Some of you might be curious how the progress on my first book Hypersensitivosaurus and Cold Turkey is coming along and whether I've managed to work a lot on it during my recent attempt at an internet detox.
The answer to this is: not as much as I expected but still quite a lot.
I've learnt to celebrate baby steps and to not beat myself up over lack of productivity nor to force the creative process. The latter doesn't make things better. It's very unnatural and creativity is usually a natural process.
Also, even though I set something that resembled a deadline ( I don't like that word at all ), April the 21st, this was mainly an intention, an aim. I don't say this as an excuse to back out. I just want to be realistic. April the 21st might come a little too soon but I plan to get pretty far ( percentage wise ) or might actually make it, if things speed up in the next week or so.
I want my first book to be a good read. I want it to evoke emotions in the reader and preferably not a "man this sucks dino balls!" kind of response. I want this story to be something to be proud of.
I'm too old and too much of a perfectionist to just show something mediocre to the world. Been there, done that and this usually had to do with time pressure, someone who told me what to do and often, as a result, the final product was lacking creativity and not enough me. This time I'm my own boss. The only thing I need to be aware of is to not be too much of a perfectionist. Getting there too. I'm a lot kinder to myself these days.
Anyhow, to get back to the above, it shows you a little fragment of the book ( in the reedsy editor that I recently started using ) and - to be more precise - part of the backstory of Hypersensitivosaurus. I decided to add this bs to add more depth to the main story. It's a reworking of some of the material that I wrote for NaNoWriMo ( National Novel Writing Month ) 2019. It feels good to actually be able to use some of those 50,000 words now. Like the pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together.
Talking about Mothers, the title of this chapter...
the 21st of April is my mom's birthday. It will be the 4th time in a row that I can't make it there. I told her, a couple of days back on the phone, that I might not be able to release my book on her bday. She replied ( half jokingly, I think ) disappointed and I told her that I would still dedicate the book to her. I also asked her, recently, to be my proof reader. She told me that she found this an honor :>)
FYI: My mom tends to correct my spelling and her English is better than mine so it sounded like a good idea. I also expected her to enjoy to do this for me. She will be rewarded ;<)
The picture at the right of my writing is a mix of a photo I took this afternoon, at the river that borders my current garden. I added a big sharp toothed reptile ( not a raptor ) to it. It somewhat fits the vibe of the story/ chapter.
Okay, I'm gonna end it here. I should really focus more on the writing of my actual book. Now I think of it, I spend so much time writing ( in the Discord chat, on Whatsapp, at times on Telegram, emails, on Hive and even on my own blog posts ( the best of the rest )... If I would actually manage to channel all these words into my actual book, it would be finished in a day or 2.
TO BE CONTINUED...