Writing work check-up

On January 5, 2015, I wrote a short writing to-do list for the coming few months. Today, since it’s almost the end of January, is a good time to take stock.

I’m pleased to report that I’m moving right along on my novel revisions. I’ve incorporated my red lines and yellow highlights into my online Revision 4 chapter files up to page 124. That means I have only 54 single-spaced hard-copy pages to go. Of course that doesn’t mean that I’m finished finished. As I’ve revised I’ve tagged many many pages that I need to go back to. Like yesterday for instance. I was working on Chapter Seventeen which required that I add a new subsection at the chapter’s end. I wrote it. I stepped back from it, I thought about how John Updike writes incredibly detailed descriptions, and I realized I wrote only the bare bones so far. I need to go back to that little subsection and add and add and add more. Remember the old adage – show don’t tell? Well my bare bones only tell. I haven’t written the scene that shows the entire picture yet.

My to do list also includes keeping up with my blog and guest website posts. I feel I’m doing pretty well with that. However, my poetry is lagging behind. I haven’t submitted anything since last year, and I’ve hardly written any new poems. This nags on me. Yet, I rationalize that my novel comes first. Once I’ve created a Revision 4 that I’m happy with and can send off to a second round of beta readers, I’ll have plenty of time to write poems. A good rationalization, right?

Here’s a little poem I wrote a while ago in response Robert Lee Brewer‘s prompt to write an upside down poem.

Hanging Out

I lean my legs against
the leather cushions,
grab hold of the side handles,
and hoist my body forward
until I end up
upside down.

I stay there to the count
of thirty
and then move myself
upright again.
After a few breaths
I do it all over again.

They say the upside down position
will help cure my tinnitus.
So far, it hasn’t worked.