Er, Bye, October!

So, in all the fun and excitement of time-travelling last week, I realise now that I can do an October farewell! Huzzah!

...

What, you're not excited? Pah. Tough. :P

Sooo. In the glorious month of October, in which one relative had a heart attack, another surgery for a brain tumour which turned out to be cancer, another went missing and was found drowned, another whole circus were shouting death threats at each other, university was finished FOREVER, five interviews were undertaken and two jobs successfully attained (woot), a long weekend camp caused my feet to be cold and wet for three days straight and ingrained in me the desire to purchase some gumboots when they come back in season..... With all of that, what did I get up to writing-wise?

(Yes, I kid you not: all of that happened in October. o.O)

Apparently, writing is therapeutic: even with all of that rubbish going on, I managed to write a hair short of 16,000 words. Go me!

Here's the breakdown:

* 1825 on the Jesscapades rewrite, which is still mostly on hold because I know I don't have the skill I need to make this book what I want it to be yet;
* 1539 on Sanctuary, the YA fantasy; I've finally nailed the voice on this one, which is fantastic;
* 6704 on what is fondly known as 'the tiger novelette';
* Short stories from scratch now out on submission: The Cinnamon Shark (now called Calm) and Dear Santa;
* Short story from scratch, needs editing: Dragon Tuesday
* Plus various words here and there on the following shorts: Afterwards, "the velociraptor one", Rays of Time and Space, "the other Powers one".

What did I learn this month?

Mostly, that writing keeps me sane, that I write faster than I used to, that I don't need to beat myself up if I skip a day or two of writing because it'll balance out in the end. I only wrote 19 out of the 31 days in October, and I still pulled off an above average wordcount; this whole learning-to-lighten-up-on-myself thing is working really well :)

But here's the big thing I learned: I can, actually, be patient.

See, when you start writing you're filled with this obsessive drive to write-write-write, push-push-push, must-get-published, quick-quick-quick. Time matters, because even if it takes most people five to ten years to start earning 'real' money from their writing (ie, not the $5 you make from the occasional short story), so what? You're better than that, and you can do it faster!

Guess what?

Faster doesn't actually matter.

Yup, I wanna write. Yup, I am writing, and I'm writing and planning for publication and a career in writing. But I'm happy to take my time with it, and not rush it, and let my writing blossom as it needs to rather than forcing it into premature bloom that will fade rather than endure. I don't want to make the mistake that so many impatient new writers do, and send my work off before it's ready. I'll know when it's ready, when I'm ready, and I'm not yet, and I'm cool with that.

Phew. It's kinda nice not to be constantly beating up on myself for not pushing hard enough, you know? *grin* And I think my last two months' stats have shown that this shiny new relaxed attitude is actually better for my productivity than stressing over more-more-more.

I'll learn what I learn when I learn it. More than that is out of my control.

...This is all coming out ineloquently, and doesn't quite hit on what I mean precisely, but think of it like this: Act One has come to an end. Everybody, wave hello to Act Two in my writing life ;) :D

Do share: Anyone else have exciting (or boring, either way) revelations about their own writing this month? What did you all get up to? Speak to me!

And yes, I will go back and respond to all the comments I haven't responded to yet *blush* Sorry about that. O:)