Right now I am in the middle of the Twitter write-fest started by authors Valerie Cole and Jodi Meadows called #10KByLaborDay. I am having fun! In the middle of revise-hell (and make no mistake, revising is 80% pain & 20% joy) I am actually having fun.

Because I am in the midst of revising my sucky manuscript so that it sucks less, I am not actually able to count 10,000 words.  Deleting lines, rewriting scenes, checking the new subplots changes are through the whole book, etc. is my goal.  You know, butt in chair, chains on wrists, write, write, think, write some more.

Since writing is so solitary – just you and your computer or you and a pad of paper –  having other writers participating, sweating, sobbing, struggling, and swearing (unfortunately, quite a bit of that happening here) gives me a base.  I am not alone this hour.  Others are swearing (probably) with me.

I am keeping my ass in the chair and fingers on the keyboard because I know there will be hourly check-ins and writers reporting their counts with happy faces or woeful words but we are all still trying.  These writers are over my shoulder, urging me on, quashing (for now) the nagging voice in my head to just give it up already.  It’s a boost, really.

A boost of energy.  A boost of support. A boost of confidence and optimism.

So let me rephrase my earlier statement.  I am in the midst of revising my COMPLETED, non-sucky manuscript so that it’s tighter, leaner, faster, stronger.

There, that’s better.

My manuscript is AWESOME!

Oops, too much.

This weekend we are a family of sorts.  We all write different things.  YA, contemporary romance, fantasy, thrillers, sci-fi adventures. We all know the solitude and frustration of writing the sentence or paragraph or scene that just isn’t good enough.

But this weekend we push on, because 10K is scary but not impossible.  Because we all need a reason and a boost once in a while.

Because our friends might misread our emails and posts and think we are all running a marathon!

WRITE ON