How Busy Was It?

After getting the upper hand on a cold that had me wanting to crawl back into bed early last week, somehow I managed to actually finish the week with some accomplishments.  Lucky for me, the momentum followed me into today.

It started on Wednesday evening, when I joined the other three members of our critque group for the first time since before the holiday hustle and bustle hit hard in December.  I couldn't have felt better when I left that evening.  My contribution of a reading of the first two scenes from my current WIP was very well received.  To put it simply, they liked it!  There's no way to describe how much that helped my id.  By Thursday, I was raring to start addressing the few changes they suggested and get on with the writing---and revising---process.  (Thank you Pat, Theresa, and Deborah!  You three are the greatest!)

Sometimes all it takes is a few positive comments from others to chase away that feeling that you're swimming through mud.  Creative beings tend to be their own worst critics...and enemies.  We're so tuned into looking for what needs to be changed and improved that we sometimes forget to look for what's good.  Kathie D and I call it Forest for the Trees Syndrome.  Yes, you guessed it.  We get so close to our work, picking and trimming and changing, that we lose the ability to see the whole picture---or in a writer's case, the whole story.  Sure, the leaves on a tree are especially beautiful in the autumn, but it's the whole tree of leaves that takes our breath away.

Yesterday I finally finished rewriting the last of the three chapters that I soon plan to send to my editor.  Well, once the synopsis is revised to fit those new scenes that cried out to be written.  I'd planned to do a final read-through and polish today, but I worked on a updates for several websites, instead.  That's probably a good thing.  It gives it a chance to cool and me a chance to step away, if only for a little while.  My eyes (and brain!) will be a little fresher for it.

Yes, it's been a busy week, but it's been a week that I can look back on and say I accomplished a lot.  And that doesn't happen all that often.

"It is not time that we need to manage, but our attitude towards it - we all have the same amount, it is just how we use it that differs. Keep busy and keep getting results."

-- Anton Guinea