What not to do while finishing the first draft

  1. Decide that now would be a good time to dust the baseboards.
  2. Experiment with various sleep aids.
  3. Search real estate listings for forested lots only accessible by water.
  4. Download a Motley Crue song, to reconnect you with your youth.
  5. Take up scrapbooking, macrame, interpretive dance, or any combination of the three.
  6. Read Jane Austen, so that all your characters start saying things like, “he has not, perhaps, a more sorrowing heart than I have.”
  7. Wonder what your next novel will be, and why you have no ideas, and what it will be like to no longer write.
  8. Work on your acceptance speeches for various awards.
  9. Keep chocolate in the house so that when you finish the novel, you will weigh 600 pounds.
  10. Feel resentment towards your family when they make unreasonable demands on your time (such as “can I have a peanut butter sandwich?”).

2 thoughts on “What not to do while finishing the first draft

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *