After Revision

I turned in the revision yesterday morning before work. The weekend was spent doing only that; on Sunday I think I worked at it for 11+ hours. There were moments when I felt sure I couldn’t finish, but somehow I did finish, looking back I don’t know how. Then, after it was all over, I [...]

What My Locker Reveals

Inside the storage locker at my weekend writing spot are the following items that I keep on hand in case I might need them at a moment’s notice:

1 black sweater
1 used plastic bag, for covering laptop if it rains
1 Antioch Review magazine
1 You Can Write for Children Writers Digest Guide
2 Open City magazines
1 large pencil [...]

Honestly

I really have no idea how I will manage to finish this revision today, honestly.

Finish It Already

“Have a good writing day,” e said to me at the door this morning. “Now finish it already, goddamn it!”
The “it” that has taken residence in the apartment, larger in the room than the largest elephant, is of course the revision.
It is a hurdle to write something you don’t want to write anymore, made worse [...]

Possible Excuses for Missing Deadline

My manuscript was stolen and I only just paid the ransom to get it back.
I am allergic to revision and had to take antibiotics and wait for the swelling to go down.
Bad spill. Can’t read revision notes.
Grizzly bears / wild boars / rabid pigeons ate it.
I had a finger injury and lost all ability to [...]

Here I Am Still Revising

Happy Earth Day. Happy Passover. Happy Spring. What day is it again? I am still revising. I am mad-scramble revising, push-it-till-you-drop revising. Can’t-even-form-a-proper-sentence revising. Stop-staring-at-me-from-across-the-room I’m revising. Revising so this can be over. Revising so I don’t take on another freelance assignment like this again. Revising, revising, revising until words have no meaning. When I [...]

Losing Antioch

For those of you who may remember my posts from last year about the closing of my college, Antioch College, here’s a very sad update from The New York Times.
This is the worst thing that could have happened. I have often told myself that one day I would publish books and I would give back [...]

Deadline vs. Life

My deadline for the revision of my 40,000-word work-for-hire manuscript is this coming Friday, April 25. Even if I tried to keep working on this all day today (Saturday), and then all day tomorrow (Sunday), and then all through the week—keeping in mind I leave for my day job at nine in the morning and [...]

First Book Contract Stupor

Today, while I was at work, my book contract arrived at my apartment. I was fifty blocks away and couldn’t see for myself until after 5 o’clock. E called the moment it was dropped it off. He described the contract, read me choice bits. My name is there. The name of the novel. A plot [...]

A to Z

I have the revision notes for the work-for-hire manuscript I’ve been ghostwriting. I am overwhelmed. I am wanting to revise this and make it good. But I am still digesting the notes. Compliments go a long way with me, yes, so when I feel freaked out I just read the editor’s first paragraph where she [...]

The Revisions Are Coming, the Revisions Are Coming!

You heard right: the revisions on my last work-for-hire manuscript are coming my way. They will be messengered to me tomorrow. Sounds daunting that they must be messengered rather than emailed, no? I’ve also been warned I have to cut 7,000 words.
Guess what I’ll be doing all weekend?

Out of Practice

I haven’t written for two days. The past two mornings my alarm went off at crazy-o’clock so I could get in some writing before hopping on the subway for the day job and I, with full consciousness, reset the alarm so I could sleep. But those two days of no-writing also became two days of [...]

They Pay You to Do This?

Scene: Italian cafe, near-empty on a Sunday afternoon. I sit alone at a table near the window.
Elderly busboy with unidentifiable (though most certainly not Italian) accent approaches when I ask for the check. The waiter will be just a moment, he tells me.
Then, motioning down at the stack of manuscript pages I am reading, he [...]

Books and Unicorns

Reading is such a personal vocation for me—revealing what I really think about a book feels like flashing my underwear—which I guess is why I don’t do book reviews here. I finished a book I had a love/semi-annoyed relationship with recently and thought of posting about it, then didn’t. Maybe I’m afraid I can’t be [...]

Absolutely No Reason to Be Awake This Morning

Folks, I finally turned in the first draft of the work-for-hire novel I was writing that had been driving me batty. I was two weeks and one day late from the original deadline, how mortifying. No feedback yet—though my heart, head, and gut are telling me I didn’t do such a good job, as this [...]