I can hear faint echoes of The Mamas and the Papas singing Monday, Monday in the back of my mind.
I’m tired. Really, really, really tired. The last few days, I’ve had to set a timer to remind myself to stand up and move once an hour. I hand-wrote more than twenty new pages yesterday, plus editing (read cutting, cutting, cutting) existing pages. My schedule has been dawn-to-pass-out.
Those three endings I had? All gone. The one that ended up on the page as my cramped fingers and aching wrist were scrawling across the desert sands of a stack of bleached-bone paper was a fourth ending, one that tied in elements of the three endings I couldn’t make my mind up about. It twisted those previous endings like pretzels, stood them on end and shook out the real story, the real heroism, the real sacrifice, and it made me cry. Not a sad ending, but an emotional one. A strong one. The right one. Finally.
I’m typing in today. My eyes are already crossing, I ache everywhere, but long hours and an absolute committment to cutting everything that wasn’t right and writing better and the brutal process of line-for-scene and slash-and-burn and question-the-premise got me the book I wanted. The characters I wanted. Now I just have to nail it down in pixels.
So, onward. I’d like to say the worst is over, but I still have a long way to go. No guaranteed that it will be, and I don’t want to tempt fate.
Cuyler—deadlines create rips in the space-time continuum and alter Newtonian physics, too. The closer you get to having to put the manuscript in the mail, the more astounding the gravitational pull of your chair in relationship to your butt. It’s the Manuscript Strange Attractor Factor.
Wow… I don’t think I could stand to write that long everyday. I like writing, and hope to be published, but I can’t sit for that long or I go crazy, maybe two hours at a time. I applaud your commitment.
I can’t wait to see this book out there.
I’m glad that all your hard work paid off in finding the right ending. I hope the type-in goes smoothly and fast.
I wish I had your work ethic. 🙂
Anything I could say to applaud you would be an understatement. So, the best I can do is: I sincerely hope that all your hard work bears fruit and I get to read what you’ve just slaved over someday in the future. It sounds fantastic and worth all the aches.