Assignment due, fiction delayed

Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future. -Deepak ChopraThis week I had a paper due for class again. I had been spoiled by a few weeks of not having to worry about that necessity, so when I started looking into the requirements (only 4-5 pages!) I was lulled into a false sense of security; that would only take an hour or two. Then I started working on it Saturday. I hope you never have to write a Case Analysis.

I spent a good 20 hours arguing with myself about the pointlessness and how on earth to incorporate answers asked in the textbook into the 4-5-page paper that was to be the completed assignment. I’ll have to remind myself not to react the same way next time, because in the end, with the deadline looming, I churned it out in 2 hours, so I could’ve had all that time back if I’d just avoided that pitfall. (And that’s why Chopra’s quote, above, right, needs to steep in my brain for a while…)

That flagellating derailed my creative process for the weekend. I’d really hoped to continue my productivity this weekend, since I actually managed to meet my 500-words-per-day goal each day this week. It made me feel quite accomplished.

So I mostly met my ROW80 goals: I kept up with my schoolwork, and I progressed past 42K words in Blood to Fire. I don’t have a paper due this week, so this might be the week I finish the first draft, which has me all excited. I spent some time on the phone with my editor last night, and we started talking about the difficulty of getting dragons into photo-real covers. And came up with some cover ideas that might work. Which also has me all excited. Plans are coming together to make the actual book release happen by the end of February.

🙂

To get myself back into the creative mode, I spent time today reading over at Wordplay. KM Weiland’s series on Structure should be a must-read for all authors. These are things I’ve known on an intuitive level for many years; the way she’s able to articulate them are the most helpful and clear tips I’ve seen committed to the written form. It’s helpful to know when things should happen, and her examples from stories we all know throughout that series help SHOW how those points have been handled well, in the past. I encourage anyone working on a draft to review all 10 segments to make sure you’re building your story on a solid foundation.

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3 thoughts on “Assignment due, fiction delayed

  1. Hi Tonya, it looks like Kait has hit some trouble and we have no mid-week check-in. So no one is left out, please come over to our Facebook group and leave a link to your check-in post and we will be over to visit. The page address is https://www.facebook.com/groups/row80/ Alternatively, email me at katiecrcole@gmail.com and I’ll pass your post on. I know Facebook isn’t everyone’s cup of tea!

    Should we have no Linky on Sunday, we’ll just keep working this way until things sort themselves out.

    Cheers!
    Cate (Round 1 Sponsor)

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