After a horrible month+ of being attacked by a bacteria which no one could identify, and multiple tests, they finally found the culprit and some antibiotics were prescribed—and now I am healthy again!
I felt as if my world was turning upside down inside of me, and had the wildest and scariest dreams I've ever had—earthquakes included, and I'm not a fan at-all.
Fortunately after coming out of my illness I didn't encounter a desperate scenario when looking at my WIP's. It seems that I'm just a chapter (maybe two, who knows?) away from finishing a novel I've been working for a long (loooong) time. I can't wait to jump right into revisions and get to the fleshy part of it, I know I still have to remove, add and change a ton of things.
Writing this novel has been a life changing experience. Not everyone writes a book and there's a reason for it—it takes a lot of work. When I talk about "work" I don't talk about the tangible part of it, which is actually writing the words on paper, or .doc or .fd; but the work it takes to
1)Organize your ideas.
2)Make sense of your ideas.
3)Avoid running away from your ideas with fear they are rubbish—better known as DOUBT.
4)Avoid it, really.
5)Put those words down. See the word count go up.
It takes a lot of work not to get discouraged, to believe in what you say or think. It takes even more work to get over the fact that your book might not be that great, but it's okay.
I also was very pressure about the word count. A novel must be over 40,000 words, and I was struggling to believe I would get that length out of my story, so I gave a little too much attention to my word count—"How many words on the selection? How many words on the project? Shesh, I still need to write another 1, 500 words today to make my quota" I thought, over and over, in the span of a whole year.
Another thing I've learn through writing this novel is that details are to be worked after you're done with the story. Then you go back and fix the minutiae. Like Danielle Steele does—and hey, she is very VERY prolific. Even if you don't like romance, there's a lot to learn from that woman. I can't remember is Stephen King does the same thing, but I like his approach and I stopped myself many times from reading "On Writing" again. There is a limit of how many writing books you should read, just go WRITE and you'll learn by on first hand experience what you will resist learning from the books.
Am I a better writer than a year ago? Yes, definitely. Am I famous, reach and signed by agent, publisher and film company? Not yet. Is it my goal? My goal is to have as many people as possible reading my stories, and that hopefully I can make them laugh, cry or think a bit.
Besides my writing there are other things floating around which I think about, the most superficial ones are the trial of Amanda Knox—I don't even know if to say poor girl or to wonder why would she do something like that. I am anxious to know what the verdict to her appeal will be. I enjoy learning about trials and the personality of the accused, not that it's in the line of what I write but it helps me learning about motivation and what people are capable of doing.
I've also planted a tomato garden and hopefully will get some tomatoes in October. This feels like a good month, I feel accomplished, and happy. Something good is just around the corner.
Happy weekend.
