Day 11

Welcome to Friday everyone! I hope you’ve had a productive week. As I wrote on Wednesday, I can hear the approach of the herd of cats that is the fall semester…I violated my writing rules today and spent time on organizing and editing. When I reach a certain point in a project, I have to print it out, sit with it and look at it with a pen in my hand. There is something about holding the pen over the page that helps me concentrate. Then I read, edit and make notes on the hard copy. On a good day, I’ll have an “aha!” moment and start rapidly making changes on my laptop. I’m sometimes not even completely aware that I’ve gone back to writing on my computer. So here’s what one page of the chapter looked like

once I really started making progress. (No you don’t need to get your eyes checked; I blurred the photo because the actual writing is not …the focus.) And once I get back to the laptop then I’m reminded that I type everything because even I can barely read my handwriting if I am quickly scrawling over a page. Am I showing my age by needing a hard copy to hold and contemplate, is this just personal preference, or is it a common stage of the writing process? What do you think?

I promised my co-authors that they could start working with the draft on Tuesday, so I think that will help keep me motivated during the home stretch of this Challenge.

Please let us know how the Writing Challenge has gone for you! What worked for you? What would have helped you in terms of on-line support?

Have a great weekend and write on!