Life is happening! This year is already off to a great start. I started a new job, leaving behind the one that didn’t suit me and that was damaging my mental health. My new job is wonderful so far and I am happy to say it is a significant improvement. My freelancing has also picked up with a couple of new opportunities this year so far (if you need any freelance writing done please don’t hesitate to reach out). More amazing than all of that, I finished my third draft of Mushroom Dragon which now has a better working title but I won’t share that just yet as that may be a reveal later in the publishing process. This revision has been an absolute slog and I am so happy that it is finished.
Progress
Progress looks like many different things. This month it has looked like a short story, dabblings of a screenplay, and 444 pages of revision give or take 10. I revised the whole Mushroom Dragon manuscript in 20 days and I revised one of the POVs’ twice. It felt like running a marathon at a sprinting pace and I have to say I am so glad that it is now with beta readers as I am way too close to the story to even tell whether it is good or not.
What I’m Learning
I need outside perspective. After a certain point, I am not the person to ask if my story is good because I will probably hate it by then. That is why other people’s input is so important. I also realize that revision is a different muscle group for me. I am fatigued because I haven’t practiced it much. However, I do believe that I am doing a decent job at it, but the beta readers will decide if that is true or not.
Leisure
I haven’t had too much time for leisure, but I’ve been doubling up my workout time with my TV time. I’ve watched through all of Reacher seasons one and two, most of season one of Dexter, and a lot of Macgyver (as I write this I realize that their titles are the first or last name of their odd yet endearing male protagonists. That probably says something about me. IDK).
As for reading, I have a couple of books I’m working through. I’m still reading Temple Grandin’s Visual Thinkers. I just started listening to Every Heart A Doorway on my way to and from work which is great so far. The next book on the docket is Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett. The audiobook and the Encyclopedia of Fairies are going to be Comp titles for Mushroom Dragon so I want to get them done before Boskone.
Looking Forward
I’m going to Boskone! I don’t know if this should be in leisure or looking forward but it’s a bit of both. It’s leisure I’m looking forward to. Boskone is a convention for writers, agents, editors, and most importantly nerds (this is a compliment). There is one particular agent that clued me in to this convention and I’m very excited to potentially meet him. I am hard at work on my query letter, synopsis, and pitch for when I meet him. This is only one facet of the convention though. The event schedule has been posted and it is so difficult to choose which panels to go to because they are all so good. I’m going to have to pack a bunch of snacks in my bag because there is no way I will have time to break for meals. As it is, I need a time-turner to be able to go to all of the panels I want.
Now Boskone comes at an interesting time as I just sent my manuscript off to betas yesterday and have given them four weeks so I won’t get all of them back until the end of the month. Boskone is in a little over a week. You see my predicament. I have to pitch a book that still has one more revision left. I’m not sure that this is a thing that is done, but I’m going to do it. It’s not my fault that Boskone falls at a weird time within my process. It could make things a bit interesting, but I believe the agent is selecting you as a client not just your book. That is why meeting him in person is imperative for me. I also know he at least likes my ideas as he requested a partial on my last manuscript. Even if meeting in person just speeds up his response times, that will be worth it.
As for writing moving forward, I imagine that will be a bit more scattered. Like I said, my betas will have my manuscript until about the end of the month. However, it is split into parts (the file was cumbersome when in one file) and part one has its own due date. So, should things go to plan, I will have comments on the first half done by mid-month and may be able to start my third round of revisions in two weeks. In the meantime, I have a couple of options. I have a short story in mind that I will probably work on during my travels to the convention and I also have another novel that’s been percolating in the back of my mind since December. I can’t start drafting it but I can do some much-needed world-building. Either way, it will be interesting and NEW. I need something new after nearly a year of working on the same manuscript. I started Mushroom Dragon in February of 2023 and even took about 1-3 months off during that time. I’ve gotten through three drafts of the beast. Sometimes I have trouble feeling pride in these accomplishments because in my mind it is “do or die”. I wish I were a little more proud, but I do know that at some point when I’ve had time away from the novel I’ll sit down, read it, and know that it’s a good story and that I wrote it. When I read my writing as a reader, that’s usually when the pride kicks in.
