Day Twenty-Three: Post-It Breadcrumbs
Down the street from my grandma Barovian’s house was a dead-end with woods behind it. This was the 80s, so a child wandering by herself outside without adult supervision was a thing, and I loved being in the woods by myself. It’s all about exploration at first – figuring a way in and figuring a way out – but I returned often enough to create paths. After a few visits, I knew how to get to the creek. I knew if I headed straight up the hill, the trees broke into a glade, making the perfect reading/dancing spot (my favorite mash-up).
I knew I wanted to finish the sequel to Lu this past summer. I’d worked on it intermittently over the last couple years, but writing a book to finish needs pressure. Either I would focus my time, creative energy, and financial resources to get it done, or I wouldn’t get it done.
I’d learned this from the first time around. Also, I’d
learned that writing a book to finish is like running a marathon, and if summer
was going to be a 26.2 than winter and spring needed to be training.
I started with three pages a day, beginning January 1, 2019. These weren’t Lu2 pages, and they weren’t typed. They were me starting the day with a cup of coffee, a journal, and a commitment to do nothing else until I’d written three pages. I’m no dummy. Why do you think my preferred journal size this year was 5.25 x 8.25? Some days, I wrote my to-do list for the day. Other days, I scribed loooooong passages from the book I’d been reading the night before. A couple times, I filled the three pages with my audiobook director notes for Abby. This wasn’t cheating; the rule was to write three pages. As winter moved to spring, I found my breath as Laura said I would, and other people’s words gave way to mine, and writing about my days turned to thinking about Lu and her days and writing about those.
By summer break, I was ready to write Lu2 … sort of. First, I printed everything I’d written so far, shredded it with edits, and wrote it back together. Then, I tracked my time with Post-Its. I was paying for a babysitter four hours a day to write; I figured I should write four hours a day. Easy in theory and so hard to do, but I was honest and lined my Post-It timesheets on the closet doors of my writing room. They were a line of breadcrumbs for me … helping me find my way into the writing and helping me find my way out. Some days, I wrote only an hour. There was one day I wrote 8 hours – such a machine that day! And by the end of June, Lu’s story took over. There was very little journaling in that time and no Post-Its – just the story you’ll get to read next summer.
We’re at the tiptoe time of the year now, peeking to what’s next and hopeful for change. As you make your resolutions, remember to give yourself grace to explore how you will do what you want to accomplish, and the time to figure your way in and figure your way out.
