Here’s the thing – well, okay, there are many things.
Thing One: I’m getting sick. It was unavoidable. It was my destiny! I’ve been surrounded by sickness this Christmas. My sister was dealing with the flu on Christmas day, and my nephews who are visiting have also been battling with colds while their mother administers antibiotics.
I don’t want to get deeper into that. But, needless to say, getting sick was definitely in the cards for me. I’ve been coughed and drooled on by a one-year-old all week. It doesn’t take a genius. I only wish that it had come perhaps a day later.
Thing Two: I’ve already set up a time to meet “my editor” at a neutral Starbucks location in about … fourteen hours.
I don’t drink coffee, so I’m probably the only person on this planet who had to Google a Starbucks location near me.
Editor said in her e-mail that she’s “really enjoyed” reading my work. As a paranoid, inexperienced (on the business side) writer, I immediately wonder if she truly meant those words after reading what I sent her, or if she just says that for every piece of crap she’s paid to look over. *twitch*
DO NOT TEASE ME WITH YOUR WORDS, WOMAN! I AM INCREDIBLY FRAGILE!
I am, however, prepared to drag myself wheezing and bleeding from my eyeballs to that Starbucks tomorrow to find out. I also have to pay her, and I want to get that over with.
Unless she says that I’ve created something truly earth-shattering, should skip having her read the rest of it, and just publish it now, I plan on paying her for her service, and telling her that I think it needs a little more attention from me first before I go any further down the professional abyss.
Thing Three: The first time I attempted NaNoWriMo, I “won”. In other words, I reached the goal of writing 50,000 words in the month of November. That was in 2008, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
I never finished the story. Although I made a couple attempts at rewriting, it never got there. I moved on to other projects, other ideas, and I haven’t looked at it for quite a few years … until last night.
Never in my experience of reading through my old work have I ever continuously stated, “I can’t believe I wrote this!” in astonishment.
To be clear, that is positive astonishment as opposed to the other thing. (“I can’t believe I didn’t burn this!”)
Hilda, as it is titled, is unlike anything else I have ever attempted writing. There is a kidnapped princess, dwarfs, pixies, the occasional transvestite, and pirates in it. I was sitting at my desk at two in the morning, desperately trying to stifle my laughter while I was reading.
The style and voice of it reeks of Terry Pratchett, whose works, at the time I first blurted it onto the page, I was reading extensively – almost exclusively. There is a also a little Princess Bride in there as well.
Of course, it needs work. As usual with my earlier stuff, it needs a set point of view for each group of people, among several other things. But, I cannot let it go to waste.
It really feels like a diamond in the rough. I am truly ashamed of the fact that I let it sit alone, through three hard drive transfers, without being touched for so long.
But no longer!
I have already started a new document for a rewrite … which I’ll dive head first into a little later. I’m tired, and need to take something for my sore throat.
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