I worked for another two hours last night, moving things around, cutting things out, and generally garnering more carrots.
I e-mailed my editor to ask for a three-day extension, and hated myself for it. She e-mailed me back this morning telling me that of course I could have an extension, that my books were always clean and she didn’t have to worry about them, which was appreciated on her end. I love my editor. With one sentence she wiped out all of my stress. Of course, she probably laughed like a loon at a request for a three-day extension, too. I suspect most requests are for weeks or months, not days.
We took Liam to the mall to see the Easter display of farm animals this morning and it was great fun to watch him scurry around, crouch down to peer through the fences, and laugh at the animals inside. His favourites were the fancy chickens and the goats. He had a good lunch and went down very easily for his nap, so now I have two hours to spend sorting through the MS, finishing sentences and making notes of places that need work.
While we were out I found the mp3 player I will buy after payday. It’s only fifteen dollars more than my first one cost (much less than I expected it to be), and this one is new so it will be fully guaranteed. I may even buy an extended warranty for it.
Oh, and the cinnamon toast made from the failed sweet buns? Big hit. “Mama? I like cimmamyum toast,” he informed me, cinnamon sugar and butter smeared all over his face. So do we, kid.
i like this carrot idea. all that moving stuff around, and you feel like you’ve got nothing to show for it in the end. *nods to self* yup, carrots.
Developing the concept of carrots was very possibly the best thing Ceri and I ever did for ourselves, and by extension other writers who hear of the concept. Now we have a way of evaluating work we’ve done that doesn’t necessarily reflect words added or pages edited. It can also cover out-of-book work like research and notes and automatic writing that helps you work through book-related stuff. Very versatile, these carrots. And the term was arbitrary, too.
I notice you’ve been numbering your carrots. Do you have a system?
However useful I feel they’ve been to the overall end product, which is of course unknown at this point. In other words, it’s arbitrary as well. :)
Aaah, but the arbitrariness of carrots is part of their charm.
We were at that same mall looking at those same farm animals this afternoon! Devon’s favorite part was getting to hold and stroke a little brown bunny, followed closely by getting to hold and stroke a baby duck. My favorite part was Uncle Marc being silly with Tallis and making her laugh and laugh and laugh.
I also love the carrot idea.
Your panic and guilt over asking for extensions eminds me so much of Cegep and university, where I was always in knots over asking profs for extensions, and it always turned out to be no big deal. (Did that ever make me more relaxed about asking the next time? Nope.)
It’d because asking for an extension smacks of either poor organisation on my part, or failure to live up to a contracted schedule. Both of which are the kinds of things that absolutely tear me up inside. And this despite the fact that I *know* there’s always extra time padding every pub schedule because so many people do hand in their projects late.
As Ceri pointed out to me, though, I was diagnosed with a chronic pain and fatigue illness halfway through the writing period, and the effects began well before that. I didn’t mention it because it would have felt like an excuse. How lame is that?