 | 15 Jan 09 |
Okay, I am late late late with this blog today. Normally, I write them a couple of days before, but somehow, I managed to forget this was my week. Then last night, as I was writing it, I’d changed my mind and decided to re-title it and in the process of clicking on something, I managed to delete it. I don’t know what I was doing, it doesn’t make sense to me, either.
I know what part of the problem is… I’m winding down one story (I’m doing line edits) and I’m mapping out the next book I want to work on, which is a completely new set of characters, a very neat premise, and a completely different setting. There’s something wonderful and exciting about seeing the line-edit-book polish into a complete story, with facets that reflect what I’d intended. It’s satisfying and I love these characters, and I’m at the part of the book that breaks my heart (it broke my heart to write it, and I had to, and still, it hurt) and every time I made a pass over this book, I’d get to this section and get so immersed in the emotion of what was going on, and what it was leading up to, and the story would overwhelm me, and override everything else going on in my life.
But at the same time, I’m looking for the story for the new book… looking for what resonates, why I want to tell the story in the first place. What do the characters do, how, why, where. And my attention span is about that of a ferret–because everything I cross, every conversation I hear, every occupation gets snatched and held up to the light because my story-telling part of my brain is wondering, “this? is this the thing you need for the story?” and I’m turning it around and around, seeing if it fits, and then suddenly, the next thing will come along and I’ve discarded the first one and I’m already holding up the second thing, wondering, “this? THIS? does THIS fit?” I’m worse than a three-year-old hopped up on sugar going through a toy box, discarding the unwanted items over my shoulder at warp speed. It’s shocking how many plot lines, characters, goals, needs, motivations, conflicts I’ve sifted through in the last couple of weeks. It’s like an illness, an addiction, and then I HIT on the right one.
Ironically, I hit on it because I was distracted and not paying close attention to what I was actually seeing. I walked through the living room and my husband was watching TV (fairly rare), and something on the show grabbed my attention. I stood there for a second, then found myself sitting down, watching… then BANG, IDEA, HELLO, OH I FOUND YOU, YOU BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL THING and I sprang off the sofa like someone had set me on fire and started babbling to him, “That IT. That’s it, that’s what she does and then he shows up and he does the other thing and–” and I looked at my husband, expecting him to be all worried that my brains had fallen COMPLETELY out of my head in my burst of energy and instead, he sort of raised one eyebrow and gave me that grin he gets when he’s all STEP AWAY FROM THE CRAZY PERSON, SHE’LL BE OKAY LATER. It doesn’t even surprise him anymore, the craziness. [The irony is that I misunderstood what I was seeing and attributed an entirely different set-up to the story... and it was the misunderstanding that worked for me, not what was actually happening on the screen.]
[I am not even going to talk about the fact that, in my insanity, at a weak moment, I agreed to let my son and daughter-in-law have a garage sale over here this weekend and instead of junk going OUT OF my house, it is flowing INTO my house in preparation for this garage sale. I hate garage sales. Hate them. And my husband is remodeling the spare bedroom and decided that, since the kids were going to benefit from all of the junk, let's go ahead and pull all of the junk from every nook, crevice, cranny and attic space we can, which is GREAT in theory, but which means there is not a square inch of floor space out there, outside of my office, that you can stand on without stepping on a hot wheels car or a Minnie Mouse or a skateboard or the HOUSE SOMEONE'S GREAT AUNT made out of plastic and yarn in order to COVER THEIR KLEENEX BOXES. And about a billion other things. Need a freaky looking tube thingie that you have no clue what it does, but it's SHINY? I've GOT IT. I have made them promise, upon their wittle lives and the ability to continue walking upright that if this stuff does not sell, they have to haul it off to the Battered Women's Clinic to donate it or they have to THROW IT AWAY. I had to explain that latter concept a couple of times. So I am now officially hiding in my office until next Monday.]
So, tell me, what has distracted YOU lately?
© 2009 Toni McGee Causey. All rights reserved.
Toni McGee Causey lives in Baton Rouge, LA, and is the best-selling author of the BOBBIE FAYE trilogy. She has contributed a critically acclaimed short story to the KILLER YEAR: STORIES TO DIE FOR anthology edited by Lee Child and an essay in DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS NEW ORLEANS. Additionally, she recently produced an indie film, LA 308. She and her husband, Carl, are licensed general contractors and, in order to support her writing addiction, they run their own company, specializing in civil construction.
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Oh, just about anything that can distract me has. My mind will not sit still for long on any one thing and when it does decide to I am no where near a pen/paper to write down what it comes up with.
Add to that the trauma of pets dying this week (more than one) and I am pretty much just writing this week off.
Good luck with the garage sale! Hope you find your house again soon.
by Eva January 15th, 2009 at 9:18 amOh, Eva, that’s TERRIBLE. I’m so very sorry for your loss. That’s heartbreaking.
Thanks for the good luck wishes. I somehow doubt there’ll be a big turnout–but it got them all motivated to clean out stuff and I didn’t have to do it, so yay. (This is probably one of those “be careful what you wish for” moments, since I had been declaring for a couple of months that we had to purge the junk out of this place. I sort of thought it’d be room by room, but after this weekend, every closet, cabinet and storage area will be clear of crap. I can survive two more days, right?
by Toni McGee Causey January 15th, 2009 at 10:54 pmYes, Toni, you CAN survive because you will be excited by the inflow of SPACE!! Yay you!!
by Eva January 16th, 2009 at 9:28 amWhat hasn’t distracted me lately? Reviewing books is starting to get to me, I think. Now, when I am reading a book, I find myself writing the review in my head as I am reading. This is extremely annoying. Plus I am in rehearsal for a new show and I have what seems to be the neverending song in the show stuck in my head. Musical book reviews 24/7. LOL!
by Lori January 15th, 2009 at 9:32 amMusical book reviews! Man, if you could find a way to put that on the internet, that would be huge!
by Toni McGee Causey January 15th, 2009 at 9:57 amOh yeah, I have been distracted of late. Although, I make myself step back from the biggest distraction (the fundraiser cookbook by two book clubs) so that I could attempt to regain my sanity. Imagine…me..only reading one book a month? It happened, so I had to take a break.
I am better now, and doing the final edit before submission. Yes, Toni, your recipes are in there. And I have read about 20 books since December 1st….wheee! And helped to edit one galley…double wheee!
by Debby January 15th, 2009 at 9:57 amOne book a month?
::::kerplunk:::::
I don’t know how you didn’t fall over dead.
And YAY on the recipes… though I should hasten to add that they are Carl’s recipes, for those of you who have been following along about how poorly I cook. His recipes are great and won’t kill anyone.
by Toni McGee Causey January 15th, 2009 at 9:59 amHey Toni,
by Mary-Frances January 15th, 2009 at 10:23 amOkay, I’ll fess up: knitting and knitting blogs have been distracting me lately. The nice thing about knitting is there are no critiques, no rejections, and not very many revisions either.
Yay for hobbies with no critiques and no revisions. I do photography and I don’t put them up online (usually) for just that reason… too much pressure to perform. I’m going to get my piano re-tuned so I can plink at it when the mood strikes, when no one’s here and no one’s expecting it to actually sound like a song.
by Toni McGee Causey January 15th, 2009 at 10:46 amDistractions have been the kids and hubby. But somehow I’ve written more in the past two weeks than I had the previous four months. I just hope it continues because I NEED to finish this book.
by HollyD January 15th, 2009 at 11:03 amWith as many kids as you have, Holly, the fact that you are still a coherent, nice human being IMPRESSES THE HELL out of me. Seriously. And you’re WRITING and FINISHING your book! I am proud of you, because damn that’s hard to do.
by toni mcgee causey January 15th, 2009 at 11:09 amDistracted? How about obsessed with trying to add code to my blog template so that when I have long posts (like I will tomorrow when my “Homicide – Hussey” saga continues), that I can show the first few paragraphs and then have a link that says “More” and the rest of the post shows up. TWO FRIGGING DAYS it’s taken. My daughter and I were on the phone yesterday (she lives in Ireland, so it’s a big deal) and we did everything right, but it only almost worked on her test posts on her blog, and wasn’t working at all on mine, and on and on….
And it’s not like I haven’t had long posts before — and I’ve had my blog up for about 2 years without feeling the need for this feature.
I hear you on the garage sale. Hate ‘em. And the thought that we might be moving within the next year or so … Please don’t make me think of that.
by Terry Odell January 15th, 2009 at 2:25 pmOh, yeah, I completely empathize, Terry. I used to hand code a blog (long before there were “blogs” and were only called “journals” and that was back in the dinosaur days when there were only about 100 online)… and I’d come up with some design thing that was supposed to make it easier and more fun… and DAYS LATER, I would be ready to throw myself prostrate before my computer savvy friends and beg for mercy. I probably could have hand carried a printed copy to all of my readers faster than I managed to “fix” the mess I made after “implementing” new “ideas.”
by Toni McGee Causey January 15th, 2009 at 4:22 pmAnd IT WORKED!!! I’m so excited. you can check it out here (if I got THAT code right.)
by Terry Odell January 16th, 2009 at 5:53 amEverything! I’m slugging my way through copy edits on CRAVING, but all I want to do is write my RS story!
by Karin Tabke January 15th, 2009 at 5:16 pmLOL… yeah, the copy edit stage is the hardest. By that point, I’ve probably read through the book dozens of times and cannot stand to see another word of it. Can’t wait to see what you do with the r/s story!
by Toni McGee Causey January 15th, 2009 at 10:55 pmI can’t wait to hear more about this new set of characters, Toni.
I am distracted by anything that moves. Especially if it attracts light. I am a barracuda, I am.
by kitty January 16th, 2009 at 12:33 amToni – I loved your description of a sugared-up three year old in a toybox! Perfect! Like you, I’m on a mental and emotional *search* when I’m writing a book (which is always) scanning the world around me for anything that is going to enrich my work: a word, a character trait, a stray news item, an expression on someone’s face. I’ve never heard anyone else describe being that way, and it’s so nice to know I’m not alone!!
by Roxanne St. Claire January 16th, 2009 at 9:25 amOH something shiny…
by Cele January 16th, 2009 at 9:50 pm