– Loaf of bread: check
– Batch of most excellent six-grain sweet rolls wrapped around dark organic chocolate, which has melted and gone all smooshy and delicious inside: check
– Successful cast-on of the beginning of those wrist warmers: FINALLY (with a bonus 1/3 first row of ribbing)
– Tomato-bean-beef stew in the slow cooker: check
I’m being so efficient that I’m kind of annoying myself.
So far today I have handled a lot of correspondence, confirmed the final contributor to the anthology (all slots are officially filled, hurrah!), made a batch of bread dough, made a batch of sweet roll dough, practised the cello, and various and sundry little stuff. Yesterday afternoon I did eight pages of this weekend’s workshop, which was very encouraging indeed, and began hatching ideas for more. I think I’m going to add modules on some of the basic things like mindfulness that I talk about in the book, as well as some practical stuff on cleansing and purification and balancing the energy of a space. This will work. I will fill up three hours. I’ve got a stack of books to bring with me, too, that talk about different aspects of the subjects I’m going to touch on for people to look at over the break or at the end of the day.
(Pardon me while I quietly freak out for a moment again: Seventeen. People.)
And it’s only eleven o’clock! A good day so far indeed.
Dear brain:
I appreciate that you’re proud of finished the novel. Really, I am. However, the point in finishing this first draft of novel before the beginning of March was so that it wouldn’t eat up valuable energy that needed to be directed into the anthology and other things. For example, there is a three-hour hearthcraft workshop that you will be delivering to (at last count) SEVENTEEN PEOPLE this Saturday. (I pause here in order to give you the appropriate time in which to freak out, o brain.) The hour-long brief lecture you did at the Hamilton Pagan Pride day isn’t going to work for this. You need to really, really plan out a better-organised and more detailed outline. A craft, maybe? Guided meditations? Break into small discussion groups? Something. Because, really, brain: Three hours. Think of something good.
Also, I am very proud of you for doing as much work as you’ve done today on the anthology. You’re completely up to date. All info you’ve received so far has been slotted into the correct fields in the correct files, submissions have been reviewed, and everyone who has handed in their story has had a contract sent to them. You’ve done everything you can do so far. That’s great. But that doesn’t mean you get the rest of the day off. It’s been a good morning of work, but a good morning and being totally on top of things in one project doesn’t entitle you to an afternoon off the other pending things. (See above re. workshop.)
You can edit the novel when the anthology has been handed at the end of the month. Four weeks. You have to ignore it for one month. Make longhand notes if you can’t wait. But no opening the file.
You may try to cast on that damed fingering weight yarn for the wrist warmers yet again if you need a break. (Yes, I thought that would send you skittering for the workshop files in tears.)
I officially hate fingering weight yarn and tiny DPNs.
I have frogged the cast-on and/or first row five times already. I despise this project, and I’m only a day into it. I suspect I have bitten off more than I can chew, despite telling myself that the only way to learn is to try new stuff. My beautiful yarn is splitty and loosely spun, my DPNs are too blunt, and I want to be using two circulars instead of four DPNs. I want to run madly back to my Aran-weight yarns and throw myself into their arms, promising to never, ever leave them again.
That is all.
Murder Most Royal Jean Plaidy
Ceremony in Death by J.D. Robb
Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
Shopaholic and Sister by Sophie Kinsella
Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susannah Clarke
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
Victoria in the Wings by Jean Plaidy
Lady Grace: Feud by Grace Cavendish (Patricia Finney)
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
The Book of Air and Shadow by Michael Gruber
It didn’t really take very long at all to complete this. Here’s the breakdown:
12 May 2008: Original exercise (brainstorm a story idea, write a back-of-the-book synopsis)
May 2008: Expand 200-word synopsis to a two-page descriptive outline (same day, actually)
July-October 2008: begin writing once or twice a week (about 30K or 60pp)
Nov 2008: approx. 30K done over the month
Jan/Feb 2009: ten writing sessions to finish it
So overall, if one leaves out the day in May where I brainstormed the idea, it took eight months of part-time work on it. If one includes May to give a better overall idea of the development time of the idea/prep time for headspace, ten months. Eight to ten months is a very, very respectable timeline for a part-time novel.
Now, could I do it again? That’s the question. It would depend on the idea and how fully it was worked out in the synops(i/e)s.
… as of 14h20 today, we have a complete first draft.
Yes, the damn book is finished. (For now. There will be revision, but let us celebrate the big huge first and most important step, yes?)
New words today: 1,713
Total word count, Orchestrated: 69,787
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|
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69,787 / 60,000
(116.3%) |
Look! I made it in under 70K! And I love my 116% with much love. (Yeah, so 60K was arbitrary when I started; I knew I’d go over.)
I knew I was making cake today for a reason.
