What a difference an empty seat makes

[swan_tower]

On the way home from World Fantasy tonight, I had the entire row to myself, all three seats, with my husband in the aisle seat across from me. I took advantage of this space not only to sprawl out and read a sizable chunk of Wolf Hall, but also to get some work done: 1500 words on a proposal for a Sekrit Projekt, and another 2300 on “The Unquiet Grave,” whose title has been hacked down to “Unquiet” for the time being. The only reason I didn’t finish was because my computer was almost out of battery and we were about to land anyway; after I got home and ate dinner, I parked my jet-lagged butt in the chair and knocked out the last 200 words.

So that’s a draft! Not necessarily a good one, but it’s easier to fix a story that exists than one that doesn’t. And it’s nice to write something for which I don’t have to do any research whatsoever: things like that are pretty rare for me these days. I’ll let it sit for a bit and then have some friends pull it to pieces, and then — wonder of wonders — I’ll have something new to send out!

Probably couldn’t have done it without those empty seats, though. It’s amazing, what a difference some elbow room makes.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Good lord. How'd you get a flight like that? Redeye? I thought the airlines were expert at packing people in by now, especially on major routes.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Sheer dumb luck. We left D.C. at 6:15 on a Monday; it was just one of those random flights that's barely half-full. They do still happen, though not often.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

I imagine you've taken trains somewhere if not in the US. But I found Amtrak to be way awesome compared to plane seats. Much bigger and roomier, plus the freedom to get up and walk. Not that the West Coast has much of a train network, and of course it's 3 days cross country...

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I took Amtrak from NYC down to DC. If it were feasible to do it cross-country . . . but sadly, it really, really isn't.