Au revoir

So, I'm going to be taking a little blogging break (and a little writing break) for the next three weeks or so, because I'm flying to California tomorrow for my wedding! I will miss you all, but will hopefully be checking in a few times over the course of our vacation, just to remind you that I still exist.

I'll leave you with this amazing poem I discovered a few weeks back when an old high school classmate posted it on facebook. I know it's an odd choice considering that I'm getting married in a week and a half, but I think it's got some beautiful and true things to say about being alone:

Happy writing, and I'll see you in a few weeks!

My thoughts about Harry

Last Saturday Big Chimp and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. 

We chose the time carefully—we didn't want to be tired, or distracted about going to work the next day. We paid extra to go to an 18-and-over screening to avoid loud kids. We ate beforehand and bought water bottles and candy to keep us going throughout the film. I used the restroom at the last possible minute—after the commercials had finished and the movie trailers had started. We had our earplugs ready in pockets (we use them to protect our ears during loud scenes). I had on my freshly ironed Harry Potter T-shirt (Comic Con 2010). In short, we were thoroughly prepared.

The reason for all this preparation is simple: I love Harry Potter, and I wanted the experience of watching the last film to be perfect. Of course, I needn't have bothered with all the preparation; from the first scene to the close of the epilogue, I was lost in the story. I have no problem in admitting that I was in tears a couple of times (I was prepared for this; I cried while reading the book, too).

The Harry Potter films can never be what the books are for me—in fact I don't think any film could be what a novel is for me—but that didn't stop me from loving this film. Sure, they changed some things, but I thought it worked well; I don't think it's possible to be entirely true to a book in a film adaptation anyway, because books and films are such different things. One of my co-workers warned me not to get my hopes up for the movie as it was bound to disappoint. But I didn't find that at all. It was everything the trailers promised: it was visually beautiful, full of action and excitement, dark but with touches of humor here and there to keep it from being too bleak.

Balancing writing with your day job

Today has been a really good writing day for me. The words have just been flowing steadily for a few hours now. I may have mentioned that I'm rewriting most of the first half of Water Magic. I'm now 18,350 words into the rewrite, and it's looking really good—way, way better than my rough draft. And I seem to have reached a balance between my household tasks—running to the grocery store, tidying up, exercise, laundry, cooking, wedding planning—and my writing time.

Problem is, not every day is like that. There's this thing that gets in the way—I call it my "day job." And as far as day jobs go, it's not so bad. I work in a library, hanging out with the books and the people who like books and the people who need me to help them find books. Which is cool. But when I spend a full day at work, including the 45-60 minutes of travel each way to get there and home, I'm really, really tired! So tired that sometimes when I finally get home and settle down on the couch, I open my WIP and just stare at the screen for ages, trying to will my brain to think of something clever for the dragon-speaker to say (or the sorceress, or the brownie, or the water spirit). And sometimes I can't do it. I'm just too exhausted. And that makes me feel pretty bad. After all, everyone knows that writers are meant to write every day. One of my favorite authors once told me that in person.

So I've been trying to think of ways I can keep to the "write every day" rule even on days when I'm working, or just have a lot of things to do. Susan Sipal from Harry Potter for Writers (an amazing blog that you should be reading if you love Harry Potter, especially if you're a fantasy writer) suggested getting up an hour early and getting some writing done in the morning before work. I think that's a good idea, but with my level of sleepiness in the mornings I'm doubtful that I could stick with it. Another idea I had was to take my writing notebook to work with me, and outline/work on the chapter I'm focusing on that week during my lunch hour. I normally reserve that time for reading, but I could read when I get home instead.

I don't know. Do the rest of you writers struggle to find a balance between writing and other commitments? What time management strategies work best for you? I'm going to be searching for a second job at the end of the summer, which will make my schedule even fuller, so I'm in desperate need of advice!

A shed of one's own

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." —Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929

I love when authors and aspiring authors post photos of their writing spaces. There's just something fascinating about seeing the places where other people do the same thing I do every day.

I've been wanting to do a "writing space" post for a while now, but until we moved into our bungalow last January, Big Chimp and I were living with his parents. It was a comfortable enough set-up, but my writing space was limited to a corner of the bed in our bedroom. However, after the move, I found myself lucky enough to have an entire room dedicated to writing: