) and none of the above currently. So... writing would have to be at night. And I'm brain dead most nights by the time I run the gauntlet of after-work errands, kids talking at me about their days and needs and sometimes just their games, and the First Reader and I sharing some time. It's life. As a writer, I have learned over the years that in order to write, I have to live, but not too much, if that makes sense. I need a lot of time alone inside my head in order to tell stories. This is, probably (although I hasten to add that anecdote is not data!) the reason most writers are seen as loners and introverts. We need to connect with people, but once we're 'full' we are ready to disconnect and go off on our own to digest and finally regurgitate characters onto the page. Ok, maybe comparing character development to hairball hawking is unfair.
So, no NaNo for me. On the other hand, I am nearly finished with Inktober - two more days! - and plan to devote that daily chunk of time to writing, now. That means I'll at least have some daily progress unless it's a very bad day.
Why am I blogging instead of writing fiction? Because this is mental warm-up time to get my fingers loose and brain in the mood to put words on the screen. My friend Amanda Green recommended some time back that I try this whenever I was stuck and couldn't get the fiction to fall out of my head. Think of it as tapping the bottom of the inverted bottle, if you will. Of course, that also means that what you're getting here on the blog is an odder and even more random spatter of words than usual.