Okay, my brain is melting, so I have requested one more day of extension on my deadline (that was originally supposed to be Saturday). I kind of HATE missing deadlines, it makes me super-frustrated, but I am also trying to not rush my damn writing anymore, which has, in retrospect, been a problem for years and years, at least since I finished the Ph.D. program.
On time is important, but good is better than being perfectly on time. And I made good progress today, and I think I will be able to hand in this draft tomorrow, if all goes well; nobody on the project is harassing me about my tardiness, this is all me and my stupid brain, so it will be okay.
After I hand it in, we are probably going to have another week or two of working together on the draft, making everything mesh, though I’m not sure if that will be immediately or will kick in a little later. At some point it will be out of my hands. Which means that one way or another, soon I’ll need to figure out what writing project I’m working on next. Options:
a) go back to SF novella, do another (final?) draft — the bones of plot are all right now, I think, thank god, but I need to work on the prose (make beautiful and subtle), the density of characterization, and the persistence of the themes
b) go back to SF novel, try to push through to end of the first draft (at around 50K now, if I’m remembering right)
c) change gears entirely and lay out the bones of the domestic resistance nonfiction book — running for office posts + cooking + gardening + trying to keep ourselves reasonably together in this political environment
Totally not sure which to do next. Feel free to opine, though mostly I am hoping it will magically come clear to me while I sleep.