Day: November 1, 2016

Twelve Percent

Here I am, storming away, out of coffee, typing as fast as I can, unable to keep up with my mind’s streaming words until my fingers call, “Time out.”

Sitting up and stretching, massaging my fingers, I see how the coffee shop has changed since my arrival. I see my mocha is gone, that I drank it all. I think about getting another. But my laptop’s battery power is down to fourteen percent and I didn’t bring my power supply today. It’s going to be warning me soon that I need to shut down.

Putting it all together, I realize I’ve been writing – thinking, typing, editing – for almost ninety minutes with but a few pauses. I remember checking the time once and seeing it was 12:15. Now it’s 1:01.

Spending time with my characters and exploring their lives and situations was mesmerizing. I’m sorry that it’s ending. I think, maybe I can go power up at home and continue. But I know that’s not how ‘it’ works for me. Time to stop writing like crazy, pack it up and head home. The rain has stopped and the sun is shining, and I have some yard work planned, anyway.

Also, I just realized, I didn’t eat breakfast or anything, and I’m becoming very hungry.

And there is the laptop’s warning: twelve percent. Time to go.

5

For Those About to NaNoWriMo….

I never did the NaNoWriMo. It’s a terrific idea. It started in 1999 but I didn’t hear about it for a long time. By then, I’d established my writing habits, understood my preferences and was working full time for IBM and didn’t embrace the idea.For a long time, I believed there was one way to write and searched for the magic formula. The magic formula appeared to be research, plan, write, edit & revise, polish and publish. I’m being simple. The formula was much more complex.

So I worked hard on planning, researching, outlining. I created huge outlines, detailed drawings and maps, and entire histories of characters. After months and months of work, I’d have an enormous wealth of information, and nothing written. Discouraged, the next time I had an idea, I thought about it for a while. A scene came to me and I jumped in and started writing. I later discovered that others do that. As a process, it’s referred to organic writing, or being a pantser. I’m still refining my writing process but I’ve come a long, long, long way.

I admire those out there jumping into NaNoWriMo and salute you. Have fun.

9

Today’s Theme Music

Theme music is all about being a signature song. I offer them as a signature song to establish the day’s tone. For today, I’m dropping into the wayback machine and pulling out a little theme song from a television series, ‘Bonanza’.

‘Bonanza’ was a television series produced and aired on NBC from 1959 to 1973. Meanwhile, it was syndicated and shown as reruns. It wasn’t unusual to walk into someone’s house after school and see ‘Bonanza’ on the telly. Most amusing to me is that visiting its set in the Lake Tahoe area really impressed people. Paris and the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, rock of Gibraltar, the Louvre, etc…nah. But the house where Hoss, Ben, Little Joe and the rest strutted? Wow. 

The show’s title came from the expression for a big discovery of ore. Hope your day brings you a bonanza. Thank you, Jay Livingstone and David Rose, for creating this music.

2

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