In Which The Front Row Writes

Howdy pals!

So today starts a new blog series I'm a part of called The Front Row Writes




Look, we have a logo and everything!

The Front Row is a writing group I belong to, made up of my MFA peers, the ones I walked across the stage with in Januray *sniff*

We're called The Front Row because, shocker, that's where we always sat during lectures and stuff.

Awww - look at these awesome jerks

Anyway, I blog fairly regularly and so do my pals, so were tying a new blog series where we take a topic and write about it.

I took Monday, (because it's super easy for me to blog on Mondays) and the theme this time is WHERE WE WRITE.

I used to write kind of all over the place.

Well, I used to write on the couch with my laptop and my pups on either side of me. It was great. But also distracting because the TV was right there and sometimes Brother plays video games.

And, I mean, I can write while watching TV or video games, I just am not very prolific when all that's going on.

And over the last 5 or so years, I've gotten away from writing on the weekends (unless I really have time (which, let's get serious, I never have time for anything anymore. I am busy busy busy)) and I pretty much never write in the evenings (I think the last time I did serious evening writing was in 2009, the first time I did NaNo. I would come home from work, sit on the couch and punch out my 1600 words. But that was back when I had a 1.5 hour commute (one way) so a lot has changed since then)

So now, I pretty much do all my writing at my desk.

Which is good. I love my desk.

I've talked before about how it's an uplift, so I can raise it up to stand if I want.
But it also has a ton of space. I have my little netbook on there, to keep my gmail open (this is a habit I developed during my years of querying and it has stuck fast) my current notebook for whatever novel I'm working on, knick knacks (of course) and a box to the right which is filled both with used notebooks and folders, as well as brand new notebooks and folders for whenever I need one.

Also, the windows are great (except for when it's really cold in the winter, or when the sun hits the screen during a certain time of year) because I can watch the birds at the birdfeeders.

So, yeah. That's my writing space!

Here's the schedule for the rest of the Front Rower's posts:

Tuesday: Josh
Wednesday: Zack
Thursday: Jessica
Friday: Brita
Saturday: Jennifer
Sunday: Anna

In Which I Got A New, Fancy (Standing) Desk

I love my desk. It has three drawers which holds a ton, and a lot of surface space for all my junk. It's fantastic.

So shiny. So chrome. (also, I love Mad Max Fury Road, in case that's not clear)

But I spend a lot of time sitting.

So much time, guys. All day, pretty much. Especially on days where it's raining so there's no dog walk in the morning, or on days where I miss my morning workout for whatever reason.

And then I was like "What id I bought a standing desk?"

But I didn't want to stand all the time. I knew that would just frustrate me. I'd have to do some research.

And as soon as I had that thought, I saw a Lifehacker article listing the top standing desks.

There were some cheap options, which mostly consisted of buying a little stand to put on your existing desk. That wouldn't work for me. I wasn't using a laptop (well, actually I am. But it's a laptop plugged into a docking station and attached to a stand so my monitor sits on top. It would be a PITA to move my existing stand onto another stand anytime I wanted to stand. Also, I wanted the desktop to be at standing height. I take a lot of notes in notebooks)

So I knew the cheaper options were out. Enter the Uplift Desk, which was great because the starting price was literally just for the legs. Then you could buy a top if you wanted or get one yourself. And they offered so many customization options.
Since my goal was to try and recreate my existing desk but also make it so I could stand, Uplift Desks it was!

Last week it finally arrived. I put it together, gave my old desk to Twin and we moved my new desk into the office.

And it's awesome.

normal desk

Standing desk!!

I've only used it for a short time, but I love how, when I'm feeling sleepy after lunch, I just press a button and it raises up so I can stand. And when I need to sit down for some brainstorming, I just press another button and it drops right down to my preset height.

How about you? Do you use a standing desk? Ever considered one?

In Which I Did Some Shopping

Look what I bought!

Yes yes, I know I'm pretty broke. But I can be spontaneous when shopping.

Why is it in the grass you ask? Because the lighting is shitty in our house and the sun is outside.

Isn't my handwriting so super? I know, you're jealous (this is why I don't handwrite anything. Well that and I'm sane...)

Also, don't look too closely at the pink star in the lower right hand corner.

I SAID DON'T LOOK!!


Yay! A Whiteboard!
While line editing, it has become clear to me that my scene re-arrangement is not done. Oh not at all.

And I don't want to have to move all my post it notes around again now that they've found homes in the notebook. So the easiest solution was to buy a whiteboard. Then I can write a list of scenes and draw arrows and junk to demonstrate where I want to move them. If it doesn't work, I can just erase it and start over.

I'm a super visual person and can't do it just on the word document. I need to see it.

What about you?
Do you have a fancy whiteboard? Do you even need one?

In Which I Go Shopping

So as soon as I realized I was almost done with the WIP, I went shopping for office supplies. I mean, who doesn't love shopping for paper and pens and all that good stuff? No one, that's who.

I picked up the below stuff, along with a new package of paper.




The one thing I forgot was a notebook, which I'll use to write out where, in specific scenes, I'll need to make changes.

Otherwise the pens are for line edits and any other writing I plan on doing with the revisions.
Except the purple pen. I gave that one to Twin to use as she acts as my first beta-but-also-more-like-an-alpha-reader person. She'll catch typos etc.

The highlighters are for, erm, highlighting things on the manuscript. Also I'm going to try highlighting changes in the notebook once they've been complete. As opposed to crossing them out, which would be my normal method.

The notecards are for making a list of scenes and playing around a bit. Mostly they'll be useful for figuring out where my chapter breaks should be and where I need additional scenes from other characters POV to break up the story a bit.

But the manuscript is marinating for awhile. So I'll just have to look at my pretty supplies and sigh.

Does anyone else feel the need to buy brand new supplies when you're starting a new project?