I thought I better post something. It's been a rough week around here, real life and writing life too. I had wanted to have lots more done but, alas, have not been able to produce anything to speak of.

But since my seestor has advised me not to worry about said lack of work, I will take that and run with it. Hopefully, I can manage to weed out my thoughts and put some useful stuff on paper next week. But until then, well, I'm not expecting any miracles.

By the way, I'm off to the land of shopping. If you've been good little boys and girls, maybe Santa will visit you.

I haven't stopped by the last couple of times I have sent in work. Mostly because I have been so cross eyed after that I go straight to bed. But since the laundry will take a few more minutes before I can switch it, here I am.

I have worked daily since my last report on the block of work I sent in tonight. I kept thinking I'd get to the end and it kept growing. What I like so much about what I am doing with the story is that it seems I've gotten back to the characters that have been living in my head. I think I got away from them in an effort to "improve" it. Now it's like-Hey. Don't write it like that. That's not how I sound. Write it this way.--And out it pops. Well sometimes there is more fretting than that, usually over deleting a good line because it doesn't fit anymore. But in the end I give up and hit the delete key thinking-if this is what they want, this is what they get. And I think it's turned out well so far.

I really think I'd be okay if it never got published. It's something I can be proud of regardless.

At least the first 59 pages.

Ok, this is totally not writing-related, but I wanted to just rub it in that I have already bought AND WRAPPED my first xmas presents. Ha ha! I pwn'ed you, Kee! I'm the xmas-master now! BWA HA HA!

Back to my onion soup cookery.

Whew! I made it through my first class (the first session of the class I am teaching, that is) without crashing and burning. Yay, me! Still, it felt weird to see a person who attended class with me 2 semesters ago attending a class I am now teaching.

I spent a little time messing around with my Cinderella story, but it still feels off, so I am letting it stew a bit. Otherwise I have been trying to tidy up my travel blog, stop neglecting my regular blog, and whip together a final syllabus for the class I am teaching, in addition to a number of other little, householdy things.

The back-burner paper is slowly inching up toward a front burner--at least it is back in the kitchen. :-)

Kee sent me her Monday work, with the comment, "I had to make myself spend an hour working on this tonight even though I wanted to go to bed for a week." But she made it to the end of Chapter 3, forced or not. Yay, Kee! Sticking to it is what makes you a writer, not a "want-er".

John kindly pointed out that there were a few places in my Rapunzel story that could use a little smoothing out, but I don't think I'm going to mess with it for now. But, he was also a little unsure about the ending, and I was already thinking I had let a bit of useful information fall through the cracks there, so I went back and revised just a tiny bit of the end.

About the actual production of my story[1]: I sat down and wrote 7 pages long-hand, about 1000 words, before lunch. Then I took a shower and started typing it up. I sat and typed until 4, when I posted it here. Somehow, I feel more positive about the bit I pounded out by hand than the bit I typed as I went. Composing the story didn't actually go any faster once I was typing, but that might be because I had more specific ideas about how the first part went. Well, no, it all seemed to be the same level of specificity at first, and I fleshed it out as I went along. Maybe it was just the further you get into writing the story, the more that has to conform to what came earlier.

One thing I noticed was that there was a *lot* more narrative in this story and a *lot* less dialogue than is my usual m.o., but even after re-reading it several times, it doesn't feel too "tell-y", at least not to me.

Anyhoo, one thing I realized when I was done: Kee's Mondays and Wednesdays are probably going a lot differently than I had been imagining (even though I also "write"). In Nee's little fantasy world, Kee was dropping her kids off at school, exercising at the Y, going home, and writing until lunch or her kids got home from school. To be managing the kind of output she has sent me the last few times, she has got to be spending the whole day (after her first two errands) in front of the computer. You would think her notes that she was falling asleep at the computer or was stopping just to go to bed would have clued me in, but I am notoriously dense. *g* So Kee gets an extra dose of respect for sticking to it!

An unexpected side effect of all that writing was that it seemed to prime the pump for me working on other things I had been putting off, like preparing for the class I'll be teaching this fall. (Of course, I can't use the phrase "prime the pump" around John anymore because he willfully misunderstands me and offers to help. *g*) The effect has even lasted to this morning; I have been crossing stuff off my to-do lists like a crazy, list-doing mofo. Isn't it weird that working hard makes you want to work hard, or is it just me?

[1] I hope this whole post doesn't come off like a mom retelling the story of her labor and delivery at every possible opportunity, and her kid is 10 years old. *ahem* Although this blog is kind of the most appropriate place for that kind of self-referential, one-sided conversation.

This post is probably going to come out of left field, but here goes. I want to write, and I enjoy writing, but I don't think I'm ever going to be a "writer" with a capital W. For one thing, the things I want to write... I don't think people really want to pay to read. But it turns out that I am ok with that. So this morning, I was cleaning the bathroom, and my brain took Rapunzel and squeezed it through the Nee-O-Matic and came up with the following. I have been writing on it almost straight through since about 9:15 this morning and have 2449 words I am not ashamed to call my own. Damn! I didn't think of a title. Oh, well.

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[removed 10.10.09]

I have fallen asleep twice on the computer so I am giving in for the night. I have sent my goods and feel great at where I am at in the process.

I'll be back Wed night.

I have had such great support from my accountability partners even though there is a lot going on in their own lives.

I hope I have done them proud by sending them a huge chunk of work tonight. If I keep up that same amount each time, I estimate that I should be done in 15 weeks. Ugh.

Hopefully, it won't take that long.

But then again, I haven't gotten so far on my own in the last 4 years!

Thanks ladies!

Just checking in to say I got Kee's work from yesterday, and the squirrels are all safely back in their cages.

I have been trying to finish up blogging our Scotland trip and a few odds and ends, but otherwise I have been a slug. *bleargh*

I didn't especially feel like writing today. But I made myself sit down and do it anyway because two people are expecting to get some new stuff from me.

It turned out to be one of the most productive days I have had in a long time. The word count was high, the ideas flowed, transitions were good, and the symmetry was there. And best of all, I don't feel like I have to go back and fix a bunch of stuff.

I just hope that this really is so much better than my first bloody attempts at putting pen to paper.