Dear Diary . . . day by day

Monday, July 9th, 2001 - The Benefits of Being, Dating and Knowing a Writer

Ah, Monday. I woke up with an upset tummy and a very stiff neck, so I am not working my paltry four hours today. I am reading some and looking very much forward to seeing Dr. Wong in an hour or so instead.
Yesterday turned out to be a nicer day than I expected. The morning found me a little stressed about Tim leaving that evening, but I got over that and fell into our sweet, domestic rhythm instead. It was truly nice, having him here; it's a neat little preview into what it's going to be like to live with him.
The night before we'd stayed up late drinking wine and having wonderful conversation with Susan. She's getting to be a real friend, someone I can talk to unselfconsciously, and that's just so cool. It's not something that you can make happen, but after awhile you get used to people you like and start feeling like you can just talk and know it will probably all turn out good. I even made a few major unthinking remarks on Saturday night (unthinking in that I was just saying something as a response, whether or not it followed, not unthinking as in unkind) and I wasn't worried that everyone thought I was an idiot. That's a relief; sometimes I blurt idiotic things, and it's good to surround myself with folks who know me better than that.
Not sure that made any sense, but I'm writing fast so as to not be on the computer too long . . .
David had joined us for dinner earlier on Saturday, but he left after not too long. Both Tim and David are quiet around people they don't know very well (which, in their case, still includes one another) so before Susan got there I was feeling a little pressured to keep conversation flowing. It's odd, being around two people you can talk to so easily and having it suddenly be something of an effort.
Anyway. Sunday. Sunday turned out lovely, with Tim and I traipsing off to Gaylords to talk about novels. I have a novel idea (well, it's one of those short stories that I thought wants to be a novel), and I decided see what Tim, writer of several novels himself, thought of it. Not only did he think it was a viable idea, but he really helped me start to think of it in terms of pacing, chapters, plot. He came up with some good questions (a few of which reminded me of stuff I had already resolved but had forgotten about) and some interesting suggestions. After talking to him, I was all ready to write my outline. Outlines, actually, as I'm not sure whether to do alternating chapters or flashbacks, so I want to play with both ideas. I have the feeling that if I can just see what each chapter is supposed to be, it will be in small enough chunks that I'll actually be able to tackle it. To work on it. To finish it in the next year. I'm excited about my novel. It's going to have, as Tim always says, "cool stuff in it". I can see how to do it. I think I'm going to do it. Yay!
Let me just stop and count my lucky stars to have landed a cool, creative boyfriend who has already worked through this novel thing and knows something of how it works. I was feeling very overwhelmed by the size of the project, but he's managed to make me feel as if it's truly doable. The cool thing is, Tim and I are both writers, but we write very different kinds of fiction. This is a good thing.
Speaking of my wonderful, writerific boyfriend: Tim sent out his novel this weekend! He let me kiss it and slide into the mailbox for him, which made me very proud and honored. On Sunday night we went and celebrated with beer and pizza and Susan and M'ris and Timprov and Mark. We had much fun (and ice cream afterwards!). I like having dinner with smart, fun people. I'm all inspired to finish my novel so that I get my first novel-celebration dinner soon.
By the way, I read the first three chapters of Tim's novel, and I really like it. No, I don't like everything he does, so I was pleased to read these and find myself thinking, "wow, this writer sure knows a lot about gods . . . oh, hey, I'm dating him. Wow." I'm also reading American Gods right now and I'm finding that I'm remembering scenes from Tim's book (Genius of Deceit) and trying to recall where they fit in in Gaiman's storyline. In other words, Tim's novel is timely; there's a similarly themed book on the NY Times bestseller list right now. Tim's book is good. So far it's interesting, well-written and I am wanting to read on. Personally, I think he has a good chance of selling this baby.
I'm so very proud of him.

Exercise log:
Not enough.
Writing log:
Bouncing novel ideas off of Tim. See entry for further details.
I'm currently reading:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My new PO Box is:
Heather Shaw
P.O. Box 13222
Berkeley, CA 94712-4222

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