GoodReads

C's bookshelf: read

The Peculiar
Maggot Moon
Chime
Leviathan
The City and the City
Graceling
The Road
A Certain Slant of Light
The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Brown Girl in the Ring
Well Wished
The Innkeeper's Song
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
Beloved
American Indian Myths and Legends
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Return of the King
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers


C S Peterson's favorite books »

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

How to not write in the morning when I have the time.


So yesterday I snuck away to the Lighthouse writers house in Denver, set myself up with a table and wrote for four and a half hours. Girls went to see the Hunger Games. Boys went with Daddy to play in the Apple store at the mall. I was guilt free and focused.  I wrote and wrote on something that did not have quite the right shape. At hour three and a half I had a brilliant flash as I realized that two of the characters should actually be one character. By the end of the last hour I was walking on air - everything seemed to fall into place and I could see where this whole thing was going!


This morning I got up early, worked out vigorously for an hour, came home and set up to write while all were still asleep - Got my favorite background music going. It was still dark so I lit a candle. I wrote in my head about how nice it feels to have a bit of candle light or fire light in the grey pre-dawn. I checked my e-mail. I ate breakfast. I poked around on facebook. The sun peeked up over the horizon. I reread what I wrote yesterday. Didn’t look quite so brilliant this morning. I watched youtube videos of cuttlefish for a few minutes. I marveled at the technology - I can idly wonder about cuttlefish and boom! instant gratification. 



The sun is fully up. The kiddos are stirring. I kick myself for piddling away two hours of prime writing time. Sigh...

3 comments:

  1. The gift of time.. I read the first paragraph and thought; "Wow, a writer."
    I read the second and thought: "So good, she is still human." Don't kick yourself. The info about cuttlefish may become useful in your writing one day.
    Thank you for your good wishes today.

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  2. Time was not wasted. You worked out. You lit a candle, mentally wrote. You learned about cuttlefish. Sounds like an active mind and body at work.

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  3. I just wrote this entire comment & it totally disappeared! What a great post! Congratulations on all the accomplishment in writing. I hope it does some help in moving forward whether you like it & keep some or hate it & dump it all. Plus, I loved your description of this am. How sweet it is to have that nice setting & just dawdle! Maybe your brain needed the r & r?

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