When Pigs Fly

It may be Star Wars day, but today here in Cincinnati, pigs fly. No, I’m not joking. Pigs, right now, are flying.

Every year Cincinnati has the Flying Pig Marathon, the pig part coming from the city’s history of pig farming and the flying part coming from…well, I don’t know. The marathon starts and ends in downtown Cincinnati. At this point the big event is probably nearing its finish, though I can’t say for certain because I’m not a runner and during the years I lived downtown, I avoided the massive crowd that came with the Pig. I’m a writer, not a crowd-lover.

But as thousands of people run the Pig today, I’m deep in my own marathon. Yesterday, I topped 60,000 words in my work in progress. I can’t seem to stop writing. I’m writing this post fast so I can get back to my WIP and get my heroine out of her current sticky situation.

Writing is my favorite part of every day. My days are built around sleep, work, and writing (oh, and Reds baseball, which is an ideal thing to watch while writing because it requires very little of my attention). I’m writing like I’ll forget the plot if I don’t get it on paper soon, as soon as possible. It’s like I can see the finish line and I’m sprinting toward it, trying to reach it before all these other non-existent people get there.

Already, it’s getting to the point where I’m wondering what I’ll do with myself when I’m finished with my WIP. Read more? Let’s be honest—I already read A LOT. I average a book or two a week, which is pretty good considering that I’m obsessed with my own novel. I finished A.G. Howard’s SPLINTERED (an Alice in Wonderland retelling) yesterday and went straight for another book, Jennifer Echols' DIRTY LITTLE SECRET.

So maybe I’ll work more with my critique partners? Problem therein is that three of them are also deep in their own marathons, their own new WIPs. They’re also querying the manuscripts I’ve read, which is what my fourth CP has been up to lately. We talk less than we used to, probably because they’re just as obsessed with their writing as I am. We’ve all shared at least the concepts of our new stories and, in one case, I’ve read a first chapter that made me so excited to read more. Of course, at that point, there was no more.

So what else is there for me to do? Take up running? Unlikely. I’m not a marathoner. If anything, I’m a speed walker. I grab my iPhone, plug in my earbuds, and click on my current WIP playlist as I set out to conquer the hills of my neighborhood. Of course, the whole time I’m walking, I’m working through the next 1-2K of my WIP. See, I’m obsessed.

I may not be a runner, but I have a lot of friends who are. Several of them are running the Pig today and many of those that aren’t are out there cheering for someone else who is. I know when runners are done with one marathon, they get started on training for the next one. So maybe that’s what I need to do. Once I’ve finished writing this WIP, I’ll get to planning another one. Because I’m in this to get (at least) a book published and I’m going to keep running until I make that finish line. You have my word on that.