I wouldn’t exactly call it a rut. I’d call it…well, maybe a rut. Although it was not an unpleasant, totally unproductive rut.

But I needed to make a little change in how I structure my day – there’s a lot of work looming over the next few months, and I need to get some creative juices going to finish the first novel, revise it and get going on the next one.

(And no, there is not publisher.  Haven’t even tried yet. I’ve somehow gotten past the particular inner obstacle of "why waste my time writing something that might not get published." It’s odd, but there is an inherent value in what I’m doing. Spiritual exercises, of a sort.)

So my new routine, as of today, is to take everyone to their morning places – school, school, babysitter, and then go RIGHT AWAY to the YMCA downtown, do not pass go, do my "workout", and then find someplace to park myself and work, someplace that is not my couch or my own intimidating office (intimidating because of the mess, because of the books unread…)…until noon, with the trip back to the sitters’ and the next part of the day gets rolling .

Once our main library re-opens (the new, remodeled mega-version is due to open in a couple of weeks), I will probably go there most of the time, but right now I’m in a coffeeshop in downtown Fort Wayne. Drinking tea, not coffee. Computer open, manuscript piled up beside me. Watching a few mini-dramas –  a woman came in behind me, got her coffee, waited, asked me if I was Kristen. No, I said. Then a waitress came out and asked her if she was Beverly. Yes, she was. Kristen would be a few minutes late. Okay. She waited. Then she left. Literally 90 seconds later, another woman walked in, looked at me, and asked me if I were Beverly.

I await the resolution. Will Beverly return? Will Kristen have already left?

Hmmm…maybe I’d get more work done on my couch after all….

(And blogging might be weird for a while. More in the afternoon and evening, not so much in the morning…)

Update: Beverly never returned. After about 45 minutes, Kristen packed up her laptop and her spreadsheets (it was obviously a business meeting), asked for a to-go cup, and left, clearly a little upset with herself. Lesson to vendors and salespeople: Be on time! Or Beverly will leave!

An older gentleman who settled in the comfortable chair next to my table, reading the paper, called up someone – a travel agent it sounded like – to try to get a room in Indianopolis Sunday night. The Hyatt was nice, last time, he said. Try that. Yes, I’m going to the game, he said. I resisted the temptation – although it was strong – to ask him if he had an extra ticket. Not for me, but for, er…someone else. Who lives in Atlanta.

That place was okay (and Mark, it was the branch of Higher Grounds that’s dowtown.) The music bugged me a little bit – it’s the one thing that I can’t do well – write with music going. People noise is okay, but music really upsets my internal balance. I’ll try somewhere else tomorrow, and I probably should try to work Mass into the mix. There’s an 8am at the Cathedral, which I can’t make exactly on time, given the drop-off schedule from 7:30-8…but I’ll see how late I end up being, and if it’s not too late…will do.

Oh…and what did I accomplish? 14 chapters into it, I mapped out a major character’s backstory. A few chapters ago, I realized that one of the weaknesses of what I was doing was relating only what the character whose narrative viewpoint I am writing from  (in 3rd person) sees from a  superficial level..not what is really happening, but through her eyes. See the difference? I had to deepend my sense of this other character, so that what my female protagonist sees and reacts to is more than skin-deep.