Still Goofing Off

Went to Dr. Haven's going away party at Dr. Frey's house last night. This place is going to hell, with all the older faculty leaving. She doesn't want to go, either, but them's the rules. It's been sad watching her pack 30 years of teaching into a few boxes to cart down the hall. But the party was pleasant, even though we were the only staff there. We hadn't intended to go, but were told the guest list was explicitly chosen by Betty Haven. Who could say no?

Didn't get a lot of writing done yesterday, only about 400 words on the end of chapter six. Every time I started typing, the phone rang or someone wanted something. Nice to see some things never change. Not.

But I did get closer to the end of the chapter, and outline longhand what's going to happen the rest of the way. Parker is going to try and be a hero, but he's going to channel my feelings on the roof a couple of weeks ago when I convinced myself that you can be brave if you just WANT to, and then you find out it really doesn't work that way.

This morning I woke up wanting to write, and I think I was actually dreaming about Parker's foray into the hospital. But by the time I dragged myself out of bed, let the cats out, made the coffee and woke up for a while, the words were determined to stay inside, so I did about 200 in twenty minutes, mostly adding some actual description to my normally description-less prose.

Hi Susan! Hi Kate!

How about "A Blight in the Sky"?

Long Weekend

As happens so often, I'm happy to be at work today so I can rest. Sheesh.

Friday night, Monroe County Fair (in the pouring rain) for the fourth time that week. Friday night Harry Potter movie, got home about 11:30. Saturday morning Indianapolis Zoo (I petted a shark!) for about 4 hours, then walked to Victory Field to eat hamburgers, drink beer, have access to a private bathroom and watch the game from a nice, private area along the first base side. The Famous Chicken was there and funny as always. Home at about 11:30, it took a while to walk back to the car cause we stopped to listen to Incubus for a couple of minutes. Up and out of the house Sunday morning to go to the house, pick up the phone, hear there may be a buyer and climb up on the shed to cut cedar limbs and put another cement block on the roof. (Birdie commented that I was fixing it the same way my dad would have. Made me laugh, and then nearly cry because it's so true. A tin roof is amazingly slick when it's covered in old ceder needles. *shiver*) Then we went to the casino for about an hour.

Kate wanted to know how much writing I got done this weekend. ;-)

I had hoped to get chapter six finished on Friday, and I did get a lot done up in the quiet of 296, but it's not done. I debated with myself whether or not to introduce Spevak to them then, and I debated so long I ran out of time. What a bummer. I wanted to send chapter six to Kate and see what she thinks. Not that she would ever say anything bad. She's too easy. ;-)

Whoa

Thats was cool. Yesterday I finally calmed down enough from actually working most of the day, AND THERE WAS NO ONE HERE. So, I started typing on chapter six, which I've been stuck on. I was determined that I was going to write, "Even if it's only a few words, even if it's crap."

Whaddaya know, I did about 400 words in about ten minutes. Then Dr. Frey stopped by my desk to talk about Harry Potter for a few minutes, and then it was time to go.

Time to go to my last softball game. I love walking onto an infield. I love pitching the ball and seeing it land in the strike zone. I love grabbing a ground ball and making it look easy. I especially love when I get to do something really fun, like outrun a batter to first and take a throw from the 1stbaseman. Don't love running bases, I've never been a runner and I'm not going to miss that one little bit.

I'm still grieving - softball is a major part of my life.

Slow

And I knew it would be, once I got hold of Harry Potter. I'm over 2/3 done now, though, so I'll get back to serious writing soon. I think I'm going to print it out again when I finish chapter six.

The outline really needs to be dealt with, too. Seriously dealt with. I have to more fully imagine the book, especially now that I've got a better idea of the characters.

Last night we went to the fair, thinking it was a Master Gardener class night, but it wasn't. I had to sit a couple of times to let my foot rest, so I hauled HP out and finished a couple of chapters. Then when we got home I made her take a flexoril, so now she's tired as hell and probably won't want to go to the fair - but she has to. It remains to be seen if I can make her do the stuff she should, like she handles me.

Bleh Bleh and More Bleh

I feel crappy. Everything hurts. But, I am still writing the book. Reading the latest Harry Potter, which isn't very good but sold millions before it came out, is pretty depressing.

Numbers

Mine are down rather drastically, but I've been busy. I've decided to quit paying so much attention to the numbers, because it's depressing to see how slowly the thing is growing.

Chapter six is coming along. The rewrite is going well, more in tune with the character motivations I had in mind going in.

Kate wrote back and liked chapter three, or whichever one it is that introduces Kelsey, and had some helpful suggestions.

My Harry Potter came in today, so that will take up a bit of my time.

We visited Nancy this weekend, and Dana will be at the house tomorrow probably fucking it up beyond repair. But I have to trust him to do the work. Nancy drives me crazy with her blind love for this disgusting person, but I want to give him another chance.

I'm tired, and my foot hurts and I want to go home. This week is the fair several nights, though.

Rain Rain Rain

This is the first time I've hoped a game would NOT be rained out, but it will be, and I'll be in a pickle. Cause I don't want to play again. My foot isn't going to be ready for a good long time, and I know that if I play before the end of August I'll tear it up again, and those people aren't worth it.

Yesterday, as I said, I got about 700 words done in about a half hour with people having a couple of loud conversations about three feet behind me. I then printed chapter six and took it with me to the hair dresser, where I left a lot of blue felt pen all over it. Then Kim punked out my hair and you know, it looked pretty good.

I forgot that I promised Kate a chapter, so I guess I'll give chapter two a quick pass and send it to her.

Whoa A Rare Good Day

If I didn't have five people partying in my office I might have done a thousand words. As it is, I just pumped out 700+ words on the chapter six re-write. It's a lot different from the stuff that's come before. I sent some to Kate and she was all, "All right, all right, you needed to fix it." *laugh*

Big Day

Yesterday [Monday] was pretty horrible. Pain when I bumped my leg on the cart. Humiliation when I heard "my" team talking about the state tournament they're going to this weekend. Nice of them to ask.

That cut me hard, and I left before they could see me crying. I am retired from softball. Fuck them.

I did some writing this morning, exercised a little and played guitar for about five minutes.

It occurs to me that there are some intrinsic weaknesses in my book. The biggest one is that the "goal" Parker is working for isn't big enough. There needs to be more setup for why it's so important to him to get to his mom. Is he a momma's boy? Then that won't work, because the readers are momma's boys who don't want to read about themselves.

Both Parker and Kelsey need to be more likeable. They need to get along better with each other. Or maybe...maybe they don't. Maybe it would be better to separate them pretty quickly, then have them work toward the goal (see above) and come at it from separate angles.

So, what is this nifty goal? Ah ha! Now Parker's nifty is still to get to his mother, and he's ditching again. But this time he's ditching for a Really Good Reason - Kelsey is going to turn into a zombie. It's with her that he decides he can't off people, even ravenous dead ones, so he's going to leave her somewhere and get back on the road.

Yesterday [Tuesday] I re-did an outline of sorts for chapter six. Kate is adament that I continue without rewriting, but I feel like I need it to keep the characters intact in my head. They really veered off in a weird direction.

New Week

Hope it's better than the last week. My left heel is screwed, and I'm going to miss the game tonight. My right shin is pretty darned sore. I woke up at 2:00 this morning and couldn't go to sleep for the longest time - stress, stress, stress.

Surprisingly, I wrote nearly 500 words yesterday while ensconced on the bed with my feet up. Messed around with chapter six a little, correcting really eggegious errors before adding text. While typing, I was very conscious of "just putting it down" without a worry about Is It Good? or not. And it's not good. But the story is advanced.

What A Night!

Well THAT was painful. Got hit with a monster line drive last night - thought my leg was broken. It must have looked bad, because everyone came running, and Vella pulled me out of the game after another inning and a half. It hurt so much I didn't mind. And THEN, I somehow re-injured my left heel, which hurts worse than the shin smack. The worst part is we've got two games next week, Monday and Thursday.

I wrote some more on Parker and Kelsey meeting yesterday afternoon, trying to keep in mind where I wanted their relationship to go, rather than how I felt them getting along. I also went back and fixed a rather boffo error right at the top of the chapter. Duh. I think I wrote about 400 words here and there and fixed up quite a bit at about 600 words into the chapter.

Another Slow Day

But I'm still going. Parker and Kelsey aren't interacting the way I expected. Weird. Did about 300 words today, in the afternoon, without feeling at all in the mood to write. Got a 6:00 game, and I'm not in the mood for that, either.

But my new laptop keyboard came in, so I can get that going again.

Last night we went to the Owen County fair rather than working on the lawnmower. We had a great time, and that was good for both of us.

Nuther Day Nuther

Oh, let's say another day of drudgery. I'm feeling really listless and more ambitionless than normal. My knee feels a ton better, softball season - which has been more of a chore than anything else this year - is FINALLY almost over, and it's been incredibly quiet at work the last few weeks, which is unheard of.

I guess it's because I've got so many loose ends right now. The house, of course, is number one. My weight gain is a bad thing I never quite get around to dealing with. My phobia about getting all my work done is pretty bad right now - I need to clean my desk, but instead I play Swords and Sandals online.

But the novel is really going, at least for me the pace is good. I'm way up in nosebleed territory for word count compared to anything I've attempted before. (No, I don't count that first Dead City screenplay because it was SO AWFUL.) It's the bright spot in my life right now.

Yesterday and Today

Nothing yesterday - I was too flippin beat. Then a wasp (I think) stung me right behind the left ear this morning at about 12:30 as I slept, and I've been pretty out of it most of the day.

But I did manage to put down 600 words on When Parker Met Kelsey. Of course they're not behaving toward one another the way I envisioned, but I still really like the idea of them not trusting each other for bad reasons.

&$*)#

I fucking HATE today. I'm tired. I'm stuck in the fucking office and I'm tired. I hate everything today, and I need to write. Need it.

Where to begin about the last few days. Thursday a late game, which we won (WE BEAT ALLENS!!) then up early for work. Friday at work was BORING, then a six o'clock game so the evening was long and hot and drunken, starting with wine after the game, moving to BW3, then off to Es until after 11:30. The best thing was writing back and forth with Kate, who sent me her chapter two and said more good things about my chapter three. Saturday we both felt awful, and aren't sure if it was the wine or the wings, but we stayed home. Then she fell through the deck while I was asleep. Lucky she wasn't hurt badly. Sunday down to the house, worked until I got heat exhaustion, but the gutters are in better shape and the deck is stained. I can't believe I was the one doing the high work - I even went up on the roof. Not that I did anything up there. I actually GOT OFF THE LADDER, but then because motionless with fear, despite my determination to get past that and clean the gutters anyway. The only thing that got me moving was my butt literally burning on the hot roof. Then we went to the casino and didn't leave till 10:30 so I didn't get to bed til after 12:30. I feel HORRIBLE today.

Friday I was SO excited about writing, then I went home and spent Saturday defragging my computer - still missing keys, so no writing at home. Damn.

I'm finally off the Parker in the garbage truck episode, and he and Kelsey are about to meet. I told Anna that I was writing a zombie novel and her eyes widened and said, "Zombies are so HOT right now." Yeah, I thought, that's why I'm doing it.

Alright, Okay

It's been a while. I thought I had given up. A week ago Kate asked me for a chapter and I freaked out and completely stopped. Then we had a really hard weekend - Sunday we BOTH mowed for three hours and were in so much pain.

Today I sent her chapter three and she REALLY LIKED IT. Cool. *happy grin* So, I did some revision work, and wrote a few words.

I'm not touching Earned Run till I get busy with Trouble and Ruin again. A deal's a deal.