Well….the thought was good, anyway! New resolutions, starting well before the beginning of the New Year: Get busy on a new book proposal right away after finishing the final round of edits on the last one. Dive right in.
Obviously, I’d been a tad optimistic–figuring that I’d certainly be perfectly peppy after surgery in December, that I’d handle all of the Christmas preparations just fine. Company? Shopping? Cards and baking, and writing? Well, no problem. Right? :)
Maybe.
I hadn’t factored in major troubles with not only my desktop, but also my laptop computer. How in the world did that happen?! I took this photo today and as you can see, something is still missing on that desk. Aack! The elderly laptop is finally back home and mostly functional, but I fear it’s still not entirely trustworthy– the little spinning beachballs signaling potential doom still appear on the screen now and then, but I have high hopes of having the desktop computer home from the repair shop and humming away on my desk, maybe by the end of the week. And then I can get really get back to work!
Though I know many prolific authors who write only on a laptop, after some 24 years of writing, there’s just something right about that nice big desktop screen, with all of my plotting materials spread out on the desk, that really helps me think. Not to mention that my office is very quiet, far away from knocks on the door, or evenings when my husband is bustling around or watching sports on TV. I’ve always thought my friend, inspirational author Lyn Cote, is simply amazing, because she can work perfectly well with commotion all around her (a skill she honed while chasing toddlers around while writing on a notepad) while I need quiet. Absolute quiet. Rather like our oldest son, an engineer, who went back to college while their three kids were small. He had to go outside to their travel trailer to study. He called it his “fortress of solitude” which still makes me chuckle….and wish I had one, too!
How about you? Whether on the job or working at home, or when writing–if you are a writer–do you have certain objects or places, or routines that you need to most successfully utilize a block of time?
Wishing you a wonderful, healthy and successful year in 2017,
Roxanne Rustand
PS: Almost forgot–there will be a drawing from the names of those who leave a comment, for an e-copy of An Aspen Creek Christmas (with themes of animal rescue and adopting a child), or the Sweet Christmas Kisses 2016 anthology, or another one of my books, if the winner chooses
USA Today bestselling author Roxanne Rustand is the author of over thirty-five traditionally published novels, and four indie novels. Prior to 2007 she wrote for the secular market, but since then has been happily focused on inspirational fiction and sweet romance. A Golden Heart winner in 1995, she has received two RT Bookclub Magazine Reviewers' Choice Awards, and has been nominated for an RT Bookclub Magazine Career Achievement Award. She is currently writing for Harlequin's Love Inspired line, and is continuing with self publishing. She and her husband live in the country with three horses, two goofy rescue dogs, and a half-dozen barn cats.
Good evening Roxanne:) I need a tidy place if I am going to sit and get things done- at work, I need to clear my desk of any mess, and only have things on it related to the subject I am working on.
When my husband was working on his PhD, he needed the big screen on his desk at home, and he needed no distractions- hard when he had 2 small boys wanting him to help build Lego with them!!
Hope your recovery continues and that devices work as they should so you can continue writing. Blessings:)
Happy New Year, Roxanne! I hope you’re recovering well after your surgery. I’ve always functioned better when my environment is in order. Being a creature of habit and thriving on routine, I don’t handle unwelcome surprises very well…but I try to adapt.
Wishing a speedy recover to you Roxanne and your computers. As a teacher and mom, there are certain tasks, like reading, that I can do with noise or commotion around me. But if I am concentrating on technical reading or writing, I need quiet. The same with electronics. While I enjoy my tablet for reading emails, blogs and eBooks, I prefer my desktop for viewing pictures and writing lengthy papers and responses. Best wishes.
I do write primarily on a laptop in the midst of chaos. It’s definitely the “trying to chase small kids and still get work done” necessity. :) Hope your desktop is back home and working great soon!
I need quiet, but I can get it pretty often in my living room, which is where my large-screen computer is wall-mounted by my recliner. In the past year, that’s become my primary work station, though I sometimes go upstairs and visit my large whiteboard. My aging Macbook’s keyboard quit completely a few months ago, and the price to fix it wasn’t worth it since it was already giving me trouble. I’ve *just* replaced it with the smallest Macbook Air, since it is not planned to be my primary workstation, but mostly for on the road and backup.
Happy New Year, Roxanne!
Since we are moving, nothing is in it’s right place! Your books sound interesting!
Hope both you and your computer are fully recovered very soon, Roxanne!
Oh, a travel trailer would be wonderful! My writing space is sitting on the bed in our bedroom, laptop on a cushion on my lap! We live in a eeny meeny house, no spare bedroom, no space for a desk. I tried converting our garden shed into a studio, but it’s either freezing cold in winter or way too hot in summer, and tricky to get power to. Plus hubby is disabled and hated me being shut away out there!
Still, as I’ve managed to publish ten books on my old laptop from my bed, plus a slew of unpublished ones, this must be how God intends me to work. Besides, working from bed gives me a good excuse for pajama days! ;)
Roxanne, hope your recovery is going well. I share an office with my husband, and he is often on the phone. My laptop is connected to the monitor I had with my desktop computer. When I go on trip, I just unplug the laptop from the monitor and keyboard, and I’m good to go. I’ve been doing this for about a year, and I love it.
I need a place for whatever I’m working on. And quiet. So I can concentrate. I get shuffled between the couch and sitting on the bed with the laptop or crocheting or reading. I need a me space lol.
I wish you a speedy recovery. Also hope your computer issues are soon fixed. Dealing with computer issues can be so frustrating.
Thanks for sharing about your work and good luck with recovering yourself and your work station. I’ve had issues on both ends (surgery last year and problems with computers) and know how debilitating it can be. I work from home a lot (mostly doing academic research and writing scientific papers) when I’m not teaching masters students how to do their own research.
Like you, I need quiet and connected time to work, which will probably be less and less likely to happen with my first child due next month. I’ve been thinking about all the things I can do to improvise—or how can I learn to work in a not-so-quiet environment.