The problem with that whooshing noise....
I meant to get the novel done before the beginning of May. Then before MediaWest. Then before the end of May. Then June 21?, which would have been exactly the four-year mark since I started. Then the end of June. Then the end of July. At least I made it before BistoCon, which was deadline... six? seven? of the current crop. There were whooshing noises for some time before that, too.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter when I got it done. I'm not under contract, or even (yet) in any professional relationship with expectations about productivity. And for my personal writerly development, the difference between four years and four years and two months is not that big a deal -- though I am deeply frustrated by not being able to hit that target.
However, that original May deadline wasn't just to fit it in around convention season; it was also about what would happen after. A nice, leisurely read-through, followed by edits as necessary and then setting the book aside with a sense of finality (for now). A couple of months off, in which I could mess about with short stories, get back to that just-for-fun project I've been missing, maybe play with some fanfic. Do some querying and submitting, that's been left by the wayside in the push to Finish The Book. Recharge the batteries, relax the writing muscles. Not no-writing, because my brain gets troublesome if I don't write semi-regularly, but low-pressure, small-stretches kinds of stuff, so I can remember that this writing thing is supposed to be fun.
And then, after several months of recuperation, think seriously about doing NaNo, and gear up for that.
Instead, I find myself with less than half the time I originally envisioned -- and the resulting drive to hurry-up-and-relax-right-now. The just-for-fun project has about 15-20K left to go; that's 3-4 months for me when I'm in good form. There's the story I promised someone at MediaWest. There's the final due-diligence push on querying Highway of Mirrors, which has also blown past more deadlines than I can count. A dozen or so short stories that should all be out there right now, and kept out there til they sell. The Doctor Who fanfic that I figured out how to un-stick a while back, and that Star Trek series I'm not writing, and maybe that last Atlantis story, and the fanfic all counts just as much because I promised myself I would relax, dammit!
And frankly, Falling From Ground was enough of a death-march that I'm a tad leery of grabbing hold of the hot stove element of another novel just yet. Even if I did nothing but doodle for the next two months, what kind of state would I be in, writing-wise, come November 1st? The NaNo project (should I choose to accept it) would be the sequel to ...And the Kitchen Sink, my NaNo win from a few years back. It should be fun, fast-paced, a bit wacky but sensible in a surreal way. I'm calling it Lightning Strikes Twice, and there's an implicit challenge in that title. Am I up to that challenge? Am I going to be up to that challenge, and can I possibly pack enough relaxation into the remaining time to make myself so?
Yeah. Hurry up and relax. 'Cause that's gonna work.
This entry was originally posted at https://lizvogel.dreamwidth.org/183726.html because I got tired of dealing with whatever LiveJournal had broken this time. Comment whereever.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter when I got it done. I'm not under contract, or even (yet) in any professional relationship with expectations about productivity. And for my personal writerly development, the difference between four years and four years and two months is not that big a deal -- though I am deeply frustrated by not being able to hit that target.
However, that original May deadline wasn't just to fit it in around convention season; it was also about what would happen after. A nice, leisurely read-through, followed by edits as necessary and then setting the book aside with a sense of finality (for now). A couple of months off, in which I could mess about with short stories, get back to that just-for-fun project I've been missing, maybe play with some fanfic. Do some querying and submitting, that's been left by the wayside in the push to Finish The Book. Recharge the batteries, relax the writing muscles. Not no-writing, because my brain gets troublesome if I don't write semi-regularly, but low-pressure, small-stretches kinds of stuff, so I can remember that this writing thing is supposed to be fun.
And then, after several months of recuperation, think seriously about doing NaNo, and gear up for that.
Instead, I find myself with less than half the time I originally envisioned -- and the resulting drive to hurry-up-and-relax-right-now. The just-for-fun project has about 15-20K left to go; that's 3-4 months for me when I'm in good form. There's the story I promised someone at MediaWest. There's the final due-diligence push on querying Highway of Mirrors, which has also blown past more deadlines than I can count. A dozen or so short stories that should all be out there right now, and kept out there til they sell. The Doctor Who fanfic that I figured out how to un-stick a while back, and that Star Trek series I'm not writing, and maybe that last Atlantis story, and the fanfic all counts just as much because I promised myself I would relax, dammit!
And frankly, Falling From Ground was enough of a death-march that I'm a tad leery of grabbing hold of the hot stove element of another novel just yet. Even if I did nothing but doodle for the next two months, what kind of state would I be in, writing-wise, come November 1st? The NaNo project (should I choose to accept it) would be the sequel to ...And the Kitchen Sink, my NaNo win from a few years back. It should be fun, fast-paced, a bit wacky but sensible in a surreal way. I'm calling it Lightning Strikes Twice, and there's an implicit challenge in that title. Am I up to that challenge? Am I going to be up to that challenge, and can I possibly pack enough relaxation into the remaining time to make myself so?
Yeah. Hurry up and relax. 'Cause that's gonna work.
This entry was originally posted at https://lizvogel.dreamwidth.org/183726.html because I got tired of dealing with whatever LiveJournal had broken this time. Comment whereever.