As we’re drawing toward the end of the month I’ve been touched on progress toward my resolutions of the new year. The only one I haven’t commented on yet is: “Write fiction every day.”
The fact is that I’ve missed three days. Well, technically I guess I’ve only missed two days, but I admit it’s hard for me to accept a day where I spent, like, two minutes touching up a paragraph as a real day of working on fiction. Even then, missing only three days would be pretty good. That’s 89.6%. Solid B, maybe a B+. But I’m still giving myself an A, maybe an A+ even, because during the three days I wasn’t writing fiction, I was reading and commenting on Brigid’s work.
That’s right. Brigid finished up “Singer,” her NaNoWriMo book, and she shipped it off to me, and I commented on it. Very cool, indeed. Not an experience I would have really expected all those many years back when I started this whole thing–though it seems obvious now. And it’s a nice effort, too, which makes it even better. The first half is actually quite smooth and well done, the second half held water for me, but was a little crunched at times. But a great effort for a first draft of a first novel. Who knows where it will lead, but I’ll admit I’m really quite jealous.
So, you see why I’m a bit lenient on that B or B+ for myself. Writing is too tough of a gig to be a tyrant about yourself.
In the meantime, this month saw me (1) complete work on one novella, (2) send two more out for first reader comments, (3) finish “The Teammates,” a short story that I expect you’ll hear more about in the next few days … Yay! (4) Finish the first draft of a yet-to-be-titles short story, and work about half-way through the second draft, and (5) develop the framework for another short story based on beetles. Not bad for a month that included a couple days travel, and three days of convention. And, of course, “real work” … which I shall toddle off to now.
Have a great day, eh?