...and I Spent How Much in Gas?

Today was not the most productive use of my time. I had a 3 PM meeting in Greensboro and--under the category of "What was I thinking?"--scheduled a 2 PM phone interview. It's a 35-40 minute drive into Greensboro and my interview was going to last 30-40 minutes, meaning I wasn't going to make my meeting. So I decided I'd drive into GSO early and conduct the phone interview at the coffee shop where I'd be meeting my 3 PM. Plus, my running group meets tonight at 6, giving me enough time to change and get there after my 3 pm ended..

I drove into GSO, but once I got there my 3 PM called to say she had to cancel. Plus, it was raining with no signs of stopping, making our workout look iffy. So in essence, I drove 40 minutes into GSO today to sit in my car and conduct an interview on my cell phone, then turned around and drove 40 minutes back home. 

I think I'm going to throw in the towel for the day and just go read a book and enjoy the rain.

Cheers.

A Chapter A Week

I am a woman on a mission. I mentioned that I have a 30,000-word book by the end of the year. Me being me, I of course drew up a timeline, to-do list, and flight plan to ensure everything occurs on time.

So far, so good. The plan calls for me to write a chapter a week which sounds intimidating, but each chapter need only be 3,000 words each. Which breaks down into 600 words daily. It's still an aggressive schedule, but breaking it down into baby steps makes it doable.

I'm three chapters in. On this schedule, I'll "finish" writing the book in November, which gives me a month to go back through and polish and tighten and add humor wherever possible. I'm almost spooked by how well the writing is going at this point. Like, since it's so natural it must be really, really BAD writing and I just haven't realized it yet.

The master plan calls for me to spend my morning hours on the book - say 7 AM to Noon. As I'm writing this blog at 9:43 AM you can see how well I'm sticking to that plan. I still have the hardest time saving e-mail, blogging, and social networking sites until the afternoon. E-mail especially. I still hold out hopes that someday soon I'll sit down to work in the morning without first checking to see what's arrived during the night. Willpower. That's all it takes.

Afternoons are for "work" work - magazine assignments, corporate work, etc. What I'd like to do is also start setting some afternoon or evening time aside to work on my growing-cobwebs-in-the-corner novel. It's a challenge--too much computer time and I run screaming from the room. But I'm wondering if I might do a little pen and paper writing for the novel, just to mix things up.

I'm falling behind on PR tasks. I need to add a calendar or "appearance" page to my website. Sounds ego-based, but it's all in the name of platform. I have a number of speaking engagements lined up and it's good to be able to show potential publishers of my book that look, people come to hear her talk! And she has bookings! Maybe we should publish her book! It's all in the pitch...

Speaking of websites, I need to update mine... and start work on the magazine class I'm teaching in October... and prepare for my radio interview next week... 

Hope you're having a productive week.

How Writers REALLY Spend Their Time...

It never fails to amaze me how little time, for a professional writer, I actually spend writing. Today, for example, started off strong with three hours of writing time, then plunged into an unrecoverable "to do" list mania that ate up the day. So instead of spending the afternoon writing about the funny things cats do, I instead:

• Made an appointment with the vet to have the girls nails trimmed tomorrow
• Made an appointment to have my own mane trimmed later this week
• Called Lowe's in search of an asbestos-testing kit. No luck, so I...
• Called a friend of a friend who knows about such things and left a message for him to call me back
• Mailed a package at the post office
• Dropped off our old cell phone's at the sheriff's department, 25 minutes away
• Stopped in at Back Street Buzz in Reidsville and convinced the owner (who is from CA) to be my guest in September on my "How'd You End Up Here?" radio show
• Jotted down some thoughts for a talk I'm giving at a Rotary Club on Thursday and timed myself. WAY over the 15-minute limit. Cutting must take place.
• Returned a call to my best friend since I ignored her early morning call when the writing was flowing
• Went to yoga
• Sent out a Twitter request for "What question would your cat ask God, if they could?" (Fodder for the book)
• Jammed through 10-12 e-mails
• Ate lunch

Now I'm at Panera with an hour and half to kill before it's time to meet my running group for hill work in 90 degree heat. And what does it say about my day that the last part there sounds FUN and mildly ENTERTAINING at this point?

I have a cat book with me to read in the hopes of inspiring humor. I have coffee. I have a laptop and wireless and nothing left on my to-do list. I have a hot husband who will have stir-fry waiting for me this evening.

Life is pretty good.

An Anti-Technology Day

So okay. It's one of those days. A day when everything I come in contact with shorts out, stalls, explodes, implodes, or otherwise goes kaput.

It started with the coffee pot. When I poured my morning java, I noticed it was lukewarm even though the pot was "on." I thought maybe the pot had slipped off the burner but no, an hour later when I returned for a refill, still lukewarm. 

Next came the printers. That's right, printers. We have three of them. All of which I managed to shut down in a 7-minute time frame. First "my" printer jammed and it's a doozy. I can't even begin to get the paper out of it. I abandoned it and sent my material to the upstairs printer. Only when I went to retrieve my one page printout, the printer was spewing out sheet after sheet of blank paper. 10 pages, 20, 50... it wouldn't stop. I checked my laptop and Blair's and neither of us showed anything in the que other than my 1 page job. Still the printer kept going. I switched it off and back on which stopped the paper spewing, but which also apparently disconnected the printer from the wi-fi, as it is no longer responding to print commands from my laptop.

On to printer number three which--oh, and here's a surprise--said it was having trouble connecting to my laptop. Uh-huh. I know when I'm screwed. I am not touching jack when it comes to technology for the rest of the day. All I can do is hope whatever static-electric charge flows through my body this morning is gone by tomorrow. Otherwise I fear for the lives of our TV, cordless phone, and waffle maker.

I'm just going to go huddle in a corner for the rest of the day with a pad of paper and glass of water for sustenance. I'll see all of you tomorrow (assuming I haven't blown the house up by accident).

Dena