I did start writing the first sci-fi mystery story on Friday, but I didn’t make a note of how many words I wrote. I wrote them straight into Scrivener, and I know I can dive in deep to find out what the state of play was on Friday, but hey, life’s too short to bother with that. I’ll just add it in for one day.
So, did I write it in time?
Well, I didn’t do anything with it on Friday evening. And I didn’t do anything with it on Saturday. I wrote a shopping list on Saturday and we went and did the shopping. But we didn’t do much else. We went to the supermarket, the pet superstore, and one of the home bargains shops, and we had a lazy tea: hot dogs. Even though we’d both had sausage and chips from the takeaway the night before.
On Sunday, I made a steamed pudding (golden syrup) and the poet slow-cooked a beef joint. And while he did things like wash the kitchen floor and the washing, I worked on my assignment.
Well, my critical voice, which we’ve been told to ignore, was screaming at me and on one or two occasions it was throttling me. I must have said I was wasting my time and that I wouldn’t bother submitting it as an assignment a dozen times. It was dreadful! He’d hate it! She’d hate it! (She probably wouldn’t even see it…) I was wasting everyone’s time! (I *had* paid for it.) But the poet told me I should finish it if I could, and submit it anyway if I did.
I finished it at about 1am this morning. Woke him up to read it to him. Made a few changes. And I submitted it.
The target was 3,000 – 7,000 words. I wrote 3,023 words.
The deadline was midnight west coast time, so I still probably had about 6 hours. But I knew I wouldn’t be awake in 6 hours, so I sent it at 1am this morning. When I got up, my acknowledgement from him was waiting for me, and the crows of doubt started to flock in once again. In their thousands.
I managed to push them aside and started the rest of the day.
I have a busy week ahead of me this week.
* The sci-fi mystery writing workshop starts today and finishes on Thursday.
* I think I have two more assignments to write for this workshop.
* I start to brainstorm the first story for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS 2024.
* We have a big family dinner on Tuesday evening.
* I have a hair appointment on Friday.
* The dog’s at the vet on Saturday.
Plus, of course, I’m still writing THE SECRET OF WHITEHORSE FARM and I’m still collating NOTES FOR WRITERS from Substack.
Well done, getting it in. Of course you’re going to have doubts; you’re working outside of your comfort zone. But you have a solid foundation in craft, and now just need to layer genre expectations and elements over it.
Good luck on a busy week!
And sometimes, all we need is for someone to say that to us. Thank you.
Good for you for submitting it! We never know until we try, right?
That’s right!
Good luck with the submission.
You woke Ian at 1am to read to him!!
I take it you’re still alive! The man is a Saint. 😇🥰
I did, and he agrees with you! (He *did* encourage me to finish it, so it’s only right he got to hear it before I sent it! Isn’t it? 😅 )