So, yeah, it's 3am here as I type this. I refused to allow myself to go to bed until I'd finished another half-a-chapter on The Do Over. But finished Chapter 11 I have, and so I can now let myself grab some sleep.

Mmm. Typing like Yoda, I am. Must proofread my work tomorrow. :-)

I wrote the first half of Chapter 11 on Friday. Today (Saturday, as far as I'm concerned) marks the sixth day in a row that I've managed to chug through polishing/revising/rewriting a half of a chapter each day. I think it's the longest sustained drive I've managed in a few months. It also marks what I hope to be the development of a good habit.

Another habit I've started to fall into this week, which I also think is a good habit, is making sure that I read at least one short story (or one chapter of a good book) by day's end. For most of this past week, I've been reading stories from The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie. I've finished that book, however, so today I read Connie Willis' award-winning short story, "A Letter From the Clearys". A good friend lent me the collection, Fire Watch, and I look forward to reading more from that one.

Yesterday, it was Stephen King's O. Henry award winner, "The Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French." The copy I read was in the Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling anthology, "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" -- I'm not sure which edition, but it's only a couple of years old.

I want to read the good stuff. The stories that are recommended. The stories that are recognized as being a notch above the rest. I want to absorb pacing and characterization, plotting and setting. I want to remind my brain of what good stories taste like, feel like, sound like.

In Tae Kwon Do, when you want to master a technique, you practice, practice, practice. But you also watch the instructors and the higher ranks. Observe all you can, until learning and doing become second nature.

So, yeah, I'm working on developing a couple of habits. I hope these habits manage to stick.

Then again, I could get into the habit of sleeping, too.