If you build it, they will come

It’s Wednesday, also known as Hump Day for you folks who work Monday to Friday.

I work Monday to Friday (mostly) but it’s not quite the same when you work from home.

It’s better.   🙂

It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged, and I’m probably losing readers every time I miss a weekday of blogging.  Needless to say, I’ve been swamped.  But in a good way.

Revisions are going really well.  It’s hard to explain, but it took me a few days to really see the changes that needed to be made.  Even though I had a pretty detailed list of revision suggestions in front of me courtesy of my agent, I didn’t fully get what she was saying until I dove in.  But once I started rewriting, the pieces fell into place.  When I’m finished (hopefully by the end of next week), I will have a very different last half of the book than I did before.  And yes, it will be stronger.

Steve and I painted my new office over the weekend.  I’m moving into the bonus room, which is sort of like a fourth bedroom, except that the builder didn’t install a closet.  It also has an opening so you can see part of the room when you’re standing below.  Here’s a before pic (sort of – it’s an empty room so I never bothered to photograph it last year):

See the room with the elliptical archway on the second floor?  That’s the bonus room.  (The term “bonus room” is strange to me.  We don’t say that in Canada.  We might have called it a loft or a den or something.  Because really, what’s bonus about it?  It’s part of the original design of the house.  It’s not like it’s added on later.)

Anyway, I chose a very fresh and vibrant paint color.  I have a new and much larger desk picked out, which I’ll hopefully be able to order next month.  I’m excited to have an office with an actual door – not so much for privacy, but to keep out small furry friends who like to visit me twenty times a day when I’m writing.  But I’m even more excited to fill an empty room (I hate having empty rooms).  Over the next couple of months, I’m planning to install floor-to-ceiling shelves, curtains, and maybe even a chair or small loveseat which I’ll cannibalize from somewhere else in the house.

I really feel like I’m carving out my path in life.  I’m no longer sitting on my ass, waiting and hoping for something good to happen (and believe me, I did that for years).  Committing to writing every day was the first step.  Writing a novel, and then writing another one, was the next step.  Taking courses and workshops and joining writers’ groups were the steps after that.  Finding an agent was pivotal step after that.

And now, in the midst of revising my agented book, I’m creating a beautiful space to write.  It’s an important part of this journey, because it puts into physical form my commitment to do this crazy thing and chase this crazy dream.

If you build it, they will come.

Well, I’m building.  Bet your ass.