Finally, it's Friday!

You've got to click over and see pictures of my girl, Allison Winn Scotch at her first Borders book signing. She wrote a great book! And she's a Mom! And knows how to juggle!

Allison's book signing in New York

I am so glad it's Friday. For one thing, the work is headed out of here! Woohoo! For another thing, the end is in sight.

I love the end. I love when the end is in sight and things are starting to wrap up. But, and this is funny, I also love thinking about the end when I'm in the middle of it all. You know "once I get all this done, then . . ."

I used to relish being in the middle of everything (I still do to some extent), but I'm changing. I love being in the middle of a writing project, I love the thrill of research and taking notes, but I have to have many endings. Short bursts of energy, followed by "wow, look what I finished."

It's kind of a curse, actuallyl. You see, I share Martha Stewart's birthday and she's the same way. She does projects and has short acomplishments that she calls instant gratification. When planting a new garden, painting a room, cooking a meal, when she accomplishes something, it spurs her on to accomplish more.

That's me! That's me! (waving my hand frantically at you)

I'm the same way. It's been interesting to apply that to life as a writer. I think it comes from the daily writing hour I get in the early mornings. (This week, everything is haywire!) I am already looking forward to Monday when I can get back to my WIP.

Have a great weekend! Keep Moving Forward!

Heads up!

Whew. Lots of phone time today. I'm worn out and ready to quit talking and start work. Yeah sure. It's only 2 pm already.

Anyway, lots going on, not much I can share about, but exciting and very cool prospects ahead for this girl. I'm really psyched!

Have not had writing time this week as a result of the chemistry textbook I have been buried in. Seriously, I edited all afternoon yesterday on it and when hubby came home I looked at him like "who are you?"

I'd forgotten what day it was. That's deep.

Just a few more chapters and it's outta here. I can't wait. Not that the author hasn't been a dream, but it's not my thing. Ugh.

I'll have progress on the WIP next week! Oooo, and news.

Here. There. Where?

So it's one of those days. I took a personality test that all of us writers are taking (some writer got a press release on it this morning) and I'm a full-blown visionary. Well, I knew that, but seeing it in print, knowing that it's true. Kinda takes the wind out of your sails.

I mean, it's a good thing and all, but gee, now I know why it's so hard to live day by day and to stick to a plan.

Sure, I can stick to a plan, but by this time tomorrow, I will have different viewpoints about how to go about that plan.

Being a visionary is necessary for my work: writing, planning, process management. But it's detrimental to getting that work finished. I get bogged down in the middle.

There, I said it. I'm bogged down in the middle of multiple client projects, ideas for multiple personal writing projects, and deciding the best approach to it all.

It wears me out. But this is me. This is who I am.

Today's question is no longer between a and b, but between c and d, dropping plan e, but thinking through what choosing c or d will mean to my plans for c.

Confused yet?

Me too.

This is my brain. Thus, I'm troubled by this visionary thing. It sounds all cool and inspiring, but try making decisions with this brain. Try getting ahead on your deadlines with this brain. Try keeping the plan the same from week to week with this brain. Impossible.

And they said my Myers-Briggs personality, INFP, was that of a writer who could change the world.

Inside my head is laughter. Sorry.

Keep moving forward.

Short-Term Memory

The attack of the short-term memory snatcher has begun in earnest. I am still juggling six projects, but making headway on them, finally.

However, I am working on this one project that has been going for a while and I look and can't remember why I handled those references that way, when I'm sure I knew to handle them another way.

Whatever.

The sunshine has been out now for over 24 hours and we are loving it. It feels so good to have the sunshine (warm sunshine) again.

I've been reading in snatches (just like the writing) and read Alice Hoffman's Incantation yesterday that I picked up at the Scholastic Book Fair over the weekend. Wow. Blew me away. A very short book that is packed full of the emotion of so much. A riveting and perfect coming-of-age story. Jodi Picoult reads Hoffman voraciously and I had started one of her books years ago, but never finished. I am now another voracious Hoffman reader. I recommend!

Writing is wavering between 11,000 and 12,000 words this week. We may get up past 15,000 rather quickly and end higher than anticipated. I've got to make Lenora and Cassie clash and "un-interact" this week in their peculiar mother-daughter way. I'm really feeling this story.

If you have a Twitter account, please friend me (see Twitter sidebar box). Just another thing to get addicted to, but addicted I am!

Keep Moving Forward.

Clarity.

So how come other people can point out in your life what you just can't see?

It's the theme of countless books, movies, plays (Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare), and everyday life.

I am bewildered and a bit overwhelmed with my to-do list. Six projects running concurrently and enough going haywire in them to completely mess me up on a regular basis. I keep revising my to-do list and figuring out exactly what I should do first: earliest due dates, work that I hate that is bugging me the most.

But I get into the middle of it and get muddled again. It is a hourly battle to stay on task right now and I'm not sure why.

I have seen a glimpse of where I'm going (writing and learning and limiting my copyediting), but I have to get through this to-do list first, before I can jump in gleefully to my next thing.

I think that may be the real problem. We always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, don't we?

I know I do.

So my task today is to write, keep to my to-do list, and to floss. And to not pick up my tomorrow tasks, no matter how badly I want to.

Progress on the WIP continues, heading to 15k this week and beyond.

Keep moving forward.