No Writing Allowed

At least for the next two weeks that is.

I finished the second intense draft of my WIP and even though I know it needs another go through - another 'intense' go through - I am abstaining from the urge to take out the red pen. Instead, since I'll be headed up to the cottage for a week, I will read, read, read (as much as 3 kids and a hubby who will want to kayak, canoe, hike - you know active things? *shudders* will let me). I know that taking a break from my editing side and becoming a reader again will help the next draft. I will have removed myself from the euphoria of feeling finished and be able to see the warts on my my 'frog of a story waiting to turn into a prince of a novel' much easier.

It will be hard not to write especially since I have another story percolating in the back of my brain and another one already written that needs such an intense revision I might as well start it from scratch again. But these breaks are necessary for me. I need to read the story like a reader, not a writer. And it will help that my good bud/CP Stephanie will be reading it too since she hasn't seen a word of it. Two weeks will give me the distance I need to hear criticisms without falling into a puddle of "OMG. I just can't change that or add more! I'm sick of the story. Don't you know it's DONE??" Instead, I'll be able to apply solutions to any problems that are inevitable in a WIP. I'll be happy to tear into it again.

I guess there's something to be said for the old cliché "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". In a writer's case, the cliché can be re-written to say "Absence makes the story get better."