Writing Update

I can't believe it's been an entire week of no posting.  I don't even know what happened this week it went by so fast.  But I did want to share a writing update today and I'm going to set up a post for later this week, because it's going to be another crazy busy and crazy good week (my sister's getting married!).

I finished the first project of the new year.  I'm very excited.  Granted, I'm still not totally happy with it, but if I work it anymore, I'm going to run it into the ground.  And honestly, I'm not sure I'll ever be totally happy with it.

This is what I looked like when I finished.

Except it was 3:30 in the morning, I wasn't a man, and I was wearing pajamas.

This is a more accurate depiction, except my computer wasn't off, I wasn't pretending to be asleep, and my lipstick was better.

Sometimes I can't remember a time before I approached writing like a second job, and so it always amazes me how every project and every new draft is just a little bit different in the writing process.  I wonder if it will always be that way or if eventually I will find "the process".  I'm hoping for the first option.

For this project, I set an arbitrary date with a writing friend.  We were both in the middle of projects and needed motivation, so we gave each other about three weeks to finish our current drafts.  We held to the date and gave each other feedback, then spent all of February rewriting like our lives depended on it.  It totally worked for me because we approach writing in very different ways.  His feedback is the kind I couldn't give myself even if I took a month away from the draft to come back with "fresh eyes".

Now it's March, my sister's getting married, it's the busiest time of year at my job, and I'm still figuring out my writing goals for the month.  I really, really want to rewrite my YA novel.  But I'm still waiting on some notes.  Right now, two people are reading it and both separately told me that they couldn't stop reading (technically, one said "I'm officially addicted").  I'm over the moon.  I still have lots of work to do on it, but now I know that I'm not crazy for trying to be a writer.  No matter what the rest of the comments are, I know that I can get my manuscript where it needs to be.

While I wait for notes, I still need March goals.  I might try to do a very rough first draft of my family action comedy that has been on my board for a few months, but maybe I will start crafting query letters.  If I write my query letter now, do you think it will make me too likely to query after the next draft, even if it isn't ready?  Or will it allow me to escape the pressure of the perfect query, since there won't be the pressure of getting it into agent's hands right away?  


Happy writing!