I should probably warn you I wrote this before the meds kicked in.

I finished my rough draft of my major school project (incidentally, why can’t dreamweaver be as easy to use as powerpoint? Digression!) and managed to end up only three days behind on all my work from last week. This cannot continue, as there are hard deadlines this week so I will be caught up by this week if only by virtue of having failed on some projects spectacularly.

One thing about hitting your mid 30’s (yes, yes, I’m old, get over it) is that you kind of figure out who you are and how you operate and at a certain point must forgive yourself for being that way and start looking for work-arounds. I have had adhd all of my life, but wasn’t diagnosed until I was 30 (apparently, my brain is on speed, naturally, which explains why I talk and move and read so fast and probably also why I make so many typos) and have been on different meds which, until recently, were somewhat sedating. I finally went to an expert, who helped me find the right thing, something which could focus the energy without trying to dampen it. And voila … massively productive. Still not able to sit still, really, but that’s ok. You sit still, you get run over. Now I can actually direct the energy into getting things done!

So, I found Lifehacker. Most awesome website ever. And started using Todoist. I loves me a good to do list app. I’m still waiting for that perfect site to combine a calendar and to do list just the way I like them (no, neither google nor yahoo are it). There was a scary point in there last week where my search for the perfect productivity tools was making me much less productive than I needed to be, but I got over it and settled down.

So, why am I behind?  Sheer, blind ambition (no, I don’t know how it can be both sheer and blind, but trust me, it can).  Also, life hates me. So, today? I’m going to finish the rough draft of the Footprints story, which still lacks a title. And I’m going to do a chapter from my programming book (making php and mysql work play nicely) and clean several rooms in the house, all before having to go pick up my son from school and take him to Karate.

Which means I should probably get back to work.

 

For those who were wondering …

OK, so I had a really bad cold, and instead of staying home and sleeping it off, which any sane, not my-cat-trying-to-get-that-bird-through-the-window stubborn, would have done, I went down to the fair where my wife and her youth group were at once running a snack bar and setting up a display booth for the competition, the prize for which was $100.

I was drafted to help put together the letters for the booth, and help table cardboard pigs to the fabric background (you really, really, had to be there) and since I have absolutely no artistic talent, I was given the one job I could not screw up, outlining the letters with black marker. These letters, and the pics, had been sprayed with glitter.

So as I worked with them, the glitter got all over my hands, and since I kept having to blow my nose, rub my eyes, etc, the glitter got from my hands to the kleenex and all over my beard.

We got the booth set up (my other talent is holding heavy objects over my head while people of various female persuasions fuss over fabric, hay bale placement, and what I am not referring to as “the glitterpigs”), and I was allowed ot go home to sleep it off.

I soaked in the tub, took a shower, shampood, everything I could think of, but the spray glitter had bonded to my hair and would not come out. So I shaved. And once I saw the season premiere of The Office, with it’s running goatte gag, I was really glad I had.

But I’m glad it didn’t get in the hair on top of my head, or I would probably be totally bald now.

 

More whining about writer’s block …

I want to write it, I have the time (if I’m careful) to write it, I have a great idea for it, but I just can’t get started …

Yes, it’s another dreaded post about writer’s block. I thought I had it licked, but no, not happening. I gave myself a deadline of Nov. 1st to get this story done, which should have given me an entire month to write 4000 words. NO prob, right? I think it’s that first 100 words that’s killing me.

Part of me wonders if I should just give up on this one and move on, but I really want something to submit to this anthology. And I really like me idea.

Getting started? Maybe once I do, it will just flow and be done. That’s what happens sometimes. That’s what happened with the last story and that seemed to work out all right.

Ok. Enough whining. Any advice, my writer friends? Or even non-writer friends?

Maybe I just need an all-nighter with a notebook, a pot of coffee, and the kitchen table. Sometimes that works, even if it does freak out the dogs.

 

Here and back again …

Sorry for the absence. I’ve been struggling with a little writer’s blockage (yes, Jasmine, I know it’s not real, but I thought about it too hard and so got freaked out) and just … well, some personal issues for a few weeks, but this week I started to feel a little better about things and I may even be ready to attack some writing again.

The important thing is that I finished the short story and got it sent off. I did decide to enter it in Writers of the Future, knowing that I probably had no shot. But then I have a list of markets to go through, so all will not be lost. I feel pretty good about the story, but I also feel like it’s kind of what I usually do, so for my next project I want to do something totally different.

Mr writing process is evolving as well (alert! alert! boring writers-only relevancy to follow!) I used to write everything out longhand, and then type it up. I think I did better work this way, and something about the connection between brain and hand and pen and paper helped to make the ideas flow. I have certain issues in my brain that are helped by physical rituals like this. And typing on a white screen does nothing for me.

However, this process is cumbersome, and probably cuts my productivity in half, so I’m working on trying to do things on-sreen the first time. I don’t find it as enjoyable, and when I’m stuck I need to revert to pen and paper, but I’m hoping this will help me push through. I want to finish my short story before November 1st so I can resume work on my adventure novel for Nano next month and get a good head of steam built up on that. I also have school and kids and the job search, and … I probably better not thing about it so much or I will get freaked out again.

Anyway, sorry this rambled. I have to go now and get ready to go to the Ren fair. I’ve never actually been to one, but my wife won the tickets…I just hope I don’t get accidentally speared, because that’s the sort of thing that would happen to me.