I'm feeling a little less pessimistic today. Maybe it was spending an evening with my hubby and kiddos at the festival. We let the kids play a few games, shoot bb guns (wow! they did so well), and ate funnel cakes. We even walked back to the old football field where one of the local churches was putting on a Christian rock concert. If we wouldn't have had the puppy with us, we might have stayed and listened because the music was upbeat and the message uplifting.
After we got home from the festival, we got some hopeful news that did even more to lighten my heart. I think your well wishes and prayers are working!
I also took a little time yesterday to listen to one of my favorite podcasts, I Should Be Writing 2.0 by Mur Lafferty. The one I listened to was Confidence Part 2, in which the author talks about, you guessed it, confidence. Considering how very critical I've been of my WIP, this came at a good time. It reminded me that no matter what anyone says about the story, I know I'm going to keep writing because it's what I do.
And, yes, I've been editing. My self-imposed deadline - remember the one I can't seem to stick to and have to keep readjusting on account of my incredible procrastination skills? - has been given new life. My kids go back to school in about 3 weeks. 3 weeks! This means I go back to school in a little less than a month. My homework + my children's homework = little time for the WIP. This means I'm going to try to get the hand-written edits done by August 17. The type-in by September 1.
Now, since I've never been very good at self-editing and this will be my first major overhaul of a manuscript, I have no way of knowing if those are reasonable dates. I have approximately 250 pages to turn red with ink. The type-ins so far look to be 60% easy, 40% challenging.
This weekend looks to be busy, though, so I'm going to have discipline myself and carve some time out for the editing. Tonight there's a parade and a BBQ at a friend's house. Tomorrow there's Monsters & Mud, my nephew's birthday party, and a UFC fight to rent. Not that I know any of the fighters or even care to watch. It's more about hanging out with friends and family.
Sunday I should get a chance to hang around the house while the hubby and his sister go visit their dad. This is good. I can edit while doing laundry!
After we got home from the festival, we got some hopeful news that did even more to lighten my heart. I think your well wishes and prayers are working!
I also took a little time yesterday to listen to one of my favorite podcasts, I Should Be Writing 2.0 by Mur Lafferty. The one I listened to was Confidence Part 2, in which the author talks about, you guessed it, confidence. Considering how very critical I've been of my WIP, this came at a good time. It reminded me that no matter what anyone says about the story, I know I'm going to keep writing because it's what I do.
And, yes, I've been editing. My self-imposed deadline - remember the one I can't seem to stick to and have to keep readjusting on account of my incredible procrastination skills? - has been given new life. My kids go back to school in about 3 weeks. 3 weeks! This means I go back to school in a little less than a month. My homework + my children's homework = little time for the WIP. This means I'm going to try to get the hand-written edits done by August 17. The type-in by September 1.
Now, since I've never been very good at self-editing and this will be my first major overhaul of a manuscript, I have no way of knowing if those are reasonable dates. I have approximately 250 pages to turn red with ink. The type-ins so far look to be 60% easy, 40% challenging.
This weekend looks to be busy, though, so I'm going to have discipline myself and carve some time out for the editing. Tonight there's a parade and a BBQ at a friend's house. Tomorrow there's Monsters & Mud, my nephew's birthday party, and a UFC fight to rent. Not that I know any of the fighters or even care to watch. It's more about hanging out with friends and family.
Sunday I should get a chance to hang around the house while the hubby and his sister go visit their dad. This is good. I can edit while doing laundry!
Hugs, I hope things are even better yet.
ReplyDeleteDon't be too critical on the WIP, and don't try to fix everything in one single pass, unless that's just your writing style. My style and process change book to book. Some books require TONS of passes. Utter rewrites. Toss thousands of words and backtrack. Others, truly just need one major pass to clean up the language and then a few notes need to be fixed to pick up dropped threads. I know Holly Lisle recommends a one-pass revision but that rarely works for me. There are too many layers and elements that I need to look at and I can't keep them all in my head at once along with the full vision of Story laid out like a map.
I think that you will be fine. I think life is always going to be one big balance that you have to work out. Just be glad you aren't me... I will have piles upon piles of papers to grade every week. :)
ReplyDeleteI am glad that things are starting to turn around for you. You deserve the best.