Needed: a new structure

I have deemed this draft of the novel done. I need to let it sit now for a week or two before looking at it with fresh eyes and seeing what the hell I have actually written.

Which leaves me without the structure that was so vital for this last month of prolific writing productivity. So I need a new structure. A new plan. And this is it: on the weekends I am going to take a break from writing on any specific piece. Not from writing itself. The weekend is for playing. For freewriting and just filling up pages. I did 2 twenty-minute writes today. The topics were:

1. The Woman I Kept to Myself (from the title of a book of poetry by Julia Alvarez)
2. What was it that I wanted? (from a line in one of her poems)

I have 9 hand-written pages and it was so much fun to just let my mind wander and roam without a specific goal in sight, only to keep my hand moving for 20 full minutes.

My goal this week is to get a story ready for my workshop on Sunday. 2 hours (at least) of revision daily. It won't feel as productive as the 2000 words a day was. That was a straight ahead no matter what goal. Revision is less linear. More of a spiral process so I think the time quota instead of pages or words will work. We'll see.

Now I am going down to our art space in the basment for more creativity with k. She is finally feeling better. The fever broke and she can eat real food again.

Quote:
If you want to see your own face, if you want to drop off the old yellow coat of yourself, pick up the pen.
- from a symposium on writing and zen.

I love the line "the old yellow coat of yourself." That could be a writing topic for tomorrow.

And for more inspiration, check out this link:

http://www.laserrania.com/odysseys/houston_why_i_write.html

It's an essay by Pam Houston.