Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Where'd the Day Go?

I'm having another one of those "hey, where'd the day go?" days. I think it started yesterday when my attempt to nap didn't last long because I couldn't shut my brain off. I gave up and decided to get to work. I then checked my to-do list, and once I was through whimpering, I started to dig into all those little tasks that keep piling up.

Then last night, just when I thought I'd got the hang of that exercise class, the teacher changed things. As a result some of my muscles are no longer on speaking terms with me (or else they're speaking a little too much). I sat down after the class with a heating pad and my laptop and finally dug into my revisions. In this first chunk of rewriting, I managed to eliminate a couple of pages from the overall page count, between cutting and adding scenes. One of the new scenes isn't quite what I want it to be, so I'll have to come back to it for more work, but it's in the right place structurally. I'm considering cutting yet another scene that doesn't do a lot for me right now, but I'm going to hold off for a while until I'm sure of where I'm going with that particular subplot.

This morning, I crawled whimpering out of bed with the sad realization that I actually paid someone to make me hurt like that (but I'm on my way to having buns of steel -- well, steel that's been cushioned a bit). Then I got to work. I had another huge mailout of conference goodies, plus some stuff for my editor. Along the way, I had to go to the bank and get groceries. Next thing I know, the traditional workday is almost over and half my to-do list remains undone. Of course, my workday is anything but traditional, and I suspect it will be another late night for me. I still don't see how anyone can do this with a full-time day job.

Meanwhile, I've been re-reading Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, and as a result, I've got an overwhelming craving for donuts. I think she eats donuts in almost every chapter. Last week when I had to pass the neighborhood Krispy Kreme while running errands, I might not have been able to restrain myself if the "Donuts are Hot" sign had been lit. As it was, it was all cold and blustery, and by the time I was through with my errands, I was almost at the point of getting even cold donuts and taking them home to have with some tea. The only thing holding me back was the fact that the Krispy Kreme would have been on the wrong side of a difficult intersection for the way I'd have had to go to get back to it. Instead, I went home and made muffins, which wasn't exactly virtuous. I'd have had maybe two donuts, while I ended up with a dozen muffins. Then again, from what I've heard of the Krispy Kreme calorie count, that may have evened out. I'm pretty sure the muffins were less expensive than a couple of donuts would have been, and it's not like I ate the whole dozen right away. I still have about four left. See how dangerous books can be?

Now I have to go tackle the rest of the scary to-do list. The nice thing is, after next week, the worst of the menial little tasks will be gone and all I'll have to do is just write.

2 comments:

Angie said...

I love the Stephanie Plum books. Any series that can make me laugh out loud when I'm reading is a favorite!

Shanna Swendson said...

These books are on my "don't read in public" list because maniacal laughter on airplanes tends to make people nervous.