ieva melgalve » RL

ordnung macht frei (or freiheit macht ordnung)

ieva — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:24:12 +0000

I’ve spent several days not caring much about whether I do what I’m supposed to or not, and it’s been catching up on me, slowly and politely at first, like an avalanche. I get some things done but out of my priority list, I haven’t resubmitted the story I think would be fine for resubmitting now (that I’ll do today), I haven’t finished preparations for NaNoWriMo (that, too, I would need to bug myself about).
On the other hand, I have written a beautiful story that (like most of beautiful stories) has very little of a story arc and all that other stuff stories are supposed to have, I have baked 3 pizzas in 24 hours, I have rediscovered my attachment to confined places when I’m slightly hungover and restless in the middle of the night (that’s the coolest part of being a vampire: you get to sleep in a coffin…at least I hope they do, not that I’m one), and this morning, I without much consideration handled the kids easily and without much fuss.
But I hate this feeling that my life is blobbing around and I have no idea what is supposed to happen next and whether I’ll be able to pull it all together during next week.
So, back to the planning, back to the task lists and other stuff.

poetry etc

ieva — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:12:03 +0000

These are the Days of Poetry in Latvia, and I’m doing my best in attending as many events as I can to rejoin the folks I abandoned in my several years long hiatus. Somehow, returning after a while, it’s easier to enjoy my local literature, see things in perspective and relax and have a chat instead of driving myself crazy over stuff I can’t change anyway. Including mistakes I’ve made in the past.
Surprisingly, I still manage to get my writing done, even though the quality is slipping a bit. 700+ words on Tuesday, and today I’m aiming for 700+ too. NaNo novel planning is moving along just fine too. Kids and my own nerves end up slightly frazzled, but I’ll catch up on that next week.

public transportation

ieva — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:03:33 +0000

On Friday, I finally coerced myself to write not only on the morning tram but to late afternoon tram back from work. So I met my daily goal (700+ words) and had all evening for myself (at least I told myself so, actually kids and husband claimed their share too). I’m still a bit flu-ed but it’ll be fine soon, I think.
For this weekend, I have to write 600 words and do a zillion chores that I will perhaps postpone to next week. Who knows. It’s Saturday.

that phoenix stuff

ieva — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:14:29 +0000

Yesterday, I was too tired to think, let alone write much.
I also figured that if I’m too tired to think, then perhaps this stage is a good one to let my imagination come up with a story idea. That was a cool thing to do, actually, so now I have a setting, a twist, two main characters and a haunting name, The Longest Night On Tundra-U, for a new story.
Today, I decided not to give in to RL and do the best I can on Vega (no planning, no thinking since I don’t have the time to do that) and just pound my daily dosage in. That was a good decision too, as freeing myself to write crap gave me a lot of decent words on the page.
(Yes, I know, there’s the advice floating around to always write crap on first draft, but it doesn’t work for me that well–I can’t stay motivated to write crap day after day if I know I can write non-crap too most of the time.)

So, let’s say that it’s a lesson learned, and thanks for that.