Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Plodding and Plotting

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Friday, November 4, 2022


Yes, I am plodding on a plot!

I have a couple of very stalled novels. I get an epiphany on one, work on it, then the well goes dry. Or more to the point, something happens that needs my attention. Now. 

We're not talking ADHD. We're talking about my life of jumping from one crisis to the next. I have responsibilities, and there are people who abdicate theirs and drop them in my lap. And when there are things like contractual obligations involved, I have to drop everything and deal. 

It makes for a hell of a creative life, I tell ya.

Nope, I don't need people telling me how to deal. If you can be Sam Beckett or Ben Song and leap into my life for a few days, you might understand. Otherwise, don't.

I did have a major plotting spurt last night, and I sat up in bed and wrote a bunch of notes. I need to transfer them to OneNote before I totally forget what was going on in my brain last night. My handwriting is bad enough as it is, and if I go too long without transcribing the notes, much will be lost.

That's my job before lunch. I hope. But I just had another possibly last-minute thing hit the fan this morning. Nothing I can talk about (too early in the process), but it would mean dropping a lot of stuff and taking on possibly more than I can handle. So I'm leaning towards saying no. It's highly contingent on other people stepping up to help, and I'm not sure that's going to happen. Or at least it will be the initial flood of people stepping up with too many backing out at the last minute. I mentioned contractual obligations above? Yep.

Once I get my notes written out I plan to look at getting comments back here. Or not. I have mixed feelings. I'm all for a robust discourse, but given the level of discourse these days, I'm not so sure I want to deal with it right now. Please know at this point there are technical reasons for the lack of a comment feature. In the meantime, my Facebook page is linked, and you can leave comments there. If you're on Facebook, that is.

The whole Twitter thing has made me realize once again that I need to be in charge of my own data, and that means blogging here on a regular basis. 

And with that, I have about an hour to get my notes transcribed before I need to go get things ready for lunch. We don't do fancy lunches here, but it's nice to have the dishwasher emptied out so we'll  have a spot for the next round.

Filed under: Writing   Life         

 

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