Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Oof. Why do I get the feeling I've gone off track somewhere? Not in a bad way, just let go of the reins while dozing off or something. I haven't lost track of what I was doing, nor have I left various things to the absolute last minute and rushing to get them done. Maybe it's that I'm just not stressing myself out over things that need doing. Is it just being tired of getting stressed? Is it my doctor saying my blood pressure's a bit high? Is it me just not giving a shit anymore about certain things? Could be any and all.

Anyway.

I think it's partly that I've been letting a lot of the secondary writing projects and exercises fall by the wayside lately--more to the point, I've been focusing exclusively on the revision of The Persistence of Memories, and the Blogging the Beatles series on the weekends. It could be that I'm currently not finding the poetry or the journaling all that important at the moment...not that I've grown out of it, just that I don't really have much to say at this time.

I'm thinking part of that is due to my gradual stepping away from social media. I still enjoy popping in and seeing what's up with people, but I think the excitement of 24/7 connection has lost some of its lustre for me. I like the connection, I just don't need it every five seconds...especially when I'm keenly aware that it was starting to interrupt my writing time. There's also a bit of saturation online in general, just seeing a lot of message echo going on, and have been ignoring that as well. And I feel a very small portion is also having grown tired of forced immediacy...getting the news first, getting in the funny joke first, that Everything In the World Is Important AT THIS MOMENT. It's not. Life goes on within you and without you.

In short, I'm slowly but surely returning myself back to the level of internet time I had about ten years ago, where it really should be. Just reshuffling priorities a bit. That's the big one.


Also trying to start a habit of creating a real To-Do List instead of keeping it in my head. I should know by now that I have a writer's memory: focused on the task at hand and having a pretty decent recall of specific things...and yet forgetting more mundane bits here and there. Giving myself a weekly/daily check-off list seems to have worked in the past, plus the whiteboard writing schedule works for the most part, so it won't hurt to write out a physical To-Do List for once. Lord knows I have enough scrap paper around to do it. And lord knows that if I post about it here on LJ or on Twitter, it'll get lost in the noise and slip my mind.

So! That being said...I made this list yesterday, it's got 5 items so far, and one of them (cleaning out email, I was about two weeks behind) is done. I'm hoping I can get a few of these done today just to get them off my mind. A few I may do this weekend when I have more time and am not interrupted by Day Jobbery. The main aim is not to constrict myself with Things I Must Do, or overwhelm myself with I Must Do ALL the Things--it's just to get myself in a little better order. :)

DONE, over the last few days:

1. Bought a new desk chair on eBay! Now emmalyon won't have to hear me whine about it anymore! :p

2. While at the same site, put up some yarn, a knitting book and a Hello Kitty collectible.

3. As said in the last post, finished reading Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here. Eerie as all hell but a damn fine book.

4. Brought the rest of the leftover books from the recent Book Purge up to the local library for donating. In midday heat, at that.

5. Made it through today (and deleted the previous whiny post) after being frustrated as all hell this morning. Things worked out okay!


STARTED, over the last few days:

1. A lengthy overview of Meraladian history within the Eden Cycle Universe. I'm up to describing what's happening in A Division of Souls and hope to get that done soon and post it to edencycle.

2. General cleaning up of the apartment bit by bit. Partly due to in-laws coming to visit soon, but also because certain areas needed it. Such as my desk!


TO BE STARTED, soon:

1. Next book to read! Not sure which, but will select tonight. :)

2. Writing a quick description for A Division of Souls (per chaoticmoth's request), as well as posting the next chapter!

First off, for those of you who don't already know, I posted some older writing at my writing-only lj, die_joncswerk. This time out we're reading the first chapter, in two parts, of True Faith, the aborted novel I wrote with an ex-girlfriend from 1994-1996. There's more detail at those posts, for those who are curious. They're friends-locked, so if someone here wants to read them and is not friended, let me know and I'll add you on. :)

Second--Sometime within the week I should be starting on yet another runthrough of LLB, filling in many of the blanks that emmalyon seems to have found. I want to do this as quickly and as smoothly as possible, so as to not dwell forever on the book, and also to prepare it for another go at agents and publishers.

Third--although I told myself I wouldn't look back on old projects, one seems to have been calling out to me lately, and it's one I've rarely worked on. It has the working title of Then... (stolen from Charlatans UK, of course), and is a sort of alternate reality story. The most I've ever worked on it is a handful of handwritten pages and that's about it, so this world is about as open to me as it can possibly get at the moment. So maybe I'll start working on that...

Fourth--the freelance thing. Er...yeah, still working on that. Gathering writing samples I've done in the past to put in one place. Also need to look over that Robert Bly book again and look for suggestions as to how to get myself set up for this. More later.

That's all for now...