It's the end of the first week with my new part-time job. What? You didn't realize I have a new job? Yeah, it's called being a writer. And it can be described no more eloquently than how I heard it from a very successful author: "butt in the chair, hands on the keyboard". I know I should remember exactly which famous author from LTUE said it but truthfully I can't remember if it was Larry Correia, Michaelbrent Collings or Johnny Worthen. (How's that for name dropping, huh?) In fact, I think all three of them might have said it which is why I can't remember exactly who it was.
Here's what I've learned so far:
1. The work gets easier the more consistently I do it. And I'm more consistent when my writing time is scheduled in my calendar and everyone knows that's what I'm doing in that time slot. It may be that I slid easily into this habit because it's the same way I navigated writing in November when I did NaNoWriMo, but I also suspect that my logical and organized mind just needed it laid out like another commitment I had to fit into my crazy schedule.
2. Even if I only have a couple of hours on most weekdays and one day of the weekend to devote to writing, I still got FAR more accomplished than I thought I would this week. This was a pretty big surprise for me. In my corporate life, I usually need large chunks of time devoted to enormous projects to make real progress. When I don't get that, it usually is more counterproductive to get going just to have to stop. Writing has proven far different. I can plug away in smaller time increments and still get lots of things done. This week could be an anomaly but I'm guessing it isn't. Even my 'Marathon Sunday' of writing this week included time to get my house clean and my laundry done while taking advantage of my built in breaks. Since my family got my undivided time on Saturday and I wasn't some recluse they didn't see all day on Sunday, my guess is they may just think I'm messing around on Facebook like nothing is different. Won't they be surprised when I have more than a Facebook feed to show for my efforts? Another bonus: I got more sleep this week than I usually do on top of doing more every day. How does that work, I wonder? I'm not complaining but I suspect not watching television has much to do with it.
3. Revision isn't as bad as editing when you look at it as part of the same process of writing. I always thought of the editing process as something separate from writing your first draft. Truth is, once you get the rough draft down, you just keep going and revising (or re-vision-ing as I like to think) until you can't improve it anymore. Even then you will need another set or two of eyes to see what else there is you missed and then if it's good enough to sell to a publisher you'll have to do it all over with their editors. Now that I realize I can't compartmentalize or avoid revision, it is a much more enjoyable process.
I'm currently working on several things. Which I also never trusted could be done when authors talked about writing one book and editing another. I'm brewing a new story in the back of my subconscious while I work on revisions of the novel I wrote last November. I finished reading through the first draft after I let it sit for a couple of months so I was reading with fresh eyes and a memory that had faded a bit. I found lots of plot points that needed to be fleshed out or tweaked for consistency and now I'm seeing the entire whole for places that can be improved. I find so much excitement working with a finished draft because the bare bones of the story are all there and now I'm just adding organs and connecting tissue to bring it more fully to life.
I love going back and seeing how things shift for me years down the road so I'm going to keep documenting what I think of as "My novel project" for my own hindsight as I explore what works for me and what doesn't. Why have a blog if not for your own personal benefit, right? I'll also keep regaling my faithful readers (all ten of you?) with the craziness of the rest of my life. Hopefully you'll remain entertained and keep coming back. If I learned anything from attending LTUE it is that I've grown as a writer the last four years even if it was in miniscule steps I didn't realize until I look back and compare then to now. If you need me, I'll be reading, drinking excessive amounts of coffee, running around with my hair on fire to keep up with where me or my kids need to be, and writing into the wee hours of the night. My goal is to have my revisions done of my current novel by the end of the summer.
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