Inspirational Monday?

Yawn.

Mondays are still a drag, no matter your zen outlook on life! Jsut a word to the wise . . .

The weekend was good. We did all our running about and shopping, etc. on Saturday so that we could chill at home on Sunday for my birthday. Yup, I am yet again one year older than before. My ancient old ass is now thirty-nine and I'm less than a full year away from the big four-oh. Can we all say: "Mid-Life Crisis"? (I knew that you could, boys and girls!) Nah, I'm just not the type. At least I think I'm not . . . but then, crazy folks never know they're nut-jobs do they? Hmmmm . . . something to ponder.

The Wife asked me yesterday if I was alright with turning 39. She sounded concerned about my emotional well-being (like she thought I was gonna go Postal or something!) I just don't have that type of regard for age. As I explained to her: I can't keep from growing old but I refuse to grow up. (Yes, I know it's a cheesy, old, phrase but I like it!) I don't feel old -yet- so I'm still good with my age. Come talk to me again when my bladder flow is sporadic, and my manhood is as useful as a hood ornament on a car, and I may have a different opinion but for now: I'm cool.

So, I had a remarkable writing breakthrough today at lunch. I took a recommendation from Holly Lisle and tried Inspiration. A neat little software package that allows you to put your ideas down on paper in a visual format. I decided to give it a shot and tried doing a plot layout of a novel I've been thinking about. As you all know by now: plotting is NOT my strength. Outlines frighten me. Organizing, structuring, and trying to move things about in some type of orderly fashion in an outline makes me sweat just thinking about it. Inspiration is completely visual in nature. It lets you structure things like a flow chart, using pictures and a few typed in phrases. you can draw arrows between things that tie together and there's absolutely no requirement for keeping things in order; it's completely free-form. I believe that you can have it generate a more formal outline when you're done but I haven't gotten that far yet. What I HAVE done is outlined an entiree novel in just over an hour. Lemme tell ya' folks: that's HUGE for me! Outlining (when I actually bother with it) takes me weeks! I loved using this software. The great thing is I can go back and modify it on the fly . . . move things to the when/where I want with no problems. I don't think I'll ever convert it to an outline form, I like the idea of printing out the flow chart arrangement and pinning it to the wall as I work. That way I can just sort of "X" off items as I complete them. I'm using the free trial version of Inspiration right now but I'm thinking I need to buy this soon. I'm going to try it out on a few other ideas I have first: another novel outline and as a way to clear my thoughts on finishing "First". I'm bottling up a little on that because I have so many strings still to pull together. I hope inspiration will let me work them all out without the stress of linear outlining. What can I tell ya? it's a phobia - probably from leftover from bad high school experiences or something . . .

Later!