A Writer's Life

Top Writing Moments of 2008

In no particular order:

• finishing my novel in San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend.
• Having C. tell me that my novel was worth recovering when my hard drive crashed.
• getting my novel draft back for Christmas.
• support of family, friends, and loved ones as I developed this year's novel plot.
• having a library in another part of the country come to me and ask me to develop writing classes for them.
• writing the script for a skin care presentation and watching it unfold into video for Australia
• writing my first power point presentation for Japan
• seeing my ad for an energy product blown up into a huge canvas poster for the office
• watching the designers on my team turn my black and white text into magazine articles
• telling my art director my ideas and watching him sketch them into life
• collaborating with the web marketing manager and the guys in IT on new website text
• learning how to write better marketing collateral--thanks to my writers
• developing new campaigns and tools with members of my team
• bringing back the blog

Resolutions

In 2009, I resolve to finish editing my novel, The One, and have it published by Amazon.com.

In 2009, I resolve to finish writing more classes and to be gracious enough to accept the help that's been offered to me to publish said classes and license them around the world.

In 2009, I resolve to be to be true to my own writing voice and to write the books I want to write and not overanalyze every little idea that I have for how well I think it will sell (which induces so much writing paralysis that I don't go forward with anything.)

In 2009, I resolve to live a writer's life, whatever that may be.

Love and happy writing wishes to all in 2009,
Rachel

Unwrapping Christmas

Christmas Eve
epicurious.com
albertsons
sweet tomatoes
stumbling on the escalator
shopping for new knives
spiderman
snuggling on the couch
the fireplace
christmas story
salmon with pesto and almonds in puff pastry
salad with feta cheese and sliced apples
roasted potatoes with red peppers and garlic
apricot apple tart
white wine
"Vixen" and "Dasher" plates from pottery barn
jaeme
Titantic

Christmas
Titantic
2AM gifts
d&b purse
blanket with palm trees
reasons why I love you
sleeping in
cinnamon bread
coffee
jaeme
facebook.com
snowstorms
stories
sleeping
family man
snowstorms
red sweaters
sampan
snow storms
purple fortunes
iced over
coffee
matilda

just perfect.

Sunsets instead of Snowstorms

We've been in one winter storm watch after another this holiday week, and the only good thing that I can say about it is that I haven't had to drive anywhere myself.  The opening sentence of an article in the Salt Lake Tribune echoed a conversation I had about the snow with C. last night--that this White Christmas is causing plenty of problems for Utah residents.

Last night, we went to get Chinese food.  When we left, the snow had turned to rain.  The roads were slushy and there were gigantic puddles of water everywhere.  In about an hour at the restaurant, the temperature dropped to 29 degrees, slicking everything over and coating the roads with a layer of white that was so opaque that you couldn't tell where the road dividers started and ended.

C. is a good driver, and he got us back safely, but as we were standing in his garage and looking out at the mess, I was thinking how much nicer it would be if we were standing on the deck of an outdoor restaurant in a place like Florida.  I was imagining what it would be like to see the sunset instead of a snowstorm.  After all, it was 80 in Florida yesterday.

Love, Rachel

P.S.  Where's the writing comment in this post?  Let's see.  Go somewhere familiar to you.  Close your eyes.  And imagine being in the same time slot, with the same person, but in a different location.  It will change your story.  So, choose your scenery with care. 

Best Gifts

This Christmas, I've already been the recipient of some really excellent gifts.  For example, I think I wrote about my hot water heater.  My dad gave me a new hot water heater for Christmas and my ex-husband offered to install it.  Then when my hard drive crashed, I was able to afford to fix it due to the fact that I had my hot water heater gifted to me.

So, I've got hot water and my novel has been rescued and is safe back at home.  For those two gifts alone, I am happy.  But wait! There's more!

It's also already been a great holiday week because I've been able to spend a lot of extra time with C.  We both miss our kids, of course, but we're happy to have the extra time to just be together: blizzards, power outages, blockbuster karma (inside joke), falling asleep on the couch watching "Without a Trace," figuring how how many scoops of coffee to put in his new coffee maker, planning what to cook for Christmas Eve, eating cookies for breakfast,  and more.  If I could package this week up and unwrap it over and over again, I would.  Love you, C.

Through all of it, I've felt compelled to write.  And, I had a new book idea this morning.  Now if someone would find a way to STOP THE SNOW, it would be the perfect holiday.

Love, Rachel

Movies, Writing

I've been in a movie-watching craze this holiday season.  In the last three days, I have probably watched a dozen movies.  Last night, C. and I watched a movie called "Her Life Before Her Eyes," and I wasn't sure how well I liked it the first time.  The ending kind of threw me off at first.  I had to think about it for about ten minutes after the movie to really understand it and at that point, I wanted to see it again and see how the movie was put together. 

As I told C. this morning, I didn't feel like the writing was flawed.  No, the writing was pretty solid.  It was the pacing of the movie that didn't work, and that's where I got bored towards the end.  A reminder: some repetition in writing is GOOD.  Too much repetition can be boring.  I watched the movie for a second time this afternoon--not just for enjoyment but to look at the writing process. 

Every movie that you watch can be like taking a writing class.  Think about the movies where the story is seamless.  Think about the movies where the plot drags on--where?  WHY?  Think about the movies that start to bore you because the writer is relying on overly conventional plot devices (seriously, after all the Lifetime/ABC Family "Made for TV" movies that I've seen this season, I solemnly swear to never use *SNOW* as a way to signal a happy ending.)

Watch movies and learn from the stories that are told.  Movies are different from novels; movies sometimes get "free passes" from an excellent soundtrack, fabulous acting, or even special effects.  Your novels must rely on words alone, but movies are still a good place to learn about what works and what doesn't. 

There: I've just granted you a writer's permission to go veg out on your couch.  Enjoy!

Love,
Rachel

Change of Venue

This morning, the plan was to work from home.  Unfortunately, we woke up with no power and a raging blizzard.  I needed to get online and work on legal edits for the magazine, so C. drove us to his office, and we worked from there together.  We had the whole place to ourselves, and we made a pot of coffee and ate cookies sent by one of the vendors.  I had a call from the founder of the company on magazine edits and talked to our production manager twice.  And I got a ton of work done via cell phone and laptop.  It was a nice little preview of how my writing life could be. :)

As a writer, I sometimes forget the power of a change of venue.  Sometimes it's all I need to be inspired: a slightly different location.   It's a great writing trick, and best of all, it can be absolutely free.

Love,
Rachel

Snow Tricks

When I started blogging again, I resolved to keep this about writing, and not about my personal life.  It's not always easy because my writing life and my personal life are all intertwined with each other, so, I will do my best and see if I can always include something writing related in each post.  It will be my secret ingredient.

I have been having a Christmas movie marathon today.  J. is off to Illinois with her dad for Christmas, and C. has his girls and basketball until a little bit later.  As I watched the movies, I saw a common theme in all of them, and that theme is: Snow=Magic and Happy Endings.  In Home Alone, it starts snowing when the mom and family arrive home.  In White Christmas, it starts snowing at the end of the movie. In I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, it starts snowing on Christmas morning (also the end of the movie.)  In the Santa Clause 2, Tim Allen makes it start snowing in the carriage ride to the school party (note that the magical snow is only over the carriage, nice way to use magical snow.) In Lifetime Movie of unknown name, it starts snowing at the end of the movie when the kids get their wish of their parents getting back together.  In Christmas Wedding, there's a romantic carriage ride through the snow to get to the church just in the nick of time. 

In the movies, the snow is all magical and happy-ever-after.  In real life, it's just not.  We've had one dreary week of one winter storm watch after another, and while my little blue Cobalt has performed admirably, I am finding nothing magical in the snow. 

Where's the magic in scraping ice from your windshield?  Where's the magic in skidding through the intersection?  Where's the magic in not knowing how on earth you are going to get home at night?

Where's the magic in wearing blue jeans and snow boots to work every day?  Where's the magic of not being able to see where you are driving?  Where's the magic of no snowplows operating in the state that claims to have the greatest snow on earth?

I have one good thing to say about the snow.  It took me an hour to get home from work yesterday, but my very kind senior vice president told everyone to head out early (thanks T.T. for caring about your employees; it's much appreciated.)  I headed up to J.'s school and picked her up, and when I pulled into our parking space, heart pounding, we start yelling and shouting that we'd made it home.  It was a moment to rival the ending of any Rocky movies. 

And now, I don't have to drive in any snow for the next two weeks if I don't want to do so.  That's some real holiday magic to me.

Love,
Rachel

Data Recoverist

I think I want to be a data recoverist when I grow up.  After talking with friends, I've calculated the average time of a laptop hard drive to be about 2 years, which makes it practically a consumable.  No wonder prices on computers are falling--they are only a shell for a hard drive.  I know that there are people out there who excel at backing up their data, but apparently there are others out there like me who take a risk and practically lose everything.  I was quoted prices ranging from $25 to $2400 for data recovery service, and since I believed the lower and higher ends to be equally as ridiculous, I chose a price which I believed to be realistic based on the number of hours that C. advised me it would take to fix my computer.

If I had the skills to recover data for people, it would be a great service oriented business to offer.  Since I believe that hard drives will continue to be consumables, that means that the number of people who need data recovered will likely continue to increase.  And having data recovered isn't a folly--for those of us who are aspiring novelists or for those who make their living on the computer, it's a necessity.  Plus, you know people always say that if they had a fire, they'd grab their photo albums?  Well, what about grabbing photos from your smokin' hard drive?

 I am taking the advice of an e-mail I received and looking upon the fixing of my computer as an investment. And, as C. said, the value of my content is worth much more than the cost to recover and fix my computer.   I wonder how many others would feel the same way.

The good news is that Harrison was able to recover my novel and everything else that was hiding behind the MBR error.  He's also fixing up my computer with a brand-new hard drive and some other things that it needs to run more efficiently.  Thank goodness for Harrison--my laptop shell will get another 2 years, and I will be more diligent about backing up those things which are important to me.

Love, Rachel

Life without Internet

Last night, I made the conscious choice not to bring my work laptop home.  I knew if it was there that I’d be inclined to work and check my e-mail.  So, when I got home, and J. was with her dad, and C. was at a business dinner, it was just me and Jasmine (my cat) and NO INTERNET for three whole hours until J. came home.  I didn’t realize how addicted I was to my computer or how much time I spent checking e-mail, facebook, blogs, and www.lowcarbfriends.com until I didn’t have any internet access last night.

 Honestly, except for the fact that I couldn’t work on either my novel or my upcoming writing classes, it was kind of nice.  I watched a television show without surfing the web at the same time.  I re-read The China Study.  I took what must have been a must-needed nap (all the cold-weather stress has been wearing me out.)  And I thought about exercising (but ultimately didn’t.) 

 I had some writing ideas but I didn’t write them down because it seemed like to write them by hand would take too long (how is that for lazy?)  And I kept thinking about how I could go online and check out: a special offer I saw on television, the reactions of my friends to the winner of the Biggest Loser,  my brother’s street addresses, a recipe for scalloped potatoes, and so on.

 I even had a great idea about blogging about my internet-less life, but I had to laugh because I can’t exactly blog while I’m not on the computer now, can  I?

 As of today, my computer is in the hands of Harrison at Premier Networking services.  Hopefully he’ll be able to work some IT magic on my hard drive and recover my lost files.  He’s assured me that it will probably all work out just fine.  Until then, I need to decide how many nights I’m willing to be internet-free. 

 Love, Rachel