Short blog today, though not because of the game. Actually, I don’t care about the game–I’m not a big sports fan, and I don’t care about either of the teams playing. During the game would be a good time to go to the grocery store (I’ve done that before), but not this year, because panic shoppers probably cleared the stores out on Friday, because of all the snow we were supposed to get starting last night, which turned out to be a little rain and mostly nothing.
Even my husband isn’t really into the game this year, and he does like football–a lot. He did attempt to watch some of the pre-game countdown blather, but Isis wasn’t having any of that:
Her head does not make a good window
She did eventually move aside… just for a minute:
A favorite place to sit
Sometimes I watch the game for the commercials, though this year, even that doesn’t interest me. I’ve already seen the news clips on the “controversial” one, that’s more about T&A than hamburgers. Apparently they don’t want my business. So I’ll probably be working on my revisions.
What I read this week: I saw this on a blog, or recommendation on Amazon–I can’t remember where, exactly, but it looked interesting and a quick read, so I bought it. Write Every Day by Cathy Yardley is a short craft book full of good productivity tips. As I expected, a lot of the content covered the same things as Dean Wesley Smith’s Productivity workshop covered, but in less depth. But all good reinforcement. One thing different about this book that I loved was that it recognized the need to “transition” between day job or mommy tasks and writing, and also the fact that not all of us are wired to take advantage of every 10-15 minutes spent waiting in line at the grocery store, to pick up the kids, etc. to get a bit of writing in. And best of all, she recognizes one life component I’ve come to learn is as much, if not more, important than time: our personal energy levels. And this book discusses how to deal with those, and recognizes the fact that we can’t always write when we’re at our best creative-energy times, because duh, that’s when some of us have to go to work! So if you’re a writer and you’d like some quick, encouraging tips on increasing your productivity that won’t make you feel like a slacker, get this book!
I’m also reading a novel this week, which I’m really enjoying, but am not far enough in to discuss much more than that, so I’ll give it until next week.
ROW80 Update: I’d hoped to get the WIP marked up through Chapter 20 this week. That didn’t happen, mainly because I hit a snag at Chapter 16. I left a few details kind of vague, thinking I’d figure them out by the time I got to revision, and could address them then. Well, I had not figured them out, it turns out. So I had to spend most of Saturday noodling around and figuring out the motivations and whys of several peripheral characters, and who could do what, and who fit where, because it all impacts the ending (which I also needed to figure out). I did get it figured out, but it took most of yesterday, and a bit of this morning. Note to self: This stuff should be figured out at the outlining stage, or at least in the first draft! The good thing is, now that I have it figured out, I’m excited to dig back in, which is the main reason I probably won’t watch much Superbowl. So this week’s goal is to get all those changes marked in, and the rest of the draft marked up.
One other thing I started doing was more closely tracking my actual time spent on my writing, entering it on a spreadsheet each day when finished. Until now, I just estimated it each week for my Weekly Status Report. Now I know I spent 8 hours on my revision this week (not counting some of the sitting and thinking time), and 8 hours last week. Not a big surprise–my estimates generally ranged from 6-10 hours.
What about you–are you/did you watch the Superbowl? Any commercials you particularly liked or did not like? Have you ever put off a bit of planning, only to have it come back and bite you? Do you track your time spent writing, or if not a writer, on other long-term projects or goals? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!
Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.