I really got back in the groove yesterday, writing about 4,000 words. That wasn't quite enough to significantly move the needle on what I need to write each day (about two fewer words, yay!) to reach my goal, but a few days like that could make a difference. The wonderful thing is that I'm past the part of the book that was unexpected and into the part that I've actually sort of planned, though I suspect it will go differently from what I planned due to the unplanned stuff. The part that I had thought was "crossing the first threshold" into the story world is turning out to be the "approach to the inmost cave" part, going into the really mystical part of the special story world. The fun thing about all the unplanned stuff is that it's knitting together all the plot threads so that they're actually all part of the same thing. I thought I had three separate and parallel plots going on, but now it's all different aspects of the same plot.
I'm also about a quarter of the way through the book. I'd hoped to have a draft done around this time, but it was difficult to concentrate during the construction and waiting for construction. Now, though, I think I'm on track. Maybe the delay helped my subconscious figure it all out.
Meanwhile, the office organizing continues to creep in this petty pace (bonus points if you catch the slightly paraphrased reference). I've managed to sort through all the stuff currently residing on the loft that has a place to be put away. There's still some stuff out there that will have to wait until I clear out a few other things and create a place. That's why this is taking so long. It's a vicious cycle of not being able to put away stuff until there's a place to put it, but getting a place to put it requires sorting through and rearranging other things. I also have a few boxes of books to sort through and make the final call on donating to the library book sale or taking to a used bookstore to try to re-sell. It's very hard for me to pull the trigger on getting rid of books because I inevitably find something in the stack that I decide I don't want to get rid of, after all, and that makes me question the other things I want to get rid of. Last summer, I read a book that made me want to read more like that, and it turned out I had one by that author in my "donate to library" box, so I pulled it out and re-read it and decided I didn't want to get rid of it. The book I'm reading at the moment came out of my "donate to library" box. It had gone in there when I decided the author was kind of a jerk. Then I found a newer book by that author at the library, devoured it, ran back and got her other newer book, devoured it, then wondered if I'd misjudged her earlier, so I dug out the old book. I think she's gone through a period of personal growth, or something, because in this older book, yeah, she's a jerk. I don't like her nearly as much in the older stuff, so I may still get rid of this book when I'm done reading it. And no, I'm not going to say who she is because she strikes me as the sort of person who has Google alerts set up on her name and who might start a crazy vendetta against someone who dares call her a jerk (and also, we have mutual acquaintances, so she could find me).
Which is why I never seem to get rid of books. The process of purging books leaves me with doubts and second thoughts, and I end up re-reading a lot of stuff to figure out if I really want to get rid of it. But I'm totally out of bookshelf space. I don't have room for the books I KNOW I want to keep, and I'm just about out of wall space to put bookshelves because my house doesn't have a lot of walls. The interior is mostly an open floorplan and the exterior is mostly windows. Almost every real wall in the house already has a bookcase on it, and I even have an open etagere type bookcase in front of one window and a short bookcase under the stairs. When I'm done organizing the office and am ready to move to the next phase, possibly redecorating/refurnishing it, I may replace some of the bookcases with larger ones, or I may have to go all library in the open space, with bookcases lined up in the middle of the room instead of just around the walls.
But I can sort of see the end of the tunnel in this project, as I think the hard work is mostly done. I've set up the systems, and it's just a case of sorting through stuff to either put it away properly or trash it. I've found a number of things I thought were lost, including some CDs that seem to have fallen into random boxes. It's been fun to be able to just reach into the filing cabinet and find things instantly instead of searching my desk for hours.
Meanwhile, I need to do some cookbook reading or recipe searching before I go on my next grocery shopping trip because I've discovered that I'm in a bad food rut. I keep eating the same things, and I'm tired of them, but I can't think of anything else to do with the ingredients I have available. Much of that is due to summer because the things I like to cook are more cold-weather foods. I need to take more advantage of the fresh vegetables and fruits currently available, but I need to find something new to do with them. When you find yourself staring into the pantry and saying, "Well, there's always peanut butter on graham crackers," you need to do something. Today I may shake things up and have tuna on Ritz crackers for lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment