Valuable life lessons (#SFWApro)

Life lesson number one: When you lose a piece of work, whether it’s a computer crash or leaving a manuscript behind in a move, reconstructing is painful. Particularly when it was a finished work. Because it never feels as good as the original.
Case in point, Let No Man Put Asunder, an older novel I’m rewriting. I know my ability is better than 20 years ago when I last worked on it, my characterization is stronger—but it was finished, damn it! And trying to rebuild it from memory (the manuscript is gone except the first few chapters) is ohhhh so painful.
Life Lesson Two: I love writing fiction. I shouldn’t obsess too much over my self-imposed deadlines or even outside deadlines. I like doing this stuff! It just struck me this morning that I haven’t been enjoying it this week, so I made a conscious decision to relax and enjoy the work on Asunder. I felt much better at the end of the day.
Of course, one of the reasons I wasn’t enjoying it is that most of the week was spent replotting Brain From Outer Space. And I don’t outline well. I’m much better plotting as I write; I can replot fine with a short story but a full-length novel is absolutely painful.
That said, it looks reasonably good, though I’m going over it a couple more times before the end of the year. As I mentioned previously, I’ve revised it so that I don’t hopscotch around so much between POV characters. However there’s still Alan, Steve, Jo and Dani, with a couple of smaller roles and I wonder if that’s too much. However I don’t want it to be all Steve’s story (I’ve worked hard to give Dani a personal arc, and she deserves it) and I don’t think I can cut everyone else out. But I’ll think about it Monday.
I also got 1,000 more words in on the first draft of my post-WW I novel, which I’m now calling Danse Macabre.
I also polished my submission package for my steampunk novel, Questionable Minds. I’ll send it off to an agent next month—I’ve been told agents get besieged by NaNoNaNo drafts in December, and I’d prefer to avoid the herd.
And I have a new article out in Raleigh Public Record.
And that’s pretty much it. Surprisingly, although my mind wandered off during the frustrating parts of the replotting, I got done everything I intended to get done, so yay me.