author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

Because then I'd really be doing the NaNoEdMo thing. I mean, I'm trying to do it right now, but as it's December I don't have the sense of participating in a huge marathon run with competitors from all around the globe. It's bad enough that I've told pretty much everyone I know that I'm trying to get through one revision cycle before Jan 1 - good darn thing I haven't told the whole world.

Because, of course, 43 hours to go divided by 13 days left is about 3 hours and 20 minutes per day. Starting today. And the thing about hours of revision is, you can't get them done any faster than at a rate of 1:1.

Holly Lisle recommends "Nerves of Steel" on her list of implements necessary to the One-Pass Manuscript Revision technique. She says she's kidding, but I think the only joke is saying that they're available for purchase at Wal*Mart. I mean, after just one hour of slogging through this manuscript, I can't sit still. I've got all sorts of contradictory stuff going on in my head...

"Ooh! Now I see what the overarching theme this scene serves is! I want to rewrite it now!" Except of course that would mean I might have to rewrite it five times by the time I got done with the red pen and the manuscript print-out. The last scene may, on reconsideration, also inform the revision of this scene.

"But there's no way I'll keep this all straight in my head for when I'm done slogging through!" That's why I'm taking notes. "Argh! But my notes are all mixed up!" Yeah. Good luck there.

"There's too much crap that needs to be done to make this thing publishable! It sucks! It sucks big granite boulders until all the quartz is gone! I can't redeem this dreck!" Which is why, I think, writing is a sort of religion; a certain amount of the process is built on faith.

Bleargh. Back to the grind, anyway. There was a time on Thursday when I was getting excited about really seeing clearly the main themes and character dynamics that drive the plot. Today, unfortunately, all I seem to be able to see is ick. It's obviously one of those days that separates the career novelist from the hobbyist writer - on a day like today, the one gets to work while the other goes back to bed.

"If you skip for a day or two, it is hard to get started again. In a queer way you are afraid of it." -Brenda Ueland

On days like today it's good to know that successful and famous authors have days like today too. Not because I enjoy seeing others in pain, understand, but because I'm encouraged to see that when others share that pain they keep writing (and publishing) anyway. It's proof that perseverance is not only possible but prudent. (Ha-ha! Alliteration.) Besides, if even Neil Gaiman has days when the writing's so hard he'd rather do anything else, then having that kind of day isn't necessarily my cue to throw in the towel.