The Writing Life: Over-scheduling Myself = Finals Week Crunch

I supposedly left my school habits, well, back in school.  Unfortunately the last two weeks took me right back to what it was like to be in school.  Triple scheduling myself was, alright, fine, not a very brilliant idea.  I didn’t mean to, it was one of those “just sort of happened” things.  One of the dangers of writing is sometimes I have the impression I’m not really doing much, which perhaps comes from social perception, perhaps from years of boring day jobs, I’m not sure, but I tend to think of anything writing related as “not counting” which is deadly when it comes to crits, line edits, marketing, and blogging.  A mental “I didn’t do much this week” might mean I wrote only two chapters on my WIP.  What my brain is filtering out is perhaps 6  crits, a blog entry, social media posts, and a chapter or two of line edits on another novel.

Normally, I suppose some part of my brain tracks this, keeping it in mind around things like dinner, dishes, laundry, vacuuming (haha), and errands.  So, I scheduled out for September finishing running through “A Recipe for Disaster” in my crit group, which meant critting people back and editing up the chapters quickly before hand (neither of which counts, really, right?).  So, what I at least did decide counted, was going back over those crits and revising to get the book in to my editor.

That might have all worked fine, except I heard about this fantastic opportunity to submit a novel elsewhere. Since all I was doing were some edits, naturally I just had to get a book ready, in a month.  Sure, I was aware there might be “a little pressure” as the due date was the same as my draft into my editor.  Looking through my books I picked the one that looked like it had the best fit.  One problem, while the first two thirds were quite polished, it was unfinished.  I don’t think I’ve written a book quite that fast since I wrote “Dragon Wraith” during my one week break from volunteer work in El Paso (right, that was supposed to be a vacation).

Well, a lot of things (including the blog and dishes) went to the wayside as the reality turned out about three times busier than my brain thought it would be.  I did get the novel done and revised, plus the book to my editor, also revised, plus only fell behind about maybe 3 crits for the whole experience  but I pulled some rather late nights and my brain resembles a limp noodle.  I think I’m getting too old for finals weeks anymore.

That said, I’m hoping to do several non-counting things (catch up on crits, prewrite for Nano) and be all set to go November First on “Much Ado About Villains.”  I have last year’s outline, since I switched books due to marketing stress, so I probably should brush it up some.  I’m thinking though that after writing 35,000 words in a week, maybe Nanowrimo will be relaxing for once.  Here’s my tentative blurb:

After a year at Dark Lord Academy, Zixy (formally Danny) feels he’s got things pretty well worked out. Avoid his necromancy teacher, show off as much as possible in front of his friends, convince Queleria, the dark lady of his dreams, to ditch her current boyfriend, Demigorth the Destroyer. Only a pesky previously home-schooled know-it-all new girl won’t stop following him around, the necromancy teacher seems to stalk his every move, and the strategy teacher is definitely up to something downright villainous this year.

Then Zixy’s new demon pen-pal sends him a mysterious skull that has a strange way of whispering answers to tests, clearing up his social problems, and promises to show him how to use dark magic like never before. Suddenly evil looks a lot more tempting and school domination is starting to sound pretty good. Taking extra lessons from the not-quite-dead sounds like a good er… evil idea, right?

Also, during the last two weeks, two of my fabulous critique partners released novels.  Kelly Walker released “Cornerstone,” a YA Fantasy available at Amazon.  Michele Shiver released “Sixth South,” women’s fiction, on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  These are two very well-written, professionally edited indie novels that I critiqued in draft on CC.