I’m getting closer and closer to the finish line, only 4 chapters left to edit.  I may have to add another chapter to the end, but will decide once I get there.  I can hardly believe it, this has been such a long all-consuming project.  I will be totally disoriented, I’m sure, when it’s finished–I’ll turn around and not feel my characters constantly tapping on my shoulder saying–”you can’t just leave me in this situation”.  

About the I-Can’t -seem-to-write-list.  We’ve all had those days when for whatever reason, fatigue, stress, distractions, we can’t seem to get down to the work.  For those days I’ve starting keeping a list of brainless things that need to get done–researching a particular question, brainstorming for your query letter to the tune of just throwing words down that you may be able to use to compose something later.  Do a find search for all ‘ly’ adverbs, delete.  That same for all those pesky ‘that’s that accumulate–you know the words.  For me, I tend to start a lot of sentences with ‘But’ or ‘And’, so flipping through reworking some of those sentences.

Another tool that has been of help for me is the not-to-do-list.  Instead of keeping a long to-do list, this other list tends to be much shorter.  For me things like playing ‘Wordsplay’ or whatever game I’ve become addicted to.  Another vice lately has been Stumble Upon, a search engine that while constantly keeping me entertained is in the end just a distraction.  Knitting and spinning, other items that go on my list.  A loss of hours exploring itunes, buying more and more music.  When you find yourself doing these sorts of things, you can be guaranteed this is the time to at least pull out the I-can’t-seem-to-write-list.