Syndactyl Salutations

Thoughts on writing, knitting, and the world around me.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Snow Day!

Er, except for the fact that I didn't actually have to leave the house to work. But snow it did. We got several inches and I decided to just stay home all day. Lancaster Yarn Shop's new location's opening was postponed until tomorrow, so I didn't have to feel guilty about missing it.

I did my proofreading project, which was a small one, and the client stopped by this afternoon and got it while I was shoveling piles of light, fluffy snow off of the steps and sidewalk in front of the house. I knew she was coming, since I wasn't planning to go downtown until tomorrow (which originally she'd been fine with), and had decided to take advantage of the waiting time to get the snow moved. My only concern about my shoveling is the possibility of a super-thin scrim of ice forming on the steps and walk in the sub-freezing cold we're supposed to have overnight. I'll have to look carefully at the steps, and put more salt down, when I leave to run my errands tomorrow. I'm trying to avoid falling again, if possible.

I am planning to do some writing later this evening, but probably won't get started on editing a long-neglected manuscript, yet again. I printed the whole thing out a couple of weeks ago and put it in a portfolio with a blank spiral notebook, but that's as far as I've gotten. I look at it every day (it's sticking out of my document file at an angle), but haven't opened it. I'm pretty sure I'm afraid it's going to be a huge, un-fixable mess that will represent years of wasted creative energy. Sad, I know, especially since it's probably not entirely true. There will probably be plenty that needs chucking, but some that will make sense and be at least workable. I came across a couple of days worth of Nano 2008-that-was-not (one of these years I WILL complete it again!) yesterday when I was uploading stuff from my Neo to clear it for super-mobile typing opportunities that actually wasn't half bad, so maybe there is hope for the other, if I can just convince myself to sit down and start reading, and eventually start retyping.

My editor sent me the early issue of the magazine I write for, with one of my articles in it. She assigns them in clusters, but they don't always end up running in the issue immediately following the assignment. It's validating to actually see work there, with my name attached, but I know I need to do more, to get beyond one proofreading client and one writing client. At this point I'm clearly still swimming in the shallow, hobbyist pool, and haven't figured out how to propel myself to the deep end with the pros.

The lack of momentum/overabundance of fear regarding my writing/editing aspirations explains why I have spent the past week reading the blog archives of Havi Brooks at The Fluent Self (link originally found at Enchanting Juno). She talks a lot about figuring out what is keeping you from doing the thing you know you should be doing, getting past fear, getting yourself out there in ways that feel right and not pushy or obnoxious. She offers workshops and classes and consulting services, but right now I don't feel like I can afford to pay for any of it, so I'm starting of by reading her blog from start to present, as well as what some of her commenters have to say, just to give myself something to think about, and perhaps a better starting point from which to proceed. I don't read entire blog archives for every blog I stumble upon, but I am getting a lot out of this one.

Other than doing business reading, completing a short job, and shoveling snow, it was a pretty low-key day. I started a swatch with a mystery orange tweedy yarn that could become a vest (and about five other things, there's a fair amount of it) if I can get anything close to gauge and if it softens up considerably in the washing. I'm usually not so diligent with the swatching, but there was no way of avoiding it with this yarn.

Enough, have a good evening.

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