C.A. Watson's Blog

Writers Don't Get Sick Days

Here’s the deal, I have a job, job one I actually like. It’s part-time and gives me a steady income to pay the bills. But my career is being a writer. I’m not a successful one, hence the day job, but I’m working on it. It’s a weird profession. I have no boss to report to, no set hours, no yearly reviews or metrics. Your only goals are the ones you give yourself. Grit is another important element. You need it to keep going through the hard slog of the endless middle of a book. Grit keeps you going, which brings me back to the title of the article. The problem is, we are human. We get sick. Most of the time, like our hourly or salaried counterparts, we plow thought. Colds, back pain, GI issues-I’ve worked through them all. There are, however, some illnesses that knock you flat and prevent you from doing anything. For me, that is a migraine. If you’ve had them, you know. If not, let me explain.

Headaches are annoying. I get those, a lot. You take your Excedrin Migraine, rest for 30-45 minutes while it knocks it out, and get on with your day. About 90% of the time, this works. Another 8% of the time, I have what I call wannabe migraines. These are the ones that can go either way and they feel different from the start. They take several hours to make up their minds. I have a procedure for those as well. Step one, take the meds, rest for about an hour, sit up and see how you do. Step two, if you do well, get some food. If you don’t, lay back down for another half hour and repeat. Food, though, is always the tipping point. Eating will either eliminate it for good or will cause the migraine to hit. Finally, there are the 2% that you know from the start are going to be terrible. You know you will need the serious prescription drugs and you pray for darkness and that someone doesn’t decide this is the moment to start vacuuming. This happened once. It’s never happened again. These headaches can last for days and make reading, writing and any and all screens your enemy. This was me last week.

I took some sick days. My body wouldn’t let me do otherwise. And I feel guilty. Funny, I never felt guilty when I had PTO and took it when this happened. If it couldn’t do the job, why show up? Working for you, it’s different. I tried to do my tradition plow through and get it done and was forced to surrender and quit. I got behind, and now I have to do the same thing I did working for someone else, play catch-up and scramble to make up the words and tasks I assigned to myself. It’s just as hard, but it feels fine.

No, I Haven't Seen the New Star Wars Film

I’m sorry if the headline comes off a bit … defensive. I’m not one of those snobs who looks down her nose at the force. I loved Star Wars. It was one of my most crucial childhood memories. I saw the first on seven times in the theater-seven! I was like eight years old at the time, so that’s an accomplishment. I followed the force. I even loved the ewoks. I should be stoked, particularly as this one has more kick-ass women on both sides of the force, hello General Leia!

And yet … I’m just not interested. Don’t think I’m not freaked by this fact. I am. Everything I know about myself says I should have seen it multiple times by now. I love BB-8 as much as anyone. the villains must rock as they are played by actors I love. The big three are back and they brought their Wookiee, too. I should be in line right now buying a ticket.

It’s a conudrum, alright!

Oops, I Left You Hanging-The Last NaNoWriMo Post

I was going back over my work for the previous year this week. While looking at my blog posts and realized, I was missing one. I committed a cardinal storytelling sin. I left you hanging. I have you a beginning: a hero (me) and a quest (thirty thousand words in the month of November). I followed up with obstacles in my path (the second week blahs and writer’s block). Then I, and this is a shock to me, never told you how it ended. Please accept my apologies, and this post.

So, I guess the big question is this; thrill of victory or agony of defeat? I’m sad to report, it was the latter, but proud to say not by much. I managed to get down twenty-eight thousand plus words. Why not push ahead to get too the full thirty thousand? One word: migraine. We had a bad storm at the end of November and I was in misery for three days. I never even manage to put on my glasses, and I’m not one of those ‘I just need them to read,’ sort of glasses wearer. No, without them, the world beyond the few inches in front of my face is a fuzzy, indistinct watercolor. Writing, nor much else, is possible.

Still, can you call my word count a failure? I don’t. I call it an amazing accomplishment that was hard earned. Sometimes winning looks different than you thought it would. Oh, and I’ll see you for NaNoWriMo 2016. I’ll up the stakes and shoot for the full 50K. Follow me if you dare!

The Lost Art of Lounging

I didn’t want to get out of bed today. I did. I went out and braved the elements to run an errand and get lunch. After that was done, however, all I wanted was to get home and return to it. Don’t misunderstand me. Colorado is throwing us a lovely, sunny day. I have every excuse to be out and about and soaking up Vitamin K. I don’t have any excuse to return to the womb of my covers, but back into them I went soon after arriving back home.

Part of this is, in fact, the sunshine’s fault. I am prone to headaches and one has returned. It’s not serious enough to keep me from creating some art and posting this missive, but still. So, I’ve taken a nice little catnap. I awoke with a smaller headache and the rest of my day to pursue, and … I’m still under the covers. In fact, I plan on spending the rest of this day in this state of vague laziness. And for those of you sneering right now, I remind or inform you as the case may be, Marcel Proust wrote all seven volumes of his classic In Search of Lost Time from his, possibly hypochondriac, sickbed. Even the lovely Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was known to lay in, allowing maids to do the heaving lifting for a bit. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for little old me and and I resolve to join their company, effective immediately.

Surprise! I Managed to Keep One of my 2015 Resolutions

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, as I assume you know. As this year closes, I’m able to report something I’ve never been able to say before. I KEPT one of the resolutions I made at on January 1st. This is sort of a miracle. No, this IS a miracle. What did I manage to do this year? I expanded my musical horizons. I made a vow that I would listen to new music, stuff from different genres, from different generations. I had a rule. I would listen to each album twice. Once to get a general sense of it, and a second time to really listen to each song and see what moved me. I listened to old and new stuff. I got classic albums and recent hits. I tried to dig into new areas. I couldn’t do it all. I did listen to some R & B, but I did not get into Hip Hop. Nor did head banging Heavy Metal make the list, but I did manage to stretch. I even kept a list of the artist and albums listened to. Here are the records of 2015:

Joe Coker: Ultimate Collection (he had just died and I wanted to hear his voice again)
Zac Brown Band: You Get What You Give
Pharrell Williams: GIRL
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
Aimee Mann: Whatever
Tony Bennett & Lady GaGa: Cheek to Cheek
Eric Clapton: Slowhand 35th Anniversary
Beatles: Let It Be
Feist: The Reminder
Pirate Radio Soundtrack
Steve Earle & the Dukes (& Dutchesses): The Low Highway
Beatles: Rubble Souls
Rolling Stones: Tattoo You
Beatles: Meet The Beatles!
Ellie Goulding: Halcyon Days
Traveling Wildburys, Volume 1
Fifty Shades of Gray Soundtrack
Beatles 65: Beatles
Guardians of the Galaxy, Awesome Mix Volume 1 Soundtrack
Jonny Lang: Wander This World
The Decemberists: The King is Dead
Ariana Grande: My Everything
Ani Difranco: reprieve
Nashville: Season 2, Volume 1 Soundtrack
Bette Midler: It’s The Girls
Dave Matthews Band: Crash
Etta James: The Best of Etta james
The Clash: London Calling
Bruno Mars: Unorthodox Jukebox
Dolly Parton: Those Were the Days
Carole King: Tapestry
Beatles: The White Album
Patsy Cline: Walkin’ After Midnight-The Very Best of Patsy Cline
Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key of Life
Beatles: Revolver
Bruno Mars: do-wops & hooligans
The New Basement Tapes: Lost on the River
Mumford & Son: Babel
Dolly Parton: Blue Smoke
Marvin Gaye: Live At The London Palladium
Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul
REM: Out Of Time
Lady Gaga: The Fame Monster
Green Day: dookie
Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour
Fleetwood Mac: Rumors
Ed Sheeran: +
Joe Jackson: The Best of Joe Jackson
Bob Dylan: Blond On Blond
Foo Fighters: Echos, Silence, Patience & Grace
Faith Fill: Breath
Beatles: Abbey Road
Bob Dylan and The Band: The Basement Tapes
Willie Nelson and Sister Bobby: December
The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love
Neil Young: Prairie Wind
Rosanne Cash: The River & The Thread
Joe Jackson: jumpin’ jive
Ed Sheeran: X
Brad Paisley: Moonshine in the Trunk
Begin Again Soundtrack
Cold Play; Parachutes
Katy Perry: Teenage Dream
One Republic: Nature
Dr. John, the night tripper: GRIS-gris
Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard: Django and Jimmie
Stevie Wonder: Talking Book
Tim McGraw: Reflected, Greatest Hits Volume 2
Ingrid Michaelson: Everybody
Justin Timberlake: the 20/20 Experience
Punch Brothers: Ahoy!
Florida Georgia Line
Eagles: Eagles
Patty Smith: Horses
Regina Spektor: begin to hope
Justin Timberlake: Justified
Glee: The Music Volume 4
Ingrid Michaelson: Lights Out
Jonny Lang: Long Time Coming
Wow. Not bad at all. I’m going for 100 in the coming year. Why break the streak now?

What did I discover? Well, I have a few new favorites. I fell in love with the Decemberists and Ingrid Michaelson, The Clash and Steve Earle. The Rolling Stones are not, so far, to my taste. Neither is Patty Smith. Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson are two I have a deeper understand of. They are far more versatile than I ever gave them credit for. Love Bruno Mars, not so much Ariana Grande. Most of all, I discovered I have an ear for far more types of music that I ever gave myself credit for. In 2016 I plan to continue. I have a list of 33 albums culled from best of lists that I’m going to give a listen to. Most of all, I’m going to do more of the same. My life is richer for having done this, and in the arts, one can never be too rich.

One Of My Top Priorities for 2016 Is … Having Fun?

I’ve made a decision. In 2016, FUN, in all caps, will be on the agenda. I’m going to have a good time in the coming year. I’m serious. Fun is going on my calendar. I’m planning for fun. For the record, I am in full agreement that the previous four or five sentences sound like the most un-fun think you can do. The truth is, though, 2015 wasn’t much fun. Neither was 2014 and 2013 was an epic suck of a year. There has been job stress, family stress, living my life stress and for a lot of that time, it felt like fun had gone into hiding. Plus, I think we can agree, these are not enjoyable times. The world is dealing with terrorism, racism, sexism, injustice and stupidity. I have found myself angry quite a bit lately. Now, don’t get me wrong, anger has its uses, but there needs to be some balance. There needs to be some fun, so it’s going on the calendar. I’m hoping that if I keep reaching for it that it will come out of hiding and I won’t need to put it on the calendar. Who knows, maybe I’ll even be a more centered person at the end of 2016. Now, for the hard part. What’s fun anymore? I guess it’s time to figure that out.

10,000 Words Into the NaNoWriMo Desert

I did it! I’m over a third of the way to my goal of 30,000 words for NaNoWriMo 2015! I got there dying the famously difficult second week. As someone who’s don’t this before, I can assume, it lives up to the unpleasant hype. It sucks, and I say that without hesitation. the first week is fun and exciting and the ideas flow. It is during the second week when you hit the first snag, or wall, depending on how stuck you find yourself. It’s easy to flail during the second week. It’s easy to quit.

To anyone out there in this state, let me add my voice to the crowd. Don’t quit. Keep writing. It’s worth the pain. For those of you who are looking for advice, I have to say, have a milestone to look forward to and, this matters, when you achieve, throw yourself a mini celebration. It doesn’t matter if it’s 11:07 on a Wednesday, celebrate. You’ve done something awesome.

The Middle-15,000 Words

Somehow, between my writing the post above and posting it, I got here. I’m not quite sure how I pulled it off. It came up quick. And you know what? Writing is fun again. How, well, I decided to break my own rule. For those of you who are just coming to this, I was working on a book before NaNo began and had planned to use all of my 30,000 words in service of it, but ideas come when you’re working. It doesn’t matter if they have nothing to do with what your working on now, they come, and you’d better not piss of the muses by not honoring the ideas they send your way. So, in addition to the book, I’ve started in on other projects. Because why not relax from writing with more writing? I never claimed it was logical, but it works and who and I to argue?

My NaNoWriMo Adventure: 30 Days and 30,000 Words

It’s November, and that means that we have entered into the holiday season, ready or not. We’ve just gotten candied out a few days ago and Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Don’t even get me started on Christmas. Plus, my father’s birthday is days before Thanksgiving on the 20th, my birthday is on December 13th and both my mother and brother have January birthdays, the 26th and 19th respectively. My sister is the weirdo with a Spring birthday in May.

And yet, for the writer in me, November is thirty days of craziness known as National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, a mad dash to hammer out the first draft of a novel by writing 50,000 words in a month. Don’t get started on with me on if that’s a novel or a novella. That point has been argued by people who care. I don’t. The point of trying to throw down so many words onto paper is to get out of your own way. Also keep in mind, its’ a first draft. There will be, by design, typos, gaps and story inconsistencies. That’s okay. This is about word count only. Writers know that the next step, the bigger step, is to revise it. But even if you don’t, no one can take those 50,000 words away from you.

Here’s how it works, for those who have no idea what I’m even talking about. First, you set up an account at nanowrimo.org. Next, you create a new book. Don’t worry if you only have a working title and a general idea. That’s all you need. The goal for all participants is to get to that certificate that proves you wrote 50,000 words. How do you do that? The same way you do most things, one day at a time. In this case it works out to 1,667 words each day. That’s not an unmanageable number, but it’s not nothing. Count on 1-3 hours daily to get there. Next you add your daily total in to your NaNo site at the end of each day. There is a lovely line graph and it’s nice to see it go up as you keep writing. It’s all on the honor system until the end. On one of the last days of November, the official counter goes live and you can put your manuscript through for verification. Winners get that certificate, bragging rights and the first draft of a book. There are also online forums for each genre and weekly gathering in most cities for support along the way. If you’ve never tried it, you really should.

My goals this year 1000 words a day (as part of the previously stated 1000 words in 1000 days project). That means my goal this time around is to write 30,000 words. My secondary goal is to revise 2 hours for 3 days a week. That has been the harder one to keep. Oh, and that doesn’t include blog posts.

Yeah, It’s November!

1000 Words For 1000 Days, Part 2

At the beginning of 2015, I had an idea, a resolution, really, to write 1000 words for 1000 days. I tried to make it work, but it petered out. Now, however, I have decided to revive it. Why try again now, you ask? Because I’m having a difficult time writing for writings sake. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wavering on my goals to become a good writer and one that makes a living at it. I’m working hard at both, but they are floaty, intangible goals. So, I’ve decided to try something a bit more in your face.

Now, I admit, setting a goal that will take a little over two and a half years to finish is ballsy, but it’s all about the reward. I have always wanted to do a cruse, one of the river kind. I will use that as my big reward. I had the idea to go all Agatha Christie and float down the Nile, but as a Yank. We’ll need to see how history plays out. I’d love to see more of the Med or go down one of the bread European rivers like the Rhine or the Danube. That will be played with, but the point is, I’m going to start saving now. The more I start, the move invested in finishing I’ll become.

Before then, however, there should be millstone prizes. Nine gradually larger ones and ten half way ones. Again, I’m still working out the details on those, but focusing on that will, I hope, relieve some of the writing blahs, having something to look forward to. And since we are close to NaNoWriMo, I thought November 1st would be my best start date. That makes my end date is July 22, 2018. It will come soon enough. It feels like forever, but I am going to focus on buying the ticket and getting on the plane. And writing great stuff.

5 Lessons Vegas Taught Me

Did I go crazy in Vegas? Don’t be silly. I’m not built for crazy. No one who loves show tunes as much as I do is built for crazy. Fabulous, of course darling, but crazy, not my thing. Did I have fun in Vegas? Hell yes! You have to put in a major effort to not have fun. Well of course you had fun. Vegas is built for fun, you say, well, I disagree. Vegas was built on the the mirage of getting rich quick dreams and decadence that wealth provides. I arrived with no allusions about easy money. Nothing’s harder than easy money. Nor was decadence on the bill, although I have a wild hair to go and see the Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity (it’s billboards are totally hot). That will go on the agenda for another time. Aside from fun, Vegas gave me a tiny bit of self-knowledge and a smudge of ambition. This is what I came back with.

Plans are great-if not taken too far: My friend Rene wanted to hit the In N’ Out Burger and the Hover Dam. Mission accomplished. We both wanted to see Love. Check. I wanted to take a gondola ride and to go up in the High Roller Observation deck. Done and done. That accounted for about, what, 20-30% of our time. The rest of it we made up as we went along. So what? Well here’s the thing, I’m a planner. I have a list of possible restaurants, look at lots of amenities and tours. My vacation days are scheduled. This time around, I just let it happen, making it up as I went along. Like there is a Serendipity’s in Vegas and I got one of their famous frozen hot chocolate drinks. We discovered Kiston, a dangerously wonderful shop. I experienced the wonder that is sweet potato fries. Did I mention that we saw a taxi that caught on fire? Yep, lots of unscheduled fun was had.
Work and play can work and play together: Writing is a strange profession. You don’t get PTO. You’re your own boss, so you get to give yourself the day off. The problem is, you can’t be too easy a boss, but it’s very tempting to let yourself off the hook. I decided that I would not take a vacation from my world count. Guess what? I pulled it off. If was lucky to have nice house companions who were supportive of my writing. More, I liked writing on vacation. It relieved my lazy writer’s guilt and I moved forward on the book. Give me a thousand words and I’m good for the day.
If you can take it, you can make it: We walked. Dear God in Heaven did we walk. Twelve to fifteen thousand steps a day. My feet ached. My calves screamed. I walked in high ninety degree weather into freezing air conditioning, through insane malls and smoky casinos. I felt like a sweaty mess at the end of every day. I was forced to faced the unpleasant realization that I’m not as good a shape as I thought I was. Did I complain, even once. No, I did not. Do I need to work now to get in good shape? Yes, I do. Will I complain about that. You bet I will. But for now, I know that if I want to, I can get it done.
I am a VIP, and someday Vegas will know it: One thing became obvious on this trip. While being a VIP is wonderful in most places, there is a special glow about being one in Vegas. They don’t know it yet, but someday they will opened up all their goodies to me. I want to be picked up in a limo, have the best seats at shows and not deal with a line to get into a club. Do I want to go to a club? No, not really, but I want to be able to get into any of them because I’m me. I want to enjoy a bubble, a time in my life where I am pampered beyond all measure. I want people serving me like I’m a celebrity or a whale for a weekend. I want a moment where I think This feels like a movie. And someday, I’m going to have it.
I will survive: I guess you can tell nightclubs aren’t my thing, but you can’t argue with a classic. I went on vacation without a plan or a budget. Again, a first for me. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a planner. I make lists and have back-ups. People thought I was crazy to take this vacation. It was, for many reasons. But here’s the thing, I needed it. It gave me something to look forward to and good memories for a difficult time. Money is tight, but I’ll figure it out. Money is tight, but I have friends and family who support me. Money is tight, but I will survive. And, I’m going to do it with class and style.