There’s only two charts necessary to describe my writing life in July.

I’ve got two weeks left before the complete draft of the novel is delivered into the hands of my advisor and my second reader. I’m also sending a copy to my friend Dana, who graduated with her MFA from Goddard back in January, and a copy to one of the Creative Writing professors at Green Mountain College, who was gracious enough to volunteer his wonderful eye. And of course, a copy to Dawn, who hasn’t read any of it since the beginning of the year (though she’s had to hear about it, at length, several times a day, every day of the week, every week of the year, for over two years — may the spirits bless that woman).

As you saw on the happiness chart, I’m feeling pretty good about the current draft. Sir Justin of the 700 Comments did me the honor of reading the prologue the other night, and responded the way a writer wants a reader to respond, with a request for more.

One of the weird things about this month — and one of the reasons I enjoyed it so — was that my writing efforts concentrated not so much on adding new words to the novel, but on revising what was already there. I mean, look at these word totals:

Nothing too impressive, especially when you factor in the number of hours I put in this month. But that’s okay. Because my goal this month wasn’t about adding to my word total. It was about taking that total and making every single word within it mean something.

I’d like to have the book “completed” by the end of the weekend. Then on Monday, I want to print the whole thing up, and spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights going over it with a red pen, fixing typos and checking for consistency errors. Then from Thursday to Monday, type up all the changes, and on Tuesday, bring it to Staples to get four new copies printed. On Wednesday, three of them go in the mail.

And that’s when I pull out the Monte Cristo I’ve been saving, and with the love of my life by my side, relax under the evening sky.

But only for a couple of hours, because then we have to drive to Burlington to pick up my mother-in-law.