"I read Chrysalis," my father says to me this afternoon. He's the first of the three people I've let into my written soul to get back to me. "It needs more words."

I know exactly what he means. I'm well acquainted with my inability to physically describe characters and setting. I tried really hard but I'm not Tolkien or Jordan. Or Sanderson.

I hate description. Dialogue is so much more fun.

"It can't have more words. It's at it's limit." Just barely over 91,000 words. "I've got to cut plot if I want to make room for more words and I'm too close to it to see what can be ripped out."

Which brought me to a new problem. Well, several new problems.

• The last third of the book is still really weak. I ripped out a few chapters from Brandon's point of few and it's turned it a bit clunky. I warned my sister-in-law about this when she texted me to say she was halfway through and so far things were looking good.


• I need more people to read it but I'm afraid to ask. As I said above, Chrysalis is a written peak into my soul. I know everyone's novel is like this. I'm much better at understanding feedback and I hope I'm better at knowing what will help the book and what won't because accepting feedback and using it well is tricky. The published authors I follow have made that very clear.


• I need more people to read my book but I'm stuck between throwing it at everyone I know and hugging it to my chest like my precious stuffed panda, Albuquerque.


• Query Letter Writing Sucks. Pitch Writing Sucks.


• writinglikeagirl is set to go live on July 10 with my first character commentary that I haven't actually written but thought lots about going up on July 15. I decided to start without a buffer. Panic will hit sometime in August and I'll fix that.


• Korean Dramas are bad for my heart. Is it Thursday yet?

If my goal is to start submitting by the end of the summer, then my query needs to be crafted, polished, and ready by the end of July. This is duck #1. Duck #2 is writinglikeagirl. I've started a calendar listing out the characters and their week so even though I don't have my commentary written, I at least know who's up and I won't be scrambling to find someone. Duck #3 is more Chrysalis editing. Duck #4 is my website but that'll be easier to work on when ducks 1 & 2 quack on through.

I hate Duck #3. But, there you have it, my ducks carefully placed all in a row. Duck. Duck. Duck. Goose.

Goose is 9thEvent prewriting. It isn't a duck. It's not a priority. But it'll probably waddle to the front of the line pretending to save my sanity.

No one will ever be able to accuse me of not committing to a metaphor.