Structures

Well, I’ve decided to work full time, not at my writing, but outside of the home. Washington State University has increased their tuition (and other fees, I’m sure) by 7%, and the income from writing books just doesn’t cut it any more. It’s a temporary position, and after the time’s up, we’ll see how life shapes up then. I must say, having a regular paycheck will be very nice indeed.

This time it’s doing word processing, editing, and formatting of civil engineering documents, which isn’t dull at all. It’s amazing what goes into building bridges, mass transit systems, shipping docks, buildings, etc. The company I’m working for built the Seattle monorail back in the early 1960’s for the World’s Fair, and they’ve built a lot of international and local structures as well. Little did I know that the road and bridge I drive over every month to pick up my meat order at the butcher’s was built by this company. You take things like this for granted, but if such structures aren’t built right, people could die, or at the very least traffic would be much worse than it is.

I have to say, they do beautiful work. I’ve seen one of their parking garages, and it’s not only functional, but it has some interesting textural designs on the outer walls. I love the park they built in the city of Federal Way; so pleasant to walk around, with meandering paths through the lush grass.

I think working at this engineering firm will do me some good; I felt rather like a mole coming out of my little office at home, blinking somewhat blindly at the bright activity at this engineering company. I needed a change, get my brain working in different ways, and with luck, the focus on fine detail at this office will hone my attention and focus to a finer point than it had been lately. And heavens, I hope it’ll do something for my social skills. Holing up every day in my office has made me quite rusty that way, and I find myself not being very discreet.

Meanwhile, I’m still writing stories, of course. I usually write during lunch, after work, and on the weekends. I manage to get in at least an hour a day on the week days, and then 8 to 12 hours on the weekends. Interestingly enough, I end up writing more pages per hour this way than I had when I was writing full time, go figure. Right now I’m fleshing out the story, mulling it over, and I expect I’ll get the synopsis done in a month or so. We’ll see. I won’t post it here, because then it’ll spoil the story for anyone who wants to read my book in the future. Still, I’m looking forward to writing real chapters. I’m feeling antsy that way, but I’ve promised myself that I won’t write chapters until I get a good, firm handle on the story and the characters. I’ve jumped the gun before, and fallen into a mire (to mix metaphors) and have got panicky-stuck for months. I don’t want to do that any more, and I won’t let any pressure to get that synopsis out QUICK make me mess myself up like that later. Best to do the foundation and structural work up front, then lay the brick.

Heh. It’s probably not a mistake that I’ve begun working for a civil engineering firm. I’m a believer in good solid story structure, but heaven knows I’ve muddled my way through instead of taking the time to lay down the foundation. There’s always been the pressure to Write It Now, which I’ve done while anxious and panicked the whole time. I really think it’s resulted in my getting stuck something horrible, and of course that makes me even more anxious, and more stuck, and of course late for deadlines.

So, time for a change. This time, I’m drawing up the plans, doing preliminary sketches, letting things gel. Wish me luck.