18 September 2005

Expanding my Borders

Well, maybe not literally. After talking with my friend Stan!, I decided to give a go at doing my writing at a local coffee shop ("Seattle's Best") which just happens to be attached to a Borders Books in lovely Carlsbad.

Are you wondering why I chose to try this? Do you realize that I'm going to tell you, even if you aren't?

Writing at home is all well and good, but there's too much distraction. Between the cats that meander around (and over) me, the siren call of the television, the tractor beam-like pull of Al Gore's internet, and easy access to a relatively comfortable bed or sofa for when I can't keep my eyes propped open, there's a lot to compete with my desire to sit down and get actual work done.

Long story short, I hopped in my car yesterday and drove to Borders. I found a nice table against a wall with easy access to a wall outlet, plugged in my Dell Inspiron 600m, and got to business. Three hours later, I had 3,000 more words done than I'd had when I'd arrived. Despite the occasional distraction (the espresso machine, girls in skin-tight denim, high school kids bitching about calculus homework), it worked out really well.

After all, it was crunch time. It still is crunch time, come to think of it. I've got a little more work to do before I can send in my final for the WFRP project. The latest deadline for my turnover is tomorrow. I was apprehensive earlier in the week, but things seem to have turned around. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I can send my work to Rob Schwalb and be proud.

In other news...

I've been invited to work on another Midnight project, and will be contributing about 16k words to it. I could've handled more than that, but I'm trying to take it somewhat easy on the off chance that I get an offer of work from the guys in the Big Leagues. Knock on wood.

Anyway, I want to put my head down for a few minutes (what was that I said about comfortable beds and sofas getting in the way of work?), and then wash my hands of that last Chapter.

No comments: