Hello. Good to see you. I feel like it’s been a while.
I’ve been at the wars, fighting adverbs into submission, hunting down those insidious “thats”, “justs”, “reallys” and all those other filler words that weasel their ways into first drafts. It’s been a time.
I was working on revising the novella I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2019 in time to submit it for an un-agented call. At first, things were going smoothly. I made it through the first read through relatively quickly. And then, at the end of April, we found out that our lease wouldn’t be renewed and we’d have to find a new place and move by the beginning of June.
The housing market in Perth is similar to what I hear it’s like in the US right now. There are no rentals available and as soon as one is posted, it’s gone within the day. So we decided to try to buy, but the houses in the suburbs we’re interested in are all selling at at least 20% above their actual value and selling fast. As our move out date inched closer, we still weren’t finding anything, but luckily, my husband’s grandparents’ home was unoccupied so we were able to move in there as a last resort.
The process of house-hunting cut into my revision schedule, but I was still able to get work done, but the actual process of moving was another story. During the two weeks of packing, driving back and forth between the old place and the new place with our things, and cleaning the old place, I wasn’t able to revise at all.
By the time we moved in, I had a little under two weeks to push through my final revision pass. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it and the stress of that uncertainty played into my tendency to procrastinate which only made me feel more stressed.
The final day of the submission period dawned. I had twelve hours to read through the last forty pages of my novel, run spell check, and write a cover letter. I wasn’t sure I could do it.
But I did.
I finished and submitted my novella with three hours to spare before the submission window closed.
What pushed me through was knowing how disappointed I’d be in myself if I didn’t finish. That and a bribe. I told myself that if I finished my revisions and got the novella submitted in time, then and only then could I pre-order the Smaug mini-epic from Weta Workshop. The desire to own that vinyl figurine pushed me over the finish line. Silly, I know, but a girl’s gotta do what she can to trick herself into working.
I feel exhausted now. And accomplished. And excited for Smaug to join the legion of Funko Pops and Mini-Epics that are slowly but surely devouring my desk space.
Now, I need to finish unpacking and organizing things in our new place. Also, I can get a dog now. I can’t even begin to describe how excited that makes me.
Thank you for reading.
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