Monday, July 17, 2006

Zilch Day

Yesterday was a bit of a zilch as far as writing goes. And in case you’re equating “zilch” with “zero”…well you wouldn’t be far off, but that’s not the kind of zilch I mean.

I expect there are very few who’ve ever experienced a zilch (made up – as far as I know – by DH’s high school crew, back in the day…), so let me ‘splain ya.

Ground rules:
  No. 1 You can only make one when you’re camping and
      A) Bored silly, and
      B) Have exhausted all other forms of entertainment
  No. 2 It has to be night time (totally misses the point and visuals, done by daylight)
  No. 3 You must follow safety procedures.

[deleted]

Well, after writing up the explanation, and then discussing with myself the wisdom of putting the directions for zilch-making out on the ‘net (yeah, even if I am the only one reading my blog…) I decided not to since I’d hate to think some kid followed the “recipe” and burned him or herself, or set a forest on fire. So, I guess I’m not ‘splainin’ ya. But I will say that it’s something of a pyrotechnic marvel, a unique phenomenon that includes the cartoon-esque sound of a downward spiral.

And that, the sound of a downward spiral, was pretty much what would accompany my writing efforts yesterday. (Long way around the block on that one, eh?) I sat down – several times, in fact – put my fingers on the keyboard, and began to write. So I did do some writing.

Unfortunately, what little came out on each attempt was more or less tripe and drivel. I’m hoping it was the heat and the incipient migraine (which has been hovering, thinking about blowing up for three days). It was above 90 again all day yesterday and as a rule, I start wilting in the 80s, puking in the 90s. Not a big fan of hot, humid weather.

So, some days you’ve got it, and some days you don’t. And you move on.

* * *

TRACKING…

Yesterday's Big Accomplishment:
I sat myself in the chair and wrote a couple of paragraphs for the funeral scene. Did personal journaling. No blog update.  (The day before, I wrote more than 700 words of a new scene and the 300 I was shooting for in the funeral scene.)

Today's Target:
Finish the blasted funeral scene and move on, already! Journaling.

On the percolator:
Same old same old.  But I know more about Kailia's life than I did yesterday.

 

2 comments:

Renée (R.E.) Chambliss said...

Hi! I found your blog through compuserve. Sorry about your zilch day (although I'm _very_ intrigued about the noisy pyrotecnics).

You never know, however. Somtimes I get in such a bad mood that everything I've written looks terrible, and when my mood improves I realize it's not so bad. Hope that's the case for you too!

-Renee

Mrs. Mitty said...

Hi Renee! I'll pmail you directions in the forum. *g*

Thanks for the encouragement. It was a generally yuck day, too, so you may be right. Next time I look at it, it may not be *that* bad.