GandK's journal

[GandK]

Really been struggling with depression for the last two months. Occasionally I hit a wall in the spring as the weather changes, and this year it was worse than normal. Finally took some antidepressants. SO glad I did!

After our move from house to condo, we've ended up saving $750/month. I was thinking it would be about $400/month, so I'm REALLY happy with that.

Still in the honeymoon phase with the new place. We've cut our home cleaning and maintenance time by about 80% (yard work, housework, outdoor maintenance, pool, etc.). We keep looking at each other going, "Why didn't we do this sooner?! We just added weeks of free time back into our schedule each year!"

Honestly, most of the homes in our new complex are not ones that we'd want to own, but we love ours. We are on the end, which means we have windows on 2 sides instead of just one, plus all of our windows face greenery. That's true of maybe 20 units out of 200.

It's now been a little over a year since I left paid employment. I don't miss it.

[sshawnn]

Hey K

I am glad you are feeling better. Sounds like you are optimizing things!

[Tyler9000]

Congrats on the move! The honeymoon phase is indefinite when it's a lasting improvement. Always be grateful for your good decisions.

And speaking of good decisions, special congrats on recognizing signs of depression and dealing with it proactively. It's best to nip that in the bud before it takes root.

[GandK]

And speaking of good decisions, special congrats on recognizing signs of depression and dealing with it proactively. It's best to nip that in the bud before it takes root.

I actually didn't realize it until I saw an incredible TED talk by Andrew Solomon about depression:

http://youtu.be/-eBUcBfkVCo

I think it should be required viewing for anyone who deals with depression or with someone who has those tendencies. It's amazing to me that I've dealt with depression more than once but still can't recognize it when it shows up because it always feels so damn logical: "Have you seen the state of my life/my marriage/global warming/traffic on 75? I mean, why bother?" You just never get it right away that you're depressed.

Fabulous TED talk.

[EdithKeeler]

OMG. Thank you for linking to that Ted Talk. I hadn't seen it and I needed it. Thank you.

[1taskaday]

Loved that link-so insightful.
Thank you.

[Hankaroundtheworld]

Thanks for the link Gandk
Actually my wife has repeating depressions, and they come and go, but I recognized a lot from this TED talk about how she is during such a phase. Funny thing is, that people with depression have a great sense of feeling, and indeed, my wife feels a lot more than I do, and I always have told her that this is a great gift, it is like an antenna, it gives direction and it also means that she can enjoy things a lot better, even small things in life. She has found a way to live with it, and luckily it only happens a few times per year.

[GandK]

Spending a few weeks in Wyoming right now, just because.

I love Wyoming in June. Right now it's snowing. Lavender irises are growing wild in the forests, and pretty much anywhere you stand in the state you can see snow-capped mountains somewhere.

[GandK]

Well, well, well... July was our best month ever, but I'm relieved that it's over!

The good news: G settled a giant personal injury case, and his share of the settlement was more money than our taxable income last year. The bad news: it was my mom's personal injury case that he settled. She's okay now, and very happy with the settlement she received, but it's been a harrowing last few months for the whole family.

On the novel-writing front, I'm deep in research. I hope to have my current WIP finished in October, and be ready to begin a new draft on November 1st.

[theanimal]

Good to hear the news on the novel! Is this the same one you wrote from NaNoWriMo last year? Or something new? Anyways, I'm looking forward to trying it out for myself this year.

[GandK]

Good to hear the news on the novel! Is this the same one you wrote from NaNoWriMo last year? Or something new? Anyways, I'm looking forward to trying it out for myself this year.

It's 2012's NaNo. 2013's was the sequel to the 2012 work. And this year's will be the third in the series. I have a rough outline for this year's work, just waiting for November 1st to begin that one. But the real prize for me will be finding an agent for the first book.

I love doing NaNo. I think my first year was 2006, and I spent more time in the forums than on my work, so I lost. Now I know better! I skipped a few years in there but I loved every year I participated. Even if you look at your novel draft six months later and go "What was I thinking?!" you will have gained 50,000 words of very valuable experience.

[GandK]

July and August were our two best months on record financially (since January 2010), by a wide margin. In both months, our net worth increased by more than $20k. w00t! Last month's gained amount was mostly due to the case getting settled, but this month was entirely due to G's investing decisions, as we have added no savings to the pot in August. School supplies/clothes and household item replacement costs ate every dollar of our regular income surplus.

On the writing front, I am writing and editing in every spare moment, still trying to get my WIP in good enough shape to market. Still aiming for mid October, hoping to start a new novel on November 1st. I'm in that frustrating phase at the end of a book where I'm changing more things in my existing work than I'm writing new material. Although I'm doing a lot of work, my word count isn't going up by much. Sometimes that makes me feel as though I'm spinning my wheels. Some say to save all edits for the end of the first draft; however, when the mistake or better idea is structural and far-reaching, my experience is that it's better to change it at once so the old material doesn't continue propagating forward.

[jennypenny]

I'm in that frustrating phase at the end of a book where I'm changing more things in my existing work than I'm writing new material. Although I'm doing a lot of work, my word count isn't going up by much. Sometimes that makes me feel as though I'm spinning my wheels. Some say to save all edits for the end of the first draft; however, when the mistake or better idea is structural and far-reaching, my experience is that it's better to change it at once so the old material doesn't continue propagating forward.

There's a compromise. Just add notes at the beginning of the chapter or section detailing the changes you want to come back and make. Then keep going and finish the book. Come back later for substantial edits.

If you find this happening often, you might need to develop a better system for mapping out the novels before writing manuscript copy. You could write detailed descriptions of each chapter first, or outline or storyboard depending on what works best for you.* It really helps to have a solid blueprint before you begin to write the copy.

Many writers think the muse will bail them out or show them where to go with the story as they write. In my experience, only a lucky few have the ability to sit down and just start writing. Most successful writers know they have to work with both their muse and manager (what I call them) if they want to go beyond writing to actual production.

[Ian]

I'd say there's a balance. Some structural problems really are so substantial that they'll mess up the rest of your book, but the tip about making notes is what I generally advocate. Of course, I'm far on the planning end of the spectrum, so I try to work out all the major problems during the outlining phase.

[jennypenny]

Ian is right ... there is a balance. My post sounds a little harsh. My point was that sometimes people think that they aren't good writers because they can't work things out of the fly, and that's incorrect. Many successful writers have to work just as hard on the outline and structure as they do on the creative writing. That doesn't make them a bad writer.

[GandK]

I can't ever recall you sounding harsh, Jenny. And you're right... I'm one of those who cannot work without a plan. I can get started that way, but eventually I need an outline. Otherwise when I sit down to work it takes me too long to reorient myself to where I left off last time. Normally that IS the way I work.

I always get a handful of new ideas when working, but my big problem at present is that my research on this novel did not all happen before I began. I'm writing a Native American fantasy, and after months of trying, I finally got in touch with a tribal elder (long after I began the novel) who, after discussing my WIP with me and figuring out what sort of information I was hunting for, generously pointed me toward some out of print books that would help me answer my very specific and largely off-the-wall questions about tribal history and symbolism. After I bought and read the books, I decided to change some things in the story so it would better match the facts, in part because the facts gave me some new ideas and in part because by tweaking a few things I could make the story much more realistic. Not sure how I could have avoided this problem other than to postpone the rest of the writing process (indefinitely?) until I was in touch with a tribal historian. I was working off the data available online, hoping it was comprehensive enough for my purposes. Glad I checked with an elder, because it turned out that it wasn't.

On another note, it occurred to me as I was driving my older son to school this morning that driving (of all things) has become much more fun since I retired. It's much less stressful to drive, to sit in traffic, and even to get cut off when you don't feel like any of that is going to make you late for something. I no longer remember the last time I was stressed out behind the wheel.

It's the little things.

[Spartan_Warrior]

I start with two documents, the manuscript and the plan/notes. The plan starts as a bare bones version of the story that I basically write off the top of my head. Then I start the manuscript, simultaneously fleshing out the future plot in the plan. Often, by the time I get to the end of the manuscript, the plan has become so detailed that I can paste a lot of it directly into the manuscript with only a little extra polishing.

[GandK]

I'm proud. This week I made great progress with my editing in spite of the fact that the amount of time I spent wandering around outside playing Ingress has been excessive. I tell myself I'm doing it all for the exercise... the book for the mental, the game for the physical.

[Tyler9000]

Googled Ingress. Now I know what I'll be doing all weekend.

[GandK]

No way, dude. Smurfs all the way!