Ball Rolling (updated)

Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Serotonin levels are low this afternoon. It’s difficult for me to get over the hump to start doing anything. Do you know about that hump? It’s the barrier to entry for starting work. Think of it like inertia. You have a ball sitting on a hill waiting to roll down it, but it doesn’t. It just sits there. You give it a little push, and it starts rolling, building up speed, and everything is as it should be. That’s what I’m like: a ball, sitting on top of a hill, waiting for someone to give me a push.

Sitting down and writing this has started rolling. It’s been a slow day, and slow time begets slow time. But I’m moving now.

More notes on the editing of my story: I’m thinking of cutting out the middle gym scene. I don’t think it’s adding much to the story. Roger should be angry enough after the drawings and Roger nose, and the confrontation in the gym, while amusing, doesn’t move the story forward. It’s just a thought. The story is a bit long-winded now, and I’m looking for where I can shorten it. I’ll see how it reads without it and then make my decision.

I just sat through an hour and forty-minute commute. I don’t think I have much left in me to write today. I did manage to get more editing done on the story. I won’t make any promises (mostly because of my record with promises) but I’m still shooting to have it done this week. You have no idea how angry the commute made me tonight. It was the rain again, in case you were wondering. I don’t know what it is, but if it rains—and it rains a lot in Seattle—the commute turns from barely bearable to unnaturally torturous. I guess it’s all just fodder for my next story (that’s what I have to keep telling myself to remain calm). I’ll admit that part of it was my fault for driving into the gaping maw of the rush hour, but I can only take so much blame. I averaged six miles per hour over the almost two-hour commute. I’m now drinking a nice glass of red wine and trying to unwind. I’m not sure I’ll get there—unwound—but I’m attempting.

After I finish editing my story, I will get back to posting longer musings and story fragments. I’m writing a bit less than I wrote during Nanowrimo, and that’s worrying me a bit. It’s hard to do a word count when editing, but I need to figure something out to push me toward more time spent on this. I’m writing about an hour and a half a day, which is good, but I know I could do better. Dinner is ready.

Updated:

I've posted my Flying Toe Stomp story in the stories link on the top or bottom of the page. Yeah, I probably rushed posting it, and I'm not happy with the ending, but I've been spinning my wheels with it, and I wanted to start writing something new. I'll pick it up in a few months to polish it off. I'd appreciate any comments before then, but no rush.

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