midweek catchup
Oct. 10th, 2007 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauraanne_gilmanIt rains, and is cold. Hel-lo, October! Where you been?
Springsteen last night, down at the Meadowlands. Ticket karma held up -- excellent side view seats, clear line of sight on the opposite side of the stage from Hartford. I, on the other hand, was a bit woozy from the 100+ fever I had been running all day. Oh well, nothing short of contagion keeps me from my Bruce... A much looser band, more playful if less intense, than what we saw at Hartford, and a nicely shaken-up playlist (including a flubbed audible that my companion was gnashing his teeth over later). We got "Brilliant Disguise" and "Dancing in the Dark," two tunes I haven't heard in a while, so that was nice. And it was a drums night, absolutely -- everyone else was in excellent form but Mighty Max was holding it steady and ready. The crowd, however.. I hate to say this of my former home state, but half the crowd looked like they could have been at a Jackson Browne concert, they were so laid back and whatever-ish. *kicks them all, hard* Our section was pretty rockin', tho. On the shuttle home, a guy was telling me that there were still singleton seats available in the (SRO) pit for tonight, and he offered to protect me (he was 6'4" to my 5'4") if I felt brave enough. Alas, while bravery was there, the energy level -- not to mention the credit card juice -- was not.
Oh, and I got interviewed on-the-scene by a reporter from a local-to-NJ newspaper, so we'll see if anything comes of that.
Writing continues apace. I seem to have sold "Clean Up Your Room!" to a German podcast. Details as they are nailed down. Likewise, an interview with yrs trly will (I am told) be appearing in an outlet to be named later at a date to be named later.
Meanwhile, we are closing in on Draft of BLOOD FROM STONE, and much research for New Project That Eats my Brain, and a couple of short stories wedging their way into the mix, and CGAG meets tonight, so I leave you with some thoughts on the strange things I am learning about myself and my writing process, in case any of it triggers anything for any of you, as well.
I used to get up early in the morning and put my time in on the treadmill before anything else. "If I do it before I'm awake," I explained, "it doesn't hurt so much."
Interestingly, over the past few years I've found that waking early (around 5-6am) and writing follows the same course -- I am far more productive at 6am than I am, forex, at 9am, once I'm fully awake.
For certain types of writing.
Mornings are when I do my best free-flow, creative writing. The caffeine is fresh in my veins, and the words flow, and I'm not worrying about plotting or logic, just description and dialogue and moving the pace along. And, for the most part, what I turn out in the morning sessions remains in the text -- it's good stuff that doesn't require a lot of editing, later.
By the time 10am rolls around, I'm starting to splutter. I can push it, but I won't be as pleased with what happens. That's when I roll over and deal with the adminstrative stuff of Life and Career.
Any writing I do the rest of the day, by contrast, is far more likely to be of a plotting- or outline-based work. Afternoons are when I do my best work on new proposals, for example: the world-building and logic circuts kick in, and while I can still do dialogue and description, I'm more often unhappy with that -- while the structure is rock-solid.
Come evening, and it's more of a mix -- I can blend the two better, almost as though both sides of my brain (lizard, meet mammal) have gotten warmed up and now are willing to work in concert, rather than being cowboys.
The above is a gross generalization, of course, but the pattern is there. I'm wondering how much of it is physical, how much of it is psychological, how much of it is chemical (aka caffeine-based), and how much of it is my own desire to find the pattern, and therefore overthinking it madly...
EtA: on a challenge from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alfreda89, I am about to go ten days without diet coke (or any other 'diet' foodstuff, including gum). In honor of that, I am retiring my default icon of DC the meerkat for the duration.
Springsteen last night, down at the Meadowlands. Ticket karma held up -- excellent side view seats, clear line of sight on the opposite side of the stage from Hartford. I, on the other hand, was a bit woozy from the 100+ fever I had been running all day. Oh well, nothing short of contagion keeps me from my Bruce... A much looser band, more playful if less intense, than what we saw at Hartford, and a nicely shaken-up playlist (including a flubbed audible that my companion was gnashing his teeth over later). We got "Brilliant Disguise" and "Dancing in the Dark," two tunes I haven't heard in a while, so that was nice. And it was a drums night, absolutely -- everyone else was in excellent form but Mighty Max was holding it steady and ready. The crowd, however.. I hate to say this of my former home state, but half the crowd looked like they could have been at a Jackson Browne concert, they were so laid back and whatever-ish. *kicks them all, hard* Our section was pretty rockin', tho. On the shuttle home, a guy was telling me that there were still singleton seats available in the (SRO) pit for tonight, and he offered to protect me (he was 6'4" to my 5'4") if I felt brave enough. Alas, while bravery was there, the energy level -- not to mention the credit card juice -- was not.
Oh, and I got interviewed on-the-scene by a reporter from a local-to-NJ newspaper, so we'll see if anything comes of that.
Writing continues apace. I seem to have sold "Clean Up Your Room!" to a German podcast. Details as they are nailed down. Likewise, an interview with yrs trly will (I am told) be appearing in an outlet to be named later at a date to be named later.
Meanwhile, we are closing in on Draft of BLOOD FROM STONE, and much research for New Project That Eats my Brain, and a couple of short stories wedging their way into the mix, and CGAG meets tonight, so I leave you with some thoughts on the strange things I am learning about myself and my writing process, in case any of it triggers anything for any of you, as well.
I used to get up early in the morning and put my time in on the treadmill before anything else. "If I do it before I'm awake," I explained, "it doesn't hurt so much."
Interestingly, over the past few years I've found that waking early (around 5-6am) and writing follows the same course -- I am far more productive at 6am than I am, forex, at 9am, once I'm fully awake.
For certain types of writing.
Mornings are when I do my best free-flow, creative writing. The caffeine is fresh in my veins, and the words flow, and I'm not worrying about plotting or logic, just description and dialogue and moving the pace along. And, for the most part, what I turn out in the morning sessions remains in the text -- it's good stuff that doesn't require a lot of editing, later.
By the time 10am rolls around, I'm starting to splutter. I can push it, but I won't be as pleased with what happens. That's when I roll over and deal with the adminstrative stuff of Life and Career.
Any writing I do the rest of the day, by contrast, is far more likely to be of a plotting- or outline-based work. Afternoons are when I do my best work on new proposals, for example: the world-building and logic circuts kick in, and while I can still do dialogue and description, I'm more often unhappy with that -- while the structure is rock-solid.
Come evening, and it's more of a mix -- I can blend the two better, almost as though both sides of my brain (lizard, meet mammal) have gotten warmed up and now are willing to work in concert, rather than being cowboys.
The above is a gross generalization, of course, but the pattern is there. I'm wondering how much of it is physical, how much of it is psychological, how much of it is chemical (aka caffeine-based), and how much of it is my own desire to find the pattern, and therefore overthinking it madly...
EtA: on a challenge from
alfreda89, I am about to go ten days without diet coke (or any other 'diet' foodstuff, including gum). In honor of that, I am retiring my default icon of DC the meerkat for the duration.
