NanciK

What a lot of crap my life seems to have gathered through it’s own momentum, like a snowball rolling downhill. Somewhere in that frozen mass is the core of my life, and if I have enough self discipline and focus of purpose I can chip my way back in to it.

Self discipline begins for me by creating routines. So I created lists for daily tasks, scheduling time each day for things I want and need to devote myself to, which includes further organizing tasks. I have been making other lists prioritizing tasks and projects, and creating master lists for things like inventories, the first aid kits, menus, and camping gear. I am filing them electronically and in hard copy so I can always access them and they should save me time figuring out what we need, what we have, what to pack or cook etc.

I have cleaned out my computer some and still have lots more to go. I have not begun to tackle the paper filing yet, but I cleaned out the drawers of my computer desk and got together a bag of old cables and components to get rid of. It seemed logical, since I made a commitment to myself to get more organized here on 43 things, at the computer, to start with the space I was in when I made that commitment, the computer desk. I even tested each pen and got rid of duds, and streamlined the notes on my small cork board at this desk as well.

Having kids means I tend to start on one task and have to move to another when I am only partially done, as I have to change rooms or activities to tend to the kids. I think this will have to be acceptable to me as long as the tasks do eventually get done and I try to focus on one task in each room at a time until it’s done.

And so it goes.

I’ve been working on structure for my amorphous fantasy novel. I have a basic story idea and some of the details, but I am trying to create something that can avoid a lot of the common downfalls and mistakes of “bad” and “rehash” fantasy fiction. I don’t want to write a loner/misfit/lost heir goes on a quest and saves the world from the supreme evil bad guy novel. I want to write something original, personally meaningful to me, and relevent to our times on a personal as well as cultural level, in terms of modern western culture. Yet I still want it to have appeal to a fantasy reading audience, something they can identify with and which will fulfill the escapist aims for which fantasy is read. I feel that I cannot move forward with story development until I know roughly where I am going, even if that goal changes in the writing later.

I am trying not to be too idealistic and set unattainable lofty goals for myself, nor see myself as some great philosopher of our age or a literary great. I don’t see myself so at all, and so therefor do not expect to create something truly profound and earth shaking. I just want to write a good book.

I could not sleep this morning, so I rose early and wrote for two more hours, finished the first draft of my prologue and launched right into the story. I also did more working out of plot and character details in notes and in my head. I have the premise, the major conflict, some ancillary conflicts, the main characters and some of their background, personality and looks, some character motivation and the beginnings of relationships between them. It’s writing itself mostly, as things seem inevitable. A leads to B, and on to C. Hopefully it will not read as predictably to those who do not have the story already being told in their head like me. But now is the time for just getting it out, not rethinking and revising. That comes later.