IWSG: It's Huge

I got to the point last month where I think I lost faith in my ms. The closer I got to finishing the edits, the more intimidating the whole thing became. And then I did something I'd never done before. I printed the whole document out (minus the last chapter which is still in the hands of my editor). It took several minutes to print the 350 page document and when it was done, I just looked at it (0_0) not sure what the hell to do next. I'd never seen this much of my ms in physical print before and kept thinking, "It's HUGE."

So after the initial shock wore off and a glass of...never mind, I decided I better do something with it since a few hundred trees  sacrificed their lives to birth my first draft. Cue the heavy artillery: pens of varying colors, music,  and lots and lots of colored sticky notes. I started by tagging each chapter, realized I stopped chapter headings at 16 for no apparent reason, and then began to reread from the begining. It's amazing the things that catch your attention when you read your ms on a different medium. It's not the same and that got me excited again. And when I get excited, I set goals for myself. I did this last month with mixed results (read: total disaster). But now the kids are back in school and my theory is I should have enough time to yield better results by the end of September. Right? Absolutely.

September goals:

1. Finish making all minor adjustments to ms
2. Finish editing the last chapter as soon as I get feedback (4 days to complete edits tops)
3. RUN 3 times / week Plus 1 hour / week of Sport Chanbara (I'll be taking my first Chanbara class tomorrow evening so send me some positive vibes and pain killers and hope to make it out alive... :P  )
4. Finish revising my practice query letter (possibly send it to Matthew for a critique at the QQQE....maybe....I'm such a cluck, cluck, chicken)
5. Send completed second draft to my editor who I'm convinced has super powers  
6. Read, read, read. (I totally fell behind on reading last month. Part of it was traveling and part of it was reading e-books on my computer which is a pain, literally.) 
7. Keep visiting blogs, and posting 3 times / week
8. Get to sleep by 1 am. I'm bumping this up an hour from last month because I'm exhausted.

Well, there it is. 

September, bring in on like Donkey Kong!

I told you it was huge.
Also, tub of Nutella not pictured.

IWSG - Baby Steps

We're allotted a certain amount of time on this space rock. When my time's up well, that's it. Elise Fallson, please take your bow and get off the stage.   

Finished. 

Fin. 

Game Over. 

You can believe whatever you choose to about the afterlife, but  one thing is certain, our bodies will ALL turn into space dust at some point. Sounds depressing, but I'm not trying to be, in fact I haven't felt better in quite some time. The reason for that is simple. I've decided to stop complaining and moaning about my life. And more importantly, I've stopped telling myself my writing is shit and my stories are shit. Because they're not. I may not be on the NY Best Seller list anytime soon, but I'm not on the Vomit Inducing list either.  I realize the whining phase can be quite destructive but for me it was necessary. It was my way of letting out frustrations, doubts and insecurities. But I'm done with the whining now. The clock is ticking and I've got a ton of ass kicking to do. Starting with my own. So, knowing I work better under pressure, I've decided to set a few short-term goals and slap them on a writers to do list of sorts. I'm keeping a progress log to help me stay on track and allow for adjustments if needed. 


Baby steps folks, it's all about baby steps...

EF Moving Forward List 

1. Edit/rewrite at least 20 pages of ms / night.
2. Start writing a query
3. Visit blogs  6 days / week 
4. Write a max of 3 posts / week
5. RUN 45 minutes every other day. 
6. Finish beta reading blogger friends wip by end of the month
7. Increase number of books I read / month
8. Finish book review
9. Check e-mail a MAX of 3 times / day
10. Check fb once / day
11. Get to bed by 2am the LATEST
12. Grow thicker skin

A lot has changed since my last IWSG post, and that's not to say it'll be double rainbows from here on out, but for the moment, I'm looking forward to moving forward. (: