Maybe I should have taken it as a sign when the gate started blowing shut as I was backing out of The Compound. But I got out, opened it again, and went to the gym. After all, the weather was even worse when I went there on Thursday night (yes, success! it was open!). About midway downtown, I remembered that I’d forgotten my book. I like to read if I do the stationary bike or the treadmill (since my only other option is to watch the news, and I go to the gym to get away from the world, not be subjected to it). I figured that since I didn’t have workout clothes with me anyway, I’d just spend all my time in the pool.
Funny thing. When you don’t go to the gym for eight months, things change. The pool now closes at two on Saturdays. WTF? I got there after three. So even though I didn’t have workout clothes, I forced myself to work out. The bike was excruciating, however, because I had to watch some stupid Hugh Hefner birthday thing. (Sorry, Lindsey.) So I didn’t do the bike as long as usual, but I made up for it by doing several other machines and stretching next to Muscle Beach (you’ll get that reference if you’ve read THE DEAL). Also, since it sucked so bad not to be able to swim, I treated myself to both the whirlpool and the dry sauna.
Now I’m off to eat a healthy dinner and watch a movie before I return to writing. And speaking of writing, last night I had this dream in which I figured out a bunch of plot stuff in the novel that was GENIUS! Except when I woke up, I realized I was actually coming up with new plots for The Young and the Restless. Not much use to me, but CBS? Call me. ‘Cause the show is mostly sucking these days.
Stephen King noted in his book On Writing how he gets in a lot of reading while riding his stationary bike. He was making the point of how you can slip in a lot of reading into your day if you’re clever about it.
I read this great article about the plotting of Soap Operas. It might have been by Lawrence Block. But he made the point that they can hook you so quickly because they’re so blatant about their narrative drive–always promising that something is about to happen. I wonder if I should start watching them just for my writing!
Y&R could use some new plots hon!