I’m starting my fourth week of writing full-time. Fourth! Wow. As expected, I’ve had some days where it’s hard to get into the “groove” of writing, and some days where I didn’t manage my time well. I’ve also had some amazing days where I don’t want to stop writing.
One benefit of writing full-time that I didn’t expect has come at the end of my writing days. Around 4:30 I have to start winding down whatever I’m doing so that the nanny can go home at 5. I have to rejoin the real world, take over wrangling the kids, and start prepping dinner. Before, I knew it would be days before I got to write again — I’ve tried to write in the evenings and sometimes it works, but usually I was just too exhausted. But now! I had no idea how much lighter I would feel when, four out of five afternoons, I can lay the work aside and know that I’ll be back the next morning, or at least in less than 18 hours. Hardly even enough time to lose my train of thought. 😉
Of course, there are downsides, too. I realized the first Monday that all the people I used to talk football with were at my old job. :-\ I knew I would miss the people, but I hadn’t realized how specifically I would miss them. I’ve resorted to tweeting random strangers about football now. 😛
I also figured I would miss having someone who cared about my progress (after more than a year of reporting it at daily standups). However, after such an amazing send-off from my coworkers, many of whom came to my farewell party and even more of whom sent me encouraging emails, I realized I wasn’t quite as bereft of accountability as I feared. Now that so many people knew I was setting out to get published, there were suddenly dozens of people counting on me to finish the book and let them know about it!
So! Partly because I love metrics and watching myself get closer to achieving goals, here’s my status report! I’ve finished the outline for The Alchemist’s Mirror, and while it’s not perfect, so far none of my critique partners has found a glaring problem that would require me to retool the outline before I start drafting. (That did happen with last February’s “finished” outline! 😉 ) Therefore, I’m keeping my current goal of finishing the first draft before the end of this calendar year! I’m more likely to post my progress on Twitter or Facebook directly, but for posterity, here’s my current status.
