Write Away I Realize...

This little guy is fishing for ideas, see? I'm kind of like him, and kind of not. Most of what I consider my better ideas sprung from a particularly creative period in my teenage years, and I work now to help refine those ideas to give them substance and depth.

Writing is hard, in that breaching-the-threshold-during-circuit-routines sort of way: it wears you out, dogs you down, but you know it's good as you propel forward, and the end result is a breath of feel-good fresh air.


Today I finished the first draft of a manuscript I hope will jump-start my vocation.

I have never felt so amazed, mentally and emotionally. I might have teared up a bit in happiness.

There is still SO MUCH WORK to do with it--I'd be embarrassed to sully the good name Jillian and submit it now--and revising is tough, one of the toughest things you can do.

I'm super happy...but I'm shelving the draft for a few days. Gonna sort through everything that needs it: subtext, theme, symbolism, dialogue, action, conflict, dimension....oy. It's enough to make you feel like you're starting a brand new thing.

But the end result! The end result. I think I can, I think I can.