Ahem. It has been brought to my attention *g* by Deniz over at The Girdle of Melian (who has her own synopsis of a typical writing day) that I neglected to tell y'all about my work-writing day. Well, I work every Friday and Saturday--nightshift in the ICU--plus either a Monday or Wednesday due to my husband's class schedule. I prefer to do nightshifts all in a row, but shit happens like Husband's Decision to Make a Career Change.
So! My Friday and Monday consists of the same schedule I posted earlier except I leave for work at 6pm, work until 7am (writing when I can*), home by 8am, then sleep all day Saturday, waking up at around 5pm to go back to work. This crazy schedule means I stay up for around 26-28 hours straight--twice a week. Sunday, after work, I usually sleep a little later, waking up at 7pm-ish to cook dinner and get the kids to bed so I can read or write** after they're asleep.
*Writing at work is hit or miss. If we're busy, I get nothing done. Flu season is on its way so I won't even try. But on the nights when I'm the Charge Nurse, I can usually get a thousand words in between my paperwork, starting IVs, admitting patients (or as another Charge Nurse calls it...Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic) and putting out theoretical fires as they come up.
**The back and forth of dayshift/nightshift (especially since I can't work all three nights in a row anymore) has taken its toll on my brain. I can't write anything worth a shit when I've slept so erratically. That means Sunday nights and Tuesday nights are usually a wash for writing. But I try anyway, even though I don't typically keep what I wrote...it's jibberish.
There you have it. My crazy schedule. It's no wonder I drink so much coffee and have a messy house. I've learned to accept the clutter and walk around it. Life is too short to spend it all on chores.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Writing Life
Over at the Compuserve Books and Writer's Forum, one of the members posted a synopsis of her writing day. It was leisurely and really the scenario that every aspiring writer dreams of. Breakfast, write, lunch and a t.v. show, write and edit some more. Dinner with husband, reading, etc. Honestly, it made me insanely jealous. That may sound petty, but here's why...
My typical day writing:
Wake up at 0620 start coffee. Make oldest heathen’s breakfast and wake him up.
0630 drink half a cup of coffee in complete solitude whilst checking email/facebook/twitter until youngest heathen wakes up asking for yogurt-peach then strawberry.
0640 Give oldest heathen a glass of soy milk and his probiotic, and if he’s done with breakfast administer vitamins. Youngest heathen is usually awake by now.
0650 finish giving youngest heathen her yogurt and fluff oldest heathen’s clothes in the dryer because I never got them out and folded them the night before.
0710 make oldest heathen’s lunch and check backpack for completed homework, notes, and snack. Prod youngest heathen to the bathroom to pee. Wake Middle Heathen who isn’t fond of mornings, like his mother. Get all three dressed to take Oldest to school.
0735 Take Oldest to school, home by 0800 and finish breakfast for Two Littlest Heathens
0830 Stare at laptop and decide where to start, editing or write a scene. Doesn’t matter which because I’ll be interrupted every minute or two by things like…
“Hey, Mommy.” Middle One shoves a portable game in my face. “I’m pretending Barricade is Megatron. He’s the hardest to beat.”
“Mommy,” sings the Littlest one, “I have to go pee-pee.”
“Hey, Mommy, how do you spell handwriting?”
“Mommy, I want some soy milk.”
“Hey Mommy, why do we have to brush our teeth every day?”
“Mommy, I pooted.”
“Hey, Mommy, look at this. It’s Bone Crusher and Scorpinock.”
After about ten minutes of this, I give up and close the laptop. We play outside off and on for two hours then go back in around ten or eleven to get ready for lunch.
1200 Watch Caillou, which is a guaranteed thirty minutes of no kid interruptions if I time the beginning of lunch with the beginning of the show. Write like hell for those thirty minutes. Maybe squeeze another hour playing outside after lunch or watch a movie if it’s raining/too cold/too hot.
Spend the rest of the day (in stolen five minute intervals) adding to or editing those furious words I got earlier in between more questions/statements/requests like the ones listed above.
1430 Leave to get oldest from school, dragging Middle and Littlest with me, read while waiting in school line, home by 1515 at the latest.
Snacks for everyone except me, I haven’t eaten since breakfast at 0800, forgot to write that down earlier.
[Damn, this is exhausting just typing it.]
Start homework Battle Royale by 1600. With or without alcohol.
1700 start dinner eat by 1800.
Still no time for me.
Baths
Brushing Teeth
Keeping my eyes open
2100 Everybody needs to back off before Mommy loses her shit. Read stories and tuck each kid in their respective beds, where I usually fall asleep in one of them. If I’m lucky*, I stay awake and write til 2200 then read til 2300 and either fall asleep on the couch or go to bed to wake up at 0620** the next day and do it all again.
*I'm usually not.
**That’s if no one wakes up in the night (which is rare these days) or if Oldest doesn’t wake up at 0530 wanting to know if it’s too early to get up yet.
My typical day writing:
Wake up at 0620 start coffee. Make oldest heathen’s breakfast and wake him up.
0630 drink half a cup of coffee in complete solitude whilst checking email/facebook/twitter until youngest heathen wakes up asking for yogurt-peach then strawberry.
0640 Give oldest heathen a glass of soy milk and his probiotic, and if he’s done with breakfast administer vitamins. Youngest heathen is usually awake by now.
0650 finish giving youngest heathen her yogurt and fluff oldest heathen’s clothes in the dryer because I never got them out and folded them the night before.
0710 make oldest heathen’s lunch and check backpack for completed homework, notes, and snack. Prod youngest heathen to the bathroom to pee. Wake Middle Heathen who isn’t fond of mornings, like his mother. Get all three dressed to take Oldest to school.
0735 Take Oldest to school, home by 0800 and finish breakfast for Two Littlest Heathens
0830 Stare at laptop and decide where to start, editing or write a scene. Doesn’t matter which because I’ll be interrupted every minute or two by things like…
“Hey, Mommy.” Middle One shoves a portable game in my face. “I’m pretending Barricade is Megatron. He’s the hardest to beat.”
“Mommy,” sings the Littlest one, “I have to go pee-pee.”
“Hey, Mommy, how do you spell handwriting?”
“Mommy, I want some soy milk.”
“Hey Mommy, why do we have to brush our teeth every day?”
“Mommy, I pooted.”
“Hey, Mommy, look at this. It’s Bone Crusher and Scorpinock.”
After about ten minutes of this, I give up and close the laptop. We play outside off and on for two hours then go back in around ten or eleven to get ready for lunch.
1200 Watch Caillou, which is a guaranteed thirty minutes of no kid interruptions if I time the beginning of lunch with the beginning of the show. Write like hell for those thirty minutes. Maybe squeeze another hour playing outside after lunch or watch a movie if it’s raining/too cold/too hot.
Spend the rest of the day (in stolen five minute intervals) adding to or editing those furious words I got earlier in between more questions/statements/requests like the ones listed above.
1430 Leave to get oldest from school, dragging Middle and Littlest with me, read while waiting in school line, home by 1515 at the latest.
Snacks for everyone except me, I haven’t eaten since breakfast at 0800, forgot to write that down earlier.
[Damn, this is exhausting just typing it.]
Start homework Battle Royale by 1600. With or without alcohol.
1700 start dinner eat by 1800.
Still no time for me.
Baths
Brushing Teeth
Keeping my eyes open
2100 Everybody needs to back off before Mommy loses her shit. Read stories and tuck each kid in their respective beds, where I usually fall asleep in one of them. If I’m lucky*, I stay awake and write til 2200 then read til 2300 and either fall asleep on the couch or go to bed to wake up at 0620** the next day and do it all again.
*I'm usually not.
**That’s if no one wakes up in the night (which is rare these days) or if Oldest doesn’t wake up at 0530 wanting to know if it’s too early to get up yet.
Monday, October 31, 2011
What the Hell am I thinking?
I've finally done it. I have lost my mind. Last night, I signed up for NaNoWriMo. As if there wasn't enough on my plate. In case you're wondering, here's what is on my plate:
1. Three kids; ages 3, 4 and 10. The three and four year-olds stay at home with me during the week while ...
2. I work nightshift, three 12-hour shifts per week [in which very little writing can be done] and sleep the day after while...
3. My husband is back in school full time to become a Respiratory Therapist. He's gone all day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On either Tuesday or Thursday, he goes back to school to study with his classmates. Every minute he's home, he is studying. This is paying off as evidenced by his A-average.
4. I'm editing my first novel and really trying to take a more business-like approach after SiWC. Last year I pitched to an agent who requested the first 35 pages and this year I pitched to an editor who wants to see it (upon its completion). I learned that NaNo is not the right way to do your rewrites. I tried this last year and got 50,000 words, but it was all backstory. NaNo could very well pull me away from the Book That Needs Attention.
5. My house is a disaster zone.
6. We're traveling Nov. 23-27 for Thanksgiving
So! I figure I've got around 20-25 days that I can actually write, which puts my daily word count goal at 2,000-2,500. On the plus side, I am kid-free for four days this week. I'm aiming for much higher word counts on those four days to make a buffer for the aforementioned holiday travel.
Plan: Write out the list of scenes I need to finish the first book. I've spent the last few months ripping the SFD (shitty first draft) to pieces and I have many holes to fill. Start the next book. Ideas for this have been bouncing around like so many ping-pong balls in my head for the last year. Lastly, Try not to kill anyone from the stress.
Somebody tell me this is actually possible. Please.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Apparently, I am naive.
I've been working on a post that summed up my absence over the summer months. A humorous self-titled* post to break the ice and get back to blogging on a regular basis. It's still not finished, almost, but not quite.
And then yesterday I got a phone call regarding two of my very best friends here in Nashville. Leaving out all details, basically my heart, pride, and trust have been crushed. So this little emotional word-salad gushed out yesterday while I waited in line to pick up my eldest from school. Here it is in all its unedited glory.
"Words won't come. How can you organize a single coherent thought while betrayal churns, fresh and putrid, in your gut.
I can't judge the acts. I am no saint, to be sure. The lies will not abide. To trust and defend were my downfall. I will not blindly do either again.
Guilt, I hope, has entered their minds. It will be a self-inflicted punishment. If they have no guilt, then nothing is left of their souls."
Weird, I know. But if felt good to get it out. And it was better than puking which is the other feeling I had.
Hopefully today is a better day and I get some real writing done.
*Self-Titled, as in "A Day in the Life of Me"
And then yesterday I got a phone call regarding two of my very best friends here in Nashville. Leaving out all details, basically my heart, pride, and trust have been crushed. So this little emotional word-salad gushed out yesterday while I waited in line to pick up my eldest from school. Here it is in all its unedited glory.
"Words won't come. How can you organize a single coherent thought while betrayal churns, fresh and putrid, in your gut.
I can't judge the acts. I am no saint, to be sure. The lies will not abide. To trust and defend were my downfall. I will not blindly do either again.
Guilt, I hope, has entered their minds. It will be a self-inflicted punishment. If they have no guilt, then nothing is left of their souls."
Weird, I know. But if felt good to get it out. And it was better than puking which is the other feeling I had.
Hopefully today is a better day and I get some real writing done.
*Self-Titled, as in "A Day in the Life of Me"
Thursday, May 26, 2011
For my babies
This one goes out to my munchkins.
(In case you can't tell where this is, it wraps around my left hip)
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Facebook Spellcheck
Yesterday I posted on an author's Facebook page that I enjoyed her book and jokingly chided her for the cliffhanger ending [which I secretly and sadistically enjoy. Not sure why I like the torture of those endings, but I do. I'm weird. I know.] Anyhow, someone [needlessly] jumped to the author's defense and her reply was saturated with spelling errors. I didn't call her out for it; it's a pointless argument. For all I know, English is her second language. Or maybe she just doesn't care. But the fact that she's defending someone's writing style, but doesn't take the time to fix the red spelling errors seems a little off to me. Here's how it went [I've deleted the poster's name and profile picture. I put the errors in bold, not because I think y'all are stupid*]:
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tattoos, I love you
Just realized I hadn't posted pics of my finished half sleeve. I was reminded by a post from Aunt Becky over at Mommy Want's Vodka today--she's getting her next one today. Can't wait to see what she gets. Her last one, a beautiful phoenix, was strikingly awesome.
Anyhow, here's the pics (taken a few days after it was finished).
Anyhow, here's the pics (taken a few days after it was finished).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
