Thanks. Giving.

Maggie, Who Knows Better

The US version of Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Traditionalists like to think this is the day when we all gather to give thanks for the things we have in this life.  They fail to remember that the original Thanksgiving ended with the pilgrims giving the indians a thanks-for-coming gift of all of their old, smallpox-infested blankets, thereby wiping out the friendly native people without whom they all would have died in their first winter in the new world.

Oh, and the turkey?  Think deer, lobsters, eels, swans and the like.  And forget anything sweet -- the pilgrims had long run out of sugar by the time their three-day feast took place.

That's not what I came here to talk about today.  I came to talk about the draft (sorry, wrong Thanksgiving story) the need to remind myself that I should be thankful and not be such a huge whiny brat when it comes to my writing and, in particular, The Book.

Thanks to Agent #4 (see? I'm being thankful already!) I have a good idea of the major flaws in The Book.  Knowing this, I can now see that The Book needs such a thorough revision as to all but scrap the last year's worth of revisions, strip the story down to the bare framework and restart from there. It's another Learning and Growth Opportunity in my Chosen Career as a Writer.

Only I'm so annoyed with the process and stuck as to how to go about it that I've been all but paralyzed where writing is concerned for the past, oh, four months? 

In my last email exchange with Agent #4 I said I would have something to her by the end of December.  Thankfully, (see, still thankful here!) I still have just over a month to get back to writing. 

Enjoy the holiday.  Stay safe and nap regularly. 


-- Tom