Writers, what would you do?

I'm still getting up at 5:30 am during the week to work on my MG story. It's mostly adventure, but there are fantastical elements. I'm having fun getting up so early, even if I am drinking a serious amount of coffee.

The other day, I heard of a Big Named MG Author and his Kind of A Big Deal first book in a series that came out (complete with a trailer that noobs like me can only dream of).

All sounds great, except his book/series premise is an awful lot like mine. A lot like mine.

I got a bit discouraged, then I got a bit motivated to make my story better than its current state. I started a new outline, ripped out the comfy "feel good" parts and tried to make things happen faster and bigger. We'll see how it goes.

Question for you: I reserved the book at my local library and I got the call that it's in. I'm not sure if I should read it or not. I will eventually read it, but I'm not sure if reading it right now is a good idea while I'm rewriting my outline. I'd hate to pull elements of that story into mine, and even worse, I'd hate to get so discouraged because the book is great and part of a huge series while mine is just kickin' it here in Google Drive waiting to see light.

What would you do: Read the new release that has so many similarities to your own work, or wait until your own work is closer to finished?

(And TOTAL sidebar: I've been listening to the "Cloud Atlas full soundtrack companion" on YouTube lately. It's amazing. Subtle and intense at the same time--I love it and it's reminding me to watch the movie.)

And it all came back to me...

Okay, I'm still getting a hang of this "waking up early to have an hour of me time" thing, but I think I'm enjoying it. Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy it at 5:15 each morning, but I never regret getting out of bed, so I'm calling this a win.

As you might know, a middle grade story has been lodged in my cranium for years. I've written the story, tried to re-write the story, worked on new scenes for the story, and have Donald Maass'ed the story to within an inch of my life (no, Donald Maass'ed is not a verb and yes, I may be exaggerating just a tad.)

When I switched jobs, I switched computers, moved folders on to jump drives, DropBox, and CDs. Then I fired up Google apps and put some docs in my Google Drive. Then all my creative juices were sucked right out of me and everything sat and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Like, for eight freaking months waited.

Last week, I started going through it all. I sorted my desktop folders, made my notes, bought totally unnecessary amounts of Perfect Blue Writing Pens and stickies, and with a hearty gulp of strong coffee, decided to dive right in. Just then it all came crashing back. The reason why I stopped. Staring back at me was the mountain I didn't want to climb all those months ago.

You see, in all my editing / proofing / new idea trying insanity last Sept, Oct, and Nov, I thought it would be smart to make a copy of my story. Let's call that one Master Draft 6. But somewhere along the way, I added All The Amazing Things to Master Draft 5 before removing All The Extra Crappy Things to MD6.

MD5 stats: 243 pages and 68,896 words
MD6 stats: 205 pages and 57,875 words

My next step is to figure out which one to use. I'm strongly considering paying our summer student employee cash under the table to go through and highlight the differences. Does that make me a lazy writer? Yeah, I thought so.

Versioning control, 1 -- Tricia, 0.

Sarah, this is ALL your fault!

I blame Sarah Ahiers. I'd link to her blog like a good blogging friend, but seeing as it took 20 minutes and a random Act of Congress to remember how to log back in to my Blogger account, I'm rapidly running out of time.

Bah, I'm lame. Here's Sarah. You already know her, though.

Anyway, this isn't supposed to be about Sarah (no offense, dear friend!), but more about how I'm blaming her for something wild and crazy.

We went out to lunch two Sundays ago and were talking about finding the time to write, read, or just not work, which has been tough since starting my not-so-new job last November. I decided to try something ridiculous and I set my alarm for 5:15 am the next day. And then I did it the next day, and the day after that, and kept going until I strung together an entire week.

And then I did it again today. MADNESS, I TELL YOU!
By setting my alarm at this ungodly hour, I can get out of bed by 5:50 (and yes, it takes me that long to even hear the music. I've NEVER claimed to be a morning person but rather, a professional sleeper), and either out for a run or down at the dining room table with my writing stuff all ready to go, by 6am.

Last week, I ran 3 mi on Monday and 4 on Wednesday. But Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday? Yeah, I wrote. And it was magical. It wasn't pretty and technically, I haven't really written anything, but I'm outlining, brainstorming, and getting the gears moving again, which is a good thing.

And it's about time.

Stay tuned. I might even do something totally insane, like blog more than once a quarter.
Ahiers, this is all your fault...

IWSG: March edition

It's very simple, this month's insecurity:

If I've been gone so long, can I return?
If I take a time-out, can I come back?
Will I be welcomed?
Probably. Likely.
But still, the fear and insecurity have kept me away.

How silly is that?