Monday, December 6, 2010

Oh Look, a Shiny!

Today, while our system at work decided to go tits up for a few hours, I rolled around the writers forums skimming for something that might catch my interest. I gravitated towards the research part of the site because sometimes the weirdest stuff comes up in conversation and the answers tend to inspire me. What did I come across today?

Racing thoughts & bipolar disorder

It sucked me in. My mom is bipolar and the first thought I had on reading the title was "I wonder if this happens to my mom?" I read the initial question (what is it like for people that experience it?) and then read the responses, and then...

The more I read it, the more I thought, huh. That happens to me all the time. I thought it was just me having a lot of mental ADD. It didn't occur to me that it might not be normal. It certainly isn't an unpleasant experience for me, not like it's described in those few responses in the thread. I don't go into the negative beating myself up and saying "you suck you suck you suck" over and over in my head. It's more like... well, here, let me see if I can come up with an example.

Back to the original reason I'm blogging: the system at work is down. At that point my first thought was to check email. I got to my email, saw that one of my brainstorming buddies was online but away, and it occurred to me that I could use this time to write. I then jumped to thoughts of using writing programs such as Scrivener, which then made me think of when I was messing with the Beta version of Scrivener on my husband's computer, which then made me remember that there was a bunch of crap I needed him to get done today, so I went back to my email to message him about it. I then went back to the writer's forums, which looped me back in thought to planning my novel, so while I was reading the forums I was also in the back of my head thinking about how I could go about getting back into the mind set of writing as my werewolf Kate (who has been renamed Mallory, but that's another blog topic), and I began to wonder if I should just start retyping the story to get into that frame of mind. (It's first person and I've been out of it a while... I'd need to get back in Kate/Mallory frame of mind.) Then, I remembered when I was writing my NaNo this year that I used a lot of mental ADD in that character to get me through my word count, which then looped me back to the bipolar thread on the writer's forums and I thought, wow, I need to blog about that.

This all happened in a matter of about ten minutes.

Then I went back and checked (because I keep checking) to see if the system was up, and lo, it is still down for the count. At which point my brain then went back to thinking of ways I could revise my story, and I tabbed back over to this blog window to continue blogging.

I don't think you even want to know how long it takes me to actually blog, because the mental zig zagging that has happened during the course of even this one post would probably make you dizzy. And I consider it normal. It happens to me every day.

This statement in particular I found hilariously accurate:

Just a bit to add is that one thought leads to another leads to another and so on. Until the person forgets where they started. Sometimes, the person would have to back track to get to the first thought that started the whole mess.


This happens to me all the time. Occasionally I even have to back track multiple times because I run off on another tangent while I'm back-tracking.

It's why (here comes another zig) that I loved my previous job, and why I am starting to like my current job. I like these jobs that keep me so busy I can hardly think, precisely because they keep me so busy that I can hardly think. It blocks out my ADD. I simply don't have time to get lost in thought all day (and believe me, if I had the time, I would literally be lost in thought all day long). Did this make me a total space cadet growing up? Yes, yes it did. I strongly suspect the reason I became a writer was to organize and record all of my many weird and interesting thoughts. Sometimes it's exhausting having a brain that never quits.

Does this happen to anyone else? Does your brain just go and go and go like some demented Energizer Bunny on crack? I'd be interested to know how many of us writers experience this kind of thing.


Distractedly yours,


~Sass~

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Almost! Almost!

Tomorrow is the Harry Potter madness! So excited!



(Also, sorry for not posting for two weeks. I didn't realize it had been that long between posts. Bad Sass. Bad.)

I'm rolling right along with NaNo. Right around day eleven or so I had a change of heart with my story and took a three day break. It was a good break, because I came out of it and decided that no, I was not going to write this story from the perspective of the snakeshifter. No, I was going to write it through the perspective of one of the very human coworkers of the snake shifter. And not just any human coworker. No! I was going to write this thing through the perspective of the office gossip chick.

Let me tell you, things got interesting.

I did get three days behind in my writing, though, and I'm still working to get caught up from that. Last night I was "only" 4800 words behind. I'm going to try to get back on track by the end of this weekend, and then I'll tackle the holiday when it gets here.

Thanksgiving typically kills my word count. If I'm not ahead of my word count by that Wednesday, I'm generally doomed to miss my 50k goal. We're traveling back to KC again this year (MO side, kthx) to see family and of course we have to hit all three Thanksgiving dinners. But I will make 50k this year. I will. Why?

I want my discount on the Windows Scrivener!

So yeah. Cheer me on. I'm totally making it this year.

To keep in the spirit of Harry Potter-ness, here it is. The Harry Potter cast tries their best at American accents. Enjoy!

'American Talk' With Josh Horowitz And The 'Harry Potter' Cast




~Sass~

Friday, November 5, 2010

Harry Potter and the Movie Marathon

Harry Potter is almost upon us.

I admit to being a complete book nerd (like you haven't figured that out already?). I waited in line to buy each book as it came out (insisting, of course, that I get my own separate copy in addition to my husband's so that we could both read the books at the same time), faithfully saw all of the movies, and of course had to buy them all on DVD. Except for the sixth one, which we somehow still don't own, but I intend to remedy that.

Since I had anticipated not having a job on November 19th when the movie comes out, I planned on going with my whole team to the theater that day to take over an entire row of seats in a midday show. That plan did not change when I got the new job. So guess what I get to do with manager approval? Take the day off and go see the movie. Damn straight.

It's going to be crazy. We're going out to brunch, going to see a 1pm-ish movie, hitting up the happy hour at a nearby bar and grill, and then possibly doing dinner. Yes, I am friends with an entire team of Harry Potter fans. We are awesome. And somewhat insane.

(Yes, we did secure a baby sitter for that day. I am so not bringing our little bundle of teething cuteness into a theater.)



Of course we have to prepare for the 7th movies by watching the first six. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit in that many movie watching hours with a finite number of free weeknights and weekend hours available, but I think we can pull it off.

Anyone have an extra scarf? :)




~Sass~

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Cold Hearted Snake

Snakeshifters. Yes, there, I said it. I have snakeshifters in my NaNo this year. The awesomeness that is reptilian were-form has me trying to think up all kinds of great battle scenes for later in the story. Although, typical to NaNo, I haven't quite figured out who my bad guys are yet. I've simply referred to them as... THEM. In capital letters. It's my flag to go back and change the reference once I know their identities. I can't tell you how jerky it is to read through a paragraph and see "THEM"... "THEY"... "THEM"... "THEIR," but oh well. It's all part of the fun.



I am a little behind, though. As my husband put it, our 7 month old "thinks sleep is for the weak," and by that I mean as of last weekend he's been waking up crying multiple times a night. I don't know if he's teething again or what. Since it's super dry here we started running a humidifier in his room. That helps some but he's still waking up way more than he should, and it's making my brain short circuit. Hard to stay up late and meet that word goal when I suddenly cease to function after about 7:30.

I'm most of the way through season 2 of Weeds, though. That show is freaking hilarious.

We have a new plan to tackle our lagging word counts tomorrow. Multiple birthday parties and game nights shall not interfere with snakey NaNo goodness!

Monday, November 1, 2010

A JOB I HAS ONE



Much happiness. I'm still gainfully employed as of 9am this morning when I accepted an internal position. Made my Monday a lot better, let me tell you.

Don't forget - it's the first day of NaNo! Join in the craziness! I mean, come on, I got my husband to do it, and he's never written a sentence of fiction in his life. If nothing else, make it your goal to beat him. :)

Those of you already doing it, what are your first lines? Here is mine in all of its silly glory:

"What do you mean, you 'lost your tail'? How do you lose an entire appendage?"

I have no idea where I'm going with it, but that's half the fun!

So how was your Monday?




~Sass~

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Waiting Game

For those that don't know, I've been laid off and my last day at work is November 16th. I've been applying to various jobs and interviewing like crazy... which has led me to one conclusion.

It isn't the applications or the interviews that are the stressful part of job hunting. The stressful part is the waiting.

To be honest, the first couple of rejections smarted a little bit. I haven't had to interview for a job since I worked in retail (temp agencies and promotions are freaking awesome, btw) so getting those first form emails or phone calls saying "we picked someone better than you!" is a little damaging to one's pride. Worse than that, however, is when I hear nothing at all. "We should have a decision by the end of the week"... and then two weeks later I have to assume they didn't like me. I actually feel that's worse than outright rejecting me, because then I'm left to wonder what went wrong.

Just tell me so I can move on!

I understand why some recruiters / companies skip the rejection phone call all together, but it is a little rude, and it does reflect badly on the company. Avoiding confrontation by avoiding contact altogether? I would rather get a form rejection.

Anyway, back on point, there are two positions I'm waiting to hear about. Both are internal. Both are trying to make their decision by the end of the week. What has this done to my nerves?



So yeah. Until I hear back about either of these positions, I'm going to be a little scatter-brained.


Quote of the day (courtesy of Despair.com):

Excuses - "If you keep asking others to give you the benefit of the doubt, they'll eventually start to doubt your benefit."



~Sass~

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Hi, How's It Going?

Wow. It's almost been a year since my last blog post. It's like I've been busy or something.

< ~~ (Totally his fault.)

I've decided that I took way too long of a break from writing and I need to get my ass back in gear. I miss it. It misses me. But you'll have to excuse the first few posts because woah I'm rusty and this isn't as easy as it used to be. Stuff no longer flies from my fingertips like... like...

Well, see, there you go. I can't even do a simple simile anymore! Aaahhh!

I'm not going easy on myself, though. Jumping right back into NaNo again this year to make sure I can hit the ground running with some of the ideas I have fighting for life in the accumulated mommy slush that is my brain. After taking a two year break (!) from my wolf story I went back and read it and got excited all over again. Need to spruce up the ending, work on some consistency issues, and get that puppy submitted. That's it. I'm doing it this year. (ooo, look, I accidentally made a pun!)

In the mean time, to keep you all entertained, witness the frightening glory that is Germany's Got Talent:





~Sass~