Under pressure

Sounds bad, but actually it's a good thing.

When I logged onto my class, I found that I had to submit 3,200 words of writing by midnight tonight. And given that I had workshopped my existing 65 pages or so of writing, and that most of it is in bits and pieces, I decided that I had to come up with almost all of the 3,200 words from scratch.

Deadlines are a wonderful thing. From making almost no progress over the past few months, I cranked out 12 double-spaced pages in just 3 nights. I just need to do some last-minute reading before submitting this evening; it will surely be a very rough draft, but at least I have something to work with.

I will have another three weeks from tonight to submit another 3,200 words, and three more weeks for a third installment of 4,200 words. It'll add up to 40-50 pages of fresh material. I'll be happy with the results - lots of new material, and valuable feedback from classmates.

Right now, I am tackling the time period from Sarah's high school graduation, to her first public appearances as a woman, to her futile job search, to her community college years, to eventually her flight attendant training. I'll see what I can crank out.