updates from an official part-time-aspiring-novelist

almost like a job (that I don’t get paid for yet):

14 hours a week. D is in preschool, and I have dedicated writing time now. I wonder if this will make me any more efficient? It’s too early to tell this week. First day, I was all nerves. Second day, I was stressed out about D having a wonky limp in his knee. Third day, hubby missed his train and I had to drive him to the metro (don’t make a habit of that, darling!) Day four went well (despite spending 20 minutes to travel a mile into Fairfax at 9:30 am – aren’t you people supposed to *already* be in work?), and I even managed to pick at some stuff. First week doesn’t count, I know this.

Most importantly, this time, 14 hours every week, is ALL mine. (Unless my husband keeps missing his morning train…) And I have no excuse anymore not to finish this novel, get back to work on my neglected short stories, submit things and get them published! I had excuses before (even some valid ones), but not any more. It’s time to put on the serious hat. I’m 30 now! No, I don’t feel any different as a person, but being 30 is different. I had the serious hat in my possession before, but I wasn’t expected to wear it – now I feel like it suits me, or something.

(Now watch me get knocked up, lol! Yes, I do in fact know how that happens – and I also do know how to prevent it. But really, this is the way my life works.)

And I actually did do some work on the novel this summer. Though not as much as I deluded myself into thinking I’d accomplish. We took a couple big vacations, and did some fun stuff. Hey, that’s what’s summer is for, right? It’s currently sitting at about 33% (don’t ask me how I calculate that – probably wouldn’t make sense, lol!) through the second-ish draft. Have 7-ish chapters polished, plenty more drafted, and full speed ahead!

I’m also blessed to have some wonderful ladies cheerleading/beta-reading for me as I work through this second-ish draft. And if they’re not lying to me, then maybe this thing is not actually petty and stupid after all. And I even finally talked the hubby through it, all the way through the ending. And he agreed that it was not stupid and petty, but maybe even okay (my words, not his).

I’m not gonna claim that it’s good, but from what I hear, it is in fact not stupid and petty. At least there’s that.