Time Off

From Tuesday through Saturday last week, I didn't produce any new pages of fiction. I wasn't actually taking a vacation or anything like that. During that time I worked on the research and plotting for three different proposals, traded emails with several editors and agents, did some revisions on a short story, and even sold another series Western. But there were no new pages, and that bothered me. Sunday I sat down to write one of the proposals and managed to get only a few pages done, and those pages were a huge, stinking waste of electrons, as far as I was concerned. But rather than scrap them, I got Livia to read them, and with her usual insight she immediately pointed out what was wrong with them and suggested a possible solution. Today I got a chance to try it out, and wouldn't you know, it worked. It still wasn't a great day, but at least I now feel like the project has some potential after all. I hope that in a day or two I can work myself back into a decent rhythm again.