Revisionista's SWIM Update

[John William Waterhouse, Lady of Shalott]

It's Saturday morning and I'm about to dive in for a morning SWIM. But first I thought I'd go ahead and update my progress for this week.

This week started out well. I had a strong day on Tuesday with CH 1 of the academic book and both Wednesday & Thursday I worked on the novel. And since Tuesday, I've managed to do Morning Pages every morning so far.

I realized that with July right around the corner, I'm starting to freak out about how much I can actually accomplish on the academic ms this summer. I think that paralyzed me for a few days, but I think I've figured out a solution. Later this morning, I'm going to create a new ms doc and paste in all the material that exists along with brackets noting where I need to generate new material. When I was journaling about this last night, I realized that to complete the ms I just need to write 2 chapters and an introduction. So, instead of thinking about generating an entire ms this summer, I'm going to focus instead on finishing the section of CH 1 I'm writing, then moving to CH 5 which needs some new material added to it, and then when September begins (if not sooner), I'll start freewriting the introduction. This is a much more sane and manageable way to think about what I need to do this summer.

As for the novel, I had an excellent morning with it on Wednesday where I sunk in deep and was basically just observing (& recording) what the characters were doing. I'm writing my pp in a mid-sized Miquelrius notebook (not 8x10) so I think it takes about 5 handwritten pp for me to get to 1000 words. I really want to try for 1000 words/day, but I think starting on Monday, I'm going to resolve to do the research writing FIRST and complete it before noon. If I can do that, I'll be able to work on the novel, read, craft, play, etc in the afternoons.

So until noon each day, I'll be like the Lady of Shalott in my tower delighting in the tapestry I'm weaving instead of chasing after Lancelot. ;) After that, the spell will be broken and I can go do whatever I want.

This Week

• Draft 12 singlespaced pp of CH 1 of the academic book (get into the fiction section) So far I've drafted 7 out of 12
  
• Draft 35 handwritten, wild, messy pages of the NOLA novel Drafted 13/35
  
• Type up pages written thus far Will hopefully get to this Sunday.
• REWARD: order favorite writing candles I'll postpone my reward until next week

Can't wait to hear how everyone else is doing!