So, remember that little writing for pleasure project I deemed my pet project 365 this year?
I've spent about five months writing every day during naptime, then another two rewriting scenes, adding and subtracting characters, twisting in some plot twists, and filling some gigantic plot holes. I also axed almost 30,000 words contained in riduculous, pithy, sentimental, or ill-fitting scenes. (They're sacked away in another file and I still visit them occasionally, don't worry.)
So finally, finally, it has morphed into an 80,000 word, more or less coherent novel that I had the guts to finally write "First Draft" on this weekend, beam it to my Kindle, and begin one last pass over it before I send it to my Very Important Contact in the Publishing Business.* I owe a lot to David, who made me straighten up the office into something usable, anyone who has kindly agreed to read my drivel (you know who you are, I love you,) and my personal mentor, Professor X.
(Surveying my sad scatter of frantically scribbled post-it notes accusing my story of sucking.)
(Each post-it addressed X-ed (har) off and neatly stuck in place for prosperity. This advice from Professor X is my new personal mantra.)
In other words? My goal from last week to get this sucker done? I totally killed it.
I don't know whether to do the happy dance or throw up. Probably I should start working out again, at least. Hmm.
Speaking of throwing up, my kids picked this Shabbat and Sunday to have a wicked stomach bug. You don't want to know more details, trust me, but things are pretty gross around here.
Also! I started reading Possession by Elana Johnson and was completely captivated by her incredible writing, remarkable characters, and the beauty of the book as a whole. I read the whole thing in, like, three days. I even woke up early to read. Here's my review on Amazon. So, yeah. Go read this book now. (I would lend it to you, but it's not lending enabled on Kindle. The only bad thing about it.)
This week's goal - run my eye over all 325 pages of this sucker one more time, attach it to an email to my friend, and then....click send. I estimate I spend at least 24 hours staring at that email draft before I can bring myself to send it over.
It's the number 1 goal this week. I think I'm actually going to plan on a quiet Shabbat without guests this week so that I can really make sure I don't have any excuses to give myself for hyper-cleaning the house, cooking huge and/or fancy meals, etc., like I did this past week.
What about you, Supers? What are your goals for giving yourselves some sanity, fulfillment, or peace this week, and what's going to slide to make it happen?
You're doing an incredible job. Great work, and hugs to you!
*Yes, I know it's normal to send a perfectly polished manuscript over which one has labored over for years and rewritten at least twice, but my friend asked for my first draft. This is a little bit of a weird situation, and honestly I'm not expecting anything. But when someone asks for a full manuscript, with the caveat that they understand it's a first draft, you send them the manuscript.
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Hooray! Congrats!
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