Sunday, December 04, 2011

Sunny Sunday Versus the Blank Page

Jer is upstairs playing World of Warcraft and I'm sitting at the kitchen table thinking about writing. It's important to think before you begin, to ease yourself into the words, otherwise you might cramp and drown.

Right?

The sky is blue and the sun is shining and it is 36 degrees outside--according to what I can see out the window and a nearby thermometer. Perfect corn maze weather, except I think they're all closed for the season by now. Last year it was either snowing or had just finished snowing. I prefer rain.

Since NaNoWriMo ended I haven't written much. I've read a lot of short stories and a couple of non-fiction books, and I wrote an essay, which I submitted to a thing. I went to my last day of novel writing class. It was fun and I was sorry to see it end.

As NaNoWriMo winners, there's a rumor we'll be eligible for a Scrivener discount starting December 5. If you haven't heard of Scrivener, it's software designed to help you write and organize your novel. It comes with tools to help you outline, post virtual index cards to a "corkboard," maintain different versions, and export your work into standard manuscript format. You can buy Scrivener for Mac and Windows now--the full Windows version has just recently become available.

So I'm excited for tomorrow.

I've been looking for patterns in what helps get the words flowing. A certain time of day? A location? Basically the only thing that seems to work is being stubborn. I'm a creature of procrastination. If I manage to outlast myself then I can usually get the work done.

Thanks, brain. This insight was not helpful at all.

2 comments:

Silver Bowen said...

Nothing beats sitting in a chair staring at a blank screen, refusing to get up until something gets written for, well, sitting in a chair staring at a blank screen, refusing to get up until something gets written. Especially when you disallow potty breaks.

Excepting, of course, the giganotasaurus, or G-rex. Which is a giant T-rex, and hey, giant T-rexes beat _everything_.

Folly Blaine said...

Yes! I agree. And if more people realized writing is just a civil form of self-imposed torture they would be less likely to romanticize it. Or maybe I'm projecting.

Bonus points for mentioning dinosaurs.