I am desperately trying to pretend that I don’t have 95,000+ words on my hard drive calling my name. A couple of weeks ago I asked the twitterati (is that the right term?) if they put their novels aside for a brief time before diving into revisions of a 1st (or 2nd/3rd) draft. It’s also a question I posed at writers group. And the general consensus is: shelve the manuscript for at least a month or two. Work on something else.
This must be the only time when procrastination is all right!
So…ways to avoid revising the first draft:
- enjoyed the holidays with the kids (daugher & her fiance were here 1½ days – both had to work on the 26th; #1 son here for a week from FL; #2 son working every day but the 25th)
- watched a lot more television than usual – #1 son added several National Geographic/PBS documentaries, Trailer Park Boys, The Riches, and Out of Practice to my Netflix queue; I got him to watch episode 1 of Torchwood and Sherlock (BBC version); we also watched Christmas Vacation & many more
- listened to #1 son’s new music; got introduced to soundcloud.com
- saw Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
- discussed the novel’s cover art with #1 son
- watched #2 son work on a computer programming for a new site he & friends are working on
- made some notes about the novel’s synopsis, hook, and a ‘product description’ I might use for Amazon even though I am months away from that
- hung out with some virtual friends, too many of whom are posting spoilers for shows I won’t see for months because I don’t have cable or don’t live in the UK where they are airing
- reading: A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Valknut: The Binding, and What Stays in Vegas, and numerous blog posts
- re-read a sci fi story I wrote as a screenplay – its novelization will be my next big writing adventure
- revised a historical fiction piece I wrote a couple of years ago; time to take this back to writers group, revise again, and look for a market
…and a hundred other things.
Tomorrow it’s back to the day job.
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