Today I finished my word count requirement for the day before 5:30 am. And that is how this fabulous day in paradise began.

I’ve ran (treadmills are evil, but we gotta do what we gotta do in 20 degree weather), sat through lectures, sent e-mails, edited articles…it never stops. I even had lunch with my former RA, stayed awake during chapel (the whole time) and crossed some things off my to-do list I’ve pretty much been avoiding for multiple consecutive weeks. But starting my day with a few thousand words was probably the best way to kick-start what is usually the toughest day of the week for me. (I have to watch the camel commercial at least twelve times, usually).

Every once in awhile I’ll have a writing day where everything I end up typing all ends up in the same scene. In today’s case, I didn’t even get to the end of the scene before I hit my daily quota. (If I had time to go over that limit, I would have – but I don’t.) Today, Callie and Becky sat in Callie’s car and talked about Ashley, and then – AHA! – Callie met Austin for the first time. Big epic foreshadowing moment. Yikes.

In case you were wondering (or are now thoroughly confused), I do not write in order. Not only that, but my story doesn’t even play out chronologically. The two points of view shift from Ashley to Callie back-and-forth, but time also shifts between past and present. The present is only one day’s duration throughout the book, but the past covers about three years. I’m really excited. The more I dive in, the more I discover about the characters, even some things they know that I don’t.

I guess this goes with anything – like my research, for example. The more I get into the literature the less overwhelming it seems. And then there’s biochemistry – well, we’ll save that for a bit later tonight when I’m done typing out nonsense for the virtual world to read. Okay, maybe not nonsense. We’ll call this productive procrastination.

Things I still need to do: put together a resume for my English seminar, come up with interview questions for an article I’m working on, register for the GRE, more things you don’t care about, blah, blah, kittens.

I miss my kitten. I get to see her in two weeks.

Writing tip of the day: when you don’t know how to transition from one awkward topic to another, insert a random word at the end of your latest sentence. That will send you off on another glorious literary tangent.

Speaking of literature, I should probably start on that ten-page paper due in a week and a half.

What have I been doing the past two weeks, anyway?

Oh, right. Writing.

Love&hugs, Meg<3