Last Week #25 - Looking for Balance

I was talking with my Hubby about how disappointed I am that I didn't write more last week. I'm still getting used to the new job.  This past week was only my 4th week working and I've already had to work extended hours.  There was a reason I was hired, the company is busy. Because of this, when the day is done, I'm exhausted. I don't want to do anything besides sleep. I haven't been blogging, I've barely been reading, so writing has become another thing pushed to the side. I miss it. I long for it. My mind wanders in the middle of my day, as I think about my novel.  I think about what I want to do to it.  I think about the characters and how they're stuck because I haven't moved them anywhere. This coming week and the weeks that follow, I will be looking for balance, a way to organize my time so that I can get everything I want done.  It might just take longer than I'd like.  

Last Week #24 - Is It Writer's Block?

This picture again?! It's the only one
I have that of my work-in-progress.

Did I write last week (the last two weeks)?  Again, not really.  I've been really concentrating on my new job.  I really want it to work out.  I've had such ups and downs with employment, that I long for some stability.  It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to work.  I was doing training, which needed to be as near to perfect as possible.  After training was done, they already wanted me to work overtime!  Can't say, no.  This coming week, I hope to adjust to what the actual job will be like.

So, I'm organized, I know what I want to do, I just can't seem to do it.  Part of it was time, but the other day, I began to wonder if it was something else.  Is it writer's block?  I don't usually have writer's block because I tend to work on more than one project at a time.  However, with my non-fiction project essentially done, I decided to focus everything on finishing my novel.  Is it that I know it's going to be a lot of work and I'm procrastinating?  Probably at least, a bit of that.  Hopefully, things will start to even out and my brain will be able to wrap itself around the story again.  I think working on the outline first for a bit will help.  Thoughts?

Quote #54 - Socrates

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."
- Socrates

Random #41 - Brownies

I feel like baking brownies.  I don't have time right now.  I won't have time until the weekend.  I have only made them once and they turned out really well.  I hope it wasn't beginners luck.  I have all the ingredients for them.... So, there is no reason I can't make brownies this weekend.  Done.

Mmm.... brownies....

Last Week #23 - A New Scene Idea

My novel arc.

Just when I think I'm ready to move on to another stage of my novel writing, I get another random idea for a scene.  Where will it go in the arc?

Last week was very busy for me.  I got a new job and spent the last week training, commuting to a location far from home, but it is worth it; the long commute will only be for training.  So, I didn't write a lot.  (I read a lot though, commuting on a train gives me a lot of reading time.)  I did find a moment, though, when the beginning of a scene hit me.  Here's a couple rough sentences: 

Taryn gazed out the window, taking in the sunlight, the bright green grass and the parking lot, cars belonging to her co-workers and to people she had never met.  Did any of them know?  Did they know what was happening to her, in the world outside these brick walls, outside the box of normalcy?

I didn't write much more than that, but it was something.  It made me feel good.  If I didn't write that, I would have felt like I was losing my novel, my energy for it.  Writing just a few sentences for it, brought it back to the forefront of my mind.

Quote #54 - Robert Frost

"I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

- Robert Frost

Random #40 - Prequels

Why are there prequels?  I am currently reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Why did Steve Hockensmith decide that there should be a book before PPZ?  Why did someone decide to make Monsters University?  The Star Wars prequel trilogy? Why did Robert Jordan write New Spring? Why did James Dashner write The Kill Order?  I'm not sure if I'm into prequels.  Part of what I enjoy about novels and movies is the unexpected, the possibility of a twist. While I'm enjoying Dawn of the Dreadfuls I know that Lizzy isn't going to end up with the Doctor or the Master... Jane will not end up with the Lord or the Lieutenant.  So, thoughI enjoy the story and characters, it lacks surprise.  Do I need surprise in every story?  I wonder what others think.