Stealing Time

It's been a strange, wonderful day. The writing went well this morning--I worked for about four hours and cranked out about 3,000 words. I know I can get out 2,000 words an hour when I'm in a go-for-broke, write-down-anything-that-pops-into-my-head gear (as I was for the entirety of the NaNoWriMo competition), but right now I'm revising original material so it takes a lot longer. I'll be revising, splicing together the scenes from the two NaNoWriMo efforts, and writing new material, so the count is going to be jumpy. I think I've settled on the idea of spending at least four hours a day on this, if not six. My ideal is to get up at 5am (the same time I rose for my 7am class this past semester), get writing by 6, and work until noon on the novel. Today I got a bit of a late start, but it still went well, and was probably a good chance to ease myself into the process.

The time issue is one that threw me off today. Whenever I was writing for NaNoWriMo, I was always stealing time from grading, or other menial work for school, or shirking some responsibility at home. My brain and my heart still haven't adjusted to thinking this is really, truly, time to write, and that I don't have to feel guilty for doing it. Ideally I'll settle in to feeling like this really is my job and not just a guilty pleasure soon. (Though I wouldn't mind feeling like it was a guilty pleasure all the time...)

It was fascinating to immerse myself in Leaf's world again. (For those outside of the loop, Leaf is the main character of the novel I'm working on.) I was worried it might be dry after more than a month without working poking at it, and even longer since the serious work last November, but it all came back and I was there. I've found I have to kind of sink into the world and let it percolate to get the writing going well. I'm still working on really getting a unique feel for the setting, but that's coming along.

One last note before I head home: I'm writing this from The Bus Stop, a coffee shop in Running Springs (for those in the know, it's where the old Manic Man coffee shop was, and whatever other name it had before that). I'd been putting off coming here, sticking with my standby, the Grounds for Enjoyment shop on Highland Ave. at the bottom of the mountain. I am sorry, now, I didn't come here earlier. It's terrifically cute (I'm at a wee table next to a paisly overstuffed couch with a little cast-iron stove behind me), the staff is tremendously friendly (and said they didn't mind at all that I would be parked here for hours every day, as long as I mentioned them in the acknowledgements of the book), the coffee is great, and the wireless is free. Plus a few folk from our bible study come here for a "gospel jam" open-mic session every Sunday night. If you're local, come give these folks your business.