I’ve never had children, but I have a new respect for the parents of toddlers. My two previous Shelties were a year old when they entered my life. This guy is my first puppy and has proven to be a challenging one on top of dealing with general “puppyness.”
Magical Mashup, my most recent writing effort, is an attempt to meld aspects from several other projects. It’s been a matter of gathering the character and plot point material developed for various other novels and massaging it for this new approach. This has involved editing existing background information, developing new characters, and establishing timelines. I finally reached a point where I began writing an opening scene for the main character, but with so much happening concurrently at other locations in the story a straight timeline approach to the draft didn’t seem feasible. I decided the best approach might be to write character-by-character for the three most influential individuals and then combine them in a logical manner. All of this has required a lot of focus to keep all the pieces in place.
Enter the Distraction.
Puppies have frequent potty needs. Lacking a fenced yard, this requires me to stop what I’m doing to take the dog outside to conduct his “business.” This has also resulted in a lot of unsuccessful outings in attempts to interpret puppy signals and prevent accidents. No yard also requires a lot of puppy walks. In other words, a lot of interruptions to writing focus. As the pup has matured the periods between outings has increased, and he will now snooze long enough for me to actually accomplish tasks.
However…the breaks in concentration resulted in my setting aside Magical Mashup for longer and longer periods. Yet I needed to work on something!
Re-enter Lady Tedey.
My female approach to Treasure Island was in second draft and had been set aside long enough to view it with a new eye. So I’m reading through it for coherency and making minor changes. Once this read-through is completed I hope to go back through it to add more depth to the characters. Since it was my 2020 NANOWRIMO effort, speed writing 50,000 words can skip over a lot of background and character elements.
I also have in mind the 2022 Willamette Writers Conference that will be back in person this year (COVID permitting). If there is a likely agent or editor in attendance, I may work up the courage to pitch Treasure Island done her way.
So maybe the puppy distractions will have a positive outcome.
Mary S. Potter 