Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 276

My Fruitless Quest Goes to the Movies

I feel like such a slug for sleeping all the way to 7:15 this morning, but I was both tired and wired from the concert last night, so although I fell asleep pretty quickly, I didn't sleep well and probably needed the rest. I'm really excited about today because I don't have anything planned or anywhere to go (though I have to call about the physical therapy, so I may end up having to go somewhere if there's an appointment available). I seem to have been on the go for more than a week, with th...

The Early Bird Gets More Tea

I'm back at home after a weekend visit to my parents for the national holiday of my dad's birthday (I'm not kidding -- he puts out his American flag. It's sort of around Memorial Day every year, but the flag goes up on the birthday). I didn't get to go through with my plan to tease my dad about being slothful for going to bed early since I was going to bed at the same time, though it was fun to shock my parents by getting up before seven. It did get a bit annoying Sunday morning when I didn't...

The Cold Shoulder Treatment

I've mentioned a sore shoulder occasionally over the past few months. It's actually been a bit more serious than that, but that's not the kind of detail I usually share. Plus, my mother reads this, and I didn't want to get nagged or make her worry. I'd reached the point where I had some serious range of motion issues, plus constant pain, and then my ballet teacher noticed the fact that my shoulder couldn't rotate properly, which meant my arms did some weird things and didn't line up right. Fo...

Non-Verbal Communication: Gestures

This morning thing has reached ridiculous levels. I was up pretty late last night because we went out for frozen yogurt after ballet, then I watched the season finale of NCIS after taking a shower when I got home, then I finished reading a book. And I still came wide awake at 6:40. So far this morning, I've managed to watch last night's NCIS: LA, read all my usual e-mail/Internet stuff, look up orthopedists on my insurance plan (my ballet teacher told me that I'd better get that shoulder look...

Things You See Before Noon

I didn't make much use of my early rising today, other than watching the Chuck season finale OnDemand and going to Target. I was a guest at a book club meeting last night, so I taped it. I got home about 8:30 and took a shower while I waited for the end of the episode so I could start watching, but by the time the episode ended, I was way too tired to stay up for a two-parter, so I just watched the last Law and Order and then went straight to bed, figuring I could catch Chuck the next morning...

When Goals Go Bad

Still doing the early thing, but not quite as early today. Even so, I've already had an eye exam and picked up some groceries to fill in the gaps of what I bought last week (there's one store that's best for meat and fresh produce and another that's best for canned/packaged foods). And I'm still about an hour ahead of my usual schedule.

Friday turned out to be oddly non-productive, in a way. I got seriously lethargic -- not really sleepy, but not really alert. I ended up doing a lot of brainst...

Early Bird Strikes Again

It was yet another ridiculously early day. Today so far I've taken a long walk, showered, gone grocery shopping and read all my usual Internet stuff. Yesterday didn't end up like my dire predictions, either. I didn't slow down during the afternoon. I met all my writing goals without getting sleepy, then I only got really cranky and snarky once at the homeowners' association meeting, and it was in a situation that would have made anyone cranky and snarky. It was during the Q&A after the board ...

Early vs. Late

I feel super, double-plus virtuous today. I was wide awake before seven, so I got up instead of letting myself go back to sleep so that I'd wake up really late, feeling groggy. Before 8:30, I'd had breakfast, read the newspaper, checked my e-mail, dressed and taken a walk.

But then, why does it feel so virtuous to get up early? Really, the measure should be how much is accomplished, not when it's accomplished. Even so, getting up early is generally seen as diligent, while sleeping late -- even...

Why They Don't Publish What You Want

I feel so virtuous. I just took a nice, long walk. I'll probably need to take a shower before lunch because I'm all sweaty, but I've been out of the exercise habit other than ballet class for far too long, and I think that's largely responsible for my various aches.

Meanwhile, I finished the chainsaw work on the book yesterday. I'm down to a couple of thousand words below my target. I still need to add a scene and there's some fleshing out that needs to be done, but I also still have a lot of...

Drowning in Darkness

Moving from writing mode to revision mode is a big mental adjustment. I go from trying desperately to add to my word count to trying desperately to delete words. I cut nearly 6,000 words yesterday, and I'm about a third of the way through the book. Some of those words are about to go back in, though, because I've reached a scene that will now be combined with part of an earlier scene that I cut. I know of one more entire scene that will be deleted, and there may be parts of other scenes that ...