After trudging through paragraph after paragraph, wondering how in the world I could ever get this book done during this millennia, I have somehow made it to the very last chapter of this manuscript.
My goal was to finish the novel around the same time as I finished my teacher training (so, August). It was originally three chapters in three months, which was about the rate I was writing this daggone book. But now I am with a little under a chapter to go.
From conception to realization, this is easiest my quickest manuscript to date. The first manuscript stayed swirled in my head for nearly 2 or 3 years before I finally used a writing workshop class to flesh (at least some of) it out. Not including editing (which is still going on to this day), I'd say the first manuscript took about 5 years to complete. The idea for the second manuscript came halfway through my first year of teaching, but didn't get past the 5,000-word mark until November of 2012, when I went balls to the wall and turned 5,000 words into 80,000 by the end of December.
The idea for this book came roughly around the same time as NaNoWriMo of 2012 -- but I didn't start writing it until the summer of 2013. I added in a sweet 30,000 words during NaNoWriMo 2013 and then hit the skids immediately after. For three months, the manuscript was not so much as looked at, let alone added to. Granted, I was devoting my time to getting my first manuscript ready for the ABNA and finishing my modeling essay project for Thought Catalog, but, still: excuses, excuses.
So now I have a new goal: finish this book before I go off to DC/NYC, which is in a little over three weeks. Three weeks for three-fourths of a chapter? It's harder than you'd realize.
But I'm ready for it. One of the things preventing me from just finding any office assistant job that would have me was this driving feeling that I need to use this time to write. Finishing this manuscript means having yet another story idea finally fleshed out. Finishing this manuscript means I can finally go back to my first manuscript and try at it again, this time with a much more impressive writing résumé under my belt.
And finishing this manuscript means I might just have more time to devote to this whole "yoga teaching" thing, which I'm praying will take off once training finishes up and September hits.
As I say way too often: we shall see.
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