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Living on a schedule
I love freedom. I want to get up whenever my eyes open and stay up until I feel sleepy. You know, do what I want to do, when I want to do it. However, I also get very stressed when I don’t feel like there is enough time in the day. The later happens way too often, especially when I’m working on a first draft.It’s busy around here! With writing, blogging, homeschooling the girls, and the boys schedules, I sometimes feel like my head is spinning around on my neck.
My answer is to be a free-spirit on a schedule. Now, I’m not one of those people who schedules every second of their day. That would make me into a time bomb and very dangerous for my family. I’m organized from 6am until 2:30. The rest of the day seems to schedule itself. With picking one kid up from school, to games, making dinner, and cleaning up around here, there isn’t a whole lot of down time.
The new scheduled went into effect this morning. It means getting up 30 minutes earlier than I have been. That’s 6am folks! I’m not an early bird. Not even close so this time is brutal, but appreciated later. The first thing I do is my Bible study. It’s something I don’t want to have pushed aside if life intrudes on the schedule.
So, how do you get it all done?
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles.
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Adventures into the 30s – hair
I’ve been working on a scene that involves the main character styling her hair. After reading about the process, I realized that I’d need to actually have this experience to be able to put it on the page.
This is what I usually look like:
Here’s me as I waited for my hair to be perfectly dry. The instructions were very clear that this step should not be rushed. I learned later that this would have been a good thing to do before bed. I also learned (relearned) that I have no patience.
While I waited for the pinned up curls to dry, I went to work on my kitchen. It struck me as I was scrubbing a shelf that this is a fairly authentic experience. My family lives in a farmhouse built in 1898. We still have some open shelves where modern houses would have closed cupboards. On my shelves you’ll find an old-fashion coffee grinder and a series of clamp-top canning jars.
Hours later I finally released my hair from those obnoxious pins. The result…disappointing. I didn’t look a think like the pictures in vintage magazines. If I had been a young woman in the 1930s, I may have shaved my head and worn a wig. At least I’d have had it cut shorter and without layers. I actually had to pin back some of my hair for the picture.
So there you go. Not all adventures in research are successful. I think I’ll look into hats next.
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Freelance Friday!
I have a habit. You could easily call it an addiction. Maybe a calling…yeah, that sounds better.
It’s novel writing. I love it and I can’t stop. Not a problem, right? Well, no, but it can be a spendy habit-addiction-calling. There are the conferences (I love them so much), the professional memberships, the books on craft, and the books just to read, the paper, and the ink.
I’m married to an amazing man who fully supports me in my quest to follow this dream, but he’s also an accountant. He knows very well that the output does not equal the income. I’m confident this is a temporary issue. In fact I’ve got my cell phone on me right now if any editors are reading this and would like to call about a book deal. Really…Now would be fine.
Until the phone rings, and maybe even after that, I’ve decided to implement Freelance Fridays. I’ll be committing a chunk of time each Friday to query letters, article writing, and short-story writing. Feel free to offer suggestions.
Question of the day:
For the rest of you novel-writing junkies, what do you do to support the habit?
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Gala night at ACFW St. Louis
A few the lovely women I sat with during the ACFW Gala
Kim Moore (editor for Harvest House)
Terri Haynes
Kimberly Buckner (one of my fabulous critique partners)
Julie Klassen (Julie was the first person I met at my very first ACFW conference. She was also the first familiar face I saw when I approached the hotel this year. Thanks, Julie!)
Heidi Main
