Thursday, November 20, 2008

A good day for writing

Weather like this makes for a great day of writing.

This morning, one of my Facebook Friends, Gwendolyn Stewart, said she "has a manly hero in her new WIP who just took over the story. The heroine might have something to say about that, though. I love good writing days. :)"

Her status started spinning the wheels of wonder inside my head about what constitutes a "good writing day."

Every writer has them. And its more than simply putting down several thousand words.

And just as every writer has a good writing day, ever writer also has their own definition of what a good writing day is.

For me, good writing days are days when the stars fall into perfect alignment, God smiles upon you and the words flow smoothly from your fingertips.

The best writing days for me happen when the weather is gloomy. When many consider it a good day to curl up in front of a fire with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book, I'm in front of my computer working on Heather's story.

My best writing happens when the house is clean and quiet, when the kids are out with their dad, when the phone is off the hook and the scenes and characters speak to me like old friends I haven't seen since high school.

My best writing happens after I've spent 45 minutes on the eliptical, after I've showered, put on make-up and done my hair.

My best writing days happen when I have headphones on and songs by Beethoven, Metallica and Brooks & Dunn follow each other on my playlist, but I don't even notice.

My best writing days are not characterized by the quantity of the words, but the quality of the scenes.

And finally, my best writing days end when I look at the clock on the computer screen and think to myself, "Where on earth did the last five hours go?"

5 comments:

Unknown said...

ewwww snow!! lol we just started getting hit hard with it last night.... :(

Anonymous said...

Ditto that, Sabrae. UGH......

I'm soooo glad I live in the desert.

Great post today, Kat. My best writing days don't include snow, BUT, they do include cooler weather (I prefer 70s to snow days).

A great writing day is when my house is clean, laundry done, and I have six to eight hours to spend with my laptop on my lap....I just let it flow...If I get stuck, I just pump up my favorite song or go for a long bike ride and I'm all better again.

And yes, the hours fly by on a good writing day, don't they?

Courtney Walsh said...

I think the best one I've had so far was when my mom came up to keep my kids so I could run errands. She does this for me sometimes and it makes me love her even more. :)

But I went out to Barnes and Noble, plugged in my laptop, got a white chocolate mocha (nonfat, sadly) and wrote for hours. Then... as if that weren't good enough - my husband called and I told him I had to get home to relieve my mom but I was really plugging away on my new WIP and he says, "Why don't you just stay there? I'm headed home anyway."

Yeah. Best.day.ever. I got SO much done that day - and got so excited about my story. For me it's just finding uninterrupted time to let my brain sort of run wild... those days are few and far between!

Rosslyn Elliott said...

Kat,

Now I'm just a link in your chain.

;-)

Linked you and Gwen in my own post after reading Gwen' post.

See www.inkhornblue.blogspot.com

Can I add you to my blogroll?

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

Rosslyn -- undoubtedly! I'd loved to be added to your blog roll.

Thanks!