Another grand day in Streeterville. Last evening we had torrential downpours so hard I couldn't even see Navy Pier. I awoke this morning to see that the rain had ceased but it was still cloudy. Had a breakfast date with Babs and we sat outside, because even if it were overcast, it was warm enough (High 60's at the time.). On the way home the sun came out briefly, and I was nearly blinded, but only for a short while. Fog rolled in off the lake and for most of the day the fog has been thick enough to obscure anything across the street. It is currently 71 degrees and the fog has thinned out sufficiently that I can at least view Streeterville Bay, if not the deeper water beyond and that 71 degree number is questionable. Living right across the street from a lake with a 53 degree water temperature, it is often, as they say, "cooler by the lake," meaning it's actually 65 degrees out the front door. Doesn't do much for a person's motivation to sing things like, "Hot town, summer in the city..."
Ordinarily, summers are for being outside and playing tennis, and riding bikes, and running, and all manner of outdoorsy stuff. The weather has conspired to keep me from this, but in addition I am attempting to write a novel this summer. Three days into my summer vacation, I am 14 pages into my novel and I have spent the majority of the last three days either writing or procrastinating. Mind you, I think that the fact that I have actually written 14 pages is pretty good, but the manner in which I have perfected the fine art of procrastination is nothing short of amazing.
Procrastination takes many forms. It can involve sweeping floors, making trips to the grocery store, going to the gym to fight the fat, wasting time on Facebook, checking e-mail, writing a blog (Go figure.), or just staring into space. Luckily, my current laptop has no games on it. No endless games of solitaire for me this summer, nosirree.
Today I discovered that actual writing can be avoided by doing research. I'm writing about a police detective who is solving a murder in Hyde Park, so I had to know how the Chicago Police Department is structured and where this police detective would be working from, and endless little details about CPD. It was research. Now I have to call the Chicago Police Department's Office of News Affairs and arrange a "ride along" so I can see what it's really like and ask all of those questions I need answered so my character can be fleshed out and not just some made up cartoon.
Today I realized that I can't remember all of the characters' names and so forth and I had to spend time creating a chart so I can remember who the heck they are. I'm really bad with real people's names. I can remember faces like you wouldn't believe, but names, forget it. When I was younger it was kind of embarrassing if I ran into someone I'd actually slept with, and couldn't for the life of me remember their name. I could remember every detail of their naked body, but name? Uh uh! That's a story for another day, however. Right now we're talking about characters that exist only in my mind and on the hard drive of a laptop. Come to think of it maybe I should save them on a flash drive as well. The point being that while organizing and researching and drawing charts may be helpful in the execution of writing a full-blown novel, especially a mystery novel, they also represent time not spent actually writing said novel.
I also find myself reading everything I can that can shed some light on mystery novels and cops. One book by a real-life cop about what it's like. A couple of mysteries by other authors. One mystery by someone from Chicago, to get a feel for what Chicago mystery novels that have sold sound like. Books on how to write a mystery novel.
I guess the whole point is that you can waltz around this thing forever, preparing, researching, thinking about it, organizing it, but at some point all of the excuses have to go away. You have to write. Thus far, I'm not especially proud of my production, but I have made myself sit down every day and write some. I'm averaging just shy of 5 pages per day currently. If I can do that for 25 days, I'll have 250 pages. Then there are the re-writes and fleshing outs and the cutting and adding and editing. I think that as I get my routine established I may be able to write a little more on some days and eventually I'll get tired of a lot of the procrastination tactics and be forced to face the pages. Then again, there is my guitar and those songs that I haven't finished, and the ones that need re-writes, and maybe I could get a microphone to hook up to the laptop and record some of them..... In the meantime, I think I need to go to the gym and work out.
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