Not Writing--Baking Cookies

Today is my daughter's eleventh birthday, and, as we've done for the last eight years (except for last year, since we moved out of our house the day before her birthday), we have invited kids over for a Cookie Decorating Party.

Honestly, if you have a child with a birthday near any major holiday, this is a great idea. Bake a bunch of sugar and gingerbread cookies (I make the gingerbread ones with whole wheat flour), whip up some bowls of frosting in various candy colors, fill a few more bowls or shakers with various kinds of sprinkles,  and voila! You've a bona fide cookie party.

Even better, party games, goody bags, and other time fillers are completely unnecessary. Kids will decorate cookies for hours without getting tired, especially if they eat while they decorate. And a few gift boxes will make it easy for the kids to take home cookies for all their relatives, effectively removing the cookies from your home.

It's all win-win. Except for one thing: I'm not writing.

I'd laugh about this... but I can't. I find it distressing. And my distress makes me feel guilty, for I shouldn't resent this birthday taking writing time. Ugh.

I'm putting my smily face on now. Then I'm off to bake. Tomorrow, I write.

Getting Organized

As my post on my other blog details, I've been busy writing, running around, wrapping presents, decorating, baking, and doing a lot of other junk.

Very soon, though, this blog will rev back to life in ways it never has. I have big plans for it, and hopes and dreams, almost as big as those for my novels and plays. I will keep you posted, so look for me in a week or two!

(And thanks for being so patient with me!)

Wallowing in Mud

The frenzy of NaNoWriMo is over, and I'm, naturally, sick with a cold. But I won.

Yes, I WON!!!

Don't get your panties too much in a wad with excitement for me, though. I'm still writing on the manuscript, yes, and I'm now a little over 52,000 words, so I haven't completely given up on it yet, or anything... 

But I wince thinking about it. It's pretty much crap. It's melodramatic, too formal in its dialogue, and, oh my GOD, I think the protagonists save each other about a dozen times! Sheesh! No one could possibly be in this much danger! 

Still, I have to just wallow in the mud a bit... get it oozing between my toes, smell it, even feel the grit of it on my tongue. (Yes, I know how gross that sounds.) But it should get better. I love revising, even if I wish it weren't that utterly necessary (though it is, in my case). I am not, and never will be, the writer who puts a brilliant first draft down on paper. 

Nope, I'm the dork wad who writes something a seventh grader would gag over--something no sane person would call good writing--and then I revise the hell out of it until it shines like a brand new Cadillac.

I just make sure I don't show any of the muddy version(s) to anyone, even friends. I want to keep my friends, after all.

How 'bout you? Are you brilliant first, or does it only come with a LOT of hard reworking/rewriting/revising? 

Or do you know?