Z is for Zealous

 I hate revising. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you already know this little tidbit about me. And so it is with no small amount of pride that I share that I am closing in on the halfway point of revisions on my latest novel.

Big deal, right? That's what authors do, right?

Um, yeah. That's what we're supposed to do -- when we don't get distracted by the next shiny project, that is. 

The last non-Marita, Angel, Charli novel I finished is still sitting in a drawer. It's way too long, even after one revision. I know I need to go through it again, and I really do love the characters and the story, but it's all so...daunting. And so, when new projects came to mind, that's where I put my energy and my focus. 

Last fall, I set a goal of finishing my latest book (the one I'm revising) by the end of the first week in January. I met that goal, and promptly set another: to revise that book and send it to 24 agents and/or editors in 2024. 

Weird goal? A bit. But it was a goal designed to get me out of my own way. Creating is not always easy, but it's fun. Revising is hard and submitting is hard and neither is particularly fun. In order to get to goal #2 (24 in 24), I had to complete goal #1 (revising the thing). And submitting to 24 industry pros means I can't let the first few (or many) rejections slow my roll.

So, I went public with my goals -- accountability and all that. When I finished revising the first third of the book, I sent it out to readers, using that step to keep my momentum going. 

The mind games we need to play with ourselves sometimes defy explanation. (Just me?)

Anyway, it's working. I am diligently, zealously powering through this revision. I've promised myself that the book doesn't have to be perfect because expecting perfection is enough to make the whole project collapse under its own weight. My critique group has already given me feedback that I've incorporated. My volunteer readers will give me more of the same. Together, we'll put together an end product that I can send out, hopefully this summer.

Some days, I'm excited to dig in. Other days, I'm not so zealous. But successful completion of a chapter at a time is a powerful motivator. And going public helps keep me on track. 

20 chapters done. 16 to go. Less than 35 pages to the halfway point.

C'mon, zeal. Don't fail me now.

Anatomy of a Sprint

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One of the best things about the break between semesters is the opportunity to put my writing first. And, thanks to a great presentation by fellow writer Ramona DeFelice Long, one way that I do that is to make sure I get my writing sprints in. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know all about my writing sprints, so you understand that getting myself into the habit between semesters (when I have lots of one hour time slots at my disposal) makes it easier for me to maintain the habit once the semester begins.

For me, the ideal sprint remains the one Ramona taught me: one hour, first thing in the morning, before the day takes over, with a goal of writing 1000 new words. This is the gold standard, the one to which I aspire.

The reality, however, is somewhat different.

On a good day, my one hour sprint consists of sixty uninterrupted minutes sometime early in the day. Because I have a high school student living in my house, and because procrastination is part of my writing process anyway, these sixty minutes rarely occur right out of the gate. I usually putter for a bit, checking email and often writing and posting my blog before settling in for my sprint, which occurs anywhere between mid-morning and bedtime.

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Some days, I end up with a split sprint -- the first thirty minutes in the morning or early afternoon and the second thirty minutes in the late afternoon or evening. I try not to cut my sprint into more than 2 pieces, but some days, it happens.

Perhaps the most useful sprint variation I've stumbled across is the sprint as a means of digging into an unpalatable or overwhelming task. For me, that task is revising. I hate revising, but there's something about breaking revisions into one hour chunks that makes the process much less painful. By telling myself I have to revise for only an hour, I've already taken an insurmountable task (revising an entire novel!) and made it more approachable.

I rarely "cheat" and count writing I'd do anyway (blog posts, for example) as my sprint time. Regardless of how I do it, when I do it, or how many chunks I break it into, I think sprinting is meant to advance a work-in-progress.

What task do you want to tackle, but keep putting off? Could a sprint be the answer for you?