Saturday 20 March 2010

It's The Weekend


I'm so excited. My boy (well, he's not exactly a boy any more) is arriving home from uni this afternoon. Grumps will be escstatic to see him and after screeching - I think he thinks he's barking - and bouncing around the hall to show J how delighted he is to have him back home, he'll then start showing off by rolling on the floor.

Thankfully the time should pass fairly quickly before J arrives home as I have a busy day ahead. This morning I'm going to a friend's for tea/coffee and the lightest, tastiest cupcakes ever made. She is a cupcake genius and occasionally will bring in a baker's tray with 100 of them to the office. She's invited a group of us who work together to her house to catch up with two friends who left our company a couple of months ago, so it should be a fun few hours.

Then I'll do the usual food shopping, before working on my WIP. I'm taking Julie Cohen's advice from the interview she kindly gave me for Novelicious, and allowing myself to 'write crap'. It's definately helping, and although I'd like to sit down and write the perfect first draft, I can safely relax in the knowledge that it isn't going to happen. So, I'm going to concentrate on getting the story down on my laptop and will take it from there. I'm loving it though and have a hard time shifting my characters from my brain when I go to bed, so that I can sleep.

Have a great weekend.

29 comments:

Joanne said...

If those characters are stuck in your brain at night, you're definitely in the wonderful writing "zone." Enjoy it!

Jenny Beattie said...

Enjoy those cupcakes, Debs and have a lovely time with your son.

Faye said...

If only we could all be as uninhibited as His Grumpiness! That photo made me laugh out loud. Enjoy your son's visit and other weekend diversions, Debs.

Alice said...

Cupcakes sound divine!!! enjoy. I think Julie gave me the same advice and it does help. Write anything! and then you have something to work with :-) good luck!!!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

joanne - I love it when my characters take over, but wish I could spend more time with them than I am able to.

jj - many thanks, m'dear.

faye - wouldn't that be so nice.

It's going to be great having him back for a bit.

alice - they are delicious and so light.

I'm taking Julie's advice and running with it. It seems to be working so far.

HelenMWalters said...

It sounds like you have a wonderful weekend lined up. Hope you enjoy it.

DAB said...

Allowing myself to 'write crap' I'm liking the sound of that! :-) Have a great weekend m'dear

Carol said...

It sounds like you have a mighty fine weekend planned...cupcakes, chat, your son home and the writing is going well...it doesn't really get better than that does it!!

C x

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

helen - thanks.

The sun is shining today, which is an added bonus.

tom foolery - I love the idea of allowing myself to write crap.

carol - it doesnt. Thanks.

Liane Spicer said...

Hope your weekend is going great! Every Friday I want to do just what Grumps is doing in the photo! Weekends are the best!

Kaye Manro said...

That is such good advice from Julie. I think I write crap mostly, lol. But I work so hard on rewriting. JA Konrath once said (others before him I suspect) that writing is really rewriting. So go for the crap. I always do!

Melissa Amateis said...

Oh, I hope you are having a lovely time with your son!!! (Did he bring home his dirty laundry? lol)

I have had to give myself permission to write crap. And boy, it's been crap lately, that's for sure.

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

liane - I agree. I wish that the weekends lasted a couple more days at least.

kaye - I definately do a lot of rewriting too.

melissa - yes thank you, it's gret to have him back for a while. He did bring back his dirty laundry, but it's still in his room!

DJ Kirkby said...

Did you actually manage to fit ALL of that in before your 'boy' got home? Love the photo of Divadog. x

Denise said...

100 cupcakes - what a beautiful sight that must be! Hope you had fun.

Michelle said...

Hope you have a lovely weekedn with your grown up boy. My little girl loved the picture of Grumpy I had up on FB earlier today - though she was puzzled by his name!!

Denise Covey said...

'Write crap.' I do that all the time! Better than not writing at all. Hmm, cupcakes...

Chris Stovell said...

I think there is a lot to be said for the ' get it written then get it write' approach... but I still find it hard to do. 100 cupcakes might help!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

dj - yes, but he didn't get back until 6pm - flight delayed.

Divadog is such a show-off.

denise - it is a beautiful sight and the best thing is that they taste as good as they look.

michelle - we had a lovely time, thank you.

His real name isn't Grumpy although I do refer to him as that here. He always looks such a misery and is always moaning about something though, and is more of a Grumble than a Grumpy really.

L'Aussie - I agree and by allowing ourselves to write crap, we probably end up writing something that we end up being happy with.

chris - cupcake should be medicine for most ailments, I think. I'm sure they'd work for me.

Phillipa said...

Hope you had a wonderful weekend with your son, Debs. P x

Anna Scott Graham said...

We just said goodbye to our eldest, so you enjoy every minute with J while he's home!!

Anne Lamott calls them shitty first drafts. I just love that!

And I love cupcakes too, mmmm.... Maybe a little baking will commence in a day or two! :)))

Karen said...

Love the photo, and hope you had a lovely weekend :o)

I know what you mean about not being able to sleep when characters take over!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

phillipa - many thanks.

anna - sympathies - it's hard having to say goodbye to them.

I love that. Mine are definitely shitty first drafts!

karen - I did, thanks.

I must admit I would rather listen to my characters than many real life people ;)

B.E. Sanderson said...

Grumps is such a cutie. I remember how our dog got when my brother came home on leave. Such a happy guy. =o)

Hurray for giving yourself permission to write crap. You can always fix it later, but you can't fix what you haven't written. If I didn't push through the crap scenes, I'd never finish anything. ;o)

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

B.E. - he is a bit of a cupcake, isn't he?

I agree. You can't rewrite nothing, so at least if I write crap first, then I can rework it to perfection - well, that's the intention anyhow!

Suzanne Ross Jones said...

Sorry, arriving very late (where's the time gone?) but hope you had a great weekend.

XX

Leigh Russell said...

I'm sure you had a great weekend, debs.
As for the writing, I think that's very sound advice. I always edit and rewrite, so never worry too much about getting the wording absolutely right in the first draft. Small changes in plot have a knock on effect on following chapters too, which necessitates more changes. So just go with the flow and enjoy it. The polishing and perfecting (I wish, in my case!) can come later.

Flowerpot said...

that all sounds good Debs - and love the picture of Grumpy! Molls does exactly that too!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

suzanne - it was a busy, but fun weekend, thanks.

leigh - I agree. I'm finding it so much easier to get on with it now that I've allowed myself the freedom to just go with the story and not worry so much.

flowerpot - they make me laugh when they do this. So sweet.