Technically, I suppose it could be considered a re-education, but then I happen to believe writing always has a learning curve.  I’ve mentioned before - and probably will again - I like power writing.  I like 20-hour sessions in front of the computer.  There’s nothing better than printing out a whole ton of new pages at the end of the day.  However . . . (this is the re-learn part) sh*% happens.  Usually at the most inconvenient time.  I can’t imagine writing 5-10 pages a day and no, that isn’t because I’m super-writer or that everything I type stays in, or even that the idea will germinate into a fleshed-out story. 

 

I think in chapters.  I really don’t get the 5-10 page thing.  I tried it and well, for me it was like eating one rectangle of a Hersey’s candy bar (which Leanne can do!).  I eat the whole candy bar - or squirt dark chocolate syrup in a mainlining furor if that’s all I’ve got.  I think it’s because (I know I’ve said this time and time again) the best path to success is to stick with what works.  I approach writing the same way I approach all the other stuff in my life - a fixed, quick schedule for completion.  I won’t start something I can’t finish - which probably explains why I’m not very crafty - and once I’ve started, I can’t stop until I drop.

 

That’s great unless something or someone sticks a pole in the spokes of your warp-speed wheel.  I’m pretty proficient, I normally have decent time-management skills and I somehow managed to learn that since I am not a brain surgeon, I can ignore a ringing phone or email.  The stuff that normally derails me usually has something to do with family, but I can usually regroup and make up time.  How?  Wanna know the last time I checked my email?  October 11th.  Yep - and the world didn’t come to an end.  What will I do with the 3,000+ emails?  I’ll probably sift through 200 but then I’ll get really bored and just delete everything.  Anyone who knows me knows that if you really need me, call.  If you sent me something via email that needs attention, call me and tell me to check. 

 

Wanna know the last time I checked my home voicemail?  Last Wednesday.  My cell voicemail - this morning.  Texts?  This morning . . . ah ha!  Yep, I have a child who will text if she needs anything.  But, when I’m in the house, my cell is usually charging in my car.  Quite honestly, I often return calls or make them when I’m waiting in a car line or playing ATM/Chauffeur.  I don’t use the phone when I’m driving, I don’t even answer it until I come to a stop somewhere.  I try really hard not to roam through stores with a phone to my ear, having one of those loud ghost conversations.

 

So that’s my long-winded way of saying I think email is great.  I think the internet is the best invention since the wheel.  I love my iPhone.  Hell, I love technology more than anyone out there (fyi - I don’t care that I’m in the middle of a book - I want Windows 7 on 10/22!).  But I control the technology time.  Frankly, I’m astounded when I see listservs and loops and links and chats with (usually) 3-4 people posting several times a day.  Hell’s Bells - if you have that much free time, work on your flipping manuscript!  Yes, I have chapter links and a few other listservs BUT, I have it set-up so that I don’t see those emails.  They go directly into a separate folder and if I have time, the inclination, whatever, I may go read a few.  Ask anyone who knows me on this one, too - I NEVER post.  Okay, maybe not never, but probably not more than one time a year - I’m pretty sure that doesn’t even count.  My experience has been that the acquisition of an agent generates about 50 one-line congrats responses.  I’m not for a minute saying congrats isn’t in order.  I’m just saying do it in private.  Personally, I think a blanket congrats e-note is kinda like the snail version of a chain letter.  I like to send my friends a congrats.  I like to go to Amazon and comment on their books.  If I want sales or personnel info, I’ll read Publishers Marketplace. 

 

So . . . yes, my message may be getting diluted - DO NOT GIVE YOUR TIME AWAY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT NEED IT FOR YOURSELF!  Spend about 30 days reading any listserv and you’ll soon be able to recognize the two categories - People in love with the craft of writing vs. People in live with the idea of being a writer.  There is a HUGE difference.  Please don’t confuse this with the inane RWA Pro thing that actually makes it possible for someone to be more unpublished than someone else (ridiculous!).  I get that RWA gives benefits to Pro folks and I guess that makes it worth it.  I’m talking about the difference between people willing to preserver - in the middle of a ton of rejection - and keep going vs. the person who spends more than 2 years ‘polishing’ a manuscript or doing drafts.  Find a working writer (my definition - someone who can support themselves with their writing) and you’ll probably find someone who has gotten his or her fair share of rejection.  Had hurt feelings, a lousy editor, a multi-page, single-spaced revision letter that arrivers Christmas Eve morning, late nights, bleary eyes, caffeine shakes and any of the other unpleasant realities of being a working writer. 

 

Know when I think I’m doing my best work?  When I look down and realize I’ve had the same unattractive t-shirt and boxers (the girly kind) for a few days.  When I’ve rammed my disgusting hair into a baseball cap to make car line.  When I realize that somehow, the idea has taken shape and I’ve breathed life into that idea.  That is such an incredible feeling.  In that moment, you don’t think about years of rejection or any of the other stuff.  You just sit back and listen as your printer spits out page after page.

 

Do some pages!!!

 

Rhonda

Great post, Babe Rhon! I can't do the page thing either. I've tried. Some days its a chapter, some days its just notes on the chapter. But I'm kinda the all or nothing. (I was up at 2am revising a chapter for the third time!...back the way it was the first time I wrote it!) I don't plot in chapters either. Its almost always too flawed to do that when I'm starting.

Email... haven't even looked at it today and frankly, i get more spam than personal email, regardless. Ditto on no phone while driving and text? not happening. I can barely chew gum and walk without tripping.

RWAPRO... don't get me started. Rejection is a way of life for a writer, you don't get a pin prize for receiving one or more. To be a REAL writer, you have to be more concerned about the story you are telling, than selling it! Can I get an A-men

Ah, Rhon......and those who know and love you realize that ONE email will never get your attention! :) The page thing though, I'm the pages writer. usually a chapter a day......but at least ten pages, except for today's pitiful attempt!!

Great post, girl!

Fab post Rhonda! I'll write.... tomorrow morning!:) xoxo, Leanne

Ames - A-men! Maureen - yes, but you write steadily and constantly. I ALWAYS have a Week of Jubilee after I finish a book. And I know, my lax email habits are, I don't know, kinda like waiting until 2009 to get DSL.

A whole Day, Leanne? Slacker.