Stupid Awesomeness.

Argh. I was about a third of the way through my review/edit of Foxfur this past week when I thought, "Hey, the motivation for [action X] is really shaky and not very well explained. What if there was another force behind it? Like, an [antagonist B], working behind the scenes, who wants [motivation Y]! That would add another 15,000 words to the story, easy, and it would explain [action X] better, and it would let [protagonist B] actually do something big and useful, and then [antagonist B] could turn up in the sequel I've been head-working!"

Awesome!

The only downside is that, even setting aside my lackluster writing performance lately, there's no way I can get all that done before the end of the year. I'll be taking my iPad with me on our holiday trip to visit the Hubs' family, but I'm not expecting to have much time for writing while I'm there -- there maybe one or two quiet evenings, but mostly I expect to be too busy and (congruently) too tired to write.

And then when we get back, I'll be a) exhausted, and b) prepping for the combination Christmas/New Year's celebration with my family and our friends.

So I've got approximately one week before the "end" of the year, writing-wise. And given the way I've been turning into a pumpkin promptly at 10:30 lately, I just don't see managing another 15,000 words, minimum, in that time.

At least this isn't a story on contract, so it's not like I'm missing anyone's deadline but my own. And I'd have been right on target with it, too, if I hadn't had that Awesome Idea.

Last night, reading through the action climax (as opposed to the romantic climax, which follows it) (yes, my inner 14-year-old boy is giggling at the multiple climaxes) it was tempting to just say screw it, skip the Awesome Idea, and keep the story as-is, just so I can be done with it. Lynn and I have been talking about rewriting a story we wrote together about nine years ago, now that we're both published and have a better idea of what we're doing, and so ideas are pinging around in my head for how to approach that project. And I've had an anthology idea I want to consider and then pitch. And there's all the other projects and ideas I've got notes for, just waiting...

But it is an Awesome Idea, it will solve some problems and open some new doors, and I'm not on deadline, here. So I'll probably hold onto it. Wanting to dump it just to finish the story is stupid, it's just exhaustion talking. Once the holidays are through and I'm able to get back on a decent schedule, it should come a lot easier. So I'm thinking end of January, maybe mid-February, now? Heh. Of course. Because early spring is when I always submit my longer stuff.