Crap! Back to work.

    Crap! I gotta get to work on my stuff. Sure, I’ve done a little but not enough. The summer has gotten away without getting much done on my manuscripts let alone any of the other projects lurking about. I catch glimpses of them daily. The boxes of flooring hunch in the corner of the front-room. The new trim waits patiently in the garage. The wall around the plot next to the patio begs to be filled with dirt. Errk! I need to win Mega-Millions and hire a handyman.

    Okay, enough whining. Too much really. I went to conference, got a request for fifty pages of two manuscripts and it’s time to buckle down.

    What does buckle down mean exactly? Where’d that phrase come from? Hitch up your pants and tighten your belt before getting busy?
   
    There goes my ADHD again. In my case it ought to be HDAD; High Definition Attention Deficit. So, where was I? Oh yeah, getting down to it. Getting down to it? A mining term possibly? Never mind.

    So, what’s my plan? A reasonable, logical person would come up with a plan. But I’m not much of a planner. I live in the moment and I don’t say that with pride. I know plans are good things and I ought to embrace them but I don’t like them. I don’t like them the way I don’t like rodents. I’m not afraid of them, I have no phobias I’m aware of. I loathe them. If there is no reason not to, I kill rodents. In my world, because my wife is in it, there are reasons not to kill rodents. I don’t understand them but they exist, just trust me on that. Uh,oh, HDAD again.

    My plan is to work on my manuscripts every day, even if only for an hour. Seven hours a week minimum, that’s my goal. I’m not sure if set-up time is included. Not all the details of my plan are worked out. Do I include the time driving to the coffee shop and getting out my laptop? Or, do I start the timer once my fingers hit the keyboard? I don’t have a lot of experience with plans after all. My sense of it is, that it should be actual writing so that’s the way I’m leaning.

    The trouble is I’m at the point where it’s not actual writing. I have to go through and fix things, define things, clean things up. I know that’s part of writing but I like the first draft part better. Hence the need for a plan. (Whew, almost started whining again but I pulled it back.)

    Anyway, that’s my plan. I’ll write seven hours a week minimum and some every day. I hope that by writing every day I’ll get in more than seven. That way the things get done and out so I can start a new project. I also hope that, by posting my plan, I’ll stick to it.

    So, what’s your plan? Got one? Like’em? Hate’em?

How Do You Get Your Mojo Back?

Today is a ho-hum day. The dog-days of August are almost over, the garden is pretty much doing its own thing now (thanks to my DH and his amazing weed-matting in the Spring), school starts (for us, anyway) tomorrow, and the summer family plans are all over.
Not the kind of day I write on.
Not the kind of day I do much of anything on.
It's a Mojo-Suck Day!
However, it struck me a few minutes ago... "The Fae Dragon Chronicles: Love Chosen" is soon to be published, the second book in that series, "Love Dared," is with Crescent Moon Press now for consideration, and I'd like to finish book three, "Love Desired," sometime before book two comes out (I'm being hopeful they'll pick it up, as well).
In order to, ya know, continue on with the whole writing business dream I have, I need to not let those ho-hum days suck my Mojo.
So this question is for anyone, writer and reader alike... What do you do to kick it in gear when it feels like life has kicked you in the pants?
My answer? Well, today I called my bestie, played a riveting game of Mario with my son, and then picked veggies from the garden with one of my daughters.
I think it worked...
Now I'm off to write something.
But what about you?

Getting Away...to Write

We spent the last five days in the beautiful San Juan Mountains at a place called Priest Gulch Campground, RV Park, Cabins and Lodge.

( http://priestgulch.com/ )

This is Mike's and my second year writing in River House 2 (see cabins). Marne joined us this year.

What motivation the mountains, trees, river and wild birds were for me. No matter where we were in the cabin, we could hear the river. Marne and I spent most of the time on a wonderful wrap around porch overlooking the Dolores River. Each of us with only one headphone on. Tuned into our favorite music on Pandora with one ear and the river with the other. Thank goodness for Pandora, because Marne and I have very different taste in music and music is important to each of us when writing.

No cell phone service or phones in the cabins, but we did have WiFi. None of the teenagers could reach us except through Facebook. :)

Having Marne and Mike clicking away on their computers next to me helped my motivation as well. I accomplished much, both on my story bible and my manuscript. Twenty new pages of work I’m excited about. I’m loving my story and my characters. Mike and Marne seem to be happy with their accomplishments as well.

I don’t have pictures, because although I always bring along my camera (and phone), I never think to use either one of them. No doubt Marne will post a couple of the pics she took.

What motivates you? Do you get the chance to get away to write? Where do you go?