Everyone has ideal work conditions, even creatives like writers, musicians, and artists. Some can work in complete chaos and use it as background or white noise to keep their focus on the work. Others need complete silence.
I tend to fall into the latter category. If you see my screen and one of my novels or short stories is the main window, please save the conversation for later if you can. I’m currently at the height of my creativity for the day and I really need to get these words written before I lose them. Forever.
I’ve never had the greatest memory, so if I don’t say something or write something down now it will be lost in the back of my mind until something, possibly years later, jogs the memory. You see the light bulb go on over my head as I run to my computer, or even grab my phone out of my pocket or purse to jot the item down before I forget again.
Having quiet doesn’t guarantee I’ll remember a silly comment or passing idea, but it gives me the focus I need to make sure everything I want gets down on paper. If you enter my workspace when it’s just me, the only things you’re likely to hear is the hum of my computer tower and the clicking of my mechanical keyboard as I type. That’s how I like it.
However. I share the space with my husband. A man who is vice president of a company he will one day take over and be president/CEO. He has a number of other tasks that require constant communication with other people – the ones out in the field making things happen. It means a second set of keyboard keys clicking along, with the added disturbance of periodic, yet frequent and long, phone calls or online meetings.
He talks while others listen. He listens while others talk. He speaks loudly and suddenly sometimes, startling me out of my ‘zone,’ causing me to start over to some extent. He finishes a call, only to pick up another.
Our son comes home from school. He needs help with homework, or wants to tell me about something cool that happened during his day. It’s only 12:30 p.m., so after he talks to me, he goes into the kitchen to make lunch. Cupboards and drawers open, the fridge maybe. If it needs heading up, the microwave opens, buttons that make digital noises are pressed and the hum of cooking starts, followed by the blast of beeping that alerts him the food is done. Another open and close of the door.
When they’re both gone, or asleep, there is blissful silence and I fly through page upon page, sometimes completing an entire chapter or more. Even working in a quiet, public place like a library or the lounge at my apartment complex has some bit of noise to distract. This is not to say I don’t love them and want them around, I just work better in the silence.
Another disturbance: color. We’ve lived in apartments for several years, where the ability to paint is limited, and so we keep the ‘apartment white’ or ‘apartment gray’ that exists when we move in. Which is fine. There’s no splashy or vibrant color to distract from my singular focus. There are rules about making holes in the walls, keeping us from hanging many photos or artwork. Again, fine. I’d get caught up in staring at them, processing the memory rather than focusing on work.
What’s your ideal work environment? Quiet? Noisy? Something in between? Do you work from home? Let’s talk on Facebook!
What is slang? According to Merriam-Webster, it is “an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech” or “language peculiar to a particular group.”
The latter definition is what most people think of when they think of slang, and attribute it mostly to generational groups. Some slang sticks and becomes a part of language that just about everyone knows. In the 1980s, there was slang for words indicating coming and going (bounce, split, jet), yes (for sure, no doy, word), cool (awesome, bodacious, fantabulous), and more. Some of these have stuck around, while others my teenage son looks at me like I’m speaking a foreign language.
In the 90s, we got gems like “balller,” “rad,” and “totally tubular.” In the 2000s, we added slang related to the digital age like TTYL (talk to you later) and BRB (be right back). The 2010s brought on both new words and new meanings to existing words. “Ghost” for example, doesn’t mean a spirit from the afterlife, but when someone just disappears without another word like a text, phone call, or other communication.
Today’s slang includes things like “based,” “baddie,” “crash out,” “glow-up,” and many more.
You may know some or all of these words, or none at all. But would you want to see them in fiction, especially a story that claims to be taking place in the ‘present day’? When I first started writing my debut novel coming this summer, I considered talking to teens like my son and his friends to find out what they were saying and what it meant. Then I had second thoughts.
If I want my book and the ones that come after to stand the test of time, do I really want to add the slang of today? Not really. Unless I intend for it to be historical fiction, but I am choosing to write ‘present day’ stories that can be dropped into any time period in the future and still be readable by the people who may find my book.
All this slang I’ve spoken about will be a thing of the past no one will remember fifty years from now. To have the teens in my books talking about “rizz” or or being “baller” would definitely pull the reader out of the world. So I’ve decided not to use current or outdated slang outside of specific contexts.
What are your feelings about slang in books? Are you “here for it” or would you rather not have to keep a slang dictionary close at hand when you’re reading for fun?
You would think crafts and recipes aren’t exactly something to ‘research’ right? But when you’re a writer, everything can be seen as research when it applies to your story. Without giving away too much about upcoming projects, I’ve been putting some extra time into researching fun crafts for a variety of age groups, as well as recipes for a number of different foods.
Not only does it fulfill research I may use in the future, but it’s given me some ideas to use in my own kitchen! I’m using both new recipes I’ve found as well as recipes I have already made part of my regular cooking or baking habits.
Over the years, I’ve expanded my palate (and my family’s) and added new and interesting dishes to what used to be a bland menu of ‘basic’ American fare. My family’s three favorite meats are chicken, beef, and pork, and those are the base of so many delicious recipes!
I enjoy plenty of baking, too. Cookies, cake, and other sweet treats come warm from the oven and are nearly immediately devoured. One of my newest food prep obsessions has been homemade chocolate. I started with recipes for milk chocolate and dark chocolate. I’ve also found a recipe for sugar-free milk chocolate that my husband has requested from now on.
What’s your favorite food – to eat or to make? Let’s try one together:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
1 cup smooth peanut butter
¾ stick margarine or butter; softened
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
¼ tsp salt
1 12 oz package or larger semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.
While the oven heats, mix together peanut butter and sugar until smooth.
Stir in flour, salt, and 1 cup chocolate chips (or more!)
Spread mixture in ungreased 13”x9” baking pan.
Bake 25-30 minutes, until edges are lightly browned.
Remove from oven and immediately cover with chocolate chips.
Cover and let stand for 5 minutes or until chocolate chips are soft and shiny.
Use a rubber spatula to spread melted chocolate chips like frosting.
Cool completely before serving.
Share your comments, thoughts, and pictures of your finished bars on Facebook!
I don’t know how to do this. I have someone at my firm who does it for me when it’s needed, which is like, once a month or something. What do you want to know? I’m Reagan Grant and I’m an attorney in the Glass area. I have several associates who work with me so we cover practically every type of case. Me? I’m a criminal attorney, which I guess is a good thing given the increased crime lately.
Ever since those two murders, all sorts of crime has gone up. Theft, drug dealing, assault, you name it. Glass used to be a quiet little Midwestern town, and not it seems like a hotbed of criminal activity. I’ve lived in Glass all my life and I can’t remember a time when there was this much crime. Actually, it has had me considering a move out of the area, but I don’t know where I’d go. Other than maybe out of state, but the thought of picking up my entire life and moving just to avoid a rough patch in town history seems quite rash.
“Hey, Reagan, are you involved in the Glass Creek Murders?” You probably want to know, don’t you? Well, much like doctors, I can’t tell you. To keep myself and whomever else may be involved safe and anonymous, I won’t say.
I suppose you want my stats, then, huh?
My name is Reagan Grant, I’m 45, and I’ve been an attorney for about 15 years I guess. Like a lot of the attorneys around town, I think – I can’t speak for any of them – the law has always been a passion off mine. Getting to the truth of criminal matters helps society become a better place. I always wanted to be a part of that.
Without giving you my entire resume, I graduated from John Hedgecock University and went straight to Rice Law School without batting an eye. I worked my way through the program and came out near the top of my class. I immediately got a job with Jane Fillmore-Pierce’s and Georgia Fredericks’ firm. I had no problem being part of a woman-owned firm, but the personal intensity got a bit much for me. I made a couple of changes as I explored the kind of law that really motivated me, taking positions at other firms in those disciplines until I finally landed on criminal law.
I worked in that for a few years, then decided I’d open my own firm. My firm is coming up on it’s five-year anniversary soon, and I’m going to be hiring a few more staff, so make sure you look for my listings if you’re interested in a job in law.
Anyway, as I said I have someone else who does this, mainly due to scheduling. I have to be at the courthouse in…oh shit, five minutes!
