Meeting Time

Teaching has its ups and downs and sometimes the bounce between presenting, demonstrating, teaching and evaluating is intense. Yesterday was a long day and a good portion of it was spent in front of the computer. It was a giddy-up kind of day. Dave and I typically meet on Wednesdays but I was just too tired of looking at a screen and working with teens to think critically about story—or anything really. I didn’t want to Facetime with him (our typical way of meeting these days) because I knew that I wouldn’t be giving my full attention, because, well, I didn’t I have it in me.

I messaged Dave:

I’d like to skip today. I’m too tired and my head isn’t in the game right now…sorry.

He replied:

No worries. I was going to ask if you wanted to walk and talk.

I didn’t hesitate, sending an agreeable ‘yes’. And that’s exactly what we did. We talked about some interesting options for Counios and Gane and we grazed over some other areas of business. It was a good meeting. The fresh air and the walk along the creek was actually exactly what I needed. I was able to focus and meet with my writing partner and bonus for me, I felt better.

Kind of the same thing

I was reminded that a flexible meeting experience with my writing partner is important when I came across this old blog post.

Dear Dave:
I kind of like writing letters so to stir up this blogging business you’re getting a letter. Don’t respond. You’re too busy working on book three! Time is precious. First, it was good to see you today on the bridge at noon walking Bamboo. I was heading home from work and my brain was in the story we’re working on. It turns out yours was as well so we stopped and discussed it. Pretty good timing I’d say. I felt like that moment deserved a blog post. This meet up on the bridge got me thinking about our last face to face meeting up at Tobin Lake.

Let me say thanks to you and your lovely wife (my sister) Kate for the hospitality at your cabin at Tobin Lake (which is also the probable location of Shepherd’s Watch). My friends and I had a great time sitting around the fire, building smores, enjoying
summer beverages and telling stories. When you asked if we could go for a quick walk and hash out part of book three I was
more than happy to. It didn’t take very long to discuss the action we needed to and I enjoyed the fire a whole lot more knowing that we’d taken one more step closer to the end of this book.

All this to say that we’re pretty lucky that we have all these opportunities to work on our books.
Take care.
Cheers,
Angie

Meetings don’t need to be in offices

Although we mostly work from our desks and our computers, that’s only a small portion of work time for my story building brain. When Dave and I meet it doesn’t really matter where we are because if there’s a story problem we’d like to solve we do it, no matter where. Writing also happens walking to my other job, while I’m working out, when I’m cooking, when Dave is road tripping somewhere and thinks of something and he has to touch base with me about this or that and sometimes, unfortunately, writing can happen just before I fall asleep. Because, you see it’s not just the act of pushing they keys but it’s also the conversations around the story that is being built during our collaboration.

The act of writing is a lot of things. And, they’re all good.

*The doggo in the photo is Dave’s dog, Bamboo. He was the best doggo there ever was and I miss him a lot.