tis not too late to seek a newer world

May 7, 2006

Chance #3 is done. Something more dramatic happened at the end of it than I’d planned, which is rather cool and I look forward to the ramifications.

I start writing HOUSE OF CARDS tomorrow. I’m setting my quota at 5K a day, because, frankly, letting myself do only 3K a day is being lazy. I’ll often hit 3800-4200 words on a 3K day, and there’s no reason to not work it up to 5K except hey, I’ve hit quota, so I can fart around now!

There are a couple of things necessary to have regular 5K days. First and foremost, I have to get up and get writing by 7am. I can do it on days when I get up later, but I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time and if I’ve wasted that much time already there’s practically no point in doing anything. This is not logical, but it is consistent. The other thing is to not spend too much time playing solitaire, or with my more recent work-related flicking obsession: staring at my schedule. But for some reason the earlier I get started writing the less likely I am to screw around with those sorts of things, so the 7am start time should help clear that up.

Planning some other radical stuff, too, regarding my daily schedule. I’m once again spending too much time online doing really nothing at all; waiting for people to wake up and talk with, obsessively reloading the flist to see if anybody’s said anything new lately, getting lost in Wikipedia links. You know. Wasting time. So I’m cutting myself down to two hours of net time a day. That’s rather more than enough to check email, check websites, chat with people, and get on with things.

This means forcing myself to go do *other* things, though, especially since when I’m writing I really don’t enjoy reading very much. I tend to stare and stare and stare at the TBR shelf and finally sigh and go work on the book I’m writing, because I’m already involved in that story and don’t want to get involved in another one. So, a schedule and a plan for things that are *not* writing. Drawing and photography, for example. Swimming and walking the dog, for example. Sewing, ’cause I ordered a sewing machine! Although there’s still that fabric problem. Maybe I could get people to go into fabric stores and find fabric and send it to me for random projects to be decided when I see the fabric. :)

I feel a new website design coming on. I wish I had some sort of idea of what to do.

ytd wordcount: 158,500

13 thoughts on “tis not too late to seek a newer world”

  1. Oh, hell. What kind of fabric do you want? I have lots and lots and lots, and I need to cull the herd.

    Lemme know.

    tam

  3. What she said!

    I’ve got tons of stuff packed away in my craft room closet, now put away and mostly forgotten since I’m no longer making my own garb for the Renaissance Faires. Alas, no wool like what you were looking for, but other stuff nice stuff.

    If you were to solicit random material, you could always take up quilting with what you didn’t use for regular projects. I’ve yet to try quilting because I need another hobby like I need another hole in my head, but I’ve heard that it is fairly easy, if tedious.

  4. Tammy quilts, yeah. :) I don’t especially want to take up quilting, though I don’t know, perhaps out of desperation I will.

    Problem is, most of the things I’d be inclined to make I have no real reason to wear, except at the occasional con. I like tailored clothes, because they look good on me. I really *like*, say, 40s style dresses (like this: OMG, how cool would that be!), which would be fun to make, but I’d never *wear* them. There’s not a hell of a lot of point in looking that spiffy to go into my office to write, you know? Or to leave the house to walk down to the pool or the gym. :/

    I would not mind being able to make fitted t-shirts and the like, with woven knit cotton, or even pants, though mostly I haven’t been able to find good patterns for those sorts of things. I would be perfectly happy to make myself some shirts like these, for example, if I had the right sort of fabric (and a pattern, but Mom could help me with that), rather than buy them. Or these; J. Peterman makes them of linen, but I expect cotton would do as well. (Though mmm, linen!) But that’s the sort of thing that looks good on me that I’d actually wear, y’know? (Or this or this (though oh god the horror of that pattern; I do not care for most prints) or this; jpeterman is my doom.

    So there’s sort of a basic problem, I suspect, in saying, ‘sure, send me something and I’ll see what I can make out of it!’ :) Siiiigh! Poor me! :)

  6. I’m setting my quota at 5K a day, because, frankly, letting myself do only 3K a day is being lazy.

    (Whimpers faintly.)

  7. So are there particular times of day when we should expect to see you online? I’m just curious. I leave that window open all day just in case someone shows up with whom I can chat.

  8. For sewing knit stuff, you really want an overlocker.

    Bought fabric for a dress today. You’re a bad influence.

  9. Dammit, I’m not used to your journal /letting/ me post anonymously.

  11. We have linen coming out our *ears* around here (and yes, it’s quite uncomfortable). If you want linen, we can definitely help you out with that one. And as for other stuff? If you describe it, we can fetch it. We have no less than 5 fabric stores, 2 of them awesome ones, in a 20 mile radius of here.

  12. What, I asked nervously, are we taking up a collection *for*?

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