I don't think I've ever been able to say this in my life at all, but since Thanksgiving, I've actually completed two other manuscripts and have 40K words down on a third one. I'm the worlds worst when it comes to distraction and/or procrastination. Aside from that, I also abhor the editing process, which is kinda funny because I was in that field of work for a long time. I hated it then, I hate it now.
I'm all about fun, (always have been and likely always will be) and writing to me is fun. It gives me an opportunity to open my mind and let my imagination create people, places and scenarios that are entertaining to my brain and hopefully entertaining to others, as well.
I've been heard to say- even regarding any jobs I've had- "If it's fun, I'm all in. Once it stops being fun, I'm all out." I've lived this practice almost to perfection, except I stayed in newspaper long after it stopped being fun and became a detriment to my health, because you know... I'm chubby, I like to eat and food costs money.
As much as I detest editing, my love of writing has never lagged because well.... it's fun. Though once I'm finished with the creation part of a writing project, I can honestly say I'm tempted sometimes to just to scrap it because I know what's gonna come next. Re-reads (ugh), re-writes (meh), grammatical corrections (kill me now), sentence restructuring (torture me and then kill me) and then once all that's done, I'll let someone else read it, have them any errors or inconsistencies they've found and the entire editing process (I'd rather have my nails pulled from my fingers and red hot bamboo shards laid over the exposed nailbeds) starts all over. For every ounce of joy I get out of writing, I experience an equal amount of dread for the editing process.
I do know people who love and enjoy the editing process (I often question their sanity on other things, also) and I wish I could be that enthusiastic when it comes to cleaning up my work, but no matter how much I try to hype myself up for it, I just can't.
So, here Diesel sits, needing more editing after I've already been over it for what feels like 50 times since it was finished after Thanksgiving. My second manuscript (no name chosen just yet) sits completed, but no editing done yet whatsoever. I'm trying really hard to find the wherewithal to get down to business on it, but so far, there is none to be found.
And while, yeah, I'm a little ashamed to say I've neglected my duties in this regard; I'm also kinda pleased at myself for actually having TWO finished projects and a third in the works at the same time. This has literally never happened. It used to take me a few years to get one done. We take our progress where we find it, I guess.
