Saturday, December 10, 2011

Writing through tough times, Part II

The world is a funny place - both funny ha-ha, and funny peculiar. In this case it's the peculiar part that I'm addressing. (Ever notice that the last half of peculiar is Liar? Hmmmm.)

Anyway, the job hunt has taken a very fast and very interesting side road. And it happened lots faster than I expected. I got a job. Boom! Just like that. Well, with a lot of help from my friends. It helps to have friends. As Malcolm Gladwell said in his book THE TIPPING POINT, connections to other people are often the way to success. Or something like that.

Bottom line, I'm now an official Consultant. For a small company that wants to do business with the Federal Government. And I start on Monday!

Which brings me around to the writing thing again. Remember in my last blog I mentioned having all this free time to write? Well, it seems that the universe had other ideas and I'm back to writing at night and in the wee hours of the morning. Which is more like scheduling meetings than just sauntering over to your computer with a mug of coffee or tea any old time you feel the urge to whip off a few quick paragraphs. No, it's more like work. In fact, it is work. Writers who produce pages a day and a book in 4 months, have to write every day, whether they're in the mood or not. Butt in chair, hands on keyboard (or pencil/pen in hand and paper at the ready) and then WRITE.

A colleague once told me not to worry if what I was writing was crap, just get the words on the screen. You can always go back and edit. Interestingly, the mere act of putting words into sentences tends to wake up the old creative muse and once the juices are flowing, well, good things happen.

So, new job. The cats are happy; now they don't have to go on a diet. I'll continue to write. I may not get to 10K words a day, but I might make it to 1K.

(If you haven't read any of Gladwell's books - THE TIPPING POINT, OUTLIERS, and BLINK - I would recommend them. Interesting, and different, ways of looking at the world.)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Writing through tough times

Auspicious happenings this week at Langley Chase Central.

First, a confession: I have a "real" job that supports my writing habit! (As soon as I hit the NYT Best Seller List, maybe I can retire, but not yet) As a consequence, I am subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the business community which, this past week, included being part of a rather massive lay-off at the company that, until Monday, employed me.

Surprisingly, I'm not overly upset about this. Yes, I know the economy is struggling and yes, I know it's difficult finding a job, but here in the Washington D.C. area, it's slightly easier. If I had a clearance, like my character Connie does, I could walk into just about any of the large government contractors and they'd snap me up. Unfortunately, I don't.

I do have a finely developed set of skills, however, and I should be re-employed before the end of the year. That's the plan.

But, what to do in the mean time?

Write, of course! It's a gift, having time, uninterrupted (except for interviews!) time to write. A couple of months ago, I tried the writer's equivalent of a 10K race - 10K words in a weekend. If I were in a particularly creative mood, I could make that 10K words in a day. Ten thousand words is a lot. While there is no typical output for authors, mine averages a couple of hundred words at a session. To keep writing for 10,000 words - that's HUGE!

And, that's what I'll be doing in between interviews. That and cleaning my house thoroughly. Write a little, clean a little, write a little, clean a little. It's got a nice rhythm. And the new mystery will be done in no time.

(A quick reminder. The contest to win a $10 Gift certificate to Amazon is over on Dec. 10 - keep those registrations coming! You can enter at www.langleychase.com simply by signing up for the newsletter. Come on, you know you want to. Just do it.)