Laundry List
In my last entry, I mentioned I was having trouble getting started on the second draft of Lanternfly. That hasn’t changed all that much in actual work I’ve done. Seems like every time I take more than a month off a project, I have to go through this period of reorientation where I need to remember just what it is the fuck I was doing with the book and all that. I’m still plodding through scratch outlines and bitties, trying to find a place to cut some things, and other places to expand.
On the whole, I think my focus has been trying to find a systematic, yet flexible way to work. One of my biggest problems is the tendency to get extremely frustrated and berate myself–which there has been an unhealthy abundance of lately. I don’t know, maybe I feel like I should be better at this after having done it nearly four times. Yeah, no.
So, to counter this, I’ve looked into some methods that will hopefully make my process a little easier, and also help improve the content and quality of my writing. The first thing I’ve done is trying to set aside time to write every day, in spite of my job. Another big problem I’ve run into is that I’m apparently a pretty good closer, meaning that’s what I get scheduled for the majority of the time. Given our store closes at 10:30 (mind you, the last freaking place on Church Street that doesn’t serve alcohol), and most of my shifts being 7-8 hours, I’m usually left with the late hours, which is usually when the most dicking off happens. So, I’ve started doing what is probably the most unthinkable I’ve ever undertaken in my life: I’ve started going to bed early and waking up at eight in the morning.
Those who know me personally know that I am by no means a morning person, and I’m almost infamous for being the only screen name on after 3AM on some nights. The downside of going to bed at dawn and waking up at 1, 2, 3PM is that absolutely no writing gets done, and that usually grinds at me after a while. So far I’ve had a little bit of trouble with it–my first morning, I missed the shot by about two hours. This morning it took me a half hour. We’re getting there, but slowly. Then there’s the problem of the sun in Starbucks acting like a laser and melting anything that sits in my seat before 11:30A. I’ll work on it.
The other new thing I’ve been doing is looking into research for Lanternfly. Now, I’m not a particularly good researcher. To be brutally honest, when it comes to writing, it’s the last thing I want to do. At the same time, I know its something my work really NEEDS to be what I want it to be. So, this morning, I sat down and made a laundry list of crap I need to look up to build on reality. I wound up with about a page of stuff–everything from flower arrangements to Apartheid, mopeds, Native American tribes and the British school system. In a way, I’m really happy I did it, and I even started looking up books on a few subjects. Maybe when I get adjusted to this new schedule, I’ll hop off to the library and see what I can find there.
I’m pretty sure there are going to be days where I’m absolutely going to hate this, but this is after all what I want to do for a living and my process is almost as important as the writing. Just gotta stick to it.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. The series title has been changed from Hellion to Evercoil. I’m not sure if this will be a permanent change, but it seems the best at the moment ^^;