Progress...Finally Making Some

YAY!

If you come here often, you've probably noticed that lots of weeks I'm barely posting once a week, and there has been a lot of talk about how I can't seem to get anything done. This week was very stressful with two major deadlines with the day job and some office related technical problems that slowed the process down.

It turns out that's what I needed. I'm exhausted. My stomach hurts. My legs are still doing the weird spasm thing, and I cannot wait until Little Baby Fred decides to show up. BUT I FINISHED MY SHORT STORY!!!

I realize for lots of people finishing a short story is really no big deal. Once upon a time, it wasn't for me either. I used to be able to write that in a day or two. But I'm as thrilled as if I finished a novel. I've also been around commenting again. I was reading blogs before I was just too tired to leave a comment. Sorry guys. I've done my requisite 3 critiques for my critique group this week, and I'm pretty much caught up on the day job.  The only thing I'm behind on is P-52. At this point I should probably have reviewed 10 or 12 books and I've only done 5, but I'm not going to freak out.

Nova Suma is teaching a class at mediabistro on how to write a YA novel in 12 weeks. I decided to register the course, partly because she will be providing page critiques each week and I hope to improve my writing, but I thought with my current lack of productivity this would force me to get words on paper. But after I read the syllabus I realized that even though my first drafts tend to be 100+k, if I just write 1075 words/ day or 7500 words/week I can finish a full length ms in 14 weeks. I've been too hard on myself. I've set my goals too high and that's part of the reason I can't accomplish them. So my new plan is to spend a week or two editing my short story and re-writing an older one then not write anything else before the class and just catch up on reading. Slow and steady really does win the race. Who would have thought?