Yeah, so I spent most of September studying for the LSAT (waste of time), getting into a rhythm with my classroom duties (probably also a waste of time since a lot of days I’m the only one in the room halfway trying), and traveling (so worth it). Thus, I apparently spent most of October catching up on reading, refining my classroom routine, working out, and trying my hand at some short stories. I will spare you the shorts. One of these days *shakes fist* I will manage a decent short. Until, I need to finish a good, rough outline of something to work on in November.
Why November?
Well, I’ve run out of October for one thing. For another, November is far enough into the school year that I feel like I’ve got a handle on it. And I apparently get a whole week off near the end up it due to the school district screwing up its budget. Plus, I’ve learned some things about myself and one of those things is that I am not a slow-and-steady wins the race kind of girl. Not with my running and not with my writing. Not with much of anything. I’m an all or nothing, balls-to-the-wall, mired deep, obsessed or lounging and chillin’ and distracted by shiny objects girl. I’m a write in every free moment, churn out an average of 2500 words a day during a “writing spree” or down to a trickle of 100 a day in a “living spree.”
They serve their purposes. Don’t get me wrong about that. I need those “living” spells to inspire me, to give me people and places and ideas to write about. Which usually ends up being those 100 or so words, scribbled in notebooks, jotted on napkins, left in an Evernote file. Things that might one day become a character or a plot or a snippet of dialogue. Or might not.
So, November, right? November. To kick my own ass, I could do NaNoWriMo. I’m not all that concerned about “winning” so much as I need another Draft Zero. It’s a matter of which character(s) I want to spend the month with. And then I’d have something to spend the winter expanding, contracting, editing, rewriting.
Jungle Reds have their own version of a pre-holiday sprint. They make it sound more doable. But then, we’ve established that “doable” isn’t really the question. It’s a matter of getting my head back in the game.
It’s also a matter of finding myself a workflow for writing that works as well or better than what I’ve got sorted out for the day job. I was using Dropbox. Then Dropbox went evil. Neighbor swore by GoogleDocs. Tried it. Worked great for two days, then wouldn’t load any of the document changes for 48 hours. That was rather inconvenient. At this point, I could just use my phone if I had a keyboard I could hook up to it. I don’t really want to run out and buy a fancy one just yet. First, I want to see if it’s feasible. *stares at desk* Hmm…I have an adapter. I have a desktop keyboard at work. Could unplug that and give it a whirl during lunch one day.
Now, all I need is a decent Cloud. Anyone? Ideas?