Pages Written... 3
Listening to... Secret Garden
Exercise Done... Not yet

The first Monday of the new year. The first silence settling in the house, broken only by the dogs whuffing in their sleep and the wind whistling around the corners.

I don't know if I prefer writing in this environment, or when the kids are in the next room arguing about the best way to conquer the world. But for right now, I can breathe and hear myself think.

I'm about half way through the synopsis. I fear I'm still not doing them right - I'm not hightlighting plot points (maybe because I don't know what they are yet) and I'm not stressing structure. I don't think that way as a writer. I suppose I should, and that nags at me a little, that I'm not writing the way I'm "supposed" to.

I'm reading 'Beginnings, Middles & Ends' by Nancy Kress (thanks, Jenn!) and have gotten to the exercises on beginnings. As I'm almost there for my new novel (calling it Rome for now), figured I should do the exercises. Hopefully make the beginning really strong.

Hubby is working through LeGuin's book, 'Steering the Craft' (again, thanks to Jenn), and is doing really well. He's having fun with it, too, which is even more important. One of the things I envisioned when we were first dating was sitting across a desk from him, in our eighties, arguing as we rolled paper into our typewriters. (Okay, so it was a long time ago! Selectric IIIs were the big thing.) Having him start to write is a warm fuzzy for me, a step toward making that vision a reality.

Okay. On to finishing the synopsis (which is really an outline, I suppose). This is the year.