Garden of Thought

Why oh why does my ability to write hinge on whether or not someone is watching me? The horrible and inconvenient Power of the Eyeballs freezes my muse like a deer in the headlights, even if the person possessing the Eyeballs is not of the critical nature, or sometimes even really paying attention. Perhaps I need a hermitage in the hills just so I can finally finish all of my WIPs.

How do you deal with the Stare of Doom when trying to write?

Hugs and thank yous to all who expressed their support - my hubby is safely home now and recuperating nicely on the recliner with his laptop and blankets, so far so good. Nice to have him home and looking much better. Now we just have to convince the cat to not knead any sore spots.

One nice bonus that came out of all that hanging around the hospital twiddling my thumbs was getting my calufrax recommendations for next week pretty much written out, which had been threatening to become something I was going to regret signing up for because I was wondering when I would have a chance to do them - now I get to look forward to next week happily instead as they are nearly ready to roll. All I have to do is hope whomever is doing this week doesn't snag any of 'mine'. Going to doublecheck that, I THEN found out one of my own stories was rec'd there this past week, the TARDIS-centric Knowing Her Place, which is enough happy-writer-review-rocket-juice to keep me floating for some time. ^_^ With little starbursts and rainbows!

Spent the evening writing a Three-n-Jo adventure thing, but I don't really know why... now it's a four-page fragment with no story to go with it, so one more thing on the back burner. But darnit, it was fun. I guess that's why! Maybe I can park it inside one of my other WIPs. Sorry I missed this fic_rush, I hope everyone had a good time.

Heads up to any and all writers of any and all fanfic, no matter what your fandom - fic_rush will be this weekend, April 9th and 10th! How the time flies - this is 48 hours of writing just as much as you can manage - no deadlines, no quotas, no pressure but what you choose to place upon yourself - I've really enjoyed the great hourly chatter with others who are going through the same creative wringer and muse-poking processes at the same time. (lolmac? lothithil? curuchamion? lost_spook? jjpor? dbskyler? etc. etc.?? Hey, how about you, spicy_rejoinder? And you over there, stellastars? And....and?)

All are welcome - Do join us!

:-)

I have a very pushy Muse at times - just finished not one but TWO stories and got them posted, thinking "ahhh... freedom! just in time for yard work and spring planting!" but NooOOOoooo, she just had to cook up not one but TWO more stories for me to be hounded by on top of an older WIP I had been hoping to peck away at. Egads. As if Three wasn't bad enough, now I've Two and Four after me! Halp!

*disappears, flailing under a pile of untyped words*

But hey! At least my yard looks good - I've a sea of daffodils and muscari and the tulips are coming up already as well as the trees blooming! What a lovely Easter it will be this year. I get to spend this Sunday helping with our children's egg-hunt event at the church by being a face-painter, then there's our Maundy Thursday service, plus I'm in charge of baskets of flowers to hand out Easter morning. Good thing I have a lot of daffys, makes it indisputably cheaper.

What are you planning for this Easter season? Anything special?

Time for a writing update!

Finally posted the last chapter for The Eggs of Destruction, what a relief it always is to set a story out there, releasing it upon the waves of fic to let it sail. Here's a link to the chapter list at my archive, Written Leaves, or you can just go straight to Teaspoon if you prefer.

Now to polish up my Three and Jo honey and fluff tale, Sweetest that I started as a short vignette for Valentine's Day... six chapters later I've finally reined it in. Very different from the adventure episode that preceded it, very fluffy and coming up soon!

Then if I can wrangle the last three chapters, maybe I'll finally finish my other longer WIP that hooks into my Custom Vehicle series. Hoping the round of fic_rush coming up will help me through some of that tangle.

Meanwhile over at Beyond the Farthings we're on a six-line Welsh stanza form, the Clogyrnach and I'm apparently writing about plums.

Many thanks to everyone who has read, will read or even just politely intended to get around to it, any and all encouragement is (as always) much appreciated and does much to keep the peckish Muse fed.

I just wanted to say a thank you to studyofrunning for her oversight of the 48-hour fic_rush event, and to curuchamion for posting about it - I managed to keep the momentum (what there was of it) going and finished a long-stuck chapter at last. Aaaah. Now to see if the Muse-mobile can get over the hill and hopefully start coasting on its own for a while again, I've still three more chapters to go to wrap this one up.

*swats at another short story flitting around the ears* - nooo, not another one! wait, wait! - it never rains but it pours. *rolls eyes*

Hoping writers block isn't still being too much of a problem for the rest of you.

I was grocery shopping and ran into a lady we used to go to church with/visit/etc. about ten years back but haven't seen much since - don't you hate it when you get that "So, what are you up to? What do you do?" question?

At least I do. I am abruptly and painfully aware of my lack of Social Occupation Status.

I am currently in the unusual situation (for this day and age) of being what might be termed a 'housewife'... This means I run around trying to keep up with caring for our property and taking care of my family, force my kids to do their homework, do the paperwork, sell random stuff online on the side, write stories the Typical Person I Know can't relate to, sing, volunteer in assorted places that don't pay me and keep up my reduced library duties at our church/preschool. All of which notably do not generate titles or money.

She tells me perkily about how she goes into jails as a chaplain and plays the piano for a local Iranian church while also working. You know - like REALLY working... I mean, the kind someone gives you money for and that you can't beg off from if you're having a bad day.

I say "Er...I, um... I write...(mumble)..."

"Are you still working in that library?"

"Uh, well, yes, though it's smaller now...I take care of my yard..."

"Oh - do you put up any produce from it?"

(relieved) "Yes! Yes I do, I just did applesauce and jam. And we have a ton of grape juice steamed out for the freezer." She nods approvingly. (whew! saved by my fruit! I am a Productive Human Being after all!! Proof I do not just sit around doodling drabbles and picking lint off of socks!)

On the up side, she REALLY wanted some of my grape juice and will be coming by to fetch some from my overfull supply, and she is a nice person, so aside from all that it was a good chance meeting, and I'm less awkward when I can *show* them something instead of trying to describe it.

I'm busy ploughing my way through my Tolkien poems, posting them to the new 'master list' project at written_leaves in sets or occasionally alone. Thank goodness at some point in the past I started keeping a list of all my poems in the order of the story they are illustrating, it's proved invaluable as I go along.
( More, mostly to keep myself updated )

No wonder I gave up on hand-copying them into a journal a while back. Onward!

Also made a batch of gingerbread dough today to try my hand at sculpting something for our Tolkien-themed Gingerbread Contest this year, yum... hard to leave the dough alone, I love gingerbread.

I've noted a few folks here have cobbled up a 'Master List' with links to all of their fics, and while I've enjoyed clicking around on them I really can't decide if it's worth the time and effort to do one myself. I mean, well - first of all there's so darn much of it and it would take a bit of doing... and secondly isn't it well enough served via the author searches at ff.net, Stories of Arda and Teaspoon? Hm.

Am I just contemplating giving up several hours to reinvent the wheel?

Those of you with lists for your fic, have you found them to be useful? Or was it 'meh, whatever' in the long run?

Yoinked from clocketpatch and curuchamion - because out of the onslaught of memes drifting past on every side this week, it's the one that I succumbed to. I think it's that randomness factor...

Describe three fics you think I will never, ever, ever write. In return (and if inspired), I will attempt to write a snippet of one of them.

For the record: I've published fic for Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings plus the obscure "Boo" books by Rene Gutteridge, with a snatch of dabbling in Star Trek TOS and Gilligan's Island. I'd be willing to attempt the Scarlet Pimpernel, All Creatures Great and Small and the original Get Smart as well, so I would add them to the table for seasoning.

No idea how long it would take me to tackle any that look intriguing, but I'm willing to try.