WIP Wednesday - That's Funny

Yesterday, Wednesday, was one of the worst days I've had in some time.

My car is in at the mechanics. I dropped it off there Wednesday morning (yesterday, Australian time) and it stayed there overnight due to them having to fly a part in from interstate. There is a strong possibility it could be there until Friday morning as I wait for the part to arrive and then be installed. And it's costing me a fair little packet for all this inconvenience - nice!

On top of that, I was informed of my need to move office spaces. I've sat in the same space for the past five or six years. It's like a home away from home (if I had to live in Hades part time). It is semi-secluded and has a nice enough view out a large window, which provides me with ample natural light to work by. Now I have to move to a slightly smaller, not secluded, windowless office space adjacent to a door that is always open and leads onto the main thoroughfare in my building - wonderful. I have two weeks to accomplish the non-negotiable move. I also have two weeks left remaining on my major project work - super nice!

I have staff members away who I need to help complete project tasks, I'm continually waiting on others to finish what they promised to finish a week or more ago, and the pay office has neglected to pay me for overtime worked last year!

Needless to say my mind was not on anything vaguely resembling writing.

And then we received an email back from one of the authors selected to be in the Dark Pages anthology who has already received their first round edits (we're working through them - everyone should have their first round edits over the next few weeks. Things will only get quicker from there). It was full of praise for my editorial team, in particular, my first pass copy editor - you all know this person as Pharo, my language and critique guru. This allowed me to smile and brightened up my day just enough to stop me from slashing my wrists.

Today is a new day. I have an opportunity to work through one or two more of the Dark Pages stories and get them back to the authors for comment. Things are slowly getting better.

Two lessons to be learned here:

1) If you find someone who's advice is excellent, has knowledge in areas of writing that is either stronger than yours or compliments your own, and who is willing to work with you over a long period of time in a combined effort to improve both yours and their ability in the craft - never let them go. Pay them if you have to.

2) The sun will always rise in the morning, and a new day is a new opportunity to write something wonderful. (I may change this way of thinking come 2012, but until proven otherwise, I'll stick with it for now).

May you write lots of wonderful words today.