Dreary

It was so gray and dreary that I had to turn on the lights this morning when I got up and I didn't get up until 8:30AM. We had about fifteen minutes of sunshine late this afternoon bookended by intermittent bouts of rain starting around 11AM and still going on. It's been windy but I don't think it's been as windy as they predicted. I'm still glad I went out last night (in the light rain) and brought in the patio umbrella. It would have been an adventure in today's harder rain. Ooh, it sounds really windy right now. I hope all my leaves are wet enough to stay close to their piles.

Last night I started listening to a writing book, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, and what I was hearing completely drove all thoughts of what I was writing out of my head. I'm what they call a pantser, I don't plan or outline my manuscripts, I just sit here and write what comes. Basically I make it up as I go along and tidy things up in rewrite. Well, this author told me that I should have all these plot points (she calls them "beats") so I'm thinking of what she's saying which totally closed down my creativity. I sat here grousing on paper for about 300 words before I decided to go back to my old ways and just write. I managed to get to today's word quota (counting the grousing) in a couple hours. So all in all, about a normal day's work. I did have my main character's soon to be ex-husband show up to harass her so that's a good thing. After I was done writing I sat down and made a Character Wheel for who I think will be my main character so at least now I know what she looks like and how old she is. Stuff like that.

In Sketching today he's still drawing about fears. My favorite part was the butterflies that are in your nervous stomach. I liked the CTRL key too.

Then I cracked open Seuss-isms and drew a Seuss-ian boy. He doesn't look happy but I enjoyed drawing him. I'm trying to learn the jagged hair that Dr. Seuss puts on so many of his characters.

As soon as it started raining I went to Meijer for a few things and as I was checking out I recognized a woman I haven't seen in years. She asked if I was still writing and said she'd just joined a writing group herself. I told her that I'm looking for a critique group and gave her my card. She said she'd get in touch. I hope she does.

Like a good girl I pulled out the Simple Alpaca Shawl while I was watching TV tonight and discovered that it takes me almost exactly an hour to knit a two-row repeat of the pattern. I'll be glad when it's finished. Soon!

--Barbara