It was an up and down week.
It’s not the week I would normally talk about. But these are the scenes from the cutting room floor, the little realities of the writing life:
The ups
Hitting my stride on WIP, reasonable page count this week. Not great, but given what else is going on around here, quite respectable.
Advance Reader Copies of A Thousand Perfect Things will have full color wrap around cover, I learned this week.
Received a lovely advance blurb from a well-known writer for Perfect Things.
Wrote a tough scene for the WIP. Wondered if I could pull it off, but love it.
Heard from my publisher that my cover and story concept are generating some industry excitement.
Had a few very nice messages on FaceBook about my stories.
Had fun interactions on some Groups on Linked-in.
For the WIP, following a slightly different method of writing, and I quite like it. What is it? Writing a sequential scene plan with 60 or so discrete scenes. It took a couple weeks to do it, but my complicated WIP now has a clear plot progression. Not exactly a “this week” triumph, but it all bleeds together!
The downs
Got pulled away from writing by a major volunteer activity.
Got slammed on one my books.
Worried excessively about genre-fit. Why can’t I write in the dead-bang center of the genre? (But decided a well-told unique tale with proper nods to genre can lift me above the fray.)
Sadly concluded that I need copious amounts of further research on WIP.
Received a quite unexpectedly high bill for a promotions project I’ve been developing.
Have a nonfiction project that I’ve substantially re-written four times, and still not satisfied with it.
Read that Phillip Roth said that writing is “frustrating and humiliating.” Began to wonder if it is!
So what’s the sum total of my week in the writing life? Well, all that can be said is, ups and downs. Or, to quote something Mike Resnick told me, “It’s never as good as you think it will be, or as bad as you fear.” So calm down and carry on, my girl!