Grumpy Faces

So, as expected, this week has been kind of suck. I've been pretty decent about my to-do lists, at least up until yesterday when I gave myself much-too-much to do and, instead of diligently going at it, letting it all slide and slipping myself into a bit of depression. :<

I don't know what the deal is. My motivation has completely slipped away. I start out all gung-ho, but by 10am I've stalled and I'm looking for any excuse possible not to do anything. Even though I know not doing anything will only make things worse. Argh. And I was doing so well earlier this week.

Well: tomorrow we're off to San Diego for family gatherings and a memorial. We'll be back late-late Sunday. Then I have an "oral board review" or whatever that means with the city for the admin assist job. Me and probably at least 70+ others, so I'm not holding out any hope for getting that position. The skill test was on Tuesday and I passed, but I was one of 171 people who showed up to take the test. Oh city. While I adore your adherence to strict fairness, sometimes it's obnoxious.

In non-sadtimes news, I finished the outline and review of the ZA draft zero and got about half of the draft 1.0 outline together, enough to start the actual rewrite, at least. Which is good, because a new beginning has been plaguing my consciousness for the last few days every time I hear Florence + the Machine's No Light, No Light. And I'm also still excited about the story, which is a good sign, considering I haven't really taken a break from it since I finished draft zero in early December.

I did the math and figured out that if I revise 4 pages a day, I can have this draft done by mid-March. Which gives me a leeway of two weeks to have it definitely done by April. That's my current hard deadline - going off of past rewrites, I know it takes me a little longer than I expect, since oftentimes I'll discover something exciting and new in the process.

Anyway, in short it means: soft deadline of March 1st, hard deadline of April 1st, and new progress meters! Yeah!

1 / 180 pages

(And just for nerd stats sake, the current draft zero is a cool 110k. Considering most agents start getting weary of a first time author who has 100k+, I'm going to try and keep the rewrite somewhere in the realm of +/-5k. Since it's fantasy, I do have more wiggle room, but not much.)