After India

When I first heard that I might get a chance to spend a month in India this summer, I divided my to do list into two categories: Before India and After India. (The During India to do list would take care of itself, and it did, more photos coming later). The Before India list involved things like immunizations, buying summer clothing beyond Old Navy tank tops, spending as much time with friends as possible, getting through a second draft of the novel. Check on all counts.

Then there were the things I would take care of in the second half of the year: After India. Namely, finish the novel. Well, here we are. And I think I can pull it off. Just as long as I can continue to make it through the "when will I have enough sanity to realize I am nuts to quit my job to write a book?" bouts of self-doubt. Because I sure don't ever want to have one of those "boy, I sure wish I took some time in my life to write a book" deathbed moments. I consider this preventative medicine to avoid regret.

Anyway, what this means is there is a lot of writing to do. I had some pretty good breakthroughs on the book my last couple of weeks in India. It's really taking much better shape.

So, the goal is to finish it by year end. It's harder for me to mark progress in the rewrites stage than I did in the first draft daily word count. On my trip, I tried to focus on the first fifty pages, and boy are they different. I can see the end in sight, I think, or at least I'm confident enough this morning to think so.

So back to regular blogging, writing, reading and writing some more.