Eyes on the prize

I have set tomorrow as the deadliest deadline of the Young Adult story I'm writing, and then I'm going to send it to my beta readers, rest my mind a bit, edit, and then come up with a cover. All these I need to do by Friday next week as everything would have to be sent to Mina on February 28. I'd like to make my own cover, if possible, so I'm taking a leave from work on the 27th to make sure I have enough time.

My body clock is messed up and I have been putting in less than three hours of sleep each night to work on my drafts, when all I want to do is watch movies, read What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and sleep.

As per my beta readers who read the first 1,199 words, I have a good start and it made them excited to read the rest of the story. One of them said I should tone down the choice of words a bit, though, so I'm scratching out 'ebullience'. Note to self: keep it simple. One of them also said she can see too much of myself in the Main Character. I guess that's not bad, but I would like to separate myself from her as much as I can. But, so long as I don't end up with a Mary Sue, then I think it's okay.

I'm happy with the reception so far; several friends have asked me to send them a copy once done, and that feels extremely flattering. Not finishing this would be a waste, so I better stop procrastinating due to my paralyzing fear that my story is not good enough and just keep writing.

The thing with working on a story, sometimes your mind flies and takes you to a completely different world where other characters reside. I was so inspired after I saw Comet the other night that I dreamt of new dialogues that won't fit my YA characters so I'm parking them for now. I'm hoping to get back to them for a different story, preferably for the romance novella I started last year.

Now I'm drinking homemade milk tea and getting back to work once I hit Publish on this post.

Ah, last minute panic. The Great Motivator. I'm totally going shopping for a new dress when I finish this.

See you on the other side! That other side hopefully being The End of this have-yet-to-be-titled YA story.