I Once Had an Office…

I think it might be time to try rescuing my office.

I have been putting this off because in the process of tearing up our house and renovating and moving upstairs and moving back downstairs, my office became the Place Where Everything Goes That Has No Other Place, and so now, instead of being shiny and clean and empty and new and cozy and welcoming, it looks like this:

Ack!

Woeful desk!

Note: I am posting these pictures, entirely without manipulation or extra stuff-scattering, I assure you, largely because I am trying to deter my mother from bringing me large boxes of Ancient Stuff from the Basement next weekend. Dude! Now is NOT the time for me to be filing my genius fifth grade book reports and six-year-old finger paintings and made-up tests that I gave Kari when we played “School” in Paraguay! No, no, I have deadlines! Deadlines that passed me some time ago, whacking me on the head as they went by! Deadlines including the Wedding Channel’s ominous checklist of the many things I should have done last month or possibly seven months ago, such as "Consider wedding insurance" and "Get ideas for wedding favors"!

Boxes like that will just sit in my office glaring at me, demanding that I stop writing and sort them. Seriously, Mom, would you rather have Avatars Book Three, or an empty basement? (Think VERY CAREFULLY before you answer!)

Perhaps in November, when the books are in and the wedding is done and I suddenly have oodles of free time (er…right?). Then I will happily take all five million boxes of Stuff That Will Be Worth Something On EBay Someday When I’m Famous And Won’t You Be Sorry Then off your hands.

Even without those five million boxes, I know that tackling and organizing my office is a big, scary, possibly months-long endeavor, one that can’t possibly even succeed until I get that filing cabinet from our registry that I’ve been coveting (<– subtle!). So I’ve been keeping the door to my office closed and working out in the living room instead.

But…I miss my desk. I miss my cool swivelly big leather rolling chair. I miss my thrillingly organized bookshelves. And I’m in the middle of something that I would not call writer’s block, but more like writer’s funk, where I can write, but I’d rather lie on the couch with Sunshine and re-watch my recordings of Danny and Anya waltzing on So You Think You Can Dance over and over and over again. I think this is (a) because it’s hot (bleh), (b) because I’m anxious about the wedding (so much to do! ack!), (c) because I’m SUPER-anxious about the aforementioned whizzing deadlines, and (d) because instead of thinking “I should write a page today,” I’m thinking “I have to finish the WHOLE THING right now or my editor will kill me AAAAAAAAAACK!”

So there’s actually a bit of writer-y wisdom buried in all this whizzling. My suggestion is: don’t think “I’m going to go write a novel now.” Think “I’m going to write page one of my novel today.” And then the next day, think “I’m going to write page two of my novel.” Or “chapter one” or “three pages” or “the scene with the rhinoceros and the gold bikini.” This isn’t new advice; lots of writers say the same thing, but it is really useful. If you give yourself small, surmountable goals, you’ll be a lot less intimidated, and then if you tackle them one at a time, eventually you’ll have a whole book, without having to worry about it so much, and that way hopefully you’ll be able to make yourself sit down and write, instead of finding yourself on the aforementioned couch at 4am downloading all the So You Think You Can Dance music.

(Speaking of which: Apparently I love Timbaland as much as the SYTYCD producers do — they’ve already used at least three of his songs so far, and I LURVE them all. Holy bananas, I could listen to “The Way You Are” like fifty thousand times, which I bet Adam would really appreciate.) (Actually, oddly, this is one of the few areas where my and Adam’s musical tastes intersect. I think that’s because it’s boy music, which is what he likes, whereas he’d say it’s because it’s GOOD music, which is what he really likes, to which I say, much like Josie and the Pussycats: whatever, dude.)

I know I need to take my own advice and stop worrying. I really am excited about book three, especially a few new things I recently decided to include…and yes, I’m writing book three now; book two (Shadow Falling) comes out in just a few months…October 1! Eeee! Roundabout the same time as the wedding! Wooo! I’ll hopefully be posting the cover on the homepage soon, since it is TRES cool, so keep an eye out for that.

But I do think it’s time to try and venture back into my office. Even if I can’t really clean it; even if I don’t have time to properly organize it. I just need to intrepidly forge a path from the door to the cool swivelly chair and boldly sweep everything off the desk. That is my mission! Yes! Maybe it’ll inspire me for the scenes in book three where Kali and Tigre have to [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] (hee hee hee).

I’m not going to do it right now, though, of course. Because right now it is nearly 4am, and I have some Roisin Murphy songs to download…

Quote of the Day: "If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?" — Shantideva