Sunday, June 28, 2009

A marathon sprint to the finish line

This is the toughest 50ks in 30 days challenge I've done. My brain is in too many places. I just haven't been focused on this story, and I used my broken alphasmart as an excuse for lack of output.

But today I will marathon write. To finish the challenge closer to the 100% mark than the 50% mark which is where I am now. What do I mean by marathon write? I mean sprint, rest, sprint, rest, sprint, rest. Most of the day. There'll be some breaks here and there for food, for reading the newspaper, for fulfilling my blogging obligations, for living up the to the title bestowed upon me by my writers group of 'the world's greatest secretary' (the handmade chocolates they gave me are decadent).



Currently in my story, I have a teen distressed because her ex's new girlfriend is throwing a party the same night as her rave, a fairy godmother who dares not use magic to assist her because she's been snorting the fairy dust that evening (don't drink and fly!) after discovering her time-shifted Prince Charming had escaped and ended up drunk in a strip club. Hang on, I thought this was supposed to be young adult.

So yes, I do need to get back to them. But I still haven't found my groove: I'm pantsing this one, but maybe I should have plotted. And the other seven manuscripts in various states of development are calling me. I so want to edit. And that is something I never expected to say or write. But after a fabulous course on Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues with Margie Lawson, and receiving feedback from the Valerie Parv Award, my mind is itching to edit and rewrite. Cinderella is waiting patiently. Kirsty McInnes is waiting not so patiently.

Yesterday, I won 2nd prize in my writers group Performance Writing competition. It was a radio play that I started to write fourteen years ago, pulled it out of the file (didn't even have an electronic copy), dusted it off it, reshaped it, took it back to the essence of the event, and gave it a resolution. Never throw away your old idea, your old manuscripts, your old characters -- you just never know when you can resurrect them and use it again. The time was right for that one.

Ladies, we have three days left of this challenge. Make the most of them and finish the 50ks in 30 days, knowing you did the best you could. Whether you make your goal, or not, you will be a lot further along then when you started on June 1st

2 comments:

Sandie Hudson said...

Okay after spending the morning doing Clayton's stuff, I'm now editing and writing. I'll need a jet up my butt to reach the 50ks but I'll give it a good go. Computer is now working again. YAY!

So yes, I will be spending the next three days trying very hard to get across the finish line.
Sandie

Eleni Konstantine said...

I'm so glad that I aimed for a more realistic target last year. It's been a hard month without having a goal of 50K and I'm about 80% of the way there, so still have a ways to go. But I feel better that I have done little bits here and there and they are adding up. Thanks for all the pep talk Diane!