I was going to do my blog post on "Descriptions" this morning, But then I also wanted to do one on "How do you manage your time?" So I thought I'd combine the two.
A little history to help you along.
I have an 87 year old dad and an 88 year old step mom. Whom I love dearly. Dad is hard of hearing, even though he has hearing aides, he has a hard time understanding people on the phone otherwise he's in excellent health and full of energy. My step mom has had a few strokes which have affected her speech and some of her motor skills.So my dad has taken over all the basic household chores. They can afford to have someone come in a few days a week, but dad is frugal and stubborn. They live 35 miles from me, which isn't bad, but you have to take two major freeways to get there. Anyway my dad loves his computer. He can check emails, his stocks, and now bank accounts, but if he enters a wrong password and gets kicked out of accounts, he calls me. There are weeks where I am on the phone with dad, his stockbroker, banks, customer service reps, 3 way calling, trying to explain to everyone, who I am, and what my dad needs and then trying to take care of my own priorities.
I went down to San Diego over the weekend to visit my son and to catch the "Blue Angels" air show and there was an accident on the freeway on the way down which put me behind schedule an hour. While sitting in this massive parking lot that we call a CA freeway, my dad calls me and starts rattling off a phone # to one of his banks and because I am not at home, he gets mad at me and hangs up. (I'm used to that)
And this is what the freeway looked like :-(
So for the first part, how do you organize your time? Do you set aside a certain amount of time for writing, cleaning, promoting (FB, twitter, blogs, etc), I see people tweeting, writing blogs, facebooking, and can't help but wonder, "When do they have time to write a novel, much less accomplish anything else."
So my first question for you is...Do you write a list or make yourself a schedule?
Okay as for Descriptions... I was in a motel in San Diego over the weekend and sitting there at the desk trying to get some writing done, when I start looking around the room thinking, "How would I describe the room?" Just working on my description skills, something everyone should do, right? In my novel they are currently staying in a motel at the Grand Canyon. But I am not focusing on what the room looks like. I am putting the detail into their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and conversations. The most I've said about their room is, it has two beds, a sliding glass door that leads out to the pool area, and a single knob in the shower confusing a five year old, who is used to the customary 3 knobs. Oh and there must be a TV in there, because I did mention they were watching TV. To me, unless you are going to use the description later in the story, I really don't feel it's important, but is the reader going to want that bird's eye view of every detail?
This is where I'm confused. Every reader, just like every person on this earth has their own tastes as to writing, reading, even eating. We are all unique.
And here's my second question for you......
How do you come up with a happy medium on details and descriptions?
Are you giving all those little details just to have filler or are they vital to your story line?
I make time to write throughout the day and the evening. I don't schedule it, but take whatever time I can get. As far as descriptions, I love action scenes, so I tend to skimp on the details and descriptions, filling them in during the rewrites.
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