Multitasking

I don't usually put up writing notes here, but my writing blog is all about process, and this is all about life. So you might find this one a bit amusing.

Okay, multitasking is a necessary skill for writers. There are those who can work around it, but not me. However, when I start to get tired, when I've been pushing too long and too hard, it can work against me in the most amusing ways.

Morning is my writing time. I get about 1 hour of early sunlight to power my fingers. Only today, I'm writing along and the perfect rework of the ending to the romance novel I am currently editing comes to me. I should have pushed it aside and kept writing, but those kinds of inspirations can vanish like smoke if not getting proper attention. So I switched to the right folder, pulled up the file, and jotted down my notes, which are so much better than the ending I have now.

All well and good. Now I can get back to writing, right?

Umm, sure. But I come back to this line: Mr. Peterson put a hand on Pete's head and ruffled his feathers.

Okay, first of all, I just noticed Peterson/Pete. Sigh.

But that's not what caught my attention.

This novel is a contemporary romance between a woman grown tired of city life and a man who inherited his son after the death of his ex-wife. Yep, that's right. Pete is a boy.

Last time I checked, boys didn't have feathers.

Enter the other bit of multitasking. I recently put a short story up on my critique group about a man with feathers. It needs a lot of work and has been poking me at stray moments to get the work done based on the very on-target critiques I received.

I think the walls between my tasks are crumbling. Guess it's a good thing that I'm off for four days of family time when I'm unlikely to be able to get anything done, right?