This week was quite productive for me: I did both my schoolwork AND my fiction-writing. I added 4,000 words to my manuscript, and, last night, had that eureka moment that makes you feel all shivery about the final turning point in the storyline.
I had really hoped I would have finished by now–there’s a lot of editing that has to happen over the next few weeks to make this publishable. So I’m relying on my crit partners to keep nudging me for writing sprints, since those have (once again) proven the best motivation to keep my butt in the chair, fingers flying over the keyboard. (And, since Christmas is not quite a distant memory, you can see the tie-in inspiring the title for this particular entry…)
I’m getting very excited about where this particular story is headed. While I got stuck in Wikipedia for longer than I’d planned to refresh my memory on Russian history in the 90s, I also unearthed an article that references something about relationships my mom and I had discussed a few weeks back.
She had told me about a book she was reading that referenced the 5 As of a healthy relationship. In the normal course of things I forgot specifically what those As were, but following my character’s evolution had to research that last night too. And I found an article that prioritizes the top three to help build a happier married relationship. Granted, this is written in an admonishing tone, addressed to an invisible male, and I’m not sure leaving out approval and acceptance is entirely on track, but it’s still worth reading. Not only is it helping me flesh out my character’s development, but I’ve been hearing too many stories among my friends recently about how strained their primary relationships are. I hope the tips contained in that article help more than just the dragons I’m writing about. May you, too, find affection, attention, approval, appreciation, and acceptance this week.
🙂
In the meantime, feel free to visit the list of the other ROW80 participants to see whether they managed everything they planned.
Keep writing. Although I’m not married, a book on marriage that I find useful for thinking about strong relationships is Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages. A friend recommended to me because she felt it saved her marriage. I find some of the concepts for maintaining a strong relationship after the initial emotional love high calms down.