I was very naughty this morning and skipped my writing class. While I am really enjoy the class, I didn't feel particularly engaged in this week's reading, and I also want to use the three-day weekend to accomplish as much as possible with my romance novel. Given that after my previous classes I've had no desire to write romance the rest of the day, I didn't want to waste today. And, in addition to all of those excuses, I was feeling lazy today, and decided to indulge because I've indulged my laziness so much less in the past few months than I used to.
I wasn't really that lazy; I still got up, showered, and was out the door by 9:30am. I walked down to Union Square during one of the breaks in today's rainy weather patterns with the intention of exchanging some jeans at the Gap (I accidentally bought a pair that was meant for girls who are 5'8", which I am clearly not), but I couldn't find the style that I wanted, so I guess I'll just get these shortened. Instead, I bought some new pajamas -- I haven't had any new pajamas in a couple of years, and these were on sale and super cute. Then, I went to Samovar in Yerba Buena Gardens, and had my favorite (salmon quiche, fruit, a scone, and English Breakfast tea) while brainstorming what I want to incorporate into Ferguson and Madeleine's story.
I wanted a masala chai, but I was getting antsy to write, so I walked back to Union Square, hopped on a bus, and came home (with a brief stop to buy fresh milk for the tea binging that I knew would have to fuel my writing). I spent some significant time this afternoon figuring out the timeline and continuity and birthdays of all the main characters in my books -- it's important to get all of the ages consistent now, because the same characters will show up in multiple books, and it wouldn't do at all to have one person age five years between books when another person only ages two. I also did a bit of ridiculousness and tried to match characters to zodiac signs -- for instance, I think that Amelia was a Taurus and Malcolm was a Scorpio, while Ferguson is an Aries and Madeleine is a Pisces. Not that any of these signs are particularly great together, but it was an interesting "thought exercise", as they say in the business world, to pair up fictional characters with traits that the different zodiac signs supposedly embody. And, giving them concrete birthdays helps with the continuity so that someone doesn't accidentally stay twenty-seven for sixteen months (although I personally wouldn't mind if that happened to me).
I also did some completely unnecessary procrastination in the form of trip planning. I do want to take a vacation, I don't want to spend a lot of money, and I want to go someplace where I can both relax and do a ton of writing. So I started looking around -- and weirdly, it seems like I can go anywhere I would want to go in practically the whole world for a week in March for ~$1500 for combined flight/hotel. I'm serious -- places as different as Paris, London, Hawaii, Tokyo, Prague, Buenos Aires, and even Cairns, Cape Town and Singapore, all for ~$1500. Not to say $1500 is nothing -- but that is *insanely* cheap for a flight to Australia + five or six nights in a hotel. Ditto for Tokyo, Cape Town, and Singapore, all of which are on the other side of the world. Hawaii is where I really want to go -- I would like to get some sun, work on my (totally nonexistent) tan, drink some fruity cocktails, and spend a week writing by the ocean. But Paris or London would be good for research, while Tokyo and Singapore would be both interesting and fun (since Alaska Matt is in Tokyo and Joann, Sarah, Jay, and others are in Singapore). And really, if all those other places are that cheap, it seems silly to spend the same amount to go someplace in the United States, even if that someplace is a tropical paradise thousands of miles away from here.
So we'll see -- I have to get permission to take the time off first. And yes, Vidya, I want to come to Boston -- but I'm saving that trip for next quarter, when my company will pay for me to go.
Anyway, after all that, I still managed to write 4295 words tonight, for a total of almost twenty pages. That puts me at 26,976 words so far, or about 30% of the way through the book. I would like to write another 10,000 words this weekend -- with Monday off, it's doable, although I don't exactly want to go back to work completely exhausted either. But I'm so lucky that I'm not seeing anyone, or else I would have wasted tonight with the whole dinner and romance thing -- instead of the dinner and romance thing I had, which was a peanut butter sandwich, a big glass of wine, and a few hours of making up a romance between two fictional characters. That's only sad if you let yourself think it's sad -- and I don't, because right now I wouldn't have it any other way.
It's bedtime -- happy Valentine's day!
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