This is not the way it’s supposed to work–I know. But I’m taking a couple of days hiatus from Fast Draft to prep my first 35 pages for a contest. I know, I know, contests and I have a checkered past, but not having critique partners, I just can’t seem to resist the opportunity for feedback (read criticisms), not to mention the possibility to place and get my work before an agent/editor without the need for the dreaded pitch.

So, today I worked on tidying up, trimming, editing, etc. I also thought a bit about the part of the manuscript I’ve been working on for FD. I feels strange not to be sneaking back to it every spare minute. Strange, and SOOOO liberating!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really liking the Fast Draft process, but it’s just exhausting. However, I’m newly motivated: I’ll need to finish the Fast Draft and then try to edit quickly and efficiently (ha!) so…just in case…the manuscript will be almost ready at the end of the year when contest finalists are announced.

I know what I’m asking Santa for!

New pages today: 12
Total page count: 100 pages!!

Yay! I pushed back through the jungle of internal editing and actually upped my pages today! Whew! Another prime writing day tomorrow, so I’m crossing my fingers…

Really nothing has been going on with me for the last week plus. I’ve been devoting most of my free time and mental capacity to my WIP. However, I thought I’d share this sweet little story…

My little one and I have been listening to Michael Buble in the car (he only likes the fast songs), and today we finally made it to the end of the CD and I’ve Got You Under My Skin. So he asks me what ‘under your skin’ means. I tell him it means you’re thinking about someone alot and maybe it’s sort of bothering you a little it. (Like I have this Fast Draft under my skin). There’s a quiet moment, and then he says, “So do you got daddy under your skin.” I just smiled and said, “A little bit.”

And to borrow a Galaxy Quest quote I saw on Amanda Ashby’s site (somewhere…): ‘Never Give Up! Never Surrender!’ What a perfect motto for Fast Draft.

This was basically a day off. With church, a headache, a much-needed nap, and the only bit of reading I’ve done in almost a week, I only managed 6 pages.

But I’m ready to go for tomorrow. The part I’m working on now is causing me a bit of trouble. I can feel myself over-thinking it. So tomorrow, I’m going to try to skip to the end and write the ending. We’ll see how that works.

Hard to envision another week of this, but I’m really going to try… My husband is ready for it to be over!

Total page count: 88 pages.