Gentle Reader, I can’t believe it’s happened. Five weeks of writing every morning. I feel so accomplished! So proud of myself! And then, I remember how rough everything is and how much work I have ahead of me in revisions, and I come back down to earth once more.
I’m a sloppy writer, which my therapist believes is a way of my OCD coping with itself. Not everything can be perfect, and this is my way of allowing for creativity to blossom without picking and overanalyzing. She said otherwise, nothing would ever get finished, and she’s right. I remember my early days of writing, of rewriting the first chapters over and over again, trying to get them perfect, before I ever moved on, and a lot of times, I didn’t even move on. I just sat on the first chapter and refined it and refined it and refined it.
Then, in 2003, I told myself that I would write a novel, and I sat down and started writing. I wrote quick and dirty and I had a draft in a month. It was TERRIBLE. So I sat down and wrote another book. This one took about three weeks. I revised it and revised it and it was OKAY. Both have been revised even more, and now I have BECOMING and MARCH MADNESS being shopped to publishers, fifteen years later.
Fifteen years. That’s a long time to live with a draft. I put them aside for years at a time, but I always came back to them.
MARVEL AMONG THE DEMONS has been knocking around for about two years, and right now, is at 66K words. I’m close to the end, and I think I’ll get there by March. My plan is to rewrite like crazy during spring break (first week of March) and get it to my amazing agent then. After that? I don’t know what the next project is. I try to switch genres (MARCH is a mystery, BECOMING a Victorian urban fantasy, and MARVEL a YA novel). I have a completed draft of my contemporary YA, THESE HOUSES OF INTIMATE ACQUAINTANCES which needs revision, so that might be my next step.
But until then, I am writing! Every day! And enjoying myself once more! I feel centered when I write. It makes me feel grounded. I missed it when I wasn’t writing, and it feels good to put fingers to keyboard once again.
The Postmodern Bluestocking 
This post really resonated with me! I decided that I was going to try and write at least 5 days a week as soon as I got up in the morning because it’s something I enjoy and it just starts my day off in the right way! I am exactly the same in that I have tried to move on to other sections of my book but I keep returning back to the start and tweaking the very first paragraphs!
But, (and yes I am completely and shamelessly promoting myself here) I’ve just stared a writing series on my blog in the hopes that I can give myself some accountability every now and then!
Anyway, I have rambled on for way to long – I just stumbled over your blog and I’m so glad I did because I loved it (and I have a habit of talking a lot when I love something)! Keep it up because I can’t wait to read more from you! 🙂
Hello! Thanks for coming by and hope to hear from you again. I look forward to checking out your blog!
Cheers,
Amy
My pleasure and you certainly shall see more of me (I’ll leave it up to you as to whether that is a good thing or not haha!)
Definitely good! 🙂