Friday, November 26, 2021

Making it Write

 With Thanksgiving done, and a late one at that, we are barreling toward Christmas.  Always about now I am thinking that it was just Halloween and felt like fall.  Now the time has changed and the daylight hours have gotten shorter.  I can't really say I'm hunkering down for winter, yet.  Almost no rain, and the temperatures have been above average which here in Southern California means you barely need a sweater during the day.  

Today we had Santa Ana winds that scattered giant palm fronds in the backyard and sent an outdoor umbrella flying and blew  It was useless to pick up the giant marigold plant because it just blew over again.  We were invited to friends for Thanksgiving so I spent the time before working on MAKING IT WRITE, the next Writer for Hire mystery.  I was writing about a Sunday in Chicago and was so into it, that when I stopped working, I had to remind myself what day it was.

My deadline is looming and I'm at the point where I'm thinking about it constantly, which means I keep relating everything to what I'm working on.  Even Thanksgiving dinner.  One of the other guests turned out to be a social media influencer type like one of my characters.  Talking to her gave me ideas to add to my character to make her seem more real.

I even related dinner to my manuscript.  Since I am a  vegetarian and don't like to be a bother, I brought along  a turkeyless roast.  I was curious to try it and it was actually quite good.  Veronica Blackstone is also a vegetarian and I'm always looking for something interesting for her to eat.  Now I have it.

And when I get down to the wire like this, I find I sort of write in my sleep.  Just before I got to sleep, I give myself something I'm stuck with  to work on and then the answer shows up in the morning.

And with that, it's back to work.

2 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

Isn't it fun that our subconscious minds when we sleep sometimes figure out what we're trying to determine during the day? The Santa Ana winds didn't do a lot of damage around our house fortunately, but I certainly have been hearing and seeing them. Glad Thanksgiving worked out for you. and best of luck with your deadline.

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, I'm glad that Santa Anas left you alone. It is amazing how our subconscious minds come through. There is definitely something to that saying about "sleeping on it."