Mini-marathon of the novel sort

Remember what I said about updating more frequently in 2013? Apparently I lied. It's been two weeks since I touched this blog, but what a two weeks it's been! I finally accomplished all of my goals re: Fidelio. How? Good question.

I had last week off from work, due to school holidays in Brandenburg (where I officially teach). Now, for the past, oh, six months, I'd been bashing myself mentally about having writer's block. There were a number of things I had to do to the Fidelio story to make it better, and I just couldn't bring myself to do them. I would pull the doc open and stare at it, read a little, and close it, deciding that it there was too much to be done and that it was better that I just leave it than tinker with it when I had no energy to. But then, two weeks ago, my darling boss (and I say that without irony; she's the nicest lady I've ever met) told me that we had holidays. And suddenly, something woke up inside me.

I went through all of my notes, and my readers' notes, and made a list of what needed to be done. And then, on the Monday that Winter Break began, I went on a marathon. I took myself to my favorite local cafe, plunked myself down in a corner, and wrote for three hours straight. And so it went, every day. I got up in the morning, did yoga, had breakfast, and went to the cafe to write. When my computer was out of battery, I went home and wrote some more. On Friday, I just stayed in the whole day and spent six hours writing. And at about 10 p.m., I was finished with Draft 7. I broke 100,000 words, re-wrote ten chapters, edited the timeline to make it clearer, and added a whole slew of new scenes.

Is there still work to be done? Yes. I didn't touch the post-rescue chapters (informally known as the "cuddle chapters" and which I've spent an inordinate amount of time on compared to the rest of the novel), and on further thought have decided there are a few things I could clear up there. Am I satisfied with it? You betcha. So satisfied that I feel I can begin querying agents about it again. And maybe on this go-around, someone will respond with something more than a polite, "Great writing, but not what I'm looking for right now".

I also acquired around ten new followers on Twitter, as I couldn't shut up about what I was doing on that last marathon day. That's a pretty cool feat, too. :-)