So, in the end, I stepped away from the finished draft for a week and have started to revise again. Revision is hard, adding, cutting, rethinking. And I've been taking notes during the writing of things I was sure I was going to revise anyway. AND I revise as I write anyway, so my revisions are actually less than if I would not revise at all. But I've never been able to simply write without revising, so I guess that's a plus.
But here's my surprise, even as I'm completely living in one universe, what happens in my dreams? A new world, new characters enter it so insitently that I had to wake up this morning and begin writing about them too! I'm not sure I'm ready to write the whole story out now, so I took a new notebook just fr it and began writing down those snatches of conversation I witnessed in my dreams and outlining where I think this story wants to go (though I'm sure it'll change as I'm actually writing it). I guess it's true, there more you write, the more you'll want to write. I'm actually thinking maybe I'll try this story for NaNoWriMo afterall. All the possibilities.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Discipline
It's what I woke up thinking about.
First, there's the discipline you choose to give your children. Recently, a friend shared her view on discipline with us. As her two-year-old + daughter ran around screaming and laughing and generally creating chaos, she laughed and said, "So when I went to sign her up for school, they asked me what kind of discipline we have at home. I just laughed and said, 'Discipline, what discipline? She's two!'" I have to said that said little girl is referred to as a tornado and though we all say it jokingly, there's some truth to the words that we are afraid of her visiting.
So, I worry about how I"m going to shape my own son as he grows. I struggle with schedules for him: eating, napping, bedtime. But he is a pretty well-behaved baby so far. Still, I don't ever want him to be the "tornado" everyone fears a visit from.
But I also woke up thinking about my writing discipline. All those years of having more than enough time to write, to sleep and wake as I pleased, with no little people to be responsible for, and yet, my writing discipline has only developed now, after my son was born, when my time is limited. Ironic. Or maybe I did need to feel time was limited and I had to make time for my writing. Yes, sometimes I skip a day or two with my writing, but overall, I make time write everyday now. I skipped two days this week so what did I do yesterday? I drank a large cup of coffee so that after the baby was asleep, I could stay up writing. And I did so til 3am this morning. Not the best of decisions, of course, since baby is teething and ended up having a bad night and now, with a few hours of unrestful sleep and another large coffee in me, I'm up and doing all the mommy things (and with a semi-cranky baby to boot) and still anxious for tonight to come, when I can sit down for a couple of hours and write.
First, there's the discipline you choose to give your children. Recently, a friend shared her view on discipline with us. As her two-year-old + daughter ran around screaming and laughing and generally creating chaos, she laughed and said, "So when I went to sign her up for school, they asked me what kind of discipline we have at home. I just laughed and said, 'Discipline, what discipline? She's two!'" I have to said that said little girl is referred to as a tornado and though we all say it jokingly, there's some truth to the words that we are afraid of her visiting.
So, I worry about how I"m going to shape my own son as he grows. I struggle with schedules for him: eating, napping, bedtime. But he is a pretty well-behaved baby so far. Still, I don't ever want him to be the "tornado" everyone fears a visit from.
But I also woke up thinking about my writing discipline. All those years of having more than enough time to write, to sleep and wake as I pleased, with no little people to be responsible for, and yet, my writing discipline has only developed now, after my son was born, when my time is limited. Ironic. Or maybe I did need to feel time was limited and I had to make time for my writing. Yes, sometimes I skip a day or two with my writing, but overall, I make time write everyday now. I skipped two days this week so what did I do yesterday? I drank a large cup of coffee so that after the baby was asleep, I could stay up writing. And I did so til 3am this morning. Not the best of decisions, of course, since baby is teething and ended up having a bad night and now, with a few hours of unrestful sleep and another large coffee in me, I'm up and doing all the mommy things (and with a semi-cranky baby to boot) and still anxious for tonight to come, when I can sit down for a couple of hours and write.
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