Day: May 6, 2025

This is the last week of school, which means a ton of nonsense to grade, some of which will not be nonsense but the culmination of a student’s long and hard work across the span of at least a semester. I have a few classes I really loved and a few more than I endured. My endurance needs to hold up for a few more days as I get through the last of these papers and move towards having less on my mind, which means more time to focus on the biggest issue on my mind.

The Novel.

This summer, as discussed, I have to finish revising this novel for publication. Revision means rewriting the entire thing. I’m about done with the easy part of that, which means the hard part is crafting a wholly new story that contains the character threads of the original story but weaved together in a plot that actually makes a lot more sense. I am also no longer focusing on pleasing my editor. She and I fundamentally disagree on a number of things–especially in terms of the style of dystopian world I should be projecting. No political correctness sensors are going to screw this novel into mundanity.

But first, I need to grade a ton of work. Eventually I need to consider the body of the class itself and how and why some classes grew while others shrank. I need to consider my own role and understanding of the system therein. It is simply not a problem for Today’s Talislegger though. Today’s Talislegger is thinking about packing for a wonderful retreat. I am thinking about having the main person in my life be the only person in my orbit for a long while. I am thinking about the opportunities to write, to walk along a sandy beach, to experience joy and creativity and many new things.

I am thinking about a wedding that is only a few months down the road, about what needs to be done to prepare, about the money that still needs to be applied to the task.

I am thinking about a life post-wedding, and the next ten years. I am wondering where that decade will take us and I am looking forward to finding out.

This has been a relatively productive writing day. I am at the point in the revision where I am getting into the tough stuff–the heart of the conversation that shapes what the next thirty chapters will be. I’m worried about it, because I poured a ton of character development into these first 32,000 words and 72 pages and if I cannot get this section right, the book will fall flat and make no sense. It’s slowing me down in a good way, but I need to power through this for real. I guess I’m worried the most about the next steps and what they are and if there is enough there to constitute a novel. I’m going to legitimately need to cut 30K which is like another 70 pages of text. On the other hand, I already added 10K to the first twelve chapters, which argues I can make up for the lost text by writing better stuff.

That means I’ll need to grind to make the deadline. I need to get back to the 500 words an hour schedule at minimum. At that rate alone it will take me at least 100 hours to get to where the novel needs to be. Realistically I’ll be looking at more like 140 hours at 500/hour, and that means a minimum of 5 hours a day to get it done mid June. In other words, I gotta get faster now. 500 words an hour is a nice pace if you can afford it. I cannot if I am going to make my deadlines. I need to be putting out 3K every day from here on out to get to where I want to be when I want to be there.

So, it is grind time.