As I reported in my last post, I had trouble writing this week. Receiving the subpoena to give a deposition in a lawsuit (our company is involved only as witnesses at this point, and all the attorneys believe it will stay that way) resulted in my spending a lot of energy in preparation. Reading through the correspondence on the project made me sad, as I saw things go downhill through the material in my files.

Then there was the problem of the Ford dealership not getting my pick-up repaired. I brought it in for a tune-up last Tuesday, April 10. I didn’t get it back till yesterday, April 19. I covered that long story in a metaphors of life post at my other blog, An Arrow Through the Air.

So I arrived home each night mentally spent and, to a lesser extent, physically exhausted. After simple meals (Lynda is away), went to The Dungeon, in the quiet house, determined to write a thousand or more words. I managed to do that pre-subpoena, but not after.

The Candy Store Generation stared at me from the computer, a mere 4,000 to 10,000 words away from being finished. But I was lucky if I could add 100 words. The mental energy needed to add any significant amount to it just wasn’t there. I was at the point where I need a little more research to flesh out two chapters, and a part of another. With that research in hand I think I can knock out the chapters, but there’s writing to be done on them even without the research; I couldn’t do it.

It wasn’t writer’s block, it was just mental distraction. And tiredness. I spent some time playing mindless computer games, trying to concentrate on reading writing/publishing blogs, but making little progress. Then I remembered: I have another book to work on: In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I had a review from a beta reader, who made some good suggestions, especially about when I called the protagonist by what name: first only, first diminutive, first nickname, first and last, last only.

That solved my dilemma. Wednesday night I began working through that, and got a little more than half through the book. Thursday night I picked it up again, and finished it, making a few other small edits along the way. I now think I’m consistent with using his name, and have all characters call him by what they would in a real life situations. I had some professional situations where he was called by his first name, when the speaker really would have said his last name.

The book now stands ready for a final read-through—or almost so. I still need to coordinate the hero’s won-loss record as a pitcher, and make sure I have the right number of wins for the time of year. I also have to dial back his number of wins a little, to something that’s extraordinary but still believable. What I had was over the top for the modern baseball era.

Tonight I’ll start the read-through, but will mainly work on the baseball season consistency issues. I expect that to take most of the weekend, including marking whatever edits are needed. That I think my brain can handle, and save the other book until after the deposition.

The experts in the industry say you should stick to one genre, not spread yourself around several. That’s because your “fans”—one you have fans—will be expecting you to produce another book just like the one they already liked. I know I should do that, but in this case I’m glad I had something different to work on, and keep some production going during a difficult time.