This is your Sleep on Coffee

[zia_montrose]

Oh yeah.  I forgot about a few coffee side effects - namely, insomnia and headaches - especially if I drink it in the afternoon.  I think these were the main reasons I gave it up, except on weekends (as a treat) and ski mornings.

So like a good Potter-obsessed soul, when I had a hard time falling asleep last night, I somehow connected to the thought

Comments

[stmargarets]

I love that little drabble! So sweet! LOL - you aren't getting fluffy -you're discovering your inner fluffer. Bless your heart. *approves

[zia_montrose]

What you wrote was sooo helpful! Engineers do love analogies and I “get” this one! Funnily enough, I opened My Documents just the other day and took a look at some badly written first attempts from months ago that I haven’t had the heart to trashcan and I re-read them. I came to the conclusion that the little plotlets weren’t all that bad, they were just the first unrevised words out of the quill after 15 years of not writing. So I started poking and prodding and recombining these stories (I think my writing has even improved somewhat since I first jotted them down) and they got better and better, but then I hit a wall again. I vaguely glimpsed the tough reality that what I needed to do was start over again completely (compost, not prune) with roughly the same story idea, but that seemed daunting and then I got overly sentimental and said “Oh, but that’s a nice line!” (buried amongst a whole paragraph of insignificance) and tried to keep too much

[stmargarets]

Your guy at the garden center sounds great! I love his practical advice. LOL - poor lady with her fifteen-year-old plant.

I'll be happy to share all of my humbling writing experiences (there are many). We're all novices everytime we tackle the blank page. Sigh. Why didn't they make this easier?

[moonette1]

Oh, I loved this, too! I so enjoy those little moments of HP characters that JKR would never have the time to fit into her massive plots. It very sweet and intimate. Wonderful

[zia_montrose]

Gosh... I think this advice combined with St. Margaret's advice is what I really need. Planning is very hard for me and therefore, so much the better. I'm pretty good with "plotlets", but working these into a bigger plot where the characters enter one side of the story and then come out the other as changed individuals is much harder. I think I need to really decide what those changes in my characters will be. I did try to plan one story, but I think I just haven't worked my plan enough... or properly... I may have tried to plan too many details and not enough big picture

[zia_montrose]

"characters entering one side of the story and coming out the other changed..."

by the way, I can tell from the glimpses of your Oliver story that you're good at this, so I know I'm getting expert advice ; )