Step 39: Read, read, read

I swear to God since I started rereading 100 Years Of Solitude my writing has improved. A smidgen. This post is an exception, as it's past midnight and I'm zonked out on my pills.

I have not been reading properly. A friend of mine read out some Alan Ginsburg poetry this evening because we're pretentious assholes likes that. She read 'Howl' specifically, and after having heard it for the first time, I feel enlarged. The imagery, the power, completely outside of time- it was like seeing a bomb go off. After that, and as during my rereading of 100 years, the scope of what can be done with writing has expanded. I'm reminded of what's possible, and that's freeing. I just forgot for awhile is all.

I got only a few days to finish the first book- and that's an arbitrary date in some sense, as it's all three books by December 30th in no particular order, but still. 5-10k in two days. As long as I don't panic, get discouraged, or procrastinate it's totally doable. MAYBE I'll have to write more than I have so far in one day...but how hard can it be! 

I spent most of a day recently being so intimidated by what I had to do that I stopped doing it. That's the soul of procrastination, isn't it? The bigger the task, the more we procrastinate. 

The thing is, what I've written of the fantasy novel, this first draft, it's a skeleton made out of Lego. It's missing so much that will be there in later drafts, things like the rituals of the Gods, the details of the weather each day, the atmosphere (to some extent), a better-delineated dialect for different social classes and cities...all that meat. And that's okay.

I was feeling a bit claustrophobic recently, and although talking to and hearing from so many supportive people has helped a lot, reading good writing's been similar. Love reading to love writing. Clears the smoke.