Finish What You Start

In Mel Brooks’ classic Blazing Saddles, the late, great Harvey Korman(who can forget him with C. Burnett in Went With the Wind all those years ago?)speaking as the dastardly Hedly Lamarr, says, “My wind is a whirl with burning ideas(or something close to that)Do you ever have that dilemma? More ideas than you can possibly nail down or chose from? Or even worse, half a dozen projects that all got off to a good start and then fell by the way side? Sagging middle, tired plot, stale characters? Who knows? So one of my goals for November-no matter how many great ideas leap into my gray matter, is to FINISH WHAT I’VE ALREAD STARTED! For example, I have an almost finished traditional contemporary romance that is requested by a publisher whose house I would love to a part of. Now, granted, some computer problems(at least until I replaced my ancient one last week)slowed me WAY down from finishing edits for my new novella(more on that later)and put me off track for finishing the other one. So today, I’ve kept it in the chair(have taken the WonderDogs out twice for big walks, so I won’t feel guilty for not going to the gym)and gone over the manuscript. You know what? Even though it’s several years old, conceited or not, I still like it. And I’m up to the middle of going over it to be sure pacing still flows, it’s not too wordy or repetitious, and the characters don’t seem to be cookie-cutter types. And as soon as I finish reading what I’ve already done, my goal for the next two weeks, is to finish it and get it off to the editor who requested it. THEN I’m going back to another story that has been truly floundering for months and it’s still in its infancy. But I’m determined! No excuses. The other ideas will just have to wait until these other projects are done. Now if only I could justify using that for not finishing swapping out summer clothes for fall/winter ones…. Happy writing!