Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

Here's what I'm staring at: a stack of paper 45,000 words deep, edited with some pencil and red ink, and all dressed up with Post-It notes and things that make my manuscript look very awesome and declaratively a "work in progress." It was just around this time last year that I was writing up a mere three thousand word proposal (quickly expanded to ten thousand one month later) in the hopes of really solidifying my "author" status.

My business card has an email address that declares my name as "Author Jon." It's pretentious as all hell but hey, it sounds better than nothing right? Plus, once you put it on a business card it's all official so people are totally fooled. My thinking has always been that by writing a non-fiction and a fiction book, I'll be able to represent myself as a real writer. Anyone can put some expertise in a Word document and make a how-to book right? Well, not everybody can sit down and write an entire work of fiction and imagination correct? Or that's how the thinking goes anyway.

Well, now that I'm a few weeks away from actually finishing up this book, I'm suffering from heavy insecurities, a heavy workload, and a heavy addiction to distractions. The thing to do in these situations is to just stay up late and plug on through because nobody else is awake to distract you and the TV won't be playing anything good for a few hours. That's my most efficient way of working I think.

The past few times I've been under the clock for a deadline, it's been heavy cigarettes and coffee. I've got the coffee right here but due to having run out of smoking gloves, I haven't been able to get churning on either the writing or the smoking. I think what I need here is to start placing four in the morning calls to Gemma again. Her nursing schedule was perfect for my writing schedule. Plus she was my latex glove supplier.

The good news is that I don't have anything to do except work on this draft for awhile. My editor's comments came in a week or so and they are chock full of corrections, excellent suggestions, and things that'll make the whole work that much better. I also got to have a lovely "working lunch" with Lilly and Stefanie and they were, as always, instrumental in providing ideas and inspiration.

I guess what I'm saying is: Time to get this party started. Pink is way underrated don't you think?