Moving into March

March is always an odd month for me, but it seems to be working at being even stranger than usual this year. We started with a two day storm, and blizzard conditions into tomorrow. We were supposed to be heading to Kansas where Russ has a job interview, but lucky for us the people there agreed to wait until next week. We couldn't have gotten out of our driveway, let alone out of Nebraska.

So we will be going down midweek next week, and driving back on my birthday -- which is fine by me. I love trips, and this is the only excuse we've had for one in a long time. I'm looking forward to it.

Are we going to move to Kansas? It depends on a number of things, including if the job would pay enough to make it worthwhile for us to go. Russ thinks it's something he'd like to do. I think it would be an interesting area to live in. (Hey, I’m in Nebraska. Yes, even Kansas looks interesting from here.)

The idea of moving everything, including the six cats -- not such a great idea. Though Russ did point out that the bulk of what we have to move is really the easy stuff -- books. They may be heavy, but they're easy to pack.

I've lived in this house longer than I've lived anywhere in my life. My parents moved every few months when I as growing up, until the day my father decided to move on without the rest of us. For a very long time, it felt unnatural to stay in one place for more than a year. Now, after more than twenty years here, I'm not really so sure I'm ready to move on to a new adventure.

But part of me wants to go, start over, change things... maybe be a new person.

Now, on to the usual topic -- writing!

I am still managing to write the 3k a day. I've had a couple days where it gave me trouble because I was ill, but since then, I'm back to normal and enjoying it again. I'm about 28k into the last Dark Staff book. I fear it is still coming in too short, but it's much better than the previous version. I'll be able to work with this one, rather than starting from scratch again. I only have a few pages left to edit in the previous book, and I need to get that done and off to the copyeditor.

One of the odd parts about being prolific as a writer, at least for me, is that it spills over into other things. Obviously, I'm an avid photographer. I took over 10,000 pictures with my Sony DSCH1 the first year I had it, and I think another 7000 since January. This is with hardly leaving the house, which is really kind of frightening when I think about it. When I last went to the zoo, I told Russ that I hadn't taken nearly as many pictures as usual. He thought that meant maybe 60 or 70. I'd taken 137 -- but that was less than half of what I would normally take. I was only there about three hours. (grin)

I have written 182,000 words so far this year. They've been an easy set of words since much of it is rewrite of older material. That's rewrite, not edit. When I rewrite, I do exactly that -- start from scratch and retype everything, with the older material as a guide. It's sometimes easier than writing something new, and sometimes not. But either way, it's a lot of typing. In a few days, I'll be starting a new novel, though. And I may throw yet another short one in there for March Madness at FM this year. I have an outline I've had on file for a couple years now, and it may be time to write the first draft.

I do have Vision done. I have a little work to do for DTF. But I'm not going to do much of anything but write, take pictures and play with art programs until after my birthday. It's my present to me -- to just do some fun stuff for a few days.

There is one problem looming in the near future, though -- and that's the trip and my word count. I would like to keep getting the 3k a day, but I think I'm going to have to just make sure I average that by the end of the month instead, so that I can have two or three days away from the house without worrying about it. Oh, I'll still write each day, but not the full 3k. I'll have most of that done before I go, that way I won't feel stressed about it when I get back.

Should I feel stressed about it at all? Of course not. It's not like I have to write the 3k. But I enjoy looking at the nice line of numbers on my spreadsheet, and I work well with goals. Sticking to those goals is very important to me and especially when I'm doing well. I know that I'm basically a lazy person, and if I have an excuse to stop doing something, I'll let it drift off until I can't get caught up, and then I get annoyed. It's just the way I am. I know it, and I compensate for it when I can. Probably, I overcompensate, but it hardly matters since it's just me.

That's the part I think many people don't quite understand. You can't do this kind of thing if you really don’t want to, and you absolutely can't do it for someone else. The only thing that really drives me is having stories I want to tell.

So I will be writing a bit more than 3k a day for the next few days. It's a challenge.

Sometimes those challenges are important just to make me sit up and take notice. Sometimes things just get too easy, and it's time to turn the fire up for a little while. That's what I plan to do for the next few days. It should be fun!