My Hair is Bluuuue!

So...my hair is bluuuue! And like all good things it happened sometime around midnight at the response of 3 days spent locked in the Writertorium on the floor (don't ask me why I edit best on all fours) with a box of animal crackers, bottle of ice water, a fan on low to drown out "distractions," and a first, er, rough draft.

Was the dye job reward for working my authorly magic on the draft and molding it into a tastey second draft treat in under a week? ...No. But writing is hard, and sometimes a little encouragement is needed to forge ahead. This particular brand of encouragement can be credited to The Mockingbirds author extraordinaire, Daisy Whitney when she tweeted a pic of her pink hair. I've been talking about dying my hair blue (according to my mom) since I was 4-years-old, and seeing Daisy take the follicle plunge I thought to myself, self, it's about time you stop stalling by saying you'll go blue when you get published and realize going blue might be the edge you need to get published! (Okay, I realized that is twisty, midnight logic, but it was convincing.) Plus now that my crazy's on the outside, people can stop giving me that look when I start talking.

So, what do you think? Has anyone else made a decision so bad it turned out good?

B*

Killin' My Darlings

Drum roll please...I am finally moved in to my new house and new Writertorium! I have to say that I miss the wood floors in Writertorium Uno and Number Two is significantly smaller, but it exists with functioning internet and a desk with all it's legs screwed on and everything. (Although there was a tragic loss of keyboard tray that I don't feel comfortable talking about.) This, of course, means I'm back to escaping reality on a daily basis i.e. writing.

 

(Loveseat not included in joy jumping. Disclaimer: New Writertorium is too small for my "thinking couch". It now sadly resides in the basement.)

Evidently stifling my creative flow for three odd weeks with signing and resigning a bagillion documents three different times for two different companies (how does that make sense?) and having to pack and unpack and paint and budget for a new furnace (gah!) has brought upon some revelations. 1) Reality sucks. But we already knew this. 2) I'm a shell of a human (and a ton more cranky) when I'm not writing. 3) Taking a couple weeks to gel after one finishes a first draft is equal parts painful and helpful.

I've read it a hundred times in countless writing craft books that you should "Let it cool" and "Do something else" after you complete your first draft. I've never been able to do this. I have this freakish interior motivator that tells me if I'm not writing daily I'm wasting time and thus any potential success I may have in the future. Real rational, huh?

Now that I've been forced into letting my first draft cool, I'm sing a lively chorus of "Killin' my darlings, killin' my darlings, killin' my darlings all the time..." (which is in reference to a William Faulkner quote if you got confused by my sing-a-long lyrics.) I am typing away (sans keyboard tray), changing my male lead, onioning out minor characters (my totally professional way of saying character development) and basically starting from crumbs for the second draft of my new project that you will have to be patient to hear about in lieu of previously mentioned massive rewrites. All this wreckage and reconstruction is making me a little...giddy, actually. I missed writing so much that I must get back to it. Now!

B*