My Mug is (Probably) Bigger than Your Mug

I never used to drink coffee.

In fact, I couldn't stand the taste of it. At all. But I needed a wake-up boost. I tried those caffeine pills (I don't know if they still sell them or not), but when that boost wore off, it was crash and burn time. There was no taking another one and continuing the energy.

Once that baby was done, I hit the wall and that was it. And I ended up with a horrible headache. I only took them in desperate--very desperate--times.

I don't drink pop. I can't stand carbonation, and if you think that was inconvenient, you have no idea. It was especially bad when we went on field trips in school and all the other kids had pop cans wrapped in tin foil and I had nothing to drink. This also means to caffeine from soda.

The need for caffeine increased when I worked for Northwest Airlines. Early mornings, long days, going home and trying to write, and once I sold my first book, the need to stay awake became worse. I went from writing a book in 18 months as an unpublished author, to having a four-month deadline for my second published book. Can we say terror?

Someone suggested I try International Coffee. (Not sponsored!) It was flavored instant coffee and the French vanilla became my lifeline. It was also expensive, but I got addicted fast. I still remember one Saturday sitting in the chair and not moving for hours. I finally thought, why am I sitting here? I have things to do and I had enough sleep, but I feel lethargic. I decided to make a cup of coffee. Instant coffee. Instant energy.

And then a friend sent me real coffee because she didn't realize what I was drinking. Two pounds of ground coffee from an actual coffee shop. I had to use my parents' coffee maker because I didn't own one. I had a lot of trial and error with sweetener and creamer and then I discovered nirvana.

When I finished the coffee she sent as a gift, I went online to try to buy more from that coffee shop, but the shipping costs were cringe-worthy. I was still living in Minnesota then and Caribou Coffee (Not sponsored! Sadly, I buy all my own coffee) was all around me. I tried their bags of coffee and that's what I've been drinking ever since.

In the large mug. The huge mug. The mug that probably holds about 28 ounces of coffee.

Now, before you worry about my caffeine intake, I’ll confess that I make my coffee on the weak side. Even after all these years, I’m still drinking what I’ve been jokingly told is dessert coffee.

And honestly? That’s accurate.

My brew is probably half-strength, filled with stevia and creamer, and sort of on the blonde side. I love the taste of dessert coffee. I’m just still not a fan of the unaltered stuff. It’s coffee with training wheels—and I’m fine with that.

And if my mug is bigger than the average mug, I’m probably still not getting the caffeine hit a real coffee drinker gets. Creamer takes up space.

Tools That Almost Work

I'm always looking for new things to try when it comes to writing. New ways to keep track of things, new ways to think about a story, new software.

A few months ago, I was looking for a lost file (not story related). It was a template for logging word count, and while I had a copy that I was using, I didn't know where the original was. I ended up doing a search in File Explorer and it was in a weird folder that must have made sense to me at the time.

High Priority To Be Printed.

I don't know why I thought I wanted to print a spreadsheet, but I also found some other tools and templates that I'd purchased to try with writing. One of them had promise.

I've blogged about the Twelve Box Comic Panel that I use (when I remember) to keep track of scenes in my book. It's helpful to glance and know whose Point of View I was in, a sentence or two about what happened in the scene, and where it took place. I even laminated these sheets so that I could use them with wet erase markers. I don't need to keep these pages once the book is finished, only while I'm writing.

But one of the tools I bought had a four column list of things to keep track of. The items were: The chapter (I divided the circle in half to keep track of scene, too. Like Ch 1/Sc 2), external conflict, plot point, day/time, internal conflict, setting, and characters. (No pictures to share since I purchased this template and it wouldn't be fair to the creator.)

I liked this layout. It does the same thing as my Twelve Box Comic Panel, but things are separated out instead of lumped into one box.

Since it seemed like something that would work for me, I started to use it and I liked it. Mostly. I discovered that I don't want to keep track of the external and internal conflict chapter by chapter. I also discovered that it did not give me enough room to record my plot points and there were times the box for characters was too small, too. 

I tried to create my own template based on this form, but gave up pretty quickly. Sadly, my graphic design skills are poor. Very poor. And while I probably could eventually come up with something I liked, it felt like a lot of time where I wouldn't be writing.

Then I had another idea. I have all these stencils I have to use in my planner. What if I used them in my series notebook to draw the boxes in the sizes I want/need?

I did a trial run last night after I was done working for the day and it seems it might work out.

When I talked about creating my own writing planner, I think I mentioned that I tried planners created by other authors that just didn't work for me. Some of it was because of how my brain works and some of it was because they wanted to keep track of things I didn't and there was a lot of wasted real estate. When I bought a dashboard planner and altered it to work the way I needed it to, it was a revelation.

This template/form is kind of the same thing. Once I get it to work for me, it will be fabulous. I just need to do some resizing and relabeling first. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving for my American friends!

 

Backwards Momentum

Over the weekend, I reached a point where I only have about a dozen chapters left to write in the first draft of Wicked Temptation. It's not quite my favorite place in writing a book, but it's in the top 5.

Only twelve chapters left means it's time to backward plan.

I do this every book. I pull out my series notebook, number out the remaining chapters, and starting from the end of the book, I write down what I think will happen and in which chapter it will occur. If I'm not sure, I leave the line blank with the idea of adding to it later.

Why is this one of my favorite parts of writing? It means I'm close enough to the end that I not only know what needs to happen, I now need to make sure I have room for it. It's like a reverse engineered blueprint for the remainder of the book.

Along with this backwards momentum plotting also comes a moment of panic. I have so much story left to tell. How can I hope to fit it all in the chapters I have remaining?

This happens every book, and somehow it all always fits. That allows me to relax a little because been there, done that is reassuring.

Once I mapped out this loose map, and identified the chapters where I know certain things will happen, I can write forward more confidently.

I love it when a plan comes together. ;-) 

Daily Snapshot

I saw a stamp set for "Currently" and missed out on it because it was for subscribers and the kit was sold out. I was disappointed because it seemed like such a fun way to do a daily snapshot.

As it turned out, I found another Currently stamp set and this one offered more than the four options of the stamp set I couldn't get my hands on.

I tested it out in my planner, which might not have been my best choice. The image is at the left. This was a couple of months ago, and I think I mentioned, I'm stamping challenged. I'm still stamping challenged. I thought I was improving. Then I did the stamping for this month in my notebook and it was like, um, yeah. Not so much.

Here is my November notebook.

As you can see, the stamping didn't go well this month. It's messy and I ended up changing ink part way through, but it was already too late.

I think this is a nice snapshot of my day.

Currently Reading. I don't always have a book on a day because if I'm doing a lot of writing, I don't feel like reading. Makes it tough with library books.

Currently Listening. I'm in my Moana soundtrack phase. Again. You're Welcome. It's almost time to switch to Christmas music.

Currently Writing. Still working on Wicked Temptation. I have a word count goal, and I'm past the halfway point on that. But the story isn't at the halfway point yet, so this story might be finishing a little long. I usually throw in what chapter I worked on that day.

Currently Loving. I like this category because it can literally be anything.

Currently Watching. This is usually some sort of YouTube video since I don't watch much television.

Today. This box is for a highlight of the day. Again, it can be anything and I like the optionality.

The other thing in this notebook is the Gratitude section. I didn't take a picture of this month's section, but here's a picture from earlier. I think this is October's notebook.

I don't only use stamps in these notebooks. I add stickers and cards and all kinds of decoration. Anything that makes it fun.

This notebook is far from perfect and this sort of bothers me because I am a perfectionist, but I've reached a point where I can tell myself: You'll do better next month. And then move on. Although the fall off from my good October stamping to November is discouraging, but I'm POSITIVE that I'll do great in December. I bought new ink, and since part of my problem was moving on before the stamp was dry, I'll move slower and be more patient.

Not easy for me. I have ADHD and am easily distractable, but maybe I can read while I wait for the ink to dry in December. :-)

Despite all this, it's a nice way to be creative that uses different brain cells than writing, so I get the creativity boost without the drain. The more creativity my brain is exposed to, the easier it is to write. That's my theory anyway.

If December doesn't stink, I'll post pictures of my notebook on Instagram. You can find me there as: @author_pattioshea