The Quiet Car

[handslive]

I thought I would spend some time tonight and at least write down the bones of a story idea.

I went to aikido, had a good class, but my energy level just bottomed out on me by the time I was home. purplejavatroll had supper on the go, though, and we had some excellent pasta and chicken. I watched a bit of TV and then headed upstairs.

It felt like about an hour, but might have been two. Anyway, I suddenly discovered that I had over 1000 words written. Enough to present most of the first scene, some of the principle character's head space, and some future direction. It'll be longer than the shopping cart bit.

Should I feel guilty that I still haven't gone back and cleaned up some of the little problems with that story? Should I feel bad that I haven't tried to shop it anywhere? Should I feel bad that I haven't tried to gather any poetry together to actually send to Tim Anderson?

Well, anyway. It's about bed time for me. I might read some more Nina Kiriki Hoffman short stories before lights out. I must share this little collection around. I am reminded over and over again why I would read her stuff right away if she had anything in F&SF.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

No, you shouldn't feel bad :-)

BTW... how come, I subscribe (anonymously for now) to aikido-l and the very first mesasge that I receive is from... you! :-)

[handslive.livejournal.com]

I don't have an answer for that. I only came back from nomail on the list on Monday, posted some stuff and am trying to bite my e-tongue just now.

[mouseman.livejournal.com]

Did you set a deadline that you could miss? Don't feel like you missed a deadline if you never set one!

[handslive.livejournal.com]

Not a deadline. More of a 'I should, shouldn't I?'. I know I usually let momentum get the better of me.

I should do more physical training away from the dojo, but I don't.

I should keep writing, but it took almost 10 years from my last creative writing course to start again.

I should work on turning more of my plinking into sheet music, but I haven't even worked at adding the voice line to the one piece I've more or less transcribed the piano bit into. And that was done more than a year ago.

I should send Tim Anderson some stuff. Preferably before the end of October. Just to see what happens. What I'm trying to do there is jack myself up some. I'm giving myself artificial urgency in an effort to beat the momentum and actually do something.

Hell, this is turning into more of an actual separate LJ post, isn't it? :-)

[mouseman.livejournal.com]

Random ideas ...

Most things won't get done unless you have some sense of urgency about them. This is especially true for any task that is difficult.

If you want to accomplish things, I think there are two ways: make a schedule to work on those things and stick to it, or make a deadline.

Maybe you could prioritize the "should"s and pick one, and then set one day a week for that should. e.g. "Wednesday is writing night." And stick to it. That will go a long way. Then you'll have some momentum going in the direction you want to go, instead of standing still.

Once you're done or satisfied with one "should", move on to the next.