Dare II in Review
December 2, 1997
The Dare is dead! Long live the new Dare! Eep! Perish the thought of another Dare right now. Take that idea and put it away; lock it up; send it to bed without dinner. I ain't going there again, not for awhile anyway. Before you get the idea that this wasn't fun, though, let me dispell that thought. By Dare's end, I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I thrilled when Lisa finished her work, and I was happy to see Linda complete hers. Among the best parts of doing a tandem Dare is watching everyone else finish. But the best feeling throughout the whole Dare was coming back to Columbus and seeing that Diana was going to finish. I had felt so bad for her the previous few days (when it became apparent that I would finish), and to read that she had stuck her chin out and was grtting out those 60,000 words lifted my spirits in ways impossible to define. Diana put the right spirit back into the Dare for me and made my own petty difficulties with it seem somehow insignificant. Enough prattling on though, I'm sure there are questions. Who has the first? Yes? Ah, you back there in the green shirt! I can't believe a novel written in a month is worth reading. Is your story total ca-ca, or what? Good question. Honesty forces me to admit that I feel it needs some work. Primarily in the opening half of the book. Why is that? I think it's because I didn't sit down and outline from the beginning. Once I got my mind straight on the story, it flowed pretty well. That said, I don't think I would be embarrassed if the story were to be published as is--assuming it would go through the copy editing process along the way. So there's a few typos, eh? Oh, yeah. I did manage to find the best tyop of all times in process, though. I was trying to state that something ". . . smelled of honey . . ." and somehow replaced the "o" in "honey" with an "i". Oh, that's funny." Hey, the "i" and the "o" are right next to each other on the keyboard! 94,000 words in a month. Wow. You must have slaved away at the keyboard all month! Not really. Well, yeah, kinda. I'm like that, you know. As you can see from my progress reports, I work two hours a morning, every morning--well, most mornings. Some days I got 500 words, others I got 2,000. Of course, I needed some monsterous weekends to get me through. But Lisa is a wonderful person, and Brigid even got into it. They had a great time in Indy on the last major weekend, letting me concentrate on finishing. So, what else did you do during the month? A bunch, really. I worked. Brigid had a school thing. We had a nice family outing on Lisa's birthday, and Brigid and I went out shopping the day before. My evenings were still dedicated to Lisa and Brigid--we had two game nights during the Dare. I spent a nice thanksgiving with my parents and Lisa's parents that included playing several games of hearts, pinochle, and yahtzee. I watched three U of L basketball games. Lisa rented a movie during it ("French Kiss"). And I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. What didn't you do? Sleep! And watch TV--which I rarely do anyway. What was your favorite moment in the month? When Brigid took me to Dairy Queen to celebrate my finishing. She made it a big production, and gave me a big hug when got in the front door. GRIN What was your least favorite moment in the month? When I realized this Dare wasn't going to be as much fun as the last one. Why was that? I'm not sure, really. Lots of things. I think the novelty had worn a little. Also, the book I was working on was 30K longer, so it seemed more daunting. 3,000 words a day is a pretty hefty average. There's more, but it's not worth going into here. Let's just say that Diana's comeback really made the thing special. Kurt's ""I hate to punt" bit was like that, too. But it was so early in the Dare that it had worn out a little by the dog days! Do you have anything else to add? Nah ... I've got to go to work! But if anyone has any other questions I'll be glad to answer them! See everyone tomorrow!  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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