Friday Fun Facts

Hi and welcome to Friday Fun Facts! Come play along and learn something new about me, and I’ll learn something new about you.

This week I started a new WIP, which is always exciting. Once I started writing, I discovered something wasn’t right. Something I couldn’t put my finger on. Now, I’m not a panster, but I’m also not an in depth plotter. I do a quick outline to cover the major plot points and character traits/quirks and go from there. Well, apparently that wasn’t enough this round. I didn’t like the direction the heroes personality was headed, the backstory didn’t work with what I had planned for later and the reaction of the heroine to the hero was all wrong.

So, what do I do when I’m stumped and need to rework a scene, plotline, or anything writerly related? Either I clean, play ball with the dog, brainstorm with a friend or cook. Thursday was a day of cooking while I multi-tasked and discussed my issues on speaker phone with a friend. For some reason cooking helps me think, as does driving. (but with the price of gas I try and reserve my road trips for occasions when I NEED to go out) Plus, I know better than to talk on my cell while I’m driving and I didn’t want to miss my friends suggestions.

In the kitchen, happily slicing, dicing, mixing, blending, braising, sautéing and all the other fun kitchen functions that are required to make a meal, I soon noticed I had plenty of clean up ahead of me. Not my favorite part of spending time in the kitchen.

One of the reasons for that is when I’m cooking or baking I tend to use a lot of dishes and utensils. Did I mention I use A LOT? And I also don’t have a dishwasher, which means I have to wash A LOT of dishes and utensils by hand. Now usually this doesn’t bother me, but there are days I’d rather toss out all those dishes that need washing and buy new…lol…if that were an option. To not have a dishwasher was all my choice because when we built our house I was the one who opted out in favor of having the cupboard space. Most of the time I don’t regret my decision. But…isn’t there always a but? —there are times I do. Like when I’m in major cooking mode.

I have to admit, if I could go back in time—after today especially—I’d take that dishwasher offered when the kitchen was in the planning stages and store any extra dishes in the pantry…or a box in the basement…lol