This was going to be a super-productive day. Heading to the book fair at school first thing* , swinging by my husband’s store to do a few hours of accounting before heading home to do some writing, and some planning for some AAMP** events we have coming up in the next few weeks.

It didn’t work out that way.

I did go to the book fair (yay!) and I did get to the store to do some accounting, but then I got tangled in a number-y mess that I kept getting glimpses of how to untangle. The glimpses gave me hope but it didn’t unravel quickly: it took all day.

The good news is that I did get it unravelled and the unravelling got me past several stumbling blocks in organizing that work. The bad news is that I am now writing at 11pm again. This doesn’t work well with getting up at 6:45 for yoga, but I’ll do it anyway – the yoga won’t do itself.

Speaking of my writing, I’m having a hell of a time with one of my characters. I’m used to my characters surprising me – they do that all the time.  What I’m not used to is one of them flatly refusing to settle into any behaviour at all. In my novel last year (she’s a recurring character), she was friendly and a little uptight.  This year she’s brilliant but flaky, and very concerned about odd things (not in a mentally ill way***, but in a quirky sort of way – and no, I don’t know exactly where that line is drawn, but like someone said about p*rn – I know it when I see it). I can’t tell if these are all facets of the same personality, or if I’m writing about different people. I hope it becomes more obvious as the story develops.

Writing this as part and parcel of a plan to teach myself to more effectively time and plan projects has made me even more aware of my own habits while writing. Not in the ‘compulsively drink tea’ sense, but in the ‘how I approach writing, how much writing it takes to make me feel like I’ve accomplished something, and what ‘good’ writing feels like’ sense. I have to do even more reflecting (me? NO!) before I have get into discussing a lot of it, but if you were wondering where all this wondering is coming from – there you go.

*2nd time in two days – two bookish boys and bookish mom =expensive visit

**The event info is going up tomorrow some time.

***Definitely NOT slagging the mentally ill here. Just clarifying the level and type of behaviour I mean.