Drunken Owls and Other Delights

It's been quite the busy week here in Spare Oom.  Between trying to keep on top of my new writing regimen and the responsibilities of the Day Job, I'm surprised I have time to breathe.  BUT!  I'm still in control, so that's a good thing.  It's definitely a bit of a juggle and I definitely feel like I've been swimming upstream the last few days, but I'm still breathing and I'm not stressed out.

And that's basically because I'm making it a point NOT to be stressed out. The Day Job can get the best of me sometimes, and I'll get irritated when I get broadsided with multiple requests to OMG DROP EVERYTHING AND PUT THIS FIRE OUT FIRST. But I've learned over time to just deal with the situations as they come and not take it personally.  I know the irritation isn't the volume but in the interruption.  I get a bit OCD with my Day Job work -- I kind of have to, as there are a LOT of moving parts to it -- but it's not my fault if I'm late because of something else taking precedence.  It is what it is.

SO.  On a more personal note, I'm definitely feeling the irritation of a craptastic rough first draft on my new projects.  It's a necessary evil, though.  It happens.  I just need to power through it.

The juggling of the many regimens, though -- the items on the whiteboard, the blog schedule, and so on -- I'm committed to getting used to it.  It's the only way for me to conquer it all.  As they say, there is no other option.  (I'd rather not use the 'go big or go home' because, well, I work from home and that kind of defeats the purpose of that pithy quote. Heh.)   So whenever I'm feeling doubts about it all, I remind myself of the late 90s-early 00s, when I forced myself to get used to the writing regimen down in the Belfry.  I made myself go down to the basement and work on the transcription and work at least two solid hours a night.  The process was fun at the time, but it was fueled by determination that I had to take that step in order to make it happen.

This isn't any different: now, I'm forcing myself to get used to writing longhand on the Apartment Complex story, get through at least ten or so pages of the final revision for Lidwells, keep the strict blog schedule. Hell, I'm even being strict about the daily words as well as the music and art, mundane as those exercises are.  They're things I've long wanted  and loved to do but always postponed for one reason or another.  I want to DO those things rather than say I wished I'd had time for them.

So yeah.  A bit like swimming upstream, but I'm getting there.
 

All of you know, of course, that I can't write in a completely quiet room. It has nothing to do with the atmosphere...it's more that I'm just a music fiend that feels kind of weirded out when something isn't playing in the background. My radio at work is on throughout the day, and I usually have the WMP playing when I'm working from home.

When I'm writing, if I'm not listening to a new purchase or one of my many compilations made over the years (yes, I've made mp3 versions of them), I usually have a few fallbacks that I like to throw on. I mentioned to emmalyon last night that I particularly enjoy Beck's Sea Change, as it's rather mellow and ambient, not to mention it having his more coherent lyrics. Dishwalla's And You Think You Know What Life's About and Hooverphonic's Blue Wonder Power Milk are also big contenders, and have been in heavy rotation since my Belfry days of the late 90s.

Last night I'd decided, after listening to the Beck album and sludging my way through the next ADoS chapter, to listen to some more albums from 2002--about the time I was originally writing the current version of the book. I came up with Silverchair's Diorama, which I hadn't listened to in a good few years. I have to say it's one of their most melodic and optimistic-sounding albums (especially considering the grunge of their previous three), and I found myself really getting into its groove.

In retrospect, I think a lot of my favorite writing music dates from around 1998 to about 2003 or 2004--again, right about the time I was writing this trilogy. That isn't to say, however, that I don't listen to anything new when I'm writing new stuff. It's becoming increasingly rare (yes, I'm old, SHUT UP), but every now and again something new will come out that'll floor me and I'll listen to it repeatedly. I haven't done that in quite some time, more often than not due to saving my pennies rather than spilling scads of dough on new releases like I did in the past. There's also the fact that I'm not as obsessed with music as I once was. Sure, I probably follow new releases a hell of a lot more closely than most, but I'm no longer rushing to the nearest record store (translation: taking the 71 up to Amoeba on the way home) every Tuesday. We just don't have the space, and though I will continue to visit brick and mortar stores for cds (translation: stop at Amoeba and/or B&N), my purchases have gone more towards online. [/end of diversion]

Anyway...I've been having a bit of fun listening to some of my older titles while writing lately, and have realized that while some haven't quite held up as much as they used to, there are still some titles out there that I'll continue to listen to during my sessions. Of course, this is only when I'm actually writing in Spare Oom, as I now split my time between there and using the laptop in the living room. When I'm there we're usually watching something on TV (our mainstays as of late are Warehouse 13, Naruto Shippuden and Top Gear), so there is a bit of distraction which I'm still working on, but in the end I think I'm still able to get something done.

I guess I could work in a completely quiet room, and have done so in the past, but to me it's just part of who I am, and I enjoy the entertainment.