Peace and Quiet

Birdie actually interrupted me only once last night as I sat in the bedroom writing. She figured out in about ten seconds that she had PROMISED me I'd have quiet time at home, and left the room. The best part was she didn't get irritated with me for wanting a half hour or so. When I came out a while later I had a huge smile on my face, cause that felt GOOD.

I put together the jigsaw puzzle of notes I've made for chapter 12, which is where I got stuck a year ago. All the parts of the book that weren't working came to a head at this point, and they had to be unstuck before I could realistically begin again. The road to the end has changed about five times since I stopped writing, but this time I hope to have a better handle on it.

Kate told me to make a list of what went wrong with my relationship with the book, and that really helped. One of the things on the list - #1 - was that I had lost touch with the characters. They didn't make sense anymore in my head, and how can you tell their story if that happens? There simply isn't enough happening in the way of gore and danger, either. I intend to try and fix that as well, but it was further down the list.

Work On Chapter 12

This is the one I've been stuck on for so long. Tonight Birdie will drop me at the library and she'll go shopping, which is something she normally does while I'm in class. But there's nothing left in the evening schedule I'm remotely interested in taking, except drawing - and there's no freakin way I'm taking a class that meets twice a week from 6:00 to 9:30. !!!!!

So I've got notes, that will be typed today and then I'll write on those tonight. I do get a lot done when I'm at the library, but I'm only there a couple of times a year. We decided that we're going to try going there at least every other week, possibly every week, and when the weather gets warm we're going to go play golf. Well, I will play and she will walk with me, if my hand is okay for holding the club. She has tried golf and can hit the fuck out of the ball, but it hurts her back. That's good news for me, because it would be yet another thing she's better at than me. ;-)

AMAZING

That's what it is, amazing. Friday I sat down the a printout of the book and completely re-wrote chapter one. It's still not great, but it's definitely better than it was. I know Kate wants me to wait till I'm finished with the first draft, but I've been stuck for so long that I felt I needed a pretty serious boost. Because the first draft as it is sucks SO much, it's been bugging me and bugging me, so now I've fixed some of the problems of the first I feel kinda "lighter" and more into it. I might actually get some free time today, so I'm going to work on chapter twelve.

One of the things that improved the re-write was going back and doing a history and map of the town. Pretty cool.

A New Sky View

Yesterday I didn't do much writing, but I did make more of an effort to "see" the town. I wrote some of its history - the town needs backstory for me to understand its layout. I printed a couple of maps of the city I'm pattering (sorta) Skyview after, then made the changes I want and tried to draw a map.

Tried. Who knew I so sucked at map drawing?

Long Time

Miss me?

No, I don't consider the book writing project over and done.

Yes, I haven't touched it in a long time.

No, I couldn't tell you why, except that's just the way I am. Untrustworthy, supreme procrastinator, famously non-finisher...

But I still consider it a work in progress that I will finish. I'm just not sure how I'll get there.

Close To Chapter 12

I thought today I would give Kelsey some of the bad mood I'm feeling. ;-) Yesterday I did get some work done on chapter twelve. It's actually mostly done, it just needs to have isolated sentences connected, and the last page or so finished typing. I make another small time jump in this chapter, which doesn't happen all that often in the book.

People have been asking me how close to finished this book is, and I have to tell them I don't know. Every week or so I chance my mind on how to get to the end, which I can SEE, but not a clear path TO it. If I didn't know it would make the book way too short, I'd say it could be finished in three more chapters, maybe four.

Whattaya Know?

My brain has come back. *g* Been pretty out of it the last few days, and grumpy as hell, too. But today I remembered EVERYTHING I wanted to bring to work. Memory is an iffy thing with me, at best.

I have a good feeling about getting chapter 12 done by Friday.

Oh, and it's been an entire week without a drink. Not that I don't think of it EVERY DAY, but I don't get all freaky and have to try and not think about the whiskey bottle in the kitchen. That's nice. That bottle is LOUD.