My husband installed a new version of Microsoft Word on my laptop. I like the new features it has.
The Good: It’s easier to use. Instead of the clicking on the header and having everything drop down, the header is horizontal so you can see everything under each link. (Don’t know if I explained that well, but if I explained it the way my husband did, you would be lost).
The Bad: With all the neat little features you can get a little distracted. I like all the fonts that they’ve added. It’d be great to type in whatever font I want, but I stick to good ‘ole Times New Roman. Especially if I expect anybody to read anything I write. Some people might not think this a bad thing. And it probably isn’t. I just wanted to title my post, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and something had to be bad.
The Ugly: You see that picture above? That is the word count of my work in progress. That, my friend, is driving me crazy. As I add more words, the number gets higher and I’m constantly looking at it–something I’m trying not to do. Some might say to disable that feature and keep chugging. But I can’t do it. Disabling it would be like turning my eyes away from a car accident on the side of the road. As much as I try, I keep looking.
I could spin this and say that looking at this little counter keeps me on track– my own personal trainer.
“Katrina, don’t you dare close that document! Keep writing, keep going!”
“Don’t quit on me now! Just one more sentence. I know you’re tired but you’ll thank me in the end when you’re holding that 85,000 word manuscript. You can do it!”
That’s all fine and dandy, but I don’t want a constant reminder of what I’m doing. Not right now. I don’t write to fill a page with words–I want those words to mean something.
I’m really proud of how far I’ve come in such little time, but this next book needs more time than my previous two and I don’t want to rush it. I want to take my time with my revisions and present the best book possible. But now I see my word count increasing and I hear the trainer whisper in my ear, “Don’t you want to finish this book by January? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
And it would be cool. Great even. But if I’ve learned anything in the 31 years I’ve been on the earth, I’ve learned to pace myself. My husband often tells me, “Calma te mi amor”. Which basically means to calm down. (At least I hope that’s what it means!) So I take a deep breath and exhale. There’s no reason to rush. I’ll finish this book like I do all my others–one word at a time.
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