So I'm in Monterey, and I accomplished the main task for tonight -- I did a full read-through of the current draft of zee romance novel. I procrastinated for a bit because I was afraid of what I might find, since it's a bit nervewracking to read my own stuff. And the verdict is that there are some things that I'm in love with, some things that I have a pretty good idea of how to fix, and some things that I will likely have to cut. I have a lot of work to do, but I feel mostly confident that it's work that I'm capable of doing.
That sounds like a fairly qualified 'yay', right? It's rather unfortunate that being a writer (or any type of artist) is probably the exact wrong career choice for a competitive perfectionist -- I should have stuck with the typing contests I won in high school. For all that I'm pleased with what I've written so far, I know that I will look back on it two years from now and hate it, in the same way that I can barely stand to look at Amelia and Malcolm's book now because I can only see the things that I would now do differently. But, I'm going to persevere -- the only way to get away from this book now is to finish it and move on to something else, and that's what I'm going to do.
The rest of the day was pretty good; I got up in time to go to the gym and have some lunch, and I made it out of my house by 1:30p.m. That put me into Monterey around 3:15, where I promptly checked into my hotel -- and I have to say that it's lovely. There's a great chaise lounge in my room that is unfortunately in a shadowy corner, but during the day the window over it gives enough light to work there. There's also a fireplace (gas, not wood), a v. comfortable bed, and an ergonomic chair for the desk -- in other words, everything I need for several days of editing/writing. After I checked in, I took a walk; the hotel is right on the edge of Old Monterey, so there are lots of restaurants and cafes and stuff around here. I found a cafe and judged a couple of Golden Heart entries (let's just say they went from bad to worse, sigh) over a cafe au lait. I stopped at Trader Joe's on the way back and got some snacky-snacks for my room -- in general, I can't complain about any hotel where I can walk to a grocery store within two blocks. Then, I came back and ate in the lobby restaurant; while there are other restaurants around, I don't think I could have beaten what I had here (taste-wise, I definitely could have; but the happy hour price for a 12" pizza was $5).
After dinner, I read my whole book, making notes as I went. I also took a pseudo-break at 11pm to watch tonight's episode of "Top Chef: All Stars", reading during the commercials since I couldn't fast forward through the commercials. I'm glad I watched it, since I would have been upset to have tonight's episode spoiled for me (although since I was upset about what happened, perhaps I shouldn't have watched it). And now, I think I should go to sleep; I need to leave the room at some point tomorrow if only so that the room can get cleaned, but I intend to spend all day tomorrow editing my little heart out. Goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment