I think it may be a bit overly optimistic for me to plan on blogging three times a week. I’ve been intending to post something all week, but every time I remember, it’s always too late to do anything about it right then, or I think “Well, I’ll just post Wednesday/Friday/etc. instead,” and subsequently forget to post that. Added into the complexity of the three-times-a-week schedule is the fact that I’ve become obsessed with writing these posts by hand, and then typing them in. I like to think handwriting these makes my posts more fluid and journal-like, but simultaneously, it makes it hard to whip something together in a few spare minutes.
All of that, to say: FORGIVE ME, GENTLE READERS! I aim to improve!
But I think I’ll have to be a bit more realistic about it. So I’m going to try for two posts a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, with occasional bonus posts if something particularly interesting happens. Friday posts will most likely be journal-like, checking in on how the week went, and how next week is shaping up. Tuesday posts may vary in subject matter, though either may include a doodle, because I love doodling. :)
Despite not blogging (at all, ugh…) this past week, things on the writing front have gone quite well. I started this week by editing the novel rewrite (after last week’s start on the “flash” story ended up devouring most of my writing time), and that seemed to work a lot better. I ended up spending most of Monday-Wednesday doing all the character background work I really hadn’t done for the first draft. It was a bit frustrating at first, because I really wanted to make forward progress (a Write Club deadline of Feb 7th to wrap up Act I is weighing on me), but once I relaxed and reminded myself (Thanks in part to a note from Susanne B.!) to have fun with it–at least as much as possible–things started really loosening up. By Thursday, I knew where the rewrite had gone off the tracks (changing the Protag’s job ended up sapping all the dramatic tension from the character relationships), and managed–keeping the “Entertain Yourself” mantra in mind–to create a slick workaround, which promptly revitalized the forward momentum, reintroduced the character tension I loved so much in the first draft, and got me reinvigorated about the story again. It feels so good not to be completely lost. Friday, I went back and started reworking the first scene to get it realigned with the relatively minor tweak, and this coming week, I’m hoping to tackle at least part of the second scene.
And just when I was certain I wouldn’t have time to write a flash piece (or even have a workable idea for one), I sat down at 9:30PM Thursday night and banged out a bittersweet 850 word tale I’m kind of delighted with. Granted, the infatuation probably won’t last, but I’ll love it while I can.
This coming week has a lot going on, so no definite goals. Andy’s on vacation (which usually means I get zilch done writing-wise, but we get to travel around and enjoy actually being a family!), and I’m starting an online writing class on Thursday taught by Nick Mamatas (author of Bullettime and Love is the Law, and a bunch of other awesome books and short fiction), so a lot of my writing time is going to be dedicated to that for the next few weeks. It’d be great to get a start on the novel’s second scene and get a flash piece done by Thursday, but seriously, who knows. It’ll be a bit of a gamble, but that’s okay.
So have a great week, folks! I’ll see if I can get something posted on Tuesday. :)
P.S.–I unabashedly adore Tim Gunn. Just sayin’.
Maggie Slater 