Monday, February 27, 2012

Doing Laundry, Getting Character Ideas, and Other Monday Ramblings

Need... More... Coffee...


SO fixed the washing machine last night (it broke last Monday), so I managed to do the laundry this morning. The only reason I mention this is because, while the machine was doing its thing, my mind was doing the writer's thing, thinking of a way to insert doing laundry and the washing machine in a story or with a character. The character would probably be a female, but, of course, there's a bunch of questions: when does she do the laundry? Early in the morning, to get it done as soon as possible? Late at night, when the power is cheaper? In the afternoon or in the evening, after the job is done (what job, and at what time of the day is it done?). Does she wait until there's enough to fill the machine, or there's a reason to do the laundry before that? What detergent does she use? What's the smell of it, is it something she prefers, or whatever is the cheapest in the supermarket? And so on.

I don't know the answers to these questions, but just thinking about them told me it's possible to learn interesting stuff about the character from the way she does the laundry.

By the way, that's a writer's mind for you, sometimes. Or more often than that. Can't do a routine, mundane thing without thinking about writing.

Speaking of writing, a great way to improve your writing can be a writers workshop. Unfortunately, they can also make your writing much worse than it would otherwise be. I've encountered both kinds of writers workshops, and this excellent text reminded me of them (you can also find links to some online -- and free! -- writers workshops there).

Since it's Monday, I can't help but think of coffee and the other ways to wake up (I think I still have too much blood in my caffeine). And when it comes to coffee, you have to drink it from something, right? This wonderful page has some hilarious coffee mugs -- gotta love 'em!

Okay, enough with the ramblings, back to work! Oh, and feel free to share your Monday (Tuesday, Friday, whatever) ramblings! 

12 comments:

Kelly Hashway said...

I'm trying to drink more green tea and less coffee. I love my coffee though, so it's tough!

angel011 said...

I actually prefer green tea to coffee, but it doesn't wake me up.

Karen Wojcik Berner said...

You are right about the coffee. Nothing wakes me up that. I have tea most days, starting with black and occasionally moving into green in the afternoon.

Come to think of it, I love all kinds of caffeine...

angel011 said...

Sometimes I do that with the tea too.

Shannon Lawrence said...

I have sadly discovered that coffee is a major migraine trigger for me. Booooo! I do tea instead and have found some super yummy types. I get lost in thinking about writing stuff, too, sometimes completely blanking out on a conversation or timer, or whatever. Luckily, I don't think I've been to one of those bad workshops, so thank goodness for that!

Shannon at The Warrior Muse, co-host of the 2012 #atozchallenge! Twitter: @AprilA2Z

Unpublished Life said...

Oh my word, a writer's mind is hard work. Something mundane will happen in my daily grind and new (as yet undeveloped) characters in my head will go off on one long tangent. I'm usually left going, hang on, I need to write this down ... only I never have a pen with me!

Yes, coffee ... sweet, delicious coffee! I have started using Agave Nectar instead of sugar (13 calories as opposed to 55) now I can enjoy my coffee guilt-free:) Love it!

http://unpublishedworksofme.blogspot.com/

angel011 said...

@Shannon: maybe that bad workshop wasn't so bad for everyone -- there were people enjoying it and having fun in it. But it didn't help my writing, on the contrary; and i haven't seen a really good story come out of it, either.

@Unpublished Life: I normally use a little brown sugar in my coffee, and that's it. I have no idea about the calories, though, since I never count them. :)

Dangerous Linda said...

Oh my gosh! Your clothes washing character development rant makes me laugh -- haha! Nice! I think I'll take a little look around, Funny Lady ;-)

angel011 said...

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it here!

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