Diary of an ending
As I write, it’s 10pm, Wednesday eve, 3rd October. I have just written the last word of my co-written adult novel WIP. I wrote it accompanied by Ane Brun, ‘These Days’, which you can listen to here, a track which Dean Harkness (@Deanus on Twitter) posted on Facebook while I was in the process of writing. I have cried over my big smile and have a celebratory whisky. To say this is an overwhelming moment would be an understatement. I am, also, shattered. It has been a somewhat busy few days, made up of quite a bit of productive procrastinating (yes, there really is such a thing) on my part, as I confess, I have been avoiding this ending! In fact, I had 4 possible endings, 1 old one, which we rejected, and then 3 new ones.
So, instead of writing, I have:
– re-done two worksheets on punctuation for my students.
– gone on a few hound walks listening to Linkin Park and Mazzy Star.
– tidied out a resource folder.
– wandered aimlessly round Tesco.
– eaten a Club orange cake bar for the first time (and very nice it was too.)
– drank coffee for the first time in 23 years (Oh dear! Very bad move.)
– bought this very funky, groovy bag…
– changed two very important words in a new picture book.
– written down a new idea for a 6-9 girls’ book.
– painted this, ‘Silver Birch 1’…
– and strarted this, which will be ‘Silver Birch 2’ when completed…
– watched X-Factor, Dr Who and cried at the end of the latter.
– took myself to bed early and watched a cloud that looked like a whale tail through the bedroom curtains…
and eventually
– typed the word ‘lettuce’.
I don’t know how many novels end with the word, ‘lettuce’. I can’t imagine it would be that many. This is not a funny novel, I hasten to add, although it does have its moments.
Normally, at this point, the editing process would commence, but in this case, this isn’t what’s going to happen, because it’s already been done. Having written this with my co-writer, the novel has been edited along the way.
So… this is it! Eight months from ‘Drank’ to ‘lettuce’… and nearly 90,000 words in between. Can’t be bad eh?
What superior procrastination techniques do you employ to avoid writing?
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