30-day challenge: true confessions

Vivian, over at Hip Writer Mama, is all sorts of trouble. You have been warned.

Here is how it started. A couple of weeks ago she posted her 30 day challenge and I, wishing for some progress on my manuscript, signed up, confidently asserting:

I'm going to spend 30 minutes a day with my manuscript.

Now unless I can consider "with" to mean that it is on the harddrive of the laptop and I am with the laptop, I have utterly failed.



Why am I telling you about it? Because part of the challenge is that we check in on Mondays. It's Monday.

Here is what I have done.

• Cleaned off a desk in preparation for writing.
• Moved another desk into the house, just in case the first one doesn't have good writing juju.
• Allowed mountains of debris to cover both desks.
• Resolved to write on-screen, rather than on-paper.
• Turned on 'puter with intention to write.
• Surfed blog-land.
• Thought my submission deadline for my writer's critique group was this past Sunday night.
• Spent 30 minutes picking out what parts of the manuscript to send.
• Submitted my selection this past Saturday night.
• Felt very proud of being a day early.
• Was graciously informed that I was TWO WEEKS early.

This means I have two more weeks in which 30 minutes a day could translate to meaningful work. Why am I dreading this?

Here is what I have yet to do:

• outline the sequel
• reread the whole existing manuscript with an eye to where sequel-seeds need to/can be planted
• attach sticky notes at places to come back to
• figure out a plan for character rehab - some of them are very bland, even frail
• (you don't need to keep reading; I'm just writing this for me you know)
• drum up some sideline stories to work in
• restructure the whole thing, moving from a 3-chunk model to a 3-strand model (from A1, A2, A3, . . . B1, B2, B3, . . . C1, C2, C3 to A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2, A3, B3, C3 . . .
  
• (honestly, you really don't need to read all this)

Why am I dreading this? Because it sounds like work!! And also because, once I start working, I don't even like to stop to pee or eat or sleep. How am I going to do this with little people in the house? I'm not allowed to teach them how to bake their own pizzas until they are 10 (I asked my sister and she looked bit horrified that I was even considering this.)

So, I'm quite wishing I had selected a more doable task for the challenge, like baking fresh bread every day, which I am actually doing.

Then, as if I didn't have enough to do, Vivian tagged me for a meme. My first tag, actually. You'll have to come back tomorrow for my memeness.