Fools Rush In

Confessional time: I've been a fool.  No one knows this more than my poor sister-in-law (aka the luckless soul who has read every version of every book I've ever written)  Each and every time I finish a book, I give her some ridiculously short and unrealistic time frame to read it and tell me what she thinks.  Bless her sweet soul.  (Love your guts, Melissa) 

SO I am going to try something new!!!  (No she didn't threaten me, beat me over the head with a hammer, or burn every word I've ever written) I came up with this one all on my own!!  

I haven't had/made time to write lately, and while in my semi-induced writing lull I realized something - I ALWAYS rush into finishing my books.  I don't know what it is, the idea that I'm finally done or the notion that some agent is out there waiting to reject it.  Whoever or whatever is driving my delusional dream has got to learn to use the brakes.   

I have got to learn to use the brakes!

SO, rather than rush into my latest YA book (about a small town that is cursed) I am giving myself a year to finish it!  Yes!  I said a year.  Here's my thinking.  Great, amazing, (already published)  authors say it shouldn't take more than 3 months to write a book.  Cool.  Happy for you.  But I can't hold myself to the same standards.  I work full time, have a husband, three growing, active, and time-devouring boys, a house.... the list could go on, but I think you get the point.  If one day I am blessed enough to say my job is being an author, THEN I will think about holding myself to the 3 month concept, but for now, I need to slow down, let the ideas simmer, and write when I have time.  

I need to finish what I've started and re-visit it weeks later, I need to polish and buff my ideas until what I have left is truly remarkable.  

And more than anything I need to make sure I give my family and friends adequate time to read my books (before one day my sister-in-law writes an ironically realistic novel about an annoying family member who wrote too many books, who goes missing, and is found at the bottom of some deserted lake tied to a concrete covered laptop)