Back to Work

I am working–writing–and it feels good.  Really good.  I’m one hundred pages into my story and there are areas I need to tighten and edit, and other areas I need to build up and flesh out, but its exciting to start understanding the story and feeling the characters come alive.  I am going to be writing a lot, which means long days at my desk, but it actually sounds fun right now.  After the rush-rush of Christmas, I welcome quiet and a chance to really concentrate on what’s at hand.

I kicked off January with a three day writing retreat in Palm Springs with pals Megan Crane, Liza Palmer and Elizabeth Boyle.  The photo below is me at my ‘desk’ outside on the patio, a table I claimed early on as I love working outside in the fresh air.  Over the weekend I did some plotting, wrote nearly 40 pages, and came home inspired to keep up my momentum and keep writing fresh scenes.  One of the cool things we did in Palm Springs was writing sprints.  I’d never done a writing sprint before but it was good for me.  The goal was to write 1,000 words in an hour, and we would do these 2,3, 4 times a day and while I never actually hit 1,000 words, by the time we came home, I was able to write 900 words in an hour.  Liza, Megan and Elizabeth were producing so much faster (1,500 words an hour from Liza!  1,200 from Elizabeth and Megan!) but I learned a lot about how I work and what I need to feel good about me working and momentum is part of that.

The retreat also helped me focus on me and some things I’ve been ignoring for awhile, like my health and my mood and my overall satisfaction with life.   I don’t like talking about it but I have a couple auto-immune things going on and I sometimes just feel crummy and pain’s no fun.  So I’m going to be more honest and realistic about what is, and what isn’t, and what I can do about it, and if I eat better, and get more sleep and more exercise I know I will feel better.  So I have to do it.  But with joy.   My goal for 2012 is to seize life– to throw myself into the middle of it, and savor it–all of.  Messy juicy exciting life.

What about you?  Anything you want or need?  Any resolutions you made, big or small?  Tell me!  I’ve got 4 New Years Resolution prizes here waiting to be won.  Share with me in the comment section and you have a chance to win one of them.  Contest runs through Saturday night and I’ll announce the 4 winners on Sunday.  Good luck and here’s to a brilliant new year and lots more messy juicy exciting life!