GGGRRRR. I had to stay at work today for the Valentine's Dance. (If I came home at any point after the workday and before the dance, I wouldn't have gone back.) After eating dinner, I had an hour to kill. So I sat in the computer lab and worked on Danger. One hour later, I had 2 pages of good, new material and I was in the middle of a brainstorming E-mail to my critique group. Guess what happened? I LOST IT ALL! Automatically at 6 p.m. the computers in our school shut down and erase absolutely everything. A warning would have been nice. Since I don't technically work on that campus, how was I supposed to know that would happen? And to think, my next step after my critique group E-mail was to E-mail my new pages to myself.
During the dance, I volunteered to be the hall monitor so I didn't have to interact with too many people. I was still ticked off about losing my writing. While I yelled for kids to stay out of the classrooms and to get out of the bathroom, I managed to handwrite as many of my previous notes as I could AND add another 2 pages.
The dance itself was really a success and we had so much parent help, it really wasn't any trouble. When I got home, I had a drink (yes, I needed a beer) and then a cup of tea. Then I came in here to check my E-mails. Guess what I got? Another book chewing from my CP. I love her dearly and I totally believe in her ability as an awesome CP, but what am I doing wrong? I honestly don't see it. I'm not worried, panicked or ready to throw in the writing towel. I'm...puzzled. At this point in my career, I think I should be getting better, closer to publishing. After her latest round of comments, I feel very confused. Am I regressing?
Ah well, I'm not going to stress about it. She's giving me more specific details tomorrow since she didn't want to hit me with everything at once. Maybe through our E-mails we can brainstorm what's going on with me and my manuscript. I'll let you know what we come up with.
8 comments:
Reading Debra Webb, eh? I know she's written a book or two for Harlequin NASCAR, but unfortunately that imprint hasn't come to Aussie shores.
So sorry to hear about the computer crash, but well done and working to get back to it rather than wallowing in despair.
Be brave, and have a lovely day! :-)
Oh, the computer crashing thing is awful! There's nothing worse than losing all your hard work. You had such a frustrating night BIG HUG! As for your CPs comments, I think you are learning and growing. It may be frustrating to think you're not doing something exactly right, but perhaps this is part of the process you need to go through to make your writing better. I can't help but think because you've switched to writing suspense, maybe your change in genre needs a change in approach. Remember you DO WRITE WELL. So what if a few things need adjusting. There will come an ah ha moment when everything will fall into place, I'm sure. Just as I'm sure it always looks darkest after a frantic night of lost work and a preteen Valentine Dance.
Yes, Tez. I've loved several of Debra Webb's category romances (no NASCAR though).
I promise I'll even be brave in the face of my CP's morning comments.
Thanks for the uplifting comments, Cat! I'm off to work on making my pages the best they can be!
I totally agree with Cat. You'll be standing in the shower and WHAM! You'll get it. Don't despair. Just keep writing. And take a few Stuart moments if you need them.
I'm trying, Monika.
Oh, don't you dare even consider throwing in the towel! Girl, you have talent and it'll all come in time. You are learning quite a bit and even in reading your posts, I see that even your way of thinking when it comes to writing has changed since i've started to enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work Lexi, I have faith in you;)
Thanks for the huge encouragement, Crystal! I'm off to work on the masterpiece!
Post a Comment