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.