2010 December » Leah Cutter -- writer/traveler

Old School for the New Year

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Dec 302010

As I think I’ve mentioned, I’ve been feeling stuck.

Tonight, I unstuck.

I have the next four days off. I’ve challenged myself to add another 10,000 words to the novel by the time I go back to the day job.

I decided to go back to my old process tonight, that is, writing everything out longhand then typing it up. Just as an experiment.

2500 words came really easily. About 2 hours worth of work.

I realized, yet again, that I look at the computer as something I work on.

And writing isn’t work. Writing is play. There are times when I have that connection, of writing as play, when on the computer. Mostly, though, I don’t. And I’ve been having it less and less.

I don’t know what this means in terms of my process, if I’ll never go back to first draft on the computer or what. But for now, this weekend, I’m going to go with the flow, go with what is finally working, and just write.

Yuletide

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Dec 292010

Yuletide is an annual fanfic exchange that tends to concentrate on rare fandoms.

I know that fanfic is not looked upon favorably by everyone.

But this? This is brilliant.

The pairing?

The Old Spice Guy (from the commercials)/Beowulf

Written in verse.

Gamol-leac

Fair warning: Poke around the rest of the archive at your own risk. You will run into Rule 34, as well as lots of NSFW, NC-17 material. You have been warned.

Inspiration

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Dec 282010

A friend recently asked whether I found it easier to write in New Orleans.

Overall, no, I haven’t. I’ve been emotionally upset about the day job, imbalanced in terms of exercise and eating, unsettled about my home. I haven’t been writing regularly or with the level of discipline I had in Seattle. I also get distracted here easily, wandering the quarter, exploring, or out dancing, what have you.

But.

This place inspires me. For example. My main character plays a fiddle. There are fairies in this novel who play fiddles. It’s a big plot point, actually.

Today I decided to take an afternoon walk and I saw this in the window of an art gallery on Royal:

Painted fiddle

A fiddle. Covered in leaves. Or maybe flames.

Seattle inspires me to be good. To be diligent. To take care of myself.

New Orleans inspires me to take that leap of faith. To be an artist. To fill my soul.

so shall it be

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Dec 272010

This afternoon while I was walking I finally figured out why I’ve been unable to make forward progress in the novel, why I’ve been stuck rewriting.

On the one hand, I’m frustrated that it’s taken me so long to make this connection. I’ve been stuck for close to three weeks now.

On the other hand, the mistake–where I got off track–happened back in chapter 2, and I’ve been trying to continue writing chapter 10. It’s a lot of emotional journey to rewind and set straight. But I must do all that work before I can continue.

On the other, other hand, I’m ecstatic that I know how to continue. I’m not going to finish this book by the end of the year. But I absolutely will finish it by the end of January.

If I had been using my old process, of writing out by hand then typing up, would I have still made this mistake? Probably. I think the process issue had more to do with the fact I had such a solid proposal, and I was following it much too slavishly at the start. The next novel I write from a proposal won’t have this problem. It will have other problems, I’m sure. (^_^)

I hope that everyone has had as stress-free a holiday as they can. I’ve taken a lot of time to goof off and relax. I think I needed it.

More about my process of turning the proposal into a novel

Stalled

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Dec 212010

I don’t get writer’s block. I really don’t.

I do, however, get stalled now and again.

Like now.

Did I write a 2500 word short story this weekend instead of working on the novel? That would be a yes.

See — stalled. Not blocked. Can still write.

So tonight I’m going to spend more time going back through the novel, seeing where the turnoff point was, where I went wrong, what I have to do in order to get back on track. I suspect it was some time ago, more than a few chapters back. (If it had happened in the last chapter, I would already have figured it out and have been moving forward again.) Either that, or it’s something else. Or both (which what I suspect it is — both a process problem as well as an actual writing problem.)

I don’t think I’m going to finish this novel by the end of the year. I will finish it by the end of January. But — never say never. Who knows what Christmas miracle I’ll be able to come up with?

Let’s sum up

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Dec 142010

–I went ahead and bought a Kindle for myself for my Christmas present. After 3+ days of reading on my phone every spare minute I’m suffering from some pretty bad eye strain.

–The day job continues to be a complicated distraction.

–I haven’t been writing. (See day job, above.)

–I only got 4 hours of sleep last night. (See day job, above.)

–It’s been cold here. 40s and 50s. The problem is that my place is 120 years old and has no insulation. I have the heat turned up to 72 and can’t raise the temperature in my bedroom above 66. Ran the space heater for a day to try to get it warmer. It will start to get warmer outside by the end of the week but right now it’s chilly.

–I have a kitchen sink. And have been cooking. Made spaghetti this weekend. Lovely.

–I keep vacillating. I need more of a schedule to get things done. (Things that include eating lunch, sleeping, hell even reading my email — am at 60+ unread and growing.) However, I always swing too far to the orderly side. I keep hoping to find that balance. Hasn’t happened yet.

–There might be more but I think I’m going to vegge out and not worry about it.

Big wheels keep on turning

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Dec 122010

I’ve been far too busy the last week plus. I owe emails and work to people (like Kate) and I owe writing time to myself. Once I recover.

Last week was the annual conference for the day job. Four days of insanity. This year I tried to be smart. I had purposefully not signed up for as much as usual, giving myself more breaks. Then someone got sick, I covered their shifts, and so was on my feet, in a very loud place, dealing with people for 10-12 hours straight, no breaks, for two days. Followed by two more days of conference insanity, as well as emotional stuff and day job drama. Then my flight out of SF was delayed, and it took me 18 hours to get back to New Orleans, by way of four airports.

Exhausted barely begins to cover it.

I can’t yet talk about the changes in my life. Some are too new. Some are still in the planning stages. I’m either being smart, or I’m going to completely screw myself. I suspect there isn’t any middle ground.

One change — I bought a real bed. I should take pictures. The cat approves. (I had been sleeping on a 4″ piece of memory foam, on top of an air mattress.)

Another change. I’d been thinking that I wasn’t reading as much as I used to, because I barely read books anymore. I finally realized that I was reading as much if not more, but it was all blogs and news. So I’ve spent quite some time recently reading books, some in physical book form, and some on my phone. (Kindle app on the Android is awesome. Perfume: Story of a Murderer was good, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was great.)

I’ve come to the decision that I want some kind of dedicated ebook reader. (I figured it would be a good Christmas present to myself.) Went to Best Buy, tried the Kindle, Nook and Sony readers. Hated the page refresh in all of them. I’m too used to reading on the computer or my phone, which has no real page refresh, just sliding text.

Thought about getting an iPad, but it’s really too big, physically. I’ve decided I’m going to get a knock-off Android tablet. Just have to figure out which one. Thoughts, anyone?

And I guess that’s it for me. Time to make the big decisions. Shower? Or more coffee? Or perhaps both?