A few status updates

The book: I heard back from the publisher of River Walk Journal, who feels that the sample chapter is pretty much in publishable condition as it stands (she only had one or two minor edits). Big relief. Now that two experienced writers/publishers have told me that, I can leave it alone and stop poking at it. She did say that the outline was rather repetitive–I agree with her, but am not sure how to improve it. I may ask my coach for some guidance there.

I finished off the “About the Author” section of the proposal and sent it, along with the overview, to my writing coach for review. I also asked him for help with the “Markets For the Book” section, because I’m unsure how to elicit numbers and specify target markets for the book. Hopefully he’ll get back to me shortly, but I plan to continue cranking through the rest of the proposal regardless. There are many other sections that I don’t know how to write (yet), but I figure I’ll get through them the same way I got through the other sections: sit down and write the damn thing.

One of the things I’ve discovered with writer’s block is that much of it is simply being afraid to write something, or having no idea what to write. It can be gotten around either by simply sitting there long enough to let the fear wear off (rather than letting the fear divert me into doing other things) or by sitting down and typing. Both work better early in the morning when I’m not quite fully awake and my resistance to new stuff is lower than usual. But it’s worked to get me unstuck at least twice now.

The other big key is just to get into the habit of writing, so it doesn’t feel as bad when you start up again. It’s sort of like going to the gym. If you haven’t been in awhile, the first workout or two feel awful, and I find I can only do half-workouts for the first couple workouts. After that, the body gets used to them, and then after that, the body comes to expect them. The mind, in my experience, works the same way w/r/t writing. So it’s a good thing that I’m continuing to write.

The fiber arts: I got 18 yards of various weights of silk fabric in the mail today, from Rupert, Gibbon, and Spider. All white, of course; I plan to dye them using various fabric techniques and then turn them into tops and tutus.

18 yards sounds like a lot. It’s not. Not when you’re doing 2-yard batches at a time–that’s only 9 batches. Mess up once or twice and, well, it comes out to less than you think. I anticipate donating a bunch of my errors to my local quilters. Fortunately, RG&S have REALLY cheap silk–19.5 mm silk charmeuse for $6-7/yard (normally it retails at $20/yard) so mistakes won’t be too expensive.

Tonight I sewed crazy-quilt, tomorrow I plan to do some dyeing, but haven’t figured out what technique yet. I may try some pour-dye techniques, as those produce a softer gradation in color than the really low-water type dyeing, and I want a relatively soft color effect, because I plan to stamp on top of it in metallic gold paint. Mmm, that sounds yummy. 🙂

I also bought a basic silkscreening kit, but I can’t do much with it before I get my order of Fiber Etch from Dharma Trading Co.

Cycling: Tomorrow is the skills clinic! I have to be down in Woodside by 9am. Which means I had better get to sleep now…