On Tuesday morning, I wake up between 5:30 and 7 AM, depending on the slant of the sun. There is a gap between my blind and the window sill where the brilliant Arizona morning light blazes through.…
Source: Typical Tuesday with Luanne Castle | Modern Creative Life
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That was a great article about your typical day Luanne – I’m amazed you ever get anything done with six cats!
Haha, thanks, Pauline. Sometimes I do wonder about that!
I really enjoyed hearing all about your day. 🙂 Not being able to just order pizza can be such a pain though. 🙂
Oh man, you better believe it. And he can’t eat frozen gluten free pizza at night either. The tomato sauce . . . .
Luanne — This was a very enjoyable post, fun to read. It’s always great to see the personal touch, how you weave you daily life into it, skillfully, maintaining reader interest, and with a light touch plus irony, make us feel what your daily experiences are like, including the “balancing act” of juggling priorities and trying to keep writing.
Your remark about your husband’s looking for something to eat and your giving him lunch struck me because it reminded me of a best-selling book which my mother loved: “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” (1957) by Jean Kerr, wife of New York Times drama critic Walter Kerr. My mother loved one passage from the book (among others): “A man allows you to make the Important decisions: Because he has such respect for your superior wisdom and technical know-how, he is constantly asking questions like ‘Does this kid need a sweater?’ or ‘Is that baby wet?’ But, just between us, I have no confidence in a man who wanders out to the kitchen, peers into the icebox, and asks plaintively, ‘Do I want a sandwich?’
Iceboxes don’t exist anymore. Well, they do, but they are called refrigerators nowadays.
No! When I was a young teen that was one of my two favorite books! And I always wanted to be Jean Kerr and Walter, too, for that matter. She had such a great sense of humor. And I liked the movie, too. And the TV show. My father always referred to our refrigerator as an icebox, even when everyone else called it a Frigidaire ;).
I loved hearing about your day, Luanne. Although I have known you for years, I don’t necessarily know these details of your life. Thanks for sharing.
These are the details of life that we rarely share with each other, almost as if we assume we know this stuff about each other! So it was fun to be challenged in this way!
I’m always fascinated to read about other writers’ routines Luanne – you have a packed day it must be difficult to actually get down to that writing, but I admire all you achieve in a typical Tuesday!
Thanks, Andrea. Yes, I need a lot more silence and alone time.
What a great post, Luanne! I envy that you get to work at home, but I also know that working at home has its own pitfalls (laundry is a big one … lol). One question: do you count your blogging as writing? You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into your blogs so I just wonder if when you write up a post, you can then check “writing” off your daily list 🙂 Another thing I noticed from your post is that one of your “to-do” items is to write a blurb for someone else’s book. It is just so interesting how much we do write but then don’t count the writing because it’s for the blog or another person.
Oh, that’s a good point. I guess the blogging is writing. I never check off writing for blog writing, though. Maybe because I don’t want it to completely replace other writing? Haha, no, I didn’t think of the blurb as writing. Or the two reviews I wrote this week. But they are writing–maybe the most difficult kind.
When I do keep lists (and I used to, often), blogging is listed as writing. And that includes book reviews that I post on my blog, but not book reviews in general. If all I wanted to do was write, then all my writing would count. But I am at a place where I have specific writing projects, like my novel or short stories, and so sometimes I resent the other writing I do because it takes away from the project-specific writing that I also want to do. Right now I doubt that I’ll ever find that balance I need to do all the writing I want …
No, there is no way for either of us to do the writing we want to do. So, let me get this straight, if you include blogging and book reviews on your blog as part of writing, it makes you feel better that you are writing? Is that it? It keeps you from resenting not doing your “own” writing?
I didn’t say that very well. Sometimes I resent writing for my blog because I’d rather be working on my novel. Resent is too strong a word. I just get frustrated trying to write for my blog and still find time to work on a novel. Sometimes I feel I should just choose between the two. But I’d miss my blogging community if I stopped blogging. And working only on my novel would be too lonely. Ugh! Choices! 😉
Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, I think a lot of us go through that. We want the community so much that we even blog when we should be writing the other kind of writing. Sigh.
That’s it exactly … love the community 🙂
<3
Oh, and I think a Kin Types II would be very welcomed by your readers 🙂
Haha, we will see! Thanks, Marie!
Is a nice Tuesday. My Tuesdays are never so nice lol 🙂
I love how you caved to the Kindle because it fits on your bike better than a book. Treadmill, meet my daughter’s Kindle, where I now load my books.
One of my mommy neighbors watched Lifetime movies regularly. I watched one with her, it was scary.
Also, chickyaki sounds good right about now. Time to make me some lunch!
It’s true, isn’t it? kindle is fabulous for exercising. But it’s dangerous because it’s so so easy to buy a book! Those lifetime movies are really something. They are always the same with the same themes repeated over and over. But I love how the woman always wins through (usually) physical combat or contributes greatly to her own rescue.
Such a lovely window into your daily routine, Luanne! I always look forward to reading your posts. I feel I’m getting to know you a little better, and that is very nice. The to-do lists caught my eye – I’m experimenting with this Pomodoro technique, and I jot a short list of what I’d “like to” write on, next to the 4 25-minute checkboxes (even if I don’t end up with enough time to get to all the items), and on the back of my square of paper I jot the emails/phone calls/must-dos of daily life, which I intend to fit into between the writing sections. Through sad experience I have found if I let myself start into emails it’s noon or even 3:00 before I get back to the writing stuff. But I’m not working in a family business and monitoring/tending cats while I’m at it! Kudos! 🙂
I really enjoy the peek into your writing process. Seeing the photo of the diamond and the description you give of your writing/revising a poem about it over several weeks gives me hope. Earlier this week I had thought I was all set with a manuscript that just needed final edits. It’s the chapbook project of flash fiction that I’ve been working on for several months. On Monday I pulled out my hard copy, intending to do a few modest revisions (after setting it aside for a few weeks). Much to my chagrin, as I re-read the first story, I was aghast. The prose, which has seemed so smooth and smart before, read as clunky and awkward. The character seemed without depth and her motives were unclear. Aurgh! I can’t write! I exclaimed to myself! I set the whole thing aside. On Tuesday I decided to try a “no-look” re-tell of the story – that is, just writing out the feeling of the story and its central premise. Sometimes that helps get me “out of the weeds” more than fussing with the original wording. But – no. I think the story may need a more fundamental rework.
In a funk, I put it all aside and tried to remind myself of some recent successes. I also tried to remind myself gently that I may be being too critical (again). I also tried to point out to myself that I “should be” writing for expression and that product should be secondary. But it all felt mucky, like trying to walk through wet ankle-deep mud. In the end, I did write a lovely little “next episode” for a new serialization I’m working on (non-blog) – and then I thought, oh, okay, I can still write. Whew!
Thanks again! Really wonderful post. Looking forward to hearing more about your diamond poem, how you progress with it … ! 🙂
Theresa, your account of what you went through with the story is so well put, but it’s a little heart-breaking to think we all go through this all the time. So much “down,” and very little satisfaction. Rarely quite good enough, at least we tend to feel that way. I had never heard of the pomodoro technique, so I looked it up and true to form I became enamered with the image of the tomato kitchen timer on the Wikipedia page :). What a pretty little thing. It sounds like a great idea, actually, except that trying to hold all that in my mind takes up valuable and very limited brain space. Short break after 4 or fewer sections of work. Longer break after more, etc. But the idea of spurts and breaks appeals to me very much! It might suit my nature. Unfortunately, my downfall is being interrupted a lot. Working with a husband at home, the cats, the business phone.
Hi Luanne! Thank you for your kind and empathetic response to my second-guessing my work. As a follow-up, I did to a re-write-from-scratch … and it started to be a different story, which was okay, but in the end I went back to the first one, and by then I had figured out how to overcome the failings I’d seen earlier in the week. I guess that my attempt to re-write it helped me think it through a bit more. Good news!
About the writing-in-sections, I confess that I stretch or shrink the “sections” to accommodate my flow. For instance, if you are a purist to the technique, you are supposed to postpone every interrupted (phone, email, etc.) until the break. But, I let myself do a little peek at an email that’s just come in, if I’m at a pausing point in the writing I’m doing, even if the timer hasn’t rung yet. Or, if the timer rings and I’m still in the thick of something I’m writing, I will set the timer for 5 minutes – sometimes more than once – take as many 5-minute “extensions” that I need to finish, then take a break. And I’ve been known to deduct those 5-minute extensions from the next 25-minute section… hah!
As I write this, I think the main benefit I’m getting from experimenting with the timer-section technique is being able to have something tangible that I can point to, as a marker for having put in effort on my writing. It’s probably different for different people, but I’m happy with how it’s going. And by the way, I think you’re doing an amazing job weaving in all your varied roles, the poet and the businessperson and the cat whisperer and the household manager … good for you, Luanne! You are inspiring to the rest of us! 🙂
Haha, thanks for your compliment about weaving my roles. This weekend has been a big bust. Problems with stuff in the house breaking down that ended up sucking up most of yesterday and 5 hours today. And now I’m exhausted. So I am in a grouchy mood, which doesn’t happen all that often. I hear you on the time management thing. Whatever works is what I say. And honestly it’s all about fooling, tricking, training, and rewarding ourselves, isn’t it? And maybe a few other verbs through in there!
Sooo happy to hear that by rethinking the story it has helped! Sometimes we just need to shift our viewpoint a little bit. Just a smidgeon and it all falls into place. I hope that happened for you!
Oh, I hate that feeling of lost time due to unexpected things, on top of feeling tired from addressing them. Aurgh! Yesterday was a day like that for me, where I had a morning video call, was intending to get to writing afterward, but then one after another things came up that needed my attention. End of day … no writing … rats! I hope you really dove into the grouchy mood, since I don’t think that happens with you too often, you seem mostly optimistic! 🙂 Maybe bloggers are unusually optimistic.
Also, thanks for the kind thoughts about my story. I realized I probably had learned some things in the interim between writing the story (last fall) and looking at it last week. I remembered I’d even had it reviewed by a fellow writer a few months back, and she thought it was fine, just suggested a couple of small edits. So, it is mostly my own “critical” glasses that caused me to re-evaluate it. And, now I’m enjoying the potential of the story even more. 🙂 Thanks for the gift of understanding and letting me know you understood! 🙂
This is my 4th day in a row like that! So annoying. I’m sorry you couldn’t write yesterday. It’s such a frustrating feeling.
That’s funny about maybe bloggers are optimistic. Does the blogging makes them optimistic or are the optimistic attracted to blogging?! I’m pretty sure a half hour after I wrote that I was grouchy I had forgotten all about it. I am like that–can’t keep a bad mood too long, GENERALLY, although there have been periods of my life where I was depressed. That was a different thing altogether. So interesting about forgetting about the other writer reading your piece. I do that, too. I’ll find someone’s comments and think, “OH! Here are some good comments, and I had forgotten I even got them!”
No worries. We have similar issues haha!
I enjoyed your busy schedule and sympathize with interruptions. I hope you may have a chance daily to put an hour into writing. It would make you feel better.
I love the diamond which has been in more than one member of your family’s possession. It will make quite a unique and special story. 😊 hugs 💐
I agree with you about an hour! I actually am working up to going after that soon! Another week or two . . . . Thank you about the diamond, Robin. I have the ring now, and it really needs cleaning but I can’t bear to clean it. So silly . . . .
I understand more than most of my own friends who discard memorabilia and family heirlooms. I think it is built into my DNA to want to save things. The ring has been “touched” and was on several people’s fingers. . .It would be difficult to remove them, especially your Dad’s and Mom’s essence lingering there. ❤
Yes, that’s it. It seems so silly, but that’s the way it is! I think I finished the poem about the diamond. Giving it a rest to make sure! Then I will either send out or write another one so it has company. xoxo
It’s great hearing about you typical Tuesday, Luanne. I also have WRITE on my permanent to-do list, but things always seem to get in the way 😉
Maybe it should be written on the list a few times, kind of forcing the issues ;).
Pingback: Daily life – Theresa Barker – Lab Notes
After learning of you on Theresa’s blog https://theresabarkerlabnotes.com/2017/09/17/daily-life/comment-page-1/#comment-3549 we just had to stop over and feast on your works. So glad we did.
What a beautiful premise for your blog! I love it. Thank you so much for stopping by, Tom and Audrey and Emma!
Thank you Luanne. We feel the same of yours. We are so pleased that our knowing Theresa led us to you. Its going to be fun growing together and learning from you.
Likewise!
A lovely read, Luanne! This is how it is with cats, isn’t it – marking time by their actions in a way. It still amazes me how I totally ignored cats until the last few years and now I love them so, so much.
They are a way to really slow down and observe life! I am so glad you came to that realization! Hope things are on the mend with your city . . . .
I checked out this post and I love it. I could relate to quite a bit of it. I loved how I felt the tnesion with you are you tired to get TO writing but the ease of it once you were there, for a moment. Loved it!
You’ve summed it up so perfectly–yes, the tension and then the ease! Thank you so much!
Pingback: Daily life Part 5 – My Tuesday – Theresa Barker – Lab Notes
I’m glad I stopped by via Theresa Barker’s blog, I really enjoyed this post and felt immersed in your world of cats, to-do lists & the need to write – I’m looking forward to reading more!
Hi Kimberlee! Nice to meet you. I checked out your beautiful blog and followed you.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate you stopping by!