I Haz Furnishings

I mentioned, in my only blog last week (because I was really, really tired) that I traveled up to the Panhandle to supervising the packing and loading of the vast majority of our furniture so we could bring it to the Island where we now live. It is a VERY long way from the Texas coast to the panhandle and back again. Took a long time to drive it.

But we did–took out most of a week with no writing or even thinking about the book–and now all our stuff is Here, and I have to figure out where to put it. ACK!

The spouse is laying claim to the boy’s book space, so now I have nowhere to put the boy’s books.

There is Stuff all along one side of the kitchen counter, but we do have all the boxes out of the kitchen now. They are all in the den. Where we do a lot of our living.

I told the packers NOT to pack ANYTHING on the bed we weren’t moving–and I carefully put my new teddy bear (because the stuffed whale I had been sleeping with had lost all the felt on his mouth in the past five years of life with me) in the middle of the bed so he wouldn’t get packed…

And they carefully packed not only Marvin the Bear, but the one red throw pillow I’d deliberately put in the middle of all the gold matchy-matchy “set” pillows to make it not quite so matchy-matchy. I still have not found Marvin. But I did find Balou the bear (yes, the one from Disney’s Jungle Book) so all is not lost. I have a bear to sleep with. (Some people hug pillows. I find bears (or killer whales) much more amenable for sleeping.)

So now, we have a little furniture left in the house we still own (I do miss that house…) to camp out in when we go up that way, instead of camping out here where we spend most of our time. The fella is Very Happy to have his recliner back.

I have re-discovered that I really cannot do Anything before I start writing in the morning. I tried to empty a box yesterday, and discovered books. They were books I’d had on my keeper shelf–and I couldn’t remember if I still wanted to keep them. So I opened one of them to skim, and wound up spending the rest of the morning reading them. My mother says I just have no will power. And yes, this is true. Hence, the need to start writing first, before doing other stuff that will suck me into the Not Writing.

I can’t read e-mails either. Or look stuff up on the internet. Nor should I hunt for stuff in research books, though I’m a little better about stopping that and getting back into the writing. I can, however, clean the kitchen, or bathrooms, or do laundry, or any of a hundred other household tasks, because Those Things aren’t Fun. (Had to pick up a dead roach this a.m. Ick.) I sorta have to make myself to those things before writing, because they are SO not fun. I have to research house cleaning services on the island…

That said, I have had to go back and do a LOT of tweaking, because I wrote stuff before I figured out how the process worked of transferring a murder investigation from the Ordinary Police to the Magic Police, and because I realized my hero would rather do pretty much anything–except let a murderer get away–before asking his father for assistance. So I had to go back and make everything make sense.

I know there are many, many people who claim that one should Just Write the first draft, and go back and fix things After the whole draft is finished. And to a certain extent, I do that.

“But–But—” you are saying, “But you just Said you had to go back and tweak. That’s not writing straight through.”

No, it isn’t. Because 1. I am NOT a multiple draft writer. I Hate writing the same stuff again and again and again. By the time I write stuff out in longhand, and then put it in the computer, it’s pretty clean. Rarely do I add things–like emotion or description–when I type story in. Mostly, I cut stuff out. That’s not the same as “layering” in things on subsequent drafts. And 2. I’m a linear writer. Not a plotter, not a pantser. I have to write from beginning to end, and I build on what I’ve written before. So if my hero’s not motivated correctly–if he tells the heroine to do the right thing for the wrong reason, then I really can’t keep going. Or if I have things out of order, I can’t keep going.

That was part of my problem this time. I had to move some things later, and bring some things earlier, and if I don’t do it NOW, when I know how things have to work, I’m not going to remember what I intended/needed to do when I come back to it later, no matter how many notes I write to myself. It’s just too big a problem to save till later.

I realized a while ago that I’m having problems because I’m still figuring out how the magic works. I’m also having to figure out how magic fits into Victorian society…and it keeps slowing me up. The story is working, but it’s just coming slow because I keep having to figure stuff out. But it IS coming. (cracking whip.)