It’s snowing here in Texas. Yes, that’s a big deal here. I, for one, do NOT go out in the snow if I can help it. I did not learn to drive in snow (or ice) and on the rare occasions when it does snow here, I do my best to stay home. People keep trying to convince me that snow is “pretty” or “fun.” I refuse to believe them. My husband says I turn into a grinch when it snows.
Thankfully, I had enough warning that I took my writing things home with me so that I could continue to work without needing to go to my office. School is closed and the kids are content to binge watch TV or read, which leaves me with plenty of time to work on my book.
I’ve read/taken notes on 300 pages of my 376-page first draft. I’ve taken pages and pages of notes. I had more notes at the beginning than I have had here in the last third. I’m not sure if it’s because I remember it better because I wrote it more recently, if it’s actually better, or if I’m just burnt out. Hopefully it’s because the writing got better the farther into the story I got. Though, I will say that some of my notes are things like “don’t like this scene. Change it.” Which may not be completely helpful, but hopefully I can figure out HOW to change it when I work on revisions.
I had set a goal for myself to be finished with reading/taking notes by the end of January. It’s January 10th and I only have 76 pages left. I’m fairly certain I will be attaining this goal early. I’m trying not to get ahead of myself and stress over the revision step before I’m actually in it, but it sure is difficult.
Wednesday, I got to have a long phone discussion with my writer friend, Renee Edwards. We talked about writing some, but a lot of the conversation was about life in general. We’ve been friends for nearly 20 years (she and I worked together before my kids were born) and even when we go months without talking, we pick up right where we left off with no problem. We frequently will be accountability partners when we need extra motivation to get work done on our writing. Just having someone that’s checking in on your progress is so helpful. After spending 2+ hours not talking about writing, we decided that the next day we would write “together” and check in via text messaging to prevent us going off topic.
I got TONS of reading done and while I had been questioning the “romance” thread of my story before, I got to scenes that I really liked but required the “romance” to be in place in order to even happen. I was able to talk (text) through my thinking with Renee and it really helped. The reason I have the word romance in quotes is because the characters simply dip their toes into the idea of a romantic relationship, and it doesn’t really become much more than a possibility by the end of the book. Which made me start to wonder if maybe this would open these characters up to having a sequel? Though I really don’t want to get ahead of myself.
My other concern, which I addressed with Renee, and she helped put my mind at ease, was the fact that my MC goes to church (which is an important part of her journey) and hints at a queer romance (plus, one of the side characters is in a committed queer relationship). I wasn’t sure if the two together would find an accepting audience. Renee pointed out that there need to be more books out there that show that not all Christians hate on the queer community. I do have scenes that address the different reactions queer individuals receive from the Christians, so I am hopeful that I’m treating the subject with the care it deserves. Also, I remembered that with all of the book banning that’s been going on I once declared that I was striving to “write a book that those people would want to ban.” Because what they’re really afraid of is not books changing reality, but books reflecting the reality that’s already there. And this is the reality I live in.
I’m fairly certain that I will be done with this step of my process by the end of next week. At which point I will have to figure out how the whole “revision” thing works. Wish me luck!
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