Vacations are for Writing...

A funny thing happened just before I went on vacation...I picked up one of the 8 unfinished novels I have...the one closest to being done...the one I love the most...and easily started making edits that seemed way to complicated to deal with in 2010, 2014, and 2015.  I guess when you are ready, you are ready.  The most amazing thing is...I shut off social media...and focused.  I didn't write about it.  I didn't post about it.  I wanted to surprise one of my friends for their birthday.  It was the perfect motivation.  It was like all of my fears fell by the wayside.  My voice came back.  I was suddenly ready to finish.

There were many reasons for finishing.  What gave me my kick start was that I had a new idea hit me when I was sitting at an Irish Pub with my sister.  I was watching a "session" and I had a vision for a closing scene...I could feel it.  I was so close.  I knew how the story was going to end.  It is a glorious feeling...when it hits.  Sometimes I get the title first.  Other times there is one vivid scene and the rest of the novel works it's way around it.  In order to fully engage in a new novel, I knew that I had to finish my NanoWrimo 2009 novel.  I need to do the work before I start a new one.  It was a respect thing.  I accepted that I am a writer and I need to write.  As I writer, I owe it to my words to complete them so that others can read them. 

After my Irish Pub Visit...I did some planning...

My first day of vacation...all the edits (pen and ink style) fell across the page...while I had my first ever Duck Doughnut.

Electronic Edits commenced on a novel with hints of espionage while drinking a beer called Burner...it was kismet.

The last set of edits happened at the beach...my haven...Cape May...I came home and printed it to send to Texas.

So about those words... (Pages Edited = 13)

Right...it is November...how is that novel writing coming along?  Well...in all honesty...I have not felt like sitting at Panera or Starbucks huddled behind my laptop.  The weather is beautiful...and being outside seems like the best thing for my soul.  There was a time when writing the words was what I needed...but I don't need that any more.  I think it is okay that I haven't been feeling like barfing out new words for word counts.  There is something else I have felt like doing...editing old words.  What?  Yes...editing.  My NanoWrimo Novel from 2009 is still the one I am closest to finishing.  It is the one I carry around with me...all...the...time.  It is always in the back of my car...taunting me to read through it and get it closer to done.  So, that is what I am doing.  My novel...The Accidental Agent...is going to get another rebuff...and then...I will send it to my friend in Texas to read.  I was supposed to do that last January before I visited her on my birthday.  She hasn't asked me about it once.  I think that means more.  I know that she knows I will eventually send it to her.  I know that it will happen...eventually.

Years ago...one of my old bosses called me out on something regarding my writing.  She said that I never finished any of my novels because I was afraid of finishing.  If I finished one, I would have to do something with it.  She was absolutely right.  Maybe the fear is subsiding...maybe finishing a novel no longer seems so impossible...ready, steady, here I go...