Happy Day

About a month ago, I thought about doing a post titled "Like a Backwards Country Song," fashioned after a joke my mother told me a couple decades ago: if you play a country song backwards, the dog comes alive, the truck gets fixed, the wife comes back... because, what happened to me was: I found my keys; I found my spare keys; I found my wallet, with my driver's license in it...

I've been less absentminded lately (hallelujah!) although not perfect; just a couple of days ago, I re-instituted the "I am not allowed to turn the stove on without also turning on the kitchen timer" rule, while wondering how it had ever fallen out of disuse in my life in the first place.

But I know why. When I am not scatterbrained, I KNOW I'm not scatterbrained, and I know I don't need the rule; but when I AM scatterbrained (short on sleep, short on food, upset), I tend to be less aware of basically everything, including both my own mental state and the existence of a pot I just put on to boil. Luckily no permanent harm was done, but I'm trying to re-remember that my personal rules are in place not for the times when I'm doing well and know I'm doing well, but for the times when I'm not doing well and am hazy about that fact.

Anyway, not to focus solely on my scatterbrained-ness: this summer has seen not only the triumph of my finishing the first draft of a novel (hooray!) but also, today, of my figuring out how to make the middle interesting enough to read (in case you were curious: add monsters).  Now I just have to decide/ figure out what kind: dragons? Crackens? Harpies? Two-year-olds-in-full-meltdown?

If all goes well, by the end of the summer I will have a slightly-less-rough-draft to pass out to all of the people who said, "Really? A novel? Can I read it, please?" I explained to them that I think it's rude to send out your very first draft. I remember when I was a writing TA, and people would bring in their drafts, and I would tell them to fix a Thing, and they would say, "Oh, I already knew that I should fix it," and my response would be, "Then why DIDN'T you fix it?"

If you would like to be one of those aforementioned readers, leave a comment (OR just email me).

A draft! Huzzah! And I know how to finish it (I think)! Double huzzah!