Manuscript

 I am going against everything everyone has told me to do when attempting to take on the daunting task of writing a book of fiction.  I am hurling away every piece of advice and suggestion that has been given to me and have decided instead to following my own instincts on what I need to do next with what I already have.
Did you really expect me to do any different?  I can try and try to do things the way that has been proven successfully by others that pursue similar endeavours and yet, I seem to be the only person those proven ways never seem to work.

As you can see on the left, I have printed all the current pages of the fiction I have been struggling to write, to finish, and to follow all those rules and suggestions that people have generously given me.  I am planning on re-reading the entire story, start to finish.  I am going to see what I think as I'm reading.  I will decide what I need to do as I read, even if that means editing, changing, or adding to current portions of this draft.

Printing out the pages was never one of the things I was supposed to do.  Re-reading, editing, changing and adding at this point were other things I was warned not to do.  Write.  I'm supposed to keep writing.  Complete the first draft, then go back and do all those things. It's not that I'm not appreciative to the suggestions and advice that was meant to help.  I am.  It's the way that has been proven to work and that's the way you are supposed to do it or you will never finish it.  But really?  Not so much for me.  I've been trying to do it that way and guess what? I'm still not finished yet! So no more.  My way.

It doesn't look like many pages but then it's not exactly in manuscript format.  The margins should be much smaller and it's not double spaced.  I can't imagine how many printed pages it would be if it was in correct editor format.  Too many for what I am doing.

I'm starting from here now.  I'm going to try really hard to listen to myself and go from there.  I haven't come this far to chuck it all out.  Or maybe I have and will decide that once I've given it another read-through.  It will be up to me.  The thing is, I'm still working on it.  It hasn't been chucked out which I suspect might have been far easier for me to do than keeping at it.  I'll sort through it all.  I can afford a bit more time on this.  And besides, right now, I'm in-between the books I've been reading anyway.  I might as well read this one.  It might just prompt me to give it an ending.

TT