NaNoWriMo - To Hell with the Word Count

Last year, when I first attempted NaNoWriMo, I drank the Kool-aid and then vomited up 20,000 words before I realized it wasn't good.  I wrote until I got writer's high - writer's nirvana, as one of my friends calls it - and I kept writing.  I'm surprised there aren't rainbows and butterflies in those chapters...actually, maybe there are.

I was more than a little depressed about the wasted effort (mommies of three-year-olds don't have a minute to waste).  I stopped writing for about six weeks and questioned my ability as a writer.  Uncool.

This year I vowed to do NaNoWriMo again, but by my terms.  I decided not to get caught up in the word count.  I planned to write one quality chapter at a time and edit after writing a few - because this is the process that works for me.  I would use the hype of the month to keep me moving - and to give my family a relatively concrete reason to give me blocks of time to write (which they have). 

Something happened yesterday as I approached 30,000 words...I became obsessed with the word count.  And my Muse sprinted away.

I was writing just to add numbers to the awesome graph on the NaNo site.  But my plot was murky. My chapters weren't contained units.  The the last sentence of the last few chapters sucked - and yet I kept writing. 

Today I refuse to add new chapters until I fix the three or four chapters that aren't good.  To hell with the word count - it doesn't mean a thing if it's not quality work. 

If I do nothing but fix these chapters before the end of the month, it's a win.  And I will have proven to myself that I can write half of a quality novel in a month, a pace I would love to keep up over the next year.

To those of you racing to the finish line, carry on.  I'm dropping out but am still cheering you on.

Write, Polish, Submit, and Write Something New

I'm finally feeling a little better this morning.  For the first time in a week, I felt like writing when I woke up.

Once I got my kids to school (after several dreams where I sent them to school but they kept coming back home), I picked up my previous WIP and read the first chapter.  And I was really happy with it.  I can see exactly what I need to change to make it done.  Done.  As in completely done.  Final revision done. 

Or maybe I still have a fever and am completely delusional. 

I've already done two rounds of revisions to the first twenty-nine chapters.  (I only know that because of my little graph in my sidebar.)  The last chapters are with my CP.  I don't want to make any changes to those chapters until I get her feedback, so the novel has been at a standstill.  That's actually not a bad thing because I've been researching and documenting my plan for my next one (actually my next five).

My next few stories require a lot of research.  I don't want to write the first word (although I already have about 10K written) until I finish the research and plot out the stories a little more.  It's not procrastination - it's for my sanity.  I know a lot of you will say I will stifle my creativity with all the planning - but I won't.  I need structure around it, or it will be a hot mess.

What I have been procrastinating over is finishing and submitting my last three novels.  They are sitting here (somewhere in the mess on my desk) done but not completely done - just short of completed.  They are like cakes without icing - yummy but not as delicious and appealing as they could be.  They are not quite ready to be served up to a crowd.  (I skipped breakfast and am really hungry.) 

I clearly see that my new five-novel monster project is an easy way to put off attempting to get anything published.  It gives me an excuse to submit nothing for the next five years.  Awesome, right?  I'm off the hook.

But if I had a friend in the same position, I would tell them to finish their almost-done novel and then write something new.  Why write it if you aren't going to finish it?  I tell people that all the time. 

Write, polish, submit, and write something new. 

It's very sensible.  And yet my inclination is to write, polish, set it aside, and repeat until I have an amazing stack of very nearly done novels on my desk.

Today I will be brave.  I will begin putting the icing on one of my creations one chapter at a time with the intention of sharing it.  Clearly I need to give myself a deadline.  It's December 31.  Eeek.  I should probably put that on my sidebar so I don't forget.

The End

I finished my novel!

The first 100 pages have been critiqued and edited, the next 100 are with my CP, and the remaining 130 need a first round of edits.  Overall, I'm really happy with it. 

I've had a lot of advice telling me not to edit until I have the entire first draft written.  But that's not the way I roll. 

I used to be a programmer.  I designed and developed relatively complex applications using a structured design methodology.  I will spare you the details - but maybe I'll do a nerds-only post next week.  The bottom line is this:  for software and novels, I don't like to add complexity onto something that's not strong enough to hold it.

I write a chapter or two, sometimes several chapters, and then edit them before moving on, but never on the same day.  This process makes me feel like I'm on solid ground and doesn't at all stifle my creativity.  I do final edits after that, lots of rounds of edits, often using feedback from peers. 

When I wrote software, I wrote one functional piece of the application and then tested it.  Any bugs were fixed and tested before I wrote the next piece.  If our team didn't do testing and bug fixes iteratively, we would have a nightmare on our hands trying to get broken pieces to work together and would be promptly scolded for not delivering the complete product on time. 

So I write and edit in chunks.  It's how I'm wired after doing that kind of work for more than ten years.

I think everyone is different in their writing process, and what works for me probably doesn't work for other people.  I feel really lucky I found a process that works well for me.

Now I have to answer the big question for myself:  do I want to jump right into edits, finish editing my other stories, or start something new?  I think I will decide tomorrow.

I hope you all are making good progress on your writing this month.  It seems like a lot of people are finishing novels, which is awesome. 

Anyone up for a nerd post?   (I anticipate browser windows closing quickly.) 

In the Weeds

I'm not sure exactly what that phrase means, in the weeds, but chefs who are in trouble use it repeatedly on Top Chef.  You'd think they'd use a cooking metaphor, like 'in the boiling water' or 'at the bottom of the pot of chili.'  Maybe not.

I'm still working on the ending of my current WIP, which has been the theme of most of my posts since mid-May. 

I had three chapters to go the last time I posted here.  Then I wrote four chapters.  One was hand-written in a doctor's office while I was waiting to drive a friend home after a procedure.  My daughter was with me and worked on her summer assignment for one of her AP history classes.  She kept interrupting me to ask questions about history, questions I couldn't answer. 

Despite the interruptions, I got it done.  I made a change to the previous chapter and finally got to the climax.  Now I need to write two more chapters to close it.

Last night at writing class, I read chapter two of my previous manuscript out loud to my small group.  They only laughed a little.  The chapter isn't especially funny.  It isn't meant to be.  But there's one thing missing in this chapter, the one thing that, when fixed, will make the novel much better.  I didn't see it until I read it last night.  My impulse today is to put my WIP on hold and make the change to my previous ms.  But I won't.  I can't.  I need to write those last two chapters first.

I need patience, lots of patience, a quality I don't possess. 

So I declare myself in the weeds, not in trouble, just busy, too busy to look up.  I promise I'll visit and comment when I get it done.  I don't think it will be today.  Hopefully tomorrow.  Maybe next week.

The End is Here

This week I am going to write the last three chapters of my WIP.  I hand-wrote one of the chapters in green ink on printer paper while I was stretching on Saturday.  An idea came to me that was better than what I had previously intended to write. 

I wonder if I would have had the same idea if I had written the story the week before vacation.  I kind of doubt it - I was really rushed and was thinking about everything except my story.

I'm setting low expectations for myself this week - I have almost twenty hours to write.  That would normally translate into ten or maybe even fifteen chapters and five loads of laundry.  (Or involve a lot of staring at a blank page between loads of laundry.)  This is the first week I've had this much time to write. 

I just need to finish those last three chapters.  Anything more than that is just extra.  Extra time to edit, extra time to do research on my next story, extra time to...well...do laundry.

I might sit on my back porch in the morning sun with a cup of coffee and a pen and notebook.  I have a lot of threads to close in the story.  I kind of feel like sketching it out before I type it up.

I hope you all have productive weeks too.  Are you trying to do more writing over the summer or giving yourself a break?  Do you hesitate when you write those last few chapters?

Writing Class Resumes Plus King's On Writing

Today is the first day of a new writing class term.  This year I'm being ambitious - I signed up for the Mastery class, a class where everyone is there to polish up their masterpiece.  I expect everyone will be very serious and intense about getting everything just right.  The classes in the past have been more of a critique/support group than a class - a light, loving critique group where everyone looks for the best in each other's words before giving any suggestions for change.  There's a virtual group hug at the end with love that's usually unspoken but sometimes is clearly articulated. 

The new class seems more like a class.  The instructor sent out an email with required reading.

I was immediately put off.  To be a writer you need to write - not read - about writing.  And I barely am able to squeeze three hours out of my week lately to work on my novel.  Physical therapy must be a priority and takes up all the time I used to spend writing and then some. 

I am a rule follower for the most part, but rarely on blogfests, so I reluctantly bought the books and started reading one - Stephen King's On Writing.  I don't like King's writing although I love, love, love a couple of his movies.  I don't see the point in reading tips on writing from a guy whose writing I don't like.  But the chapters are short, so I opened it up and started reading last night while doing my PT stretches - multitasking at its best. 

The book was surprisingly good.  I got to page 64 before I stopped to urge my big kids to go to bed.  But I didn't learn anything about writing I didn't already know.  It did make me feel comforted that he also has very cloudy memories of his childhood with distinct memories of certain things, like snapshots in his mind - mostly of the bad things.  And he finds inspiration in things that he observes, things that come to him, instead of searching for stories.  I feel the same way.

I also felt good that I do what he recommends and what I've heard other people say - write the first draft for yourself and then edit for other people.  I can't write fiction or poetry any other way, so I'm not sure if it matters that he affirmed what I do - even if he said to do it differently, I am confident I cannot. 

I write the way I did software development - type it all out and test it later.  You can't test software until it's done - or until it is a full unit at least, the equivalent of a chapter.  I prefer to do edits to my stories when whole sections are done, which is like integration testing in software development.  You have to make sure the parts fit.

Before I developed this strategy for writing, where I vomit the words out onto the page - with a preplanned structure in my mind or on paper - I couldn't finish anything.  This methodology works for me, so I do it. 

Back to King's book.  The book is good, and it was nice to relax and read for a little while.

My feet are propped up on my collection of Jane Austen at the suggestion of my physical therapist.   It's the only book that was exactly the right height to make the bends of my joints be at 90 degree angles.  I think I would rather be reading Emma than On Writing, but I will be a good student and will do what I'm told. 

Back on Track

I am very excited to get myself back on track with my writing projects. 

This week, I somehow found the time to read the first three chapters of my new novel and mark up the edits.  This morning, I was able to finalize the edits in my electronic version.  I can't wait to share the chapters with my writing partner.  I feel like these two chapters are as perfect I can get them.  They are done (except for whatever suggestions my writing partner may offer).  I can feel the excitement of this in my entire body, like an adrenaline rush.  If I could jump up and down, I would.

This feeling, knowing I nailed it, is why I love to write and why I know I'll be successful at it.  It's like heroine to me.  I can't imagine feeling a more pleasurable high.

Back toward the end of winter, I wrote about how I did an extreme detailed design for this novel, the way I used to do detailed designs for software development projects that needed to be handed off in pieces to multiple developers.  This novel needed it - I knew the ending and need to be careful to twist the plot and characterization just so. 

The design sucked the fun out of writing for me initially, but I have to tell you it has saved me. 

Life circumstances have caused me to put this novel down several times over.  Because I mapped it out before I wrote the first word, I can pick it up and start right back where I left off.  Moving forward, I will always do the detailed design up front for longer stories.  My former boss will be very proud.  We used to joke about how I should map out my ideas for stories using sequence diagrams.  I didn't go to that extent on the design, but I did map out all the characters, setting, and starting lines for each chapter.

Initially after I did the design, I thought I had ruined it for myself, that I had sucked the creativity out of writing this novel, that I may never write the first word, but it hasn't ruined it at all.  I love the feeling this story has a solid structure around it. 

We are going on vacation soon unless my doctor visit today reveals something that makes me unable to do the drive, which is entirely possible.  My husband was very sweet to offer that I can sit on the beach and write for the whole week.  I can sit under an umbrella and breathe in the ocean air and write whatever I want for as long as I want. 

My plan is to edit the next four chapters before we leave, bring a printed copy of it with me, a copy of the design, a notebook and a pen.  I want to write as much of the rest of it as I can over the next few weeks, whether that is on the beach or here in my home.  It seems like lately, as soon as I say these plans out loud or write them down, something out of my control happens that takes me off course again. 

I sincerely hope we are done with the drama and the illnesses.  I will have to work around the surgeries we have planned for two out of three kids, the attention they will need during the recovery time, and whatever therapies or additional tests my new doctor has in store for me after my appointment today.  And my family needs fun this summer - we definitely need it more than ever - that's got to come first for me.  I just need to find a few hours a week to write.

How do you manage to keep writing when life seems to be working against you?

Poorly Timed Epiphanies

This week my two year old is on Spring Break from his little Montessori school.  Picture crowds of small people in swimming diapers with floppy baby hats and sunglasses on the beach with their blankies and water wings. 

Obviously, I'm not a fan of Spring Break for toddlers, especially when I still have to pay for the week and it doesn't coincide with Spring Break for my older kids.  Toddlers need consistency, especially my toddler.  All weekend he has been talking about how he does not have school today.  He is definitely confused by it.  I am too. 

I enrolled my little man in his little school so I could have a solid three uninterupted hours to write three days a week.  Last week I didn't feel like writing, but I trudged through.  This week, it is unlikely I will have time to write anything but this.  Our minds being as they are, this is the day I had an early morning epiphany, actually two, about how two of my new stories should go.  The missing details of the plot that I couldn't see last week, that made me not want to write and avoid it completely, are completely clear today.  I could write for eight hours today.  I could dump one or both stories out right now... 

...except that my second alarm, the one for my middle child, will be going off in ten minutes.  Shortly after that, the stir in the hushed house will wake up my toddler, no matter how late he went to bed, how tired he is, or how quiet we are. 

Lately when I try to write, he tries to "help" me by commandeering the unattached keyboard to my laptop.  So I stand to write and type on the build-in keyboard while he sits in my computer chair.  We pretend he's making the words.  This is OK for writing a little quip or two on Facebook, but not at all good for writing a novel.

Maybe I can kick it old school today and break out a notebook and a pen.  I could give my little guy a notebook of his own and a fat crayon so he can write too.  I think he would like that a lot, but I'm still not sure how much I will be able to concentrate.  One of my stories is sinister.  The other is tragic.  Neither are the kind of story I would tell my baby, so I can't really weave it out loud while rocking my little guy, the way I would write a children's story.

The best I can do is jot down notes from my 7:00 AM epiphany and hope it all makes sense whenever I can get to it.  Maybe it's a perfect day to write a children's story with my little guy complete with silly rhymes and a song.  Maybe it will be about a little guy that won't get his little hands off his mom's computer...something like that.

No Bunnies

I remember distinctly my 6th grade assignment to write a story about anything.  I was a straight-A student,  was a neurotic perfectionist over my grades even at eleven years old, loved reading more than anything in the world, and truly thought I had it inside of me to write something on par with The Incredible Journey, my favorite book at that time.

Part of the assignment was to illustrate our story.  I drew a picture of a mouse with a Santa Claus hat on his head.  The picture wasn't bad, but I had no story to go with it.  No words to say why or how this little mouse got his hat.  No story to say if he was getting presents, delivering presents, or was in a little mousey Christmas play.  Nothing.  Nada.  My mind was a blank.  I felt myself a failure. 

In high school and my late teens, I wrote some rather inaccessible poems, most of which had destructive images with unclear meaning, but nothing that I would let anyone else read.  I still couldn't bring myself to write a story - a series of events with characters and setting.  It was beyond me - I never tried but saw myself as a failure that I couldn't attempt this thing that I loved.

I had writer's block that lasted until I was twenty two years old and was in my final year of college.  At least twice while I was in college working on a B.A. in English Literature, I signed up for and immediately dropped creative writing classes.  It was a complete breakthrough that I made it through the first week of a poetry writing class.  I have two really lame poems that I remember sweating over from that class.  I couldn't handle the critique - so I dropped it ASAP. 

During my last year of college and just after graduating, I decided I could be a children's writer.  I wrote several cute children's stories.  I let my mother-in-law read one.  She got out her red pen.  I put them in a drawer and didn't write another word of fiction for fifteen years.  I pushed the idea out of my head into a place I decided not to see.

When I got divorced about nine years ago, my friends and co-workers suggested I start my own blog - a newish concept then - to rant about my ex.  The ranting needed to be fictionalized to protect myself from lawsuits and, honestly, to make it more kind.  I wrote about my struggles with my ex and the daily difficulties of being a single mom with an infant and a first grader under the guise of different characters.  I signed the entries with different names and wrote with different styles for each character.  By the time I started feeling better about my ex, I had written 30,000+ words, had many days where my co-workers were laughing out loud, and had found my voice as a writer and restored the confidence of that little girl that thought she couldn't tell a story.

Now I am writing full time - by that I mean I am writing for 6 or 8 hours a week, whatever time I can squeeze away from the time my family and that perpetual mountain of laundry need from me.  When I was writing my blog, the writing process was natural - one entry a day on the same topic fictionalized to protect myself.  Today, over the last six months or so, maybe longer, I have been able to be productive writing by sitting down away from my laundry pile and my family, usually at a coffee shop but often hold up at my desk with the door shut, and writing one chapter at a time of one of several stories I already have in my mind and have jotted down on my over-sized white board that fills a wall. 

What occurs to me about writing when I am not engrossed and absorbed in writing a chapter is that there isn't magic to the writing.  Writing is not a magic trick - there are no bunnies in the hat. 

The magic is in the story line, deciding what the story will be about and who the characters are, and giving your mind the time to form it before you write the first word.  That is magic because we do take our ideas from our lives, a lot of it from painful memories or experiences that were uncomfortable enough to be memorable.  The magic is in our ability to one day share the memories and turn them into stories that we want to tell, stories that may have been painful or uncomfortable that we can turn into laughter and comfort.  Obviously, not all stories are based on our memories, but something of who we are has to be in them - and we as authors have to be able and ready to share that. 

I am struck by how long it took me to find a writing process that works for me.  I am also struck by the amount of books and articles I have read about the writing process that have helped me to gain confidence in my writing and to cut through the crap of the day by getting it out through a fastwrite.  But more about that later .... my time is up - laundry and baby are calling. 

Backup Paranoia

Last night, I talked with my nerd-husband about writing and about the writing process I wrote about in my last post that I derived from my work as a software developer.  He agreed that it was really difficult for him as an engineering student to go to writing class and get no real education on processes for writing.  Technology-type people put processes on everything, which really simplifies a very complicated thing.

In writing class, we are often told to just write a lot and it will come to you like magic.  The more you write, the better your writing will be.  No one would ever tell that to an engineering student or a programmer.  Technology people are taught best practices, techniques, and even the life-cycle-development process.  After all, whatever you develop as an engineer is nothing if you don't know how to test and implement it in a logical way.  Processes are developed so that every person doesn't have to waste time figuring it out on their own. 
My husband and I agreed completely that artists and writers need to let our creative sides be free to create but need processes and discipline to be productive and to allow us to deliver a finished product, whether that's a collection of poems, a novel, or paintings, whatever.  A blend of the two really are needed. 

It's funny that no matter how bad a day we have together, our mutual nerdness keeps us together.  A good discussion before bed about things like this bring us to neutral ground. 

Eventually we went up to bed.  I was very happy that I had accomplished so much and have a firm plan for completing two novels by July 1.  Then I looked at my desk at the far end of my room and had a Holy Crap moment.  My laptop was on my desk.  The backup of my writing through last December was in the drawer next to my desk.  The printed copy of both books and all of my 40-some poems were stacked neatly on my desk to the right of my laptop.  If there were a fire, it would all be gone.  I would have to start over.  I love both stories as is and can't imagine trying to re-create them from scratch.

I imagined a fire and knew for sure I would save the kids, leave the laptop, and be depressed for life, crying to my kids for years to come. 

So I got out of bed, created a second backup and stashed it in our fire safe.  I am surprised at how careless I was (no backup whatsoever of what I've written in January, which is plenty) with something so important to me.

Using Software Development Processes When Writing Fiction

This evening I read a blog entry from one of my writing friends.  In her entry, she said as an aside that she has a word count goal for herself for the novel she is working on.  She had so many words written already and wanted to add 2000 words this week to feel productive and successful. 

On another blog I have been reading, the author, who is a published children's book writer, discussed setting writing goals as a whole - like setting a timeline for finishing an entire book.

Different things work for different people, but for me I have to approach writing as I would approach a project in the workplace.  I used to design and write custom software for use inside a large company.  As time went on, the applications got more and more complex and the methodologies used by our department became more and more important.  When we added more members to our development teams, we also started developing in a componetized manner.  For the normal, non-nerds among you, that means we took each functional piece of the application and developed them independently from the others but with the overall plan in mind (for only the nerds among you, of course, a functional unit can contain more than one component, but you know what I mean). 

For this process to be successful, we had to document the user's requirements rather thoroughly and come up with a general blueprint for the application as a whole and very detailed blueprints for each functional piece.  My boss expected us to map out every function call and parameter to extreme detail, almost writing the application in the documentation before a single line of code was written.  As a rule-follower, I did what I was told, but wasted a lot of time in that process.  The fact is, each developer on the team basically followed the blueprint but ignored it when they needed to.

Each person assigned to a project would be responsible one or more pieces (components).  Each piece was prioritized so the base functionality could be given to the end users quickly, with the extras added later.  Once each piece was completed, the lead developer would do integration testing, making sure all the pieces fit together.  If there were changes or errors, someone would be assigned to fix them while other components (like the ones that didn't make the first cut) were written. 

Now I have given up all that computer nerd fun and have decided to write novels.  While I haven't published one quite yet, I feel very productive when I treat writing a novel like a software development project. 

When I am in the planning phase, I might jot down a few notes, but usually I just think about the story when I have quiet time, like when I am in the shower or rocking my baby to sleep.  I think about it until it seems real to me, until I have an idea of who the characters are, what is going to happen, and the structure of the thing. 

Then I start writing (the development phase), either here on my computer, or more likely in a notebook at first.  I write one chapter at a time as if it were a software component. I write it until it is done.  If I have time, I write another.  But I never ever stop in the middle.  If I did, I would need to throw it away and start over, which isn't always bad but is kind of a waste of time, which I don't have lots of.  I write quickly and lose myself in it just like I did when I wrote software, although writing fiction is a million times more enjoyable.  I escape to places I create instead of simply forgetting the problems in my life by trying to fix the business process of the day.  In either job, this is my favorite phase.  I write without editing and without worrying about anything except the chapter I am working on.

I try to write iteratively, a few chapters at a time before moving on to the next iteration (several more chapters). Iterative development in nerd-land means you develop up to a point and then turn it over to the people who need it so they can see you are not twiddling your thumbs while they pay you.  In my writing projects, I consider this testing phase to be the pass where you type up what you hand-wrote, or get out your red pen, leave your ego somewhere else, and mark up the printed pages.  I know as a computer nerd I should be comfortable editing on the screen.  But I like to do it old school:  print it, make changes in ink on the paper, add those changes in the computer, print it again, get out the red pen again, etc., until I am reasonably happy it is good.  I do that with whatever chapters I have completed and then take that to my writing class, which is like user testing for me. 

Once all the chapters are done, I do what I consider integration testing.  I read the story, freshly printed, all over again starting at chapter one.  I check to make sure there are no errors I previously missed, but mostly check to make sure it reads as if one person wrote it in one sitting, that I didn't screw up names and time lines.  I do research when I'm uncertain, make changes, and do it again. 

I didn't plan to write this way.  I didn't map out my process, but realized after the fact that I have internalized the processes we used at work, which were very comfortable to me.  I can't believe my experience developing applications, testing applications, and doing project management simultaneously for several concurrent projects for more than ten years trained me to be a productive writer.  I never would have guessed it. 

In case you are wondering, yes, I did check. I have written about 9000 words of the novel I just started and added another 2000 tonight.  It was fun to add it up, but I feel better about just making sure I write one chapter at a time when I have an hour to spare (the exact time I need to write one chapter, strangely enough).

Defeated the Writer's Block!

I am happy to say that yesterday's cleaning of my desk did the trick.  I finally found the copy of the third chapter of my children's book with the edits I had penned in several weeks ago.  I updated the chapter and let my husband read it. 

I told him I was stuck on one issue, and he agreed.  I didn't like how I described the children in the chapter.  They need to be described in more detail and with some kind of identifying characteristic so that later in the story the reader will know these are the same kids from Chapter 3.  I wasn't able to work through this, but put it on an issue list in my mind like I would if I were developing software and had a problem that wasn't urgent enough to hold up the whole project and could wait to be resolved.

I normally only work on one chapter in a day (or even a week) but decided to add formatting to the first draft of the next several chapters.  The initial version of the story is hand-written in a small pink journal with funny aliens all over it.  I keep it in my purse and have reserved it for this story only, a story I wrote over a year mostly while sitting on my front porch resting my broken foot.  The poured out of me like it had a life of its own.

This past summer, I spent several evenings at the coffee shop at the local bookstore.  I brought my laptop, my hot pink alien journal, at least one child (but never the baby), and some dollars for treats.  The kids read and munched while I typed the story somewhat from the journal, but mostly not word for word.  It ended up a very rough draft, single spaced with block type without much editing.  My goal was to smooth out the story and get it all into the computer as good as I could the first time (sort of like a pre-test version of software before it's even near ready for users to look at it).  I was very happy with version 1 and had no expectation it was perfect; I was pleased it was functional and funny - and not terrible at all. 

By the time I got to chapter 8, school started for my kids, so I took a break and didn't revisit it.  I lost all of my momentum and had no time to run out to the coffee shop.  Last month I decided to sign up for a writing class with the goal to finish the story by the end of class.  My deadline is coming up quickly - there are only two or three classes remaining with an extra week in the middle for Thanksgiving. 

For my first two classes, I polished the first two chapters and reformatted them so they read like a book.  It sounds like a silly thing, but the formatting matters and is tedious to apply to multiple documents.  It would have been more efficient to start with a template, but I didn't think that far ahead.  Instead, I copied my coffee shop version, added headers and footers with titles and page numbers.  I double spaced the body and added indentation for the paragraphs.  I added white space so it's easier on my old eyes.  In my first writing class, I read the entire first chapter out loud, which was a huge milestone.  I'm not sure if the other women in class particularly loved it, but for me that wasn't the point - I shared it with people outside my home and read it out loud lovingly.

In the week after the first class, I applied the same formatting for the second chapter and edited it to perfection.  The third chapter was a little tricky.  While I was working on it, I got distracted by poetry and became immersed in dark poems that really didn't gel with this happy children's story.  So I put the sweet story aside and spent several weeks in poetry mode instead.

Last night after I found Chapter 3 in the stack of papers on my bedroom floor, I edited it some more and let my husband read it.  With a sudden burst of energy no doubt from the unusual silence in my house (the kids weren't home), I formatted chapters 4 through 7 and printed them off.  I edited them with a pen one chapter at a time.  I typed up the edits, and repeated the process until I was happy with each chapter.  The more I worked on the remaining chapters, the more I realized I needed to rework the flow of it.  I edited and rewrote, split chapters, inserted chapter 4 in the middle of chapter 5, and ended up with an eight chapter, 34 page story that is lovely and is exactly what I wanted it to be.  Except for those boys in chapter 3 - that I still need to work on just a little. 

I went to bed last night so happy and proud I could hardly sleep.  When I look back to the children's stories I wrote when I was in my twenties, I am amazed at how far I have come. 

Today I can say I am sort of happy I had a foot injury that has kept me home to work on this.  If I were working, this wouldn't have happened.  If I had gone to graduate school, I would be working on something entirely different.  The seed of the story would no doubt be in my mind, but I am certain it never would have been executed. 

I cannot wait until I have the time to read the last few chapters handwritten in my hot pink alien journal and type them up.  Right now my kids are making a big ruckus in the background and need my help.  I think all I want from my family for Christmas is time at the coffee shop.