Done! (well, for now that is, much revision ahead, no doubt)

I finished this draft of my WIP at 10:30pm last night!! It became a marathon at the end and the walls of reality got a little thin, but that’s part of the fun for me. I didn’t get in as many running miles as I would have hoped, but something had to be sacrificed to make this goal.

I already know some things I want to change in the next draft, but I need to let the story cool off for a little bit before I tinker with it again. Now my writing attention turns to WIP2 for a little bit.

But I have to pack first.

I leave in a couple of hours for Chattanooga, TN, where the kind people made SPEAK into their “A Tale for One City” book. My public session will be Tuesday at 7pm at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Location details tomorrow. I’ll also be visiting the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Science, Tyner HS, Girls Preparatory, Hamilton County Adult High and Hixson High.

I promise I’ll be getting to last week’s writing process questions, too. And trying to catch up on a frightening backlog of email. (If you’re waiting to hear from me about something, just a few more days, please?)

There goes the dryer. Gotta hop.

13 Replies to “Done! (well, for now that is, much revision ahead, no doubt)”

  1. Congrats – tis the season for finishing first drafts. I just finished mine this weekend and have the usual vaguely adrift sensation one gets after marathoning to the end.

    Ooh, question – how long do you wait to regain objectivity before revising the first time and do you have any tricks for increasing objectivity?

  2. I lived in Chattaboogie for ten years – what a great town! Try to get somebody to run you by the aquarium and the bluff view district (the outdoor sculpture garden). Wish I was going with you!
    🙂
    e

  3. Wontcha choo-choo me home?

    Sorry. I’ve got Chattanooga Choo-Choo on the brain now, as happens anytime I see or hear the name of the town. Choo-choo-ch’boogie.

    Congrats on completing this round of drafting, and safe travels.

  4. It’s old home week! I have a masters from UT-Chattanooga, I did my student teaching at Hixon, and my first teaching job was at CSAS (gym coach!)–it’s an amazing school, created on Adler’s Paideia philosophy.

    Tell everybody I said, hey, and if you run into Joanne Smith, a lovely lady with a soft coastal accent, give her a hug for me.

  5. Yay! A successful WIPping must feel like giving birth after 18 stubborn hours of labor. Anyway, I have a writing process question for you.

    My writing muscles have atrophied. I have been going through a lot of personal stuff for what seems like forever and haven’t written, nor been inspired to write, anything for a little over two years. My fingers freeze, on the paper or at the keyboard. They won’t do. Every time I get inspired, I am on fire for an hour and then I get bored and can’t tap back into it. I feel like the characters are too stupid, or my descriptions aren’t evoking the right mood, or that I know what I want to happen in the long run but can’t find anything to write to fill up the space. Can you offer advice?

  6. Glad you are in Chattanooga

    Hi, Laurie! It was great to finally meet you face to face tonight at the university. We were only a few blocks from “the aquarium and the bluff view district (the outdoor sculpture garden)” mentioned in an earlier comment. Touring the aquarium takes a lot of time, which (I know) you don’t have on this trip, but maybe you’ll come back someday with your family. I’d love you show you the city, if you do return. I will write more after your presentation on Tuesday evening, but I’ve already posted a link to my review of SPEAK on the sidebar of my blog.

    My blog with your book at the top of the sidebar:
    http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/

    My review of SPEAK:
    http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2007/08/speak-by-laurie-halse-anderson.html

    ~~~ Bonnie Jacobs

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