MEETING GOALS

I’ve written about getting this book done so a draft will be finished by September first. (Post: Time To Get Serious). I’ve listed goals to be accomplished by the end of each month. I only have to tweak one story to meet my target for April and since there is one more day in April, I will get it done.

It’s difficult for me to do even a little bit of tweaking and not go back and revise over and over again. There will be time for editing when all the stories are written.

Another hard part for me is to follow my outline. I still find it surprising I was able to write an outline in the first place.

I remember reading Robin Hemley for the first time and laughing out loud. Was he writing about me?

“I am not one to write outlines. I hate outlines. I hate the idea of outlines. I’m one of these artsy types, who, if not relying solely on inspiration, at least tries to allow a book to proceed organically—– It basically means we don’t know what the hell we’re doing and it wouldn’t take us so long to finish a book if we wrote a simple outline.”*

Well I’ve spent five or seven years, depending how you count, avoiding outlines. Even though this is my first book and I don’t consider myself “artsy,” I say amen to Robin Hemley’s words.

I continue to plug away.

Two months down. Four to go.

*Hemley, Robin. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer.” In Carolyn Forche & Philip Gerard., eds., Writing Creative Nonfiction. (Cincinnati: Story Press  2001), 57.