With the Unending Novel’s first draft completed, I feel strangely light and liberated. Also, more than a little aimless. This is despite having concrete goals in place for my “non-novel-writing time” between the first draft and starting the first revision.
What goals? To re-cap, edit short stories (I had 10 of them in a queue, waiting for revisions before their first submissions), finish taking 2 online classes over at Holly Lisle’s website, and finish the planning on a series of novellas that I plan to write and self-publish. In non-writing, to catch up with all the things that I’ve let slide during the push to finish the first draft.
Well, I’ve edited five of the stories to a near-ready state. And I’ve taken classes, just not as often as I’d like. The dog has been demanding more and more attention when I’m home, acting like the obnoxious all-about-me teenager that he is right now. And doing non-writing chores eats into time that I’d normally use for writing, and I can’t make it up with “dog” time. Add to this a week of solo time with Dasher the dog while the spousal unit was on a business trip, which made the dog and I rather sick of each other’s company (ugh!).
So…despite making actual progress on my goals, I’m feeling very adrift. As if I have nothing to show for my writing time. As if I’m being defined by writing on the novel. Which is so odd, since for the longest while, I felt vaguely guilty writing the novel and not short stories. Oh, how my brain delights in flummoxing and annoying me (and, I suspect, most writers)!
In the interim, I’ve been reading some interesting things. The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, is a lovely story about (strangely enough!) a golem and a jinni, both of whom end up on American shores in the late 1880’s. I’m not finished with it yet, but it’s engaging, with much loveliness in tone and telling.
Everyday Magic | M. E. Garber 
I won’t say my problems are yours, but I find it very easy to flip insecurities and loathe myself for not doing something I’d previous been doing too much. Short stories instead of novels instead of blogging instead of HAS THE CAT EATEN TODAY?
Okay, that last one is an actual problem. But it’s funny you said you had nothing to show for this time despite making progress!
And Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni is a treasure. One of my favorite debut novels of the century so far. And very comfortable telling in ways fiction of the period it’s set in.