The End of Another Writing Week

It was only 4 days.  And I'd made a vow not to distract myself with email, reading blogs or anything else.

Tuesday and Wednesday I failed.  I wrote, but switching to email and other things made it unsatisfactory.  On Thursday and Friday I prevailed.  No distractions.  I got a lot done and more links became clear.  No, not those kind of links.  Clue links.  Family links. Killer links.

Do I feel good about two days of complete concentration?  You bet.  There's nothing like it when it goes well.  I'm excited that the words and situations are making sense and it's beginning to read like a novel.

It may not be as startling as the first version, but what good was that when I couldn't make it add up?

Although I'm still rewriting there are some pages that are new.  By the end of next week I should be finished with rewriting and it'll all be fresh from there. 

Yes, that's scary.  My setup is done and I'll be continuing to interview suspects and unraveling histories with perhaps a surprise or two to the reader. Maybe even to me.  On the other hand, scary or not, I'll be glad to be writing new stuff.

It's not clear sailing by any means.  I anticipate hard days, mistakes, irritation.  Still, I don't think I'll discover again that I've got the damn thing all wrong.

So I count this week as a success. Even though there were only 2 days out of 4 that were what I wanted them to be, I feel I've broken a bad habit and that I'll now be able to write with discipline as I always have.  Three to four hours a day or at least 5 pages, whichever comes first.

I know some people write all day or all night.  I've never done that.  But when I was younger I'd get 10 pages done in those three or four hours.  Ed McBain would laugh at me. I think I read somewhere that he still writes from 9-6 and he's been doing this a little longer than I have.

Being successful this week makes me feel I deserve the weekend.  But I wish I didn't feel I deserve desserts.  More than I have in a long time, I'll really enjoy reading, viewing and whatever else I do.

Thanks to all who've been rooting for me.

Oh, one more thing.  If the Oscars on Sunday night don't end on time I'll be too tired to write on Monday.  I wonder if I'll ever work a 5 day week again.