Stuck in a Winter Wonderland

This week was.... um.... interesting. The Northeast of the US got hit by "Winter storm/blizzard Stella" last week. The majority of it came down last Tuesday, cancelling my writer's group meeting. It also meant I had all day inside. A day where I could get away with not doing laundry or other errands because I was snowed in. It wasn't my fault. I wasn't being lazy. I just had no choice. A guilt-free day to ignore adulthood.

As Judy Reeves wrote in "A Writer's Book of Days":

Snowbound

(or The Serendipitous Effects of Bad Weather on a Good Writer)

There's six feet of new snow, and outside your window a gauzy shroud of white obliterates any horizon....

Let's just say that, for whatever reason, and through forces outside your control, you're homebound for the day. Consider this a gift. You've been given a writing day, free and clear.

This is a day for snugging in. Think of words like warm, fuzzy, cozy. Brew up some cocoa; hot, spiced tea; coffee with warmed milk. A few cookies or some buttered toast won't go astray. Build a crackling fire or, lacking a fireplace, encircle your nest with candles. Get your notebook, your favorite pen, and settle in.

Warm up with a five-minute writing... then maybe a ten-minute writing.... Refresh your coffee or tea, give the fire a poke, and encamp yourself again. Release all constraints of time and begin another writing session. Continue writing one of the pieces you've already begun, or start fresh.... Instead of stopping after fifteen or twenty minutes, keep going. When you come to what might be a stopping place, don't mark a period on the page but instead put a comma and keep writing. Or begin again with a connector such as then or however or instead of or but and allow the pen to begin its meanderings anew. Write as long as you want. Let this be a leisurely session; there's no schedule to keep, nothing to do instead of write.

Well, we only had about three feet of snow; not six. Maybe that's why I didn't spend the day writing. I spent it cleaning the apartment. Still a productive day, right? I did do a lot of reading, and I did write for at least 15minutes in the evening as I FINALLY got around to responding as Trish over on the X-Future boards. Only kept me like three months....

Not the most inspiring way to use a snowday. Hubby and I watched movies, snuggled warmly in the living room. I did some cleaning. I watched him play more "Breath of the Wild." I did some reading. I finally got around to filling out the official character sheet for Jynna. I still need to officially write up her backstory so that Hubby can approve, and then I can write that out on her character sheet as well.

Then, Wednesday, I had the fun of doing this for most of my morning:

Fun, right?

More cleaning commenced inside once I was done unburying myself, my work, and my in-laws. No reading was done, but I did get another prompt finished. Poor Lia has been off on the sidelines for a while. I've written about the yet-to-be-fully-formed Elymoxa the Gnome. I've had two stories to help me get into character with Jynna. Amara re-emerged for a short. I even had the umph to write Trish's part on the X-Future boards. Willow I've had some posts on the boards before the game died off. Lia? She's been kind of quiet, but she piped up a bit on Wednesday. That was exciting.

It was also the last thing I wrote for the week.... From Thursday on it was all about playing catch-up, on work, on the last of the remaining chores, on the errands I couldn't do in the snow, etc.

I'm not sure what's up with me this winter. I just don't have the drive and NEED to write like I did last year. I'm not entirely sure how to fix that, either, which is the truly sad thing. My exercising and waistline have also fallen to the wayside, if that is any indicator. Something about winter, even a mild one like we had - minus last week's storm, always makes me want to hibernate on the couch.

Now that it's officially spring, maybe I can get myself back on track. To try to start the trend, I actually took the time to type up a couple more of my writing prompts. I'm now up to January 7th.

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Progress is progress, I guess. At least writing wise I'm up to January 18th. Not much better, but still... Hubby's going to have to go "full grounding" and send me to our room as well, not just swipe my computer. I still don't seem to be getting anywhere that way.

Well, while I'm trying to get my footing again, here are my January 6th and 7th writing prompt works:

"Quick Thoughts on Time Travel"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

This one is super short at only 562 words. Not at all what I was intending when I read the prompt, but I "trusted the pen" and ended up with a micro-essay, as it were.

"Nature Can Bite Me"

On DeviantArt           On FictionPress

An actual narrative, but this one is still only 829 words. I finally have another flash to send to Ronoxym. We'll just ignore that I wrote it back on February 9th.... Doing so well on those writing New Years Resolutions, guys!