Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 271

Looking Ahead

I think I may let myself try writing the opening scene of the new project today. I'm at the point where any additional prep work might count as overthinking and would make it lose any freshness or spontaneity. It may need some rewriting, but "meeting" the characters is the only way to see how they really come to life to help me develop the rest of the story. I still haven't developed a "soundtrack" for this book. It's challenging me a bit because the normal pop type music isn't working for it...

Ideas and Plots

I think I've found a plot! It took doing a little more research and coming at the problem sideways. Instead of focusing on the specific subject area I'm dealing with, I thought of situations in history that were similar or parallel to what I'm doing and then thinking of ways that might compare to what I'm working with. The result was an idea that I now need to build on. Meanwhile, I've realized that I'm not as clear as I'd like to be about one of my main characters, so that will take some dev...

Spacey Monday

My day did not get off to an auspicious start. For the past several weeks, my Monday therapy appointment has been at 8 a.m. This morning, I got up, had breakfast, got dressed and rushed out of the house to make an 8 a.m. appointment, a little later than I should have. It takes a bit longer to get there for an 8 a.m. appointment because there's more traffic and because the traffic lights are evil. The lights in my neighborhood are triggered rather than timed, so if there's a lot of traffic com...

The 40 is Sexy Film Festival

My therapy has moved from focusing on increasing my range of motion to rebuilding my strength. In other words, ouch. The bad arm is currently trembling a little, and I suspect it will be very achy tomorrow. I should probably start doing a little weight work with the good arm so I don't end up looking lopsided.

It seems like HBO knows I'm getting closer to a birthday, since they practically had an "older woman, younger man"/"women in their 40s are still sexy" film festival this week.

First, ther...

Things to Like About August

I think I came up with the midpoint for the new book last night/early this morning. I've done just about all the research I need, with just a little more reading to do on a couple of topics. Next I start the world building and outlining.

I took a short walk this morning -- very short because even before 8 it was still warmer than was comfortable, so I turned back pretty quickly. Still, short is better than nothing. I started to make a list of things I'm looking forward to in the fall as a copi...

Revision: Fine Tuning

After getting a book on Italian cooking from the library last week, today on my way home from seeing the doctor (the shoulder is just about back to normal, making good progress, and I don't need to see the doctor again unless something happens) I went by the grocery store to get ingredients, and for lunch I did something absolutely wonderful with tomatoes, garlic, zucchini and pasta. There's another recipe using mostly the same ingredients but put together in a different way that I'll have to...

Living a Biopic Life

I had grand ambitions about taking a walk as soon as I got up this morning, while it was still cool. And then I opened the front door to get my newspaper and nearly wilted. Today will be an indoor day.

Yesterday, I inadvertently ended up doing a Julie Christie film festival. It turned out that TCM was actually doing a Julie Christie film festival, but I'd watched Doctor Zhivago for the ice and snow scenes and then watched Far from the Madding Crowd because I rather like Thomas Hardy and hadn't...

Cruel August

Summer has hit with a vengeance, and after a relatively cool July, I'm afraid that a typical Texas August is going to be particularly miserable. This is when my early-bird schedule comes in handy because I'm up for the cool part of the day. Today I've already done my physical therapy and run some errands, and it was already too hot to be comfortable outside by the time I got home. I keep telling myself that it's less than a month until September, and although September isn't exactly cool, it'...

I'm Just Not That Into Him

One downside of getting away from my routines is that my housework falls by the wayside. I seem to need a strict list of chores and tasks that are done on a certain day at a certain time in order to keep up with everything. I may try to catch up with some of that today and this weekend. Meanwhile, I'm almost through the huge stack of reference books I picked up the other day. Some of them were mostly pictures and will require further perusal, but I seem to have really made a dent in the rest....

Change of Pace

I tested my new walking shoes with a walk to the post office this morning. As I left the house, it was overcast and a little cool, very refreshing, and I had in mind a nice, long walk after I dropped off my mail. Then when I was a block away from home, the sun came out and it suddenly became very muggy, so I just took the long way home and still was all sweaty by the time I got back. I guess I should have gone walking before breakfast instead of after.

I've been talking about changing routines...