Moving Day Part 3

Decided to keep my blog here for the time being. Yes, I know, I'm fickle. Hopefully the post-production work on Plans will be done soon and I can get around to whoring it shamelessly around Chicago. As for the moment, I'm finally working again on my next story.

You may or may not know about my little cat Bucky, who passed away at the end of August. He was the world's worst editor but the world's best writing buddy. Since he's been gone, I've had trouble getting myself back into the swing of writing. I had half a synopsis and no motivation to finish it or start the story itself.

Today I got an email from Tim Locke of Calhoun fame answering my 1001 questions about the music business. Yesterday I got an email from Lynn with sketches of my new MFC and MMC. Add in a song from Ted Leo on iTunes and all of a sudden I'm rarin' to go again.

Shifting between writing the last third of the synopsis and emailing an old friend who is in a band about the music aspect of it. Have to remember to ask my shrink about inpatient facilities at Rush and St. Elizabeth. I wonder if he'd be willing to let me go on some sort of a tour. If nothing else, it would serve as a reminder of why I need to take my medication without fail and on time.

Things to Do When You're Sick

Apparently one of them is to go through an old idea I had in college and assess its potential as an actual story.

Unlike some of my other things, I actually do see worth in it. It needs some serious overhaul, cleanup and expansion of just about every scene and chapter. The "manuscript" was only 194 pages handwritten and Plans was 340 single-space typed, so that should give you some idea of how much needs to be reworked.

I'm also considering using NaNoWriMo as a way to kick myself in the ass and get one of these other stories started. I've got most of an outline and some detailed character sketches ready. I just need to do it, you know?

Moving Day Part 2

Created Process is Moving!
Keep up with the weirdness at my new mini-website until I get a regular website!

<3's
Natalie

Method Writing II

Sent out a handful of emails to different sources asking different questions about psych wards, music rights, car maintenance and more. All, of course, in the name of research. I always feel so weird emailing people out of the blue and saying "you don't know me, but I need to know this for a story I'm writing." At least if I had some sort of publishing cred, they'd actually answer me.

Also, I know that being put on new medication isn't exactly something to write home about but this one might be useful in the long run. See, it's an antipsychotic (I don't think I like the implications) and my new MFC is kind of not right in the head and I'd been researching that particular class of drugs. Now I get to experience them firsthand. I'm sure Hunter S. Thompson was thinking the same thing at some point...

HARDCORE

Two days ago I noticed a strange pain in my index finger while at the day job. "How odd," I thought, bending my finger to try and clear it. "I haven't done anything more strenuous than drawing blood in the last four hours." By the time I left work, the pain had progressed to a burning sensation that went from my index finger to my wrist. I was understandably worried. I mean, my right hand is pretty crucial to just about everything I do, particularly writing and typing.

As soon as I got home, I looked up tendinitis on Wikipedia and found my symptoms almost word for word. I checked WebMD and discovered that the only treatment is rest and ibuprofen. So, like any rational person, I put a mini ice pack in a sock and strapped it to my hand with some cloth tape I found in the first aid kit. Then I went back to typing that outline. Today I've been wrapping it with an Ace bandage and icing it when I can.

Sorry, online medical advice. You can pry my keyboard out of my cold, dead hands.

In other news, my "office area" has been totally trashed. This is the result of my repeated searches through the pile for paper to scratch down ideas and the need to flip through an old draft of something to find out a character's last name or the date. I really need to get some sort of desk or at least a file box. I'm also going to have to start putting legal pads in all the rooms again. I can't keep running back and forth from the shower to the makeshift office to write things like shift POV here and tight jeans totally out of character for MMC.

Outline Blues

I absolutely hate writing outlines. Over the years, though, I've learned that they are a necessary evil. Without them, your story can meander off in all directions and you can end up writing the same part twice or leaving out crucial plot development. You can also call the same person three different names by mistake. That is why detailed character sketches are also important. Character sketches are less hateful because you get to write out the little quirks and snips about your characters that you need to know to write them effectively, but that no one else will ever see. Outlines, on the other hand, only make me want to start writing the actual chapters.

As a result, I dart back and forth between my outline and another open file where I scratch out ideas and scenes that I don't want to forget while I'm trying to map out the story. The outline for Plans ended up being 43 pages long and took me almost a month and a half to write. I'm sure it wouldn't have taken as long if I wasn't so damn flighty when it comes to this part.

Plans is on hold until I can get the beta copies printed, and I've resolved not to read it through again until I get those copies and can read it along with my readers. This is partly as a show of solidarity for their pain, but more so because I've read it so many times I've started to imagine I've used the same phrase seven or eight times when I really only used it once. It's time to take a step back and let it breathe for a couple of weeks, no matter how much I adore my little sprites.

Still Kicking Around...

This is what a massive overhaul of an old idea for a story that you think you might be able to salvage looks like. Isn't that awesome?

Got some really bad news about one of my cats today so I haven't been able to do any actual thinking. Instead, I just keep going through this old manuscriptlet and gutting it of whatever good ideas were inside. There are a couple (they're in the highlighted bits).

A friend's friend who is also a writer got extremely lucky today. He shared a cab with a random guy and forgot his lunchbox when he left. Inside the lunchbox, among other things, was a notebook containing all his ideas and notes. Because sometimes things really do work out all right, my friend was looking on Craig's List and happened to see a post from the guy who found the lunchbox and wanted to return it to him. Who says there aren't any good people in the Windy City?