Recap of 2010 - Writing, Rewriting, and Writerly Lessons Learned

I have finally sat down to recap my writing experiment of 2010. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that I need shorter deadlines. Like deadly short deadlines. Think Napolean short.

• January (The Pact) - I am tired of being mediocre. I'm tired of not finishing what I start. I will finish a novel and I will do it in one year. Kaeli Newman and I make a pact to each finish our novels. No matter what.
• February (The Passion) - I am writing a work of art. I am following my dreams, my purpose, and everything I write is *sigh* so beautiful.
• March/April/May (The Pride) - I have written half of a great work of art. Oh look at me. See how much I've done already? Oh you clever little writer - you're ahead of deadline! Here's a cookie.
• May/June (The Process) - I am still writing a semi-decent novel. The story has character, general direction, and I am confident in my ability to execute it. Frustrating at times, yes, but still I continue. Revisions must wait. There will be time for that later.
• July (The Plea) - I am searching for an end to said decent novel. Fighting the urge to go back and revise now.
• August/September (The 'Piphany) - I have found an end. Commence Draft #2.
• October - Golly, that was a lot of work. Phew, should probably take a breather now. After all, I worked so hard. And I still have November AND December.........egads, look how many episodes of Community I missed...
• November - What? November, did you say? As in...the November?? #@$%#^!!!! Where did the year go? Commence furious final revisions of Draft #3.
• December (The Pen is More Brutal than the Sword) - Headaches, red pens, late nights, hammering plot inconsistencies, not enough caffeine, too much caffeine, oh-god-this-whole-thing-is-built-on-cliche, nightmares about hot pink rejection letters, call my buddy and convince her to convince me not to quit, I'm a genius/failure/writer/hack, blogging/no time to blog, and what time does FedEx printing close anyway....??

Midnight. January 1st. The Paper Copy.

Lesson 1 (of many). My next deadline? No more than 6 months. Max.

I'll have that cookie now.