Let’s start by saying I’m not a tech person. I frequently have NO idea what I’m doing. But I found out about this program call CleanMyMac the other day and so I got it for my two macs. Cleaned up a lot of stuff and freed a lot of space. I guess there are programs out there that will get rid of duplicate stuff on my computer. I may get something that will do that. I’m also trying to decide if I like Voodoopad enough to keep using it, or if I want to try using Scrivener to keep notes and track novel information. Just not sure.

I do think that the CleanMyMac was fairly miraculous with how many gigs of stuff it freed up. That was pretty cool.

Other than that, making progress on the work in progress. I like it so far. Which is kind of dangerous. I always worry when I like something I wrote. Yeah, neurotic writer is neurotic.

I am one of the lucky ones at the moment. The temps here are in the 80s. (I’m a heat wimp, so that seems hottish, but nothing like so many others). I’d rather be out on the Oregon coast right now though. Course remember that in the dead of winter I’m often too many degrees below zero, so it’s not like I don’t pay for this weather.

How is it possible that I just ate dinner and I’m hungry already? I want ice cream. Vats of it. That’s probably a sign of something.

I actually committed words to a project today. They are the beginning words and likely will change, but at least it’s a place to start. I’m good with that. Now to produce more. But this is epic fantasy, and tends to be something I write more slowly, where I have to research even the smallest detail. For instance, a caul is a kind of a hat. It’s a peculiar kind of a hat, though the one I’m writing about doesn’t have any material in it. It’s tremendously important in the worldbuilding for reasons I can’t explain at the moment, but on the surface, it’s just a hat.

Now here’s the thing about writing. You can’t let yourself get bogged down in little details. They will derail your writing so fast it will make your head spin. Yet at the same time, you have to nail the details in order to make the story work. Some writers will leave notes to themselves to find things out and keep going. Other writers will dig until they find the right detail. I am usually one of the latter, but mostly on details that truly matter. I usually know what those are, because they tend to reach out roots into a lot of scenes and characters. Believe it or not, that hat does. Not because of any inherent quality to it, but because it relates to another important element of the world that is completely fundamental. I know, sounds bizarre. It’s a hat, for dog’s sake. But there you have it.

I’m wondering about the rest of the writers out there. How do you work?

The past few days I’ve been herding cats, er, kids. I’ve had a spare one over and we’ve been playing a fair bit and swimming and now there’s peace and quiet. For now. Because mine are asleep. It’s been hot too, and the winds have been blowing hard, and we’ve had fires not far from here. Not as bad as Colorado, but bad enough. We came close to getting some rain today, but it didn’t get here. Sadly.

As I mentioned before, I’m working on a new book, epic fantasy, and have been putting together the preliminary outline and character descriptions. Most of that is done as far as I can go for now, but now I have to start doing the writing. That’s a bit tough, mostly because picking out a starting point is really tough sometimes. I have quite a few characters in this one, and a spectrum of things that are going on. This is a book that might take a lot of trial and error to make work.

This one is going to be a challenge to write and that’s always terrifying. It is going to stretch me for sure. I like that. I learn and grow as a writer when I really push myself. I usually push myself in all my books in different ways. But this one is going to be pushing on a number of levels. I’m really excited about the story and looking forward to writing. And getting it right.

On the subject of so called Obamacare, I’m just not sure how I feel. Mostly that’s because I really don’t know how it’s going to pan out. I had a lot of high hopes when they actually began to tackle healthcare reform and the point of federal fraud in the health care industry, but I feel that the real problems weren’t addresses, like torte reform, and issues with costs of malpractice insurance and the need to perform excess tests so they don’t get sued. Anyhow, I had hopes, and I just don’t know if this reform package will actually help. The hype on either side is all jockeying for votes, and so worthless. I’m going to continue to hope it’s helpful rather than destructive, because I can do little else. And I’m going to try hard not to get sick.

Oh, and Viggo, one of the corgis, killed a robin this morning. The bird didn’t fly away and the dog, while somewhat quick, shouldn’t have been able to catch it. Anyhow, afterwards he was insufferably proud of himself and strutting around like he was tough (he’s a chicken). Now he’s curled up on the couch resting on his laurels.

I’m working on another project, working title Soul Mage. It’s traditional fantasy. Here’s the Pinterest board on it if you’re interested. Anyhow, I had the entire thing plotted and was starting to write the initial chapters, when another character stepped onto the stage, bringing a whole lot of other baggage and interesting complications. So right now I’m going through my character descriptions and developing each of them in specific.

What I’ve run into is that the character who stepped onto the stage turns out to be extremely fascinating, complex, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to like him. He did something very bad. Very. I get why, but I’ll tell you what. When I wrote that bit I wanted to backtrack and change it. No, he didn’t really know what he was doing. But then I realized that it’s far more powerful if he did. If he knowingly made that choice. I gotta say, though, this takes me out of my comfort zone. I’ve also got some other bad stuff happening with characters. Tough things.

One of the things that I know as a writer is that whenever something makes you uncomfortable, that’s the time to press harder on it and make it hurt. That’s where the power is and that’s where a lot of interesting things happen. It’s much easier to shy away from it and shift it so that it isn’t as bad, but that robs you as the writer and it robs the readers and it robs the story. Pursue the painful. Don’t duck it.

That said, this is going to be hard to write. Not just subject-wise, but to keep myself pushing at that element and not ducking it, and also to do it justice.