Rory Ni Coileain

Writer’s block is, as I’m sure every reader of this blog will be more than happy to acknowledge, hell. I’m setting up a fund to cover my Muse’s chocolate habit, and praying that it DOESN’T actually take a guy playing the Scottish war pipes in a small crowded bar to break through the worst of the block. (More on that in another post, p’raps…) I was up until almost two this morning, stubbornly insisting on making at least half of a day’s word quota for NaNoWriMo, then up at 6:15. Caribou Coffee is my new best friend, and their dark chocolate latte is earning someone somewhere a crown in Heaven…

In the meantime, my alter ego, changeling Fae Ruaraidh Collins, took third place in the recent RP Olympics on Facebook, with an erotica short story that ended up being the genesis of Hard as Stone. I’m going to try several ways to post a link to the story here; God only knows which way is eventually going to work. Here’s the bare nekkid link; then I’ll try that cute little “links” button and see what it does. If all else fails, I’ll wait till my 15-year-old gets home from school and ask HIM what to do. 😛

http://www.facebook.com/notes/alli-cassatta/rp-olympics-bronze-winner-ruaraidh-collins-erotica/178164472273249

Okay, so I’m not keeping up. But I’m still writing more, faster, and arguably better than I have in a very long time… I think this is good for me. And I’m not going to feel any guiltier than I must about the word count. (Those of you who have decided to nag me about word count may take this as a challenge, if you like — my personal take on it is somewhat different. Imagine totally innocent smile here.)

For one thing, I’m discovering that the pressure to produce word count is weaning me off my dependency on hand-writing my first drafts. Which is kind of a good thing, except that it means I’m not getting anything accomplished on a day like today. ‘Cause the next couple of scenes are melt-your-monitor hot, and I don’t really want to make our I.T. department’s day… Anyone else have this issue about workplace writing? And is there some ingenious end-around that I’m just not familiar with? I’ve been posting new material on my Facebook page and then copying it to my home computer from there, without needing to save to my work ‘puter at all… but I’ve been hearing noises that Facebook is claiming ownership of all content posted on it. The lawyer in me says that’s just not possible, but just because something’s not possible doesn’t mean FB won’t at least try it…

I was in my Happy Place this afternoon…got my bedroom “office” all set up, the first place in 17 years that’s ALL MINE to do my writing in (well, all mine except when my son gets lonesome ’cause Mom’s not out in the recliner with her netbook on her lap desk and comes wandering in to see what’s doin’…) Just started working on making that NaNoWriMo quota…and the phone rings, and it’s my bank, telling me that someone’s tried to charge over $600 to my debit card online. So the rest of the night goes to trying to file police reports and get the arse of the guy who stole my card number fired…not exactly the best place to be trying to write erotica from!

…and yet oddly exhilarated. *chuckling* I made quota today. Exceeded it by a little, actually. I’m just over 4300 words. That feels like a lot, yet it’s not even ten percent of the way to the goal.

It’s funny. NaNoWriMo, and the contest I’m involved in on Facebook right now, are pretty much devouring what little time and energy and attention I have left after work and parenting… and yet they’re such a tiny fraction of what’s going on out there in the publishing world. Anyone else out there old enough to remember the original Cosmos? With Carl Sagan and his billyuns and billyuns of galaxies? You’d look at one part of the sky, and that was so complicated and beautiful that it would break your heart…and then the camera would pull back, and you’d see that that had been just one small part of a whole unimaginable galaxy. And then when you’d almost gotten that, back the camera would go again, and presto! — there was the Local Group. And then again…and again. Yeah. It’s kind of like that…

I figured out how to post, and then immediately forgot. 20 lashes with the virtual wet noodle for me…

I put up my first day’s NaNoWriMo output on a page here headed “Day One”. I THOUGHT I was putting it under the general NaNoWriMo page, but damifi can find it anywhere on here. Maybe I should offer some kind of authorly prize to the first person who can figure out what I actually did with it?

You know, if anyone would be interested in engaging on the subject of “Writing: Craft vs. Mechanics”, I’d love to chat. I’m still comparatively new to the world of e-writing — I’ve mentioned to a few people that I still do rough drafts in longhand, I just don’t feel as creative when I sit down at the computer. Which is slowing down the NaNoWriMo process for me considerably, since I essentially have to write everything twice, but there you have it. And my creative writing degree goes back to 1982, which was the last time, until this latest burst of creativity, that I seriously tried to do anything with my writing. Let’s just say that the literary landscape looks REALLY different now than it did then. Frankly, I find the prospect of needing “author pages” and a blog and probably God help me a Twitter account, all before I even TRY to pitch a manuscript, extremely daunting. And not all that relevant to the actual writing experience. Am I the only literary Luddite out there? Talk to me…