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Friday, June 5, 2015

Friday Fricassee

Two things!

1.  If you're wondering why the Critique Partner Dating Service isn't live yet, here's why:

Yesterday morning, when I checked my Blogger post line-up, none of the entries were in there.  This was suspicious, to say the least, because the bot immediately starts posting for me as soon as a submission round closes.  Sure enough, the posts (all 79 of them) were still sitting in the database.  When I tried to post a couple of them by hand, I got an error message.

Enter the irreplaceable Michael, who created the bot in the first place and who is incredibly supportive on an ongoing basis.  Michael will fix this, I thought.  He is Ironman.  No worries.

Except, he couldn't fix it.  Because Blogger changed something, and now, in order for the bot to work properly again, Michael is going to have to do some major work.  But no worries for the CP Dating Service, because Michael extracted the entries for me last night, and, while I was busy drooling on my pillow, he created posts for over half of them.  So I have much less work to do than I thought.

I am so spoiled.  When this blog was new, I did all my posting by hand.  Michael made things magical, and now I'm used to the magic.  All that to say, thanks for bearing with me--and the posts will be up on Monday morning for you to peruse!

2.  On Wednesday and Thursday, I wrote 1000 words each.  It may not seem like it deserves fireworks -- 1000 words a day is, after all, my normal rate for drafting.  But you all know that this has been the draft from hell, stretching way beyond my normal 3-months-per-draft rate.  I've been slogging through at a couple hundred a day, if I'm lucky.  Some days, I haven't even written (life is busy right now, but it's still not like me to not prioritize the writing).

I realized on Wednesday that I needed to tap into the wonderfulness of the writing community to ask for help.  Sometimes we need that collective, affirming energy to keep going, yes?  So I posted a long-winded plea on Facebook, the crux of which was this:

WILL YOU PLEASE SHOUT ME THROUGH THIS OR SOMETHING? Throw me a line, promise me chocolate, write me a sonnet, cheer me on. If I don't get this thing drafted by the time I leave for vacation (in 15 days!), I will be SO SAD! Okay? Can I count on you? Will you tough love me through to the end??

 Lo and behold, help came from all corners.  Shouts, cheers, inspirational videos, detailed writing advice, empathy, solidarity. It is A DIRECT RESULT OF THIS AMAZING SUPPORT that I was able to write so productively for the past two days--and I'm confident that today will be the same. So I want to publicly shout out to the writers/colleagues/friends who took time to pour a little bit of themselves into me when I cried out for help.  You all gave me the gift of FINDING MY WRITING SELF AGAIN, and realizing that I DO have the strength and determination to PUSH THROUGH.  Two weeks and counting--I'm going to nail this thing. Thank you!


  • Angela Ackerman
  • Amethyst Adams
  • Kathleen S. Allen
  • Erin Bow
  • Heather Davis
  • Pat Edsen
  • Dana Smith Edwards
  • Christine Fonseca
  • Myrna Barber Foster
  • Deena Graves
  • Cat Hudgins
  • Margarett Ann Jones
  • Alice Loweecey
  • Kathryn Magendie
  • Jodi Meadows
  • Ishta Mercurio
  • Scott Mitchell
  • Elizabeth Mueller
  • Christine Nguyen-McGrew
  • Sue Stella O'Connor
  • Heather Petty
  • Melody Peugh
  • Jamie Wyman Reddy
  • Karen Rose
  • Christine Stockton
  • Amy Trueblood

  • I'm on track again BECAUSE OF YOU.

    And on that note -- have a fantastic weekend, everyone!  See you Monday.

    2 comments:

    1. And thank you for being a good example. It helped me keep pushing forward too.

      ReplyDelete