A Writer’s Journal: Intentional re-reading
75 pages reviewed TODAY!
In ONE hour.
Not quite as much as I’d hoped, but today’s a busy day. If I’m gonna get to everything that I need to by dinner time, then something’s gotta give.
That’s the way of it when you’re a wannabe writer.
Without the compensation to justify your writing, often the writing takes a back seat.
This summer, I’ve really prioritized the writing. MY writing.
I’ve really tried to stick to the schedule of carving out 90 minutes each morning to work on my novels.
It feels good to do that.
But today, I’m going to be talking with Joanie about AfterProm. She’s one of my beta readers. She’s in my writer’s group. A couple weeks ago, she said that she was about half-way through reading AfterProm and she really liked it. So that’s good.
Her simple comment actually made my week!
Last week, when I mentioned my frustration with beta-readers (I didn’t mean to point her out, and I said that I wasn’t targeting people in the group because I know that we’re all very busy), she offered to talk with me about the book. She suggested the weekend, but it was a busy weekend.
Yesterday, I sent her a message and we set up a time this morning.
10:00 a.m.
So, that IS part of the publishing process. I really should have just allotted my 90 minutes to that instead of listening to Matching Time.
But the truth is that I’m really enjoying this quick re-read.
Everything seems to be flowing along the way that I would like it to. So that’s great.
Now I hear rain. That’s a bummer. That’s gonna get in the way of my boxing. But I think that I’ll do strength training instead. I have been neglecting that since I got the free-standing heavy bag.
Actually, that’ll save time. Cook my breakfast while I lift some weights. I’m a serious multi-tasker!
The point here is that sometimes you cannot put in the time that you’d like to.
Sometimes, there are other obligations.
Sometimes, you have to forgive yourself that the time that you’d like to work on your own stuff, you cannot.
But don’t allow that to go too far or for too long.
Be stingy about your creativity.
Value yourself.
But also… forgive yourself.
I’m gonna shift now. I’m gonna end. I’ll check back in tomorrow.
BTW- My meeting with my beta-reader was GREAT! She pointed out some important details that I was having a hard time seeing on my own.
She is the third person to question the beginning of the novel, so I seriously need to re-think the first chapter.
The session was really eye-opening. I need to send her a thank you note because who doesn’t like a hand-written thank you note?
