My last post was titled something like, "Welcome 2013!" and I said it was going to be a good year.
I was right. In 2013 I married my best friend, we both got full-time employment, we found a place of our own to live, and we spent an entire year in blissful honeymooner's reverie.
I normally don't like odd numbers, and have often found that the worst times in my life were during odd numbers. However, I believe the year 2013 broke that curse!
Now it is 2014 and I am finally coming up for air.
Not that things are going badly now! They most definitely are not. It's just that last year had a LOT of transitions and changes in it and we were newlyweds. So I didn't have much time for doing other things, such as blogging.
Today, Hubby's at work, so between doing laundry, I thought I would write some things down.
I am still working on my rough draft of my first ever complete young adult fantasy novel! I wrote the entire thing years ago in one month as part of NaNoWriMo when I was stressing out about being unemployed during (and because of) the recetion (apparently spelling this word SO wrong my computer doesn't know what I'm trying to say and can't help me out, so I'm leaving it).
Writing that was exhilarating. But now I am STILL working on making it a bit more coherent. It was also my first attempt at doing what every good writer and my creative writing professor in college told me to do in the first place when writing fiction: write the first draft with abandon and in a mad rush, not stopping to edit or think about what is going onto the page. Just get it out as fast as you can without deliberating. And then, once it's all out, loud, proud, and a complete mess; then make lots of cups of tea and painstakingly iron out the first draft into more coherent 2nd and 3rd drafts, and then edit again.
Of course, being the control freak that I am, I always refused to listen to this rule before and would work on my first draft as if I only had this one chance and would never be allowed to change something ever afterwards. This led to very slow work. What came out sounded nice, but about halfway through, it would dwindle and die.
Now that I have tried the other way, I am definitely not going back, EVER! This way is much better. My story is awesome. I love it. And it's all there. However, it is a mess.
I'm currently between my 2nd and 3rd rough draft. This has got to be the toughest part. I'm in the middle of that marathon where there's still so much in front of me that I feel hopeless of finishing, but I refuse to give up because of all the ground that I have already covered.
Solution: more tea!
I am determined to finish this. Especially because I have this idea that this story is legitimately good.
I'm very excited about the world and the characters I created.
This story is a two part series though, with the second part unwritten yet. That is the carrot at the end of the stick I'm chasing.
I want to know what happens!
I think one of my favorite characters is going to turn out to be the bad guy! I don't know yet, but it's a definite possibility.
...and that will be the end of my rambling for now.
Life is going well. Some things are hard, and of course nothing is perfect. I could complain about a lot of little things.
However, the broad facts are: I live with my best friend, we love each other more now than when we started, we have a place of our own, I'm really good at my job and enjoy it most of the time, I'm writing again, and we have enough money for food, rent, bills, and sometimes a little left over for a movie once in a while.
And Ryan's health is keeping up! Praise God!
I think 2014 is going to be a good year as well.
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