So this marks the last day of my daily journaling experiment, and I must say it is a success. I did manage to blog every day (and yes, I still haven’t rewritten the lost day 6-post but I did write it, I swear), and I even liked it.
I hope you liked it too but I guess if you thought that reading something from me every day would be a little too much you’d not be reading this anyways.
I think I’m going to keep this up – within reason. So I won’t kill myself to post every day but I’ll try to. Posting daily works better than posting weekly because somehow I never quite get my act together on time, and so I kept procrastinating about that weekly post for weeks. Which doesn’t work.
Other than that I have been feeling both really excited and somewhat meh and overwhelmed at the same time. Excited because I had an idea yesterday for a new novel, and also I had the idea of writing it during November (for NaNoWriMo), and also live-blogging the novel on my author blog. The new blog is still a work in progress, and I’m not quite sure how to use it yet, so I’m trying things out.
Of course writing yet another novel is so not sensible, and in a different genre than the trilogy is even worse, and live-blogging it is rather insane. So I thought it would be a good idea, as one does.
The overwhelm comes from all the things I need to do. I still want to finish revision on the trilogy (and the best would be if I could do that before November. Chances are slim, though. I spent 40 hours on the revision of novel two which is much less than I would have thought. Now that novel is short (too short, unfortunately). Also those forty hours were spread out from the beginning of January until now. Ugh. I did do other things in between but not that many.
I also want to get the new blog going, of course, I’m still not happy with how it looks, and I need to set up a newsletter (and a sign-up for that newsletter) for people who want to know about when the trilogy comes out. And the big project for this month is to record some songs for my mother’s birthday. Which is on October 28th so I have a firm deadline for that.
I’m also having second thoughts on novel two (as one does). I wrote this one twice because I found the first version so bad that I thought writing it again would be the better choice. Now I’m sitting there with a 55,000 word, very short, novel that I’ve completely torn apart and rewritten and I’m afraid I made it worse instead of better. And yesterday I stumbled over a printout of the first version of that novel, and that is a juicy 89,000 words, and I really liked the opening scene. I think the writing is much fresher. Which wouldn’t be surprising.
Of course my next move should be to reread both versions, and then decide on what to do. But I’m seeing myself spending another year on revision for this thing, either revising the first version, or – even worse – tearing both versions apart and trying to make them into a new whole. Also I’ve lost track of what actually happens in each version of each novel. There is something to be said for writing and revising quickly because then you don’t forget everything.
Well, it is no use. I need to finish the trilogy (don’t think I haven’t toyed with the thought of giving up), and for that I need to reread both versions and decide what to do. I have a feeling right now that the first version is not as bad as I thought but if that’s the case I have wasted a year (well, not comepletely because I have learned loads and have written the rough draft of another novel), and I will still have to revise that one.
No, not fun.
But that’s the pro mindset, isn’t it? You do the work that’s necessary to make it as good as you can. No matter what.
Yesterday was a rather full day, by the way, even without the novel-writing woes. I went to the orthodontist by bike, and it looks as if the boy will get rid of his braces soonish. We have to decide whether to pay for a wire to be glued behind his teeth permanently after finishing the whole course of braces. Right now it looks as if we won’t. It isn’t covered by insurance, and isn’t really necessary, just would make things easier.
Before, I ran a few errands and went to the health food store, then I taught quite a few students, did strength training (for all of 16 minutes, yeah me), had dinner, and flopped down at the kitchen table. Oh, and my husband’s new guitar came. He is happy with it, it doesn’t sound like anything he owns yet, and I could already hear him play differently with it. That’s one of the fun things about different instruments, you get to play in a different way with them too.
Then I didn’t do nothing, didn’t wash a single dish all day (be glad you’re not looking at our kitchen right now), and went to bed on time. Only to not sleep well, and wake up too early yet again. Yawn.
Today is a new day, though, and I will pick myself up again. There will be running, and lots of dishes, and I’ll go to the supermarket, and I will definitely practice those songs for the birthday present, and I will print out the revised version of novel two, and the unfinished raw draft of novel three (good thing I just ordered printer toner and paper), and then I’ll go to bed on time again tonight.
And I will tell you all about my really exciting life again tomorrow. Fun!
Ich finde es toll, dass du weiterhin öfter bloggen willst, ich lese deine Posts sehr gerne!
Ich wollte nur schnell meinen Senf zu dem Retainer hinter den Zähnen geben. Meine Eltern haben damals (vor fast 14 Jahren) dafür bezahlt und beide Retainer sind immer noch an Ort und Stelle. Meine Zähne sehen noch genau so aus, wie als die Spange rausgekommen ist und nichts hat sich verschoben. Ich bin sehr froh, dass sie damals entschieden haben, es zu machen.
Danke, das freut mich, dass du gerne liest.
Wie gesagt überlegen wir wegen des Retainers noch. Ich bin ja sehr froh, dass heute Vorkehrungen getroffen werden, dass die Zähne nicht alle wieder zurückrutschen. Ich habe jahrelang Zahnspange getragen und danach haben sie sich wieder total verschoben.