Often I hear writer friends say they can't stay on e-mail or they can't talk because they're on deadline. I think to myself, boy would I like to have that problem. It's occurred to me that I do have that problem. I just don't have an editor out there somewhere imposing the deadline, waiting for the edits to come back so her company can print my book that they've already bought.
It's so easy when no one has spelled out the date for a project to be completed to take one's time. If you don't feel like writing and a beautiful day beckons, close the laptop and go. Yesterday a friend suggested I set a self-imposed deadline to complete my ms. revision by July 1st and get it mailed because July is the month of conferences for many editors. That means little office time for them and far less time to read submissions than usual. Yikes, that's only two weeks away.
I just got a critique back from a crit partner with dozens of wonderful suggestions and it took an entire morning to incorporate most of what she suggested into only three chapters! I don't know if I can make that July 1st deadline or not, but I'm sure going to try. My kitchen is a mess, half redecorated and half not. The rest of my condo is buried in a coat of dust, and my TBR (to be read) pile of novels I want to read is not going down. Later, I tell myself as I comb through the story, changing the I's and me's to she's and her's.
As of today I'm at chapter 12, page 79 of 244 pages. In addition, the last several chapters I've worked on need to be gone over again and refined and then they need to go off to the crit partners and their suggestions incorporated as I see fit. Then and only then, when I reach the end, will I be able to say it's good to go. That is after one final read through out loud to catch any lingering typos, etc.
Don't forget! Tomorrow I'm doing two big drawings. One for Robin Lee Hatcher's Return to Me and the other for Rachel Hauck's Diva NashVegas. There's still time to sign up by going to the individual posts about these super books and leaving a comment. Note that my comments page is on moderation so your post won't show up until I okay it. I'll announce the winners sometime tomorrow.
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