Dispatches from the writing cave (Part 3)

Total word count as of today: 65,000-ish
Days left until deadline: 7

Ooooof. 

It has been a week, you guys. I was rolling right along on this draft (they kissed and it was REAL! HOT!) and then got to the 65,000-word mark and had a (right on schedule) writer-ly meltdown. There was a lot of brow-furrowing, and staring out the window with a puzzled expression, and desperately reading back through my pages of plot notes.

And then there was, like, a rollercoaster of super anxious anxiety and THEN I figured out there were a few elements missing from the beginning that need some tweaking so I can move past this 65k mark. So although it pains me to go backward and carefully re-edit the beginning (for the third time) it's all part of the big, beautiful process of crafting the unique love story of Fiona and Max. 

It was not fun at all, but it happens every time. Ask my husband and all of my author friends, who have heard me reach this exact point in every draft for the past twelve drafts. (!!!) If the first draft is you, the writer, telling yourself the story, then the second draft is where you hack away all those messy weeds to find the garden underneath. The weeds are just as important as the garden - both shape the process. And I think the reason why I got stuck is because I'd left in a few scenes that I just LOVED from the first draft but really, probably, aren't right for Fiona and Max. We call this "kill your darlings" and it is hard, but they'll have to go. 

And in the mean-time, after all the brow-furrowing, last night I turned on my favorite Justin Timberlake album(s), drank a marshmallow-coffee stout (just try it) and had the best time tweaking the re-tweaks and watching these two sexy jerks fall in love. Ugh, they're cute. So so so so cute.