Surgery
went well even though there were a few hiccoughs. Most of those again were
mainly because of the language barrier and the differences in how the American
medical system works versus the Austrian. Here they wanted to keep me a full
three days for a surgery that was 20 minutes tops. At home, it would have been
in 6 hours at the most for the whole thing. I felt lucky I got out in 36 hours
and that was because I convinced my doctor it was for the best.
So
finally, we’re back to my writing life but in case people don’t realize it,
everything in my life is related to writing. When I take a walk, like I did
this past week at Schönbrunn, I look at the people and scenery to see how I can
use it. When I’m at a restaurant or the airport, people watching and listening
in on loud conversations is the norm. I am discrete and don’t butt in at all
unless of course I should.
You’re
probably wondering about that last statement. I feel that most things are
private but if you decide to bring your dirty laundry out into the open, don’t
be surprised if I step on your parade or smack you up the side of your head.
And there are only three things where I’d even do that: beating a woman,
beating a child, or beating an animal. Those things I would be jumping on someone
immediately. And there is a difference between beating a child and disciplining
a child. I got spankings and today, some kids deserve a few just to get into
line BUT this is just my opinion and I’m allowed to have it.
And opinion
forms a lot of my or anyone’s writing. It’s all a matter of perspective and I
only have mine. I can try to put myself in my character’s shoes but face it,
most of it’s conjecture on what I think they are feeling. I can’t know because
I’m not there but I can imagine it. We’ve always been told as writers ‘write
what you know’ but I was gently corrected once by a well-known mystery writer
who told me ‘write what you can imagine.’ Believe me my imagination is huge.
But
that doesn’t mean I can’t be open to learning more. Since the beginning of the
year, I have signed up for a host of classes. I’ve signed up for a Scrivener
class, a Book Ninja class, how to write a series class and a how to develop my
own language class. Each of those are designed to help me with some upcoming
projects and because I feel that a writer is also a life-long learner. You can’t
have one without the other.
So
where’s the writing in all of this? Yes, life happens and writing sometimes
gets shoved aside. However, the day before the surgery I wrote a short story of
about 2300 words and some in a journal I’m developing for a series. Therefore,
the day before I managed to eek out some 3800 words by hand. Since then, I’ve
pumped out eight blog posts and a variety of things averaging about 2k a day.
And that’s on a surgery week. Think what I could do if I really put my mind to
it.
That’s
exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve decided that the only days I’ll be writing
blog posts, playing on the net and research, which includes classes, will be on
Sunday and Mondays. The rest of the week will be for writing my fiction and
putting together my series on self-publishing and helping other writers.
Until
next week…
Lynn
No comments:
Post a Comment