This week, Rain Dog is on school vacation at our house. School vacation, as for most families, is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, he’s available, so I should be able to get more work accomplished. On the other, he has his own expectations for his time.
In the past we’ve clashed, but by now I think we’ve learned how to work around each other. Still, I get about as much accomplished as I do during a typical week! The only difference is, I get out and about a bit more, which is actually preferable for me.
As for how it’s going this week: I’m still a little behind on my novella, but that’s as much because of the time I lost with the power outage as with the change in routine. I also had a few freelance projects come in at the last minute, and they all have “urgent” markers on them. Much as I’d like to ignore them and take my own little “vacation” (in which I write nothing but fiction), that would be irresponsible–and since I’m considering expanding my freelance business, I really need to be more responsive to this kind of work.
Meanwhile, I found an early draft of the short story that spawned the novella, which makes me happy because it contains a lot of backstory that I didn’t feel right about deleting. Now I realize that I must have had a sense about this story that I didn’t fully understand until now, and I’m so happy I listened to it!
I’ve been promised a day in which I can sit in a coffee shop and work in peace, so hopefully I’ll be able to bring together the various threads I’ve been contemplating and really pull the trigger on this story–and get back on track.
Studio Mothers: Life & Art 