Debacle by the Barn and Writing.

Last week I wrote about an area by the barn that needed a big clean up. Click here to see that video. 

I made this video to motivate me to keep going because I tend to forget how much I've done. Then I get frustrated that's it not finished. However, I can remind myself what I started with by playing the video. 

This made me realize, I do that with writing too. It occurred to me how similar my latest writing project is to the debacle by the barn. On the surface, these two projects look nothing alike. However, they are because my latest writing project seems like a mess of tangles branches, weeds, and vines. 

This is because I've been charging ahead. I want to reach that ending, but another part of me longs to go back and patch the whole thing up. Logically it makes sense to get a rough draft done. However, my inner critic doesn't like that at all. Especially when I read it over and cringe. 

However, with both projects I have to remind myself of how much has been done. That I've done all this, and I can reach the finish line. 

Here is the area by the side of the barn as of yesterday. Last week, it was covered in leaves and branches. I've continued to have to rake leaves that keep falling. This is an old snowmobile. A John Deere Spit fire about 1978. It ran for many years. 

My family used to live near a canal that went in a circle around an island. This island has no houses or anything on it. We used to go there and build forts. In the winter, we would also snowmobile on and around it. The canal let out into Lake St. Clair Michigan, and we would snowmobile out there and on other canals. We did this with other kids on snowmobiles. The canal around the island was sometimes like a racetrack for snowmobiles, four-wheelers, and whatever anyone could get on the ice. 

The last person to ride it was my son in his late teens. However, for the last several years, it's just been sitting here. Something broke down in the track, and nobody has ridden it. I had it covered with a tarp, but the tarp tore and blew off. The engine is still good. My latest plan is to sell it. 

Here is what it looks like in the debacle area. As you can see, more has been cut away. 

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One thing that has helped keep me going is that I keep saying "Just do 20 to 30 minutes a day. It's bound to get done by December."  The weather this weekend was perfect, so that made me want to get out there too. 

As for writing, I'm working on a free prequel to the Legacy of Mars series. It's basically a loss leader. I started writing this with the idea that it doesn't have to be a full-sized novel. My goal is around 30 to 40K. I'm already at the halfway mark. What helped a lot was not concerning myself with a word count. To just let it grow naturally into whatever size needed to tell the story. 

I'm determined to get both projects done. In the winter, I will have even more time to write. So yay....