Spring is here

It’s official. I have taken the flannel sheets off the beds and removed the extra blankets. It’s 70+ outside and we’re having thunderstorms in the area. (And tornados in East Texas!)

I’d say spring is finally here!

And after today, I’m off the rest of the week. WOOHOO!

I’m really looking forward to having a few days off.

And then I get to pay bills on Friday. And EW. That’s just going to suck. I hate paying bills. It’s one of those depressing moments but you know what? I’m not going to let it get me down. I’m not going to let it defeat me. I’m just going to keep on keeping on. And I’ll just keep doing the best I can. And if it’s not good enough for some of my creditors, OH-EFFING-WELL. They’ll recover I’m sure.

I hate being broke. I’m tired of living paycheck to paycheck. And what’s really sad is everything is just getting more and more expensive. Car insurance went up (across the board rate increase). Groceries went up (full time child). Gas went up (EFF). It’s really cutting into my shoe budget (snicker).

At 4:30 am yesterday morning, my phone rang. I don’t know what it is, but WHY do fax machines call me? There’s one in Denver that, after nearly two years, has finally gotten the hint that my phone number is NOT a fax machine. Must have been that ugly fax I sent them not so long ago. But NOW I have a 919 area code calling me and trying to fax me. And it happens at all hours of the night! I swear, I’m going to just start unplugging my phone when I go to bed. It’s ridiculous.

(And no, I don’t have call blocker because I use Vonage and they don’t have that as a feature. And I was tired of handing fistfuls of money over to AT&T. They get enough of my business what with my cell phone and internet service.)

Anyway.

Got some words in on Delilah last night. YAY! Still thinking about the fantasy.

Oh, Devon, I meant to respond to you – I totally agree. FINISH it first. I plan to. It’s on my list and I’m going to continue to work on it. But that fantasy thing…it’s pulling at me. So I’m going to have to learn how to multi-task.

Writing is a funny thing. I have a good friend who was asking me just the other night how I do it. How do I sit down at the computer and just write? Well, for the most part, I do. I sit down, I start writing. I pick up where I left off and continue the story. But she wanted to know exactly what my process was.

Like I’m an expert. hehe

So I told her this. Sometimes, I sit down and read over what I’ve written before. I add tweaks, layers, deep internalization. Sort of fill out the story that’s already there. And then from there I start writing. In my head, I can see the character, what they’re doing and how they’re speaking. Their mannerisms and hear their voice. What they’re thinking. Some days are easier than others. And I told her this – it all comes with the more you write, the better you get.

I still consider myself somewhat “green” when it comes to writing. There are some big stories I want to do, but I don’t feel like I have the experience yet to write them. They’ll come in time. They’ll sit on the backburner until I’m ready for that story to be written. And that’s something I’ve learned too. I think, as a writer (at least for me), you have to accept that about yourself and know your limits. And that’s when writing what you know really comes in handy. The contemporaries come really easy for me, because I know every day stuff. It’s the fantasy worlds that take time, because there is so much to build and so many things you have to create (culture, religion, governments, kingdoms, whatever).

Anyway. That’s what I know about writing. I’ve come a long way since my first novel six years ago. But I also still have a very long way to go.