Friday Fiver.

1. Interstate 5 northbound in Seattle will be reduced to one lane effective today through August 29. It is recommended that you avoid I-5 north before Tacoma as the traffic jam will be extreme (if drivers don't get off the freeway during this time). You've been duly warned.

2. We're waiting on a job opp in Boise, and looking at job opps in Oregon as well (Beaverton). Thus the house sell prep continues this weekend and next week (Todd has vacation for 10 days). We may not know anything for a few months yet. We're cutting it close!

3. Job is becoming much more interactive with the London colleagues (I love this!). The Department of Corrections (as we call ourselves in production) is a great group of people. I'm honored to be part of the team.

4. Writing is full steam ahead. Lots of thinking and writing work done this week and more to go. Working on a creating a writing life, which means putting up strict boundaries around my writing and what I'm interested in.

5. Thinking about our next house: do we want town or country? Must think more on that.

Resistance Again

Resistance has reared its ugly head.

Today I name "Anti-Resistance" Thursday. It will be a weekly item.
So even if you find this blog only once a week, try to get here on Thursday, okay?
From War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Resistance Is Infallible

Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North--meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.
We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action we must follow before all others.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

Keep moving forward. Face your resistance head on.

Lower Your Threshold

I'm very tough on myself. I have extremely high expectations of what I can accomplish in a week's time, even in a day's time. Last night, I realized that I need to lower my threshold and give myself some breathing time. When I write out a task list for my writing or studying, I need to take it down a notch, usually by a third, or sometimes a half. There is just no excuse for me to try and keep up with the fastest producers in literature. Sure Anthony Trollope could write a legible 250 words in 15 minutes, but that may not work for me right now.

I'm learning to slow down and focus on the scene at hand in my novel. To really discover the one event in each scene that gives the writing a pulse, a rhythm, that basically makes it come to life.

I realized this week that my writing is a lot of events tumbling around together, but there is no coherent event that gives it a pulse.

Thus, I've got to slow it down, get the pulse, and move on from there.

Must get to the day job. Lots going on this week.

Keep moving forward.

The Writing Life

All I did was glance out the window yesterday afternoon and saw two people talking on the sidewalk. It prompted an entire short story!

That's the kind of inspiration Sandra Scofield's nifty little tome, The Scene Book, has provided to me. I'm realizing that the building blocks of good writing are one part inspiration, two parts craft. After receiving such helpful feedback from my critique group, I have decided my craft is sorely lacking. Scofield pushes craft in her book, and it's not easy by any means. However, it is inspiring and I am determined to push myself to become better.

And who knows, some short stories may just be submitted to publishers first!

Keeping moving forward.

Cancel Texas

Yep, we are not moving to Texas. I'm so relieved you cannot even begin to know. I'm bummed for hubby, but so so so so so happy that I don't have to move there. No offense to Texans, but I just don't like your state. Been there, visited, and that's enough for me. I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, where it's green and rainy, and the ocean is just over there and yes we get slugs and lots of weeds, but this is home. (I know many Texans can't stand the PNW; so we're even now.)

Now we have no idea where we may have to move. But the relief is palpable even now as I think about it and I am happy to go to Portland or Colorado or somewhere farther north in Washington. No worries now.

Buh-bye, Texas. Hasta la vista, Dallas.

Had a great weekend away. I turned another year older while sitting on the beach soaking up the rays. Wonderful! I also ate too much incredible food and laughed and talked and laughed some more. My baby niece is so adorable and she likes to laugh too. So we got along splendidly.

In freelance news: Writing like a fiend. Studying fiction craft and writing short stories constantly in between reading Chekhov's short story collection (it is the abridged volume, yes). Also have a stack of movies to watch in order to "novelize" scenes: a great craft builder. Getting ready to dive into Steven Pressfield's novels on Greece and Rome (have them on hold at the library). Have a few job offers to respond to and a lot of style guide work for my job, plus copyediting work headed to me this week as well. Lots to do and ready to go!

Still learning about resistance and how to say "no" when under too much pressure. This is vital to learn. If you haven't read Steven Pressfield's War of Art, please get it and read it. An amazing (very short) read full of incredible truth.

Onward forward.