My February Goal

If you have been reading here lately, you've noticed that I've picked up and put down several writing projects. You may think I have a billion pieces lying around just waiting for my attention but you would be wrong. I do have a few, that's true, but I have a problem that has nothing to do with which one to work on, nope, that isn't it. My problem is focus and by extension priorities.

When I first started back to school, I had to take a course about going back to school especially since there is the online element to some of the classes. They talked a great deal about focus, stress, priorities, and communicating all of these issues with everyone around me that might have a right to my time. In my school work, these items have never been an issue. If anyone in my house sees me at my computer, they leave me alone. I'm working and I'm not to be bothered.

So where is the issue, you ask. The issue lies in the fact that even when my homework is finished and I have free time, even when I've spent time with my family and feel free to pursue my own pursuits, I cannot focus on my own writing. I sit down with a great idea and before I know it I've completely wandered, mentally, into a different story or possibility of a different story or this story told from a different point of view or, well, the list goes on. None of these mental wanderings are necessarily bad but they are counter productive. If I can't get one good thought down, I have nothing to work with, no story to grow.

What have I been doing with my time then, you ask. I've been reading. I've read more books in the last few months than I have for several years. I love to read but I don't have a lot of time to do so. I bought a nook recently and that has given me the ability to carry my books with me easily and read while I'm waiting anywhere. It's great. I love it. However, I'm not writing.

With that in mind, I'm trying to think of ways to make myself write. I'd like to write a little everyday. I don't. By the time I remember to do it, I'm tired, my head hurts from all the computer work I do, or there are a million other excuses. I'd like to write ten pages every week not necessarily a bit every day but a total of ten no matter how often I write. Not happening. Can't seem to get that far. So, it's time to get tough with myself and focus. February is almost here and I've decided to set a goal that by the end of February I'll have written fifty pages. That really isn't such a huge goal, after all, I did write 50000 words in November. I'm tired of wanting to write and not being able to write. So, I'm going to write. I have decided. Yep, we'll see how far that gets me.

In other news, T is starting to require the car more and more. I'm all right with that. He is old enough to come and go mostly as he pleases but it puts a cramp in my style since I don't have the money to help him get his own car. Em is Em, not much else to say. Mom is finally starting to look and sound better. She caught the flu on top of the bronchitis but is actually up and moving around with purpose today. As for me, well, I'm still whining about my writing. What more is there to say?

Rant On Writing About Teens

Why is it that you can live with a teen, survive, just barely, that ugly teen gargoyle period, and still not be able to write a convincing teen in that same gargoyle stage? I've lived through it, I've been riding that roller coaster as a parent, and I've survived the first wave of it. Still, I cannot get it right on paper. Either that or the readers who say the kid is unlovable and therefore unsympathetic have never dealt with the wee beasties themselves. After all, how lovable and sympathetic do you think a teen is who has a death wish for you and every other form of authority they see? I mean sure, they can be sweet, when they need money, and they can be kind, when they need money, and they can even revert back to that sweet child you once knew, again, when they need money, but really, those moments aren't often enough to make you forget that, well, they need money. Have you ever tried to wrap your arms around a bony kid who absolutely doesn't want to be touched and unfortunately has the wit and quickness to state this with such rapier sharpness that they cut your heart out and hand it to you before you even know they've moved? They leave no finer feeling untrampled and no kindness appreciated. They are in a word unlovable. Yet, we do love them. So, how do you write it? Apparently, the opposite of how I write it. My kids are written as if you're viewing the world through their eyes. Things are totally unfair. The parent is unjust and downright unreasonable. I mean really, weren't your parents? Didn't they require more of you than you could possibly give? Didn't you heave sighs and roll your eyes and generally make yourself and anyone around you as miserable as possible? Yet, if I write it that way, suddenly my characters are horrors let loose on the world. Well, hello. What do you think populates our schools?

OK, enough rant. Now for the other stuff. I've made some progress on an old piece I found. It isn't much but it might make a good short story. I don't have a lot of time to devote to it and I'm not sure where in the world I would market it but it is fun to mess about with it.

I've been reading a couple of things outside my comfort zone. I like sci-fi/fantasy but not on a regular basis. I like it more in a movie than in a book mostly because the fight scenes are better visualized than read, at least in my imagination. However, the book "Something From The Nightside" by Simon R Green is a pretty good offering. It felt like those old black and white films of the PI and the blonde bombshell. I swear I could hear the movie music in the background and smell the smoke as I read the opening chapters. It gets a little cheesy at times and is in no way a serious read, but, it does nicely to pass the time and I love the ending. The story was completely predictable but fun and the ending was superior. You didn't really know how it was going to end even though you weren't completely surprised by it either. Over all, not a disappointment. I will read the next installment of it if only to find out if he really does keep the girl as his secretary ... and that's all I'm going to say.

In other news, Em had friends over this weekend. The mall may never be the same again. T showed real maturity in dealing with the girls. They are a couple of years younger than him and he could have really put them in their place. He was kind and even shared a few laughs with them before closing himself firmly in his room and sealing the door against all invaders. Smart boy. Mom has bronchitis that won't go away. She does not have pneumonia, the x-rays say so. Could have fooled me. I'm, well, I'm still here, still in school, and still keeping the balance. That's about it.

No Writing On Snow Days

Here we are in the new year with snow and ice and a couple of snow days. You'd think this is the perfect time to get some writing done. Umm, no. Between "Left for Dead" playing in the background in T's room with its screams and groans and gunshots, HGTV and the shopping channels my mom watches, the music and games Em's playing, and my homework, I can't find a quiet place to sit and think. I wish I had a snow day and everyone else did not.

I've got a new story banging around in my head, playing itself out, rewinding, changing, and playing again. I really want to start writing it but it isn't letting me get anything concrete on paper about it yet. It keeps changing about as fast as I try to nail the details down. So, I'll just wait on it to get tired and then quick scribble some of it on a piece of paper and see where it goes from there. This is really exciting for me. I was so terribly afraid that I'd lost my storytelling ability. With all the writing I do for school, my funner, fictional side went very quiet. Either that or the homework was screaming so loud I couldn't hear the fun stuff anymore. Now, though, it's back and it's loud and I'm so, so, so happy about that.

By the way, while I'm thinking about homework, Microsoft has a good program that creates flowcharts called Visio. Does anyone know of any other, preferably free, program that does something similar? I'm making oodles of flowcharts for some programming I'm doing and I will break down and buy Visio if I have to but I'm checking out all the alternatives first. If anyone has any good ideas, please let me know.

I've been reading a few good books over the past month or so. The first set I have read recently is the first four of the "Mistress of the Art of Death" series by Ariana Franklin. The first in the series goes by that same name. They are set in the 1100's so if you like mysteries of that period, I can heartily recommend them to you. They are well written and even though I arrived at the answer before they did, lets face it, that isn't hard to do in most mystery fiction, they weren't far behind my own deductions. She isn't an author that gives you everything you need to get to the answer then at the end throws you a curve ball by giving you the one piece of evidence that would have changed everything if you'd had it within the first five pages like the characters did. I hate those types of stories. Anyway, I think you'll like this set of books if you decide to give them a chance. I've read some others but I'll get to them in another post. We mustn't tell all we know in one go, you know.

In other news, both the kids are loving their snow days. I'm not sure if they realize they lose some of their time off school later to make up for these days, but if they don't, they will, eventually. Mom has a terrible cold. I had to ban her from being within three feet of me. She just has to sneeze and cough, geez, it's enough to give me a cold. I'm working my way through an avalanche of homework. It's insane how much you have to work through at the beginning of a course. It seems like it tapers off till the last couple of weeks then you're deluged again. NOT enjoying this. Speaking of avalanches, we have four inches of snow on the ground. That's all I'm going to say about it. Most of you already know what I think about this already. Sigh.

Words of wisdom: If someone throws a snowball at you in August, duck, it's probably a baseball. Just thought you should know.