Project Fix-Those-Ten-Thousand-Or-So-Words-In-The-Middle is done, more or less. Cue the rejoicing angels, because I’ve managed to focus just enough to be productive without being obsessive.
My novel’s middle is in the recovery room, held together with fragile black sutures, but held together it is. No guts spilling out, no bones poking through. Nothing major, anyway. It took one laid-back week to read through it critically, and another week to do the surgery. I could probably spend all of next week tweaking it to death, but I’ve decided to leave the tweaks for when I read through the full version of this manuscript. And the full version will not get written if I spend weeks dillydallying around making one section ‘perfect,’ whatever that means, if it’s even possible.
Being a perfectionist(ish) person, it’s hard for me to separate what needs to be done right now and what can wait until I finish the full draft. What I have right now is not the prettiest, fanciest thing, but it’s functional. It’s alive. It’s definitely good enough to leave the tweaking for later and move on to writing fresh scenes.
With all the reading and edits I’ve done lately, I’ve gotten out of the habit of writing every single day. I need to build my writing diligence back up again, need to get back in the swing of planting myself at the screen and typing away. Though I haven’t fully decided whether or not I want to commit this year, I went ahead and created a NaNoWriMo¹ account. With a new idea ready in the wings, I’m still tempted to try it, if for nothing else other than stretching my writing muscles back out again on a project unrelated to the current one.
Anyway, the sun just started shining over Texas again. It’s been cloudy and rainy for weeks. I’ll pretend to be one of those people who prefers sunny days for a second, and say something cheesy like, “The rainy season of my novel has ended at last! The sun is shining upon it once again!”
Told you it would be cheesy.
Hopefully it will start pouring again soon², and I can wear my super-awesome yellow rain boots. And I will write, and write, and write. And I’ll tell you all about it along the way.
♦
¹My NaNo name is also owlandsparrow. Feel free to befriend me, as I will want friends if I do decide to partake in the insanity.
²In real life, I mean. Not in cheesy-metaphor-land.
Owl and Sparrow 
Good to hear! How far now until the end of the manuscript?
About as much as I’ve written so far, 40k or so.
Congrats on your progress! You have an idea for another novel already? I’m envious.
I’m also a “perfectionist(ish) person.” 🙂
I do have an idea, and it would be an effort in the 100% opposite direction from my current project. I’m intrigued by the premise and the characters that popped into my head – I’m kind of itching to see it on paper.