A Writer's Life for Me?

I finished posting another book to a private blog. I put up my NaNoWriMo novel "Shakedown". This was my first year reaching the 50,000 words goal and my second year to participate in the event. Ah am sew proud of mahself! And I am so looking forward to November 2008! I hope some of you will take the challenge and join me. Chris, ya with me?

I like putting my psuedo-novels in blog form. I've discovered it makes it so easy to work with to have it there. Particularly when I have a willing victim... um... volunteer in Alice.

Actually, I haven't asked Alice to proof Shakedown. She is working on reviewing Mist for inconsistencies and incongruities. Well, she's been reading along from the beginning so I think she will have no problem. I am working on finishing it so I can then sit back and work out the kinks she finds. She did volunteer to do that. Well, truthfully, she told me she was already doing it and she'd let me know when she was done.

After I finished posting Shakedown, I realized that this is also a pretty good story. I was a bit shocked. It was another bugger to write. I hated it while I wrote it. Probably because I was forcing myself to do it and like a recalcitrant child, I was determined to dislike what was good for me. While posting, I found myself reading it and since it has been three months, some of my bias has receeded. Shakedown has potential.

Now, for those who have been keeping count, I now have four potential unfinished novels on my hands, all over 50,000 words. Tell me why I do not have a finished novel? Alice keeps asking me that. Nancy asked me that. {sigh}

I don't know. Could it be all the stress that keeps me off track? Adult children pulling me in a dozen different direction? A job I truly don't like most of the time but which pays me very well and therefore, since I like to eat, I can't quit? Problems with pain that I can't fix?

I can honestly say that when I posted Mist and several of the girls were reading it, and demanding (very loudly) more, it was much easier to write. Although some days my pain levels just overwhelmed me and so did all the other stuff. But I had to keep going or they would have hurt me! Sadly, I lost Nancy, one of my cheerleaders but I still have Alice and she's terrific. Keeps poking me with these sharp sticks. So, I am plugging away.

There are times this story stinks. If you read far enough back in the blogs, you will find I hated this story when it began several years ago. Really. It began as freewriting, just writing what popped into my head. Then, I became intrigued as to what that darn mist was and how it worked. Then I really hated it because I saw NO point in the story. But slowly, thanks to all those pokes, I've begun to see beyond the Mist a bit and it makes a sort of sense. I don't know that I will ever like this story. But I think I'll write it.

So, with that said, I am exceedingly tired. The cold is almost gone but it has left me absolutely drained. I've been tired for hours now but I wrote a bit on mist, posted the last of Shakedown, and wrote this post as well.

Ah, a writer's work is never done. Thank goodness!