Day 3, Montauk
Pop tarts eaten: 2
Showers taken: 1
Woke up to the sound of chirping birds and the sun pouring in at 5:40, fell back to sleep until Chap woke me up again at 6:30 am. Decided not to go into town at all today, but to sit outside and write long hand in the morning while drinking coffee and eating the aforementioned Pop Tart (and a banana and yogurt). I forgot that I don't know how to cook, and so I am eating mostly things that you pull out of boxes (graham crackers, cookies). Decided I need to do time blocks instead of word count, though for this week, I want to do 4,000 words a day to go for volume and then next week, I'll work on revision and reading what I've come up with, because I know a lot of it will vanish. For instance, why did a Spanish teacher just show up today in the story? Will he last? It happens that I can spend a lot of time on a particular plot point or tertiary character, only to have that whole section prove useless. So I wrote and wrote and wrote, and then came up to type it all up, thinking I would've made the word count, but was 2,000 words short. That meant more writing this afternoon, most of it on the computer.
Chap is still nervous and barks at every sound and car pulling in, which is embarrassing. He only attacked the older dog once today, so progress is being made. He also has found a friend in the caretaker's Schnoodle, Carson (after Carson McCullers). They are about the same size and chase each other around, trying to get ticks all over themselves.
The last person arrived today, so we are all here--five women--two artists, three writers, two dogs, and a blue bookshelf in one of the rooms that houses the published works of other people who've done the residency, including Spalding Gray, AM Homes, and Amy Bloom. I'm reading a book by Spalding Gray right now and wondering if I should switch to nonfiction. Whatever else someone is doing seems easier than what I'm working on at the time.
I am lucky, because some of the attendees are taking unpaid time off. I am fortunate that I have the time and the type of job (and boss) who says, Yes, do it. That's so important and I'm grateful for that opportunity. Even though it's harder than I thought it would be because I feel like I have to use every minute to be writing or reading or else I'm wasting time. That's why I have to give myself very specific and somewhat challengigng goals and then let that be enough each day. Everything else is extra.
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