A Time For Everything

This past Saturday morning a storm front blew through while I was on my way to the gym at the ass-crack of dawn. When I got home, the power was out. I worked on the laptop for a little while as it was fully charged, but after a couple of hours the power still wasn't on and I decided to sneak a little nap.



Normally, our power is restored within an hour or two. Once we passed the two hour mark, I had no idea when I'd get it back.

So I thought it would be good to take the forced break from electronics and anything writing related. Give the writing part of my brain a break and focus on something fun or not-writing related.

I did cross stitch for a little while, so that was good because I needed / wanted to make progress on my current project. I couldn't do laundry though, because--no power. :( I couldn't watch soccer, either, because--no power. :( I decided to read, but everything I read is online and with no power there was no wifi for the iPad... I didn't want to do too much on my phone and burn my battery life.

But book three wouldn't leave me alone. It's the one not started that needs to get started soon, but that I'm still brainstorming. So I got out real paper and a pen (WHOA!) and jotted down notes, trying to get a handle on a couple of plot points. Which I finally did. I think.

I finally got desperate enough to get on my laptop that I went to the auto parts and bought a converter thing so I could run the car and charge my laptop and phone back up. :) Which I did.

Then I powered up the laptop and worked on book four, which is this ][ close to being done. It's a short book, but it's a fun one and it's been a blast to write.

The power did come on as my laptop battery began to wane again, so I didn't have to spend anymore time in the car.

I really tried to rest and relax and feed the muse rather than make him work, but he had other ideas. :)

Yes, I do, although I'm usually working from the kitchen table, my bed, or the home office (on the days I work from home and need to be near the phone). Remember this room...?



Over the weekend, DH asked why I didn't work from my office because at least then he'd know I was working, and with the door closed, I wouldn't be so easily interrupted by him or distracted by everyone else moving around the house.

Of course, I had no good answer other than liking the comfort of my bed, and the kitchen table offers good seat-to-work-surface ratios for my short self.

As I was making the big push to complete book two this weekend--which I did!!!!--I realized that working in my office would be a good thing for another reason.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm working to publish books in a series. And of course you want characters, places, and events to crossover two or three books at least, but keeping track of all that information on top of keeping track of the current books and its plot and characters can be difficult. Especially if you work more than one book at a time, which I'm trying to do.

So...

I'm thinking that in my office, I can put up a bulletin board or a white board (hey, I think I have some in the garage!!!) that I can just make lists of those things on, and they can be in plain view as I write to both remind me of what's available and to actually include it.

I got book one back from the editor a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't look at the document at the time, because I wanted to get book two done (in the sense that the story is complete, but there's still tweaking and word-smithing to do) before I went back to it.

Tuesday morning I spent an hour or so making the small corrections, spelling/punctuation/grammar stuff to book one, but I also noted the places where I could add mentions of upcoming characters or town establishments we'll visit in the future. I hadn't thought of those things way back in February when I first wrote this book, but a lot, A LOT, has changed since then, both externally to the series and internally, so, yeah.

Over the course of the next week or two, I'll be tidying up the office in preparation for working in there like a real professional writer.

WOO HOO!

So I've got a lot of work adventuring ahead of me, but I don't want to become: "All writing and no play, makes Jen a dull/stressed/unhappy/cranky girl."

I've met too many authors like that and I never wanted to be one of them.

Since this "I'm going to indie publish my damn books" bug hit me about a month and a half ago, I've been going at various tasks pretty steadily.

I stopped listening to music in the car, because I was using the time to work out plot puzzles or character arcs in those ten/fifteen minutes between home and work.

I haven't gone in search of any other TV shows because I didn't want to get sucked in and get lured into a binge-watching frenzy.

I have re-read the same fan fics over and over because I know what happens and I won't be tempted into the reading rabbit hole.

But not partaking of the things I enjoy for the next nine months/two years in the name of writing books isn't feasible. Nor is it healthy. Living life informs an authors writing.

I've been a pretty happy and healthy person over the last couple of months and I'd like to stay that way. Which means another item on the grand to do list is to start enjoying the other things in life:

• going outside, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine (to be fair, I'm pretty good about this)
• walking the dog--I finally got a no-pull harness for my sweet Rayna, so now we can both get some exercize (more exercise more me, just any exercise at all for her)
• reading stuff I haven't already read
• working on my cross stitch again
• coloring--remember I got coloring books and markers for my anniversary :)
• adding another TV show (or two) to my repertoire--the new TV season is ramping up, so I can pick one of those shows I started last year, which only air one ep per week and start re-watching one of my other faves (I've seen that show three times already, I know what's going to happen)...so any binging tendencies are negated

Granted, this isn't world-travel/new-experiences kind of living life, but it's a start.

Small steps!

Remember I talked about the temptations I'd be facing by having to shop at the big Walmart since my Neighborhood Market closed?

Well, one of those temptations showed up in the form of autumn decorations and housewares. I gave in, because there really wasn't any question that I would. :) So this is what I've purchased so far:







There's no telling what might end up in the cart next week. Although I'm thinking maybe one more hand towel. You always gotta have a pair, right??

How about you? What's the one thing you can't resist??

In the aftermath of the discussion of whether to publish my books as they're ready or to save them up and dump into the great sea of books lashed together as a discoverability raft, I got to thinking about deadlines and when book three needs to be completed by, when it needs to get to the content/copy editor, etc...

It's the only book that has no progress to it. It's still a glimmer in my eye, with nothing but ideas and a few plot points and character details jotted down. There are absolutely no words save an idea for the first paragraph written down.

One thing I learned early on was that deadlines imposed by others scared the pants off me. I couldn't write fast enough. I see a handful of my writer friends chained to their computers slaving away to make deadline after deadline after deadline. And I never wanted that. Writing is something I enjoy doing and I didn't want the life sucked out of my pleasure.

So I got to thinking about when book three had to be done and to the copy editor, when book four had to be done, book five... and oh my goodness can I even sustain that kind of cycle? Can I make deadlines? Can I complete books in a timely fashion? Because successful at money making from being an author requires a certain regularity of new product.

And I started freaking out! Writing a lot of coherent words in a shortish amount of time has never been a strong point of mine. Of course, it's never had to be.

One of the PROs of being an indie author, however, is that I get to decide those deadlines. It's a CON too, I know. But nothing tragic is going to happen if I miss a deadline. If I publish a book a month alter than I intended.

Can I up my productivity? I think I can, and I think I already have. Can I up it more? Possibly. Do I want to? I'm not sure. I still have a life and things outside of writing that I want to enjoy, and this journey is meant to be fun and with as few pressures to it as possible.

The writing of books one and two have given me a bit of a barometer as to how long it takes me to write, but that's hindsight and faulty memory. When it comes time to write book three, I'll pay more attention to milestones and try to get a better handle on timelines. I want to track how long it takes. Gauge how many books I might be able to get out into the world a year....

Another adventure within an adventure begins.