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.

Slow But Still Going

I've been outlining again, this time concentrating on emotions, cause you know how hard it is for me to connect with emotions of any kind, especially people I've made up. ;-) Just before dropping off last night I rooted around for a pen around the bed and made a couple of notes.

And I have to get chapter 12 done this week, or else. ;-)

While waiting for my computer to be returned to me this afternoon I put down some words, with a little more feeling than before. *g* The morning was totally busy in the office, but its really slacked off. Today I'm feeling really into the story and wanting to see it finished like, right now.

TIred Of This

BIG storm last night - we've had an awful lot of those. Lots of bright, loud lightning which of course woke me up about 11:00, and I noticed the power was out AGAIN. Then I couldn't go to sleep because of the sound and light show, and worrying about the alarm going off. Pewter snuggled up to me, I had to stop tossing and turning, and I got a couple (literally) hours of sleep. The alarm woke me up an hour early AGAIN, so I didn't realize for a half hour that the reason I was so tired was that I had gotten up at 4:00. The lights were still out when we left at 7:30.

Yesterday I got a little mean with Kelsey. I keep forgetting how they're feeling, and how more forcefully they would react to a situation than I would. It's hard for the Show No Feelings girl to make her characters react.

Long, Hot Weekend

I did some writing, but mostly it was too hot. I was especially stupid on Sunday, when I burned a large trash (downed wood) pile in 90+ degrees. Did I mention I'm stupid?

Hey, Remember Me? ;-)

Yeah, I'm a slacker. Work on the book has been so slow that I didn't really have much to talk about. I'm still working on it but it's damned slow and so very frustrating.

Parker and Kelsey are in chapter twelve, exhausted, without a plan and just about at their end. This is when they meet a couple of people and the story goes in a different direction. I don't know how well this will work, but I thought I'd give it a try. I always meant for them to meet these guys, but this part has always been kind of nebulous in my head.

Thoughts

It occured to me this weekend - this very long, hot, overworked weekend - that I learned a lesson in the flood that I can use in the book. Even though I could feel my shoulder being injured, I kept shoveling water and mud and rock because it had to be done. The thought that I should stop never entered my mind because It Had To Be Done So I Could Not Stop. Somehow, with the re-write, I've got to work that into both Parker and Kelsey's stories.

At least I'm out of the sling and able to type with relatively pain. Thursday I'm getting needled by my acupuncturist and that will hopefully speed the healing. Money is going out of my checking account at an appalling rate, mostly for vacation spending a month ago. *sigh* I've been really wanting to buy stuff but putting it off (like an external hard drive for back ups). Maybe I'll be able to bring myself to pull the trigger now.

WET!!!

We're not drowned, but that was one long fucking weekend. I'm still in a bit of a daze, actually. But we had it easier than a lot of people around us. The back room flooded to six inches around midnight Saturday, and we got it dug out at about four thirty. It took that long because it was too much for the shop vac so we hauled out the five gallon buckets and threw/carried water out as fast as we could, into the lightning and continuing heavy rain. We couldn't keep up with it till the rain let up about three. Then we went to bed and slept a couple of hours until it started again and before we could get into the back room it was flooded again to six inches. This time, though, it was light enough for me to go outside - in the rain and lightning - to find out where the drain wasn't working and put the shovel to good use. About ten thirty we got the rooms cleared again.

We didn't lose the hot water heater or the freezer, but just about eleven Saturday morning - AFTER I made coffee, thank goodness ;-) - the lights went out and stayed that way till dinner time Sunday. In the meanwhile, Birdie was working on putting things right on the hill, and I was at the bottom working on our washed out driveway. The new ditch we dug at the bottom worked GREAT, so there were only a couple of "smallish" ruts (smallish compared to it being completely washed out, which it would have been), but at the road it was impassable for the car, and the county road was washed out about halfway across just up from our mailbox, and nearly all the way across just around the corner downstream. I spent a couple of hours re-digging the ditch, filling in ruts, hauling riprap in the wheelbarrow to put in our drive, and digging gravel out of the creek to fill it in some. I managed to make a path and gave out. We got the clothes out of the washer (from Friday night) and hung them out to dry. It was kinda funny, trying to figure out where to tie the rope.

Irony: the sun was so strong yesterday we've both got sunburns. Both of us are physically challenged this morning with repetitive motion stress. I *should* be wearing a sling, but was embarassed to wear it this morning. I get really tired of people asking me if I saw the doctor so he could tell me to wear a sling. No, I didn't see a fucking doctor, I don't need someone to tell me my shoulder is hurt. *growl*

Anyway, we're here, and we were lucky compared to a LOT of people all around where we live. It's a lot worse than the fucking news is letting on. So fucking what most of central Indiana just had a hundred year flood. It's Indiana, so the morons in a boat in the Carribean gets more tv time.

Writing: I got some good writing done on Friday at work and was really looking forward to using my new laptop this weekend. Ha.

Rain And A Day Off

Wednesday was the worst rain and flooding I've ever seen in Bloomington, and I've lived here more than 30 years. People still talk about the snow of '78. Now they'll talk about the flood of '08. Thursday morning I woke up feeling horrible, so I stayed home, laid on the couch and slept a lot and messed with my new laptop. The only bad thing about new computers is how much you have to set everything the way you like it, and load the software you generally use. I put Casino Empire on and fired it up. It's a goofy little game that normally takes about a minute and a half to load on the old laptop. It shows a line of showgirls and runs "funny" witticisms along the bottom while it's loading. Yesterday it loaded so fast I literally blinked and missed it. I tried typing on chapter twelve, but that made my head hurt worse. Didn't even watch tv or a movie.

Der

I was so caught up in the Big Flood this morning, and getting my new laptop days earlier than I expected, that I forgot to write some words here.

Kelsey and Parker need to run into living people. There has to be some more killing, or the zombies will stop being a threat. Now I have them exhausted and frustrated, and they run into some goons who will escort them to the Reverend Spevak, who we met (sorta) in chapter one (which will end up massively re-written eventually, but I was so ecstatic when I finished it last year *g*).

I'm kinda feeling my way at this point, because the outline gets fuzzy at this point. I know what I want to happen, and I know where it ends, but how - exactly - it's going to get there I'm going to find out as I write, I think.

Stormy Weather

The back room will be flooded tonight. It's coming down hard outside, and it's almost time for me to go to lunch. Bleh. At least I don't have to work this afternoon. I'm tired and cranky and my back keeps trying to spasm because I'm on my period. AND the storm just knocked off my computer while I was watching a poker tournament on tv. Hmph.

I'm working on chapter twelve, now, having gotten the (I hope) funny stuff with chapter eleven out of the way. I feel like I should read everything I've written so far before I make a bunch more continuity errors like I did in the first draft of eleven. Sheesh.

Parker and Kelsey are about to meet some other survivors. For just a moment they're happy about it, but things are going to go south...

New And Old

Old, in that I've been working on this chapter for an embarassingly long time. New, as in it's "finished" and I will be sending it to Kate later this morning. I'm having a bad day today (hormonally stoned), so not much more to report beyond I'm very happy I've gotten past it, and I don't care if it sucks - it's done.

That Was Big

I put 1,300 words on the page yesterday. Brain dead? Hell yeah. Happy camper? You bet! *g*



Kelsey got a gun, and Parker is beginning to flag. Things are going to change radically for them very soon.

Yes!

Looks like I'm a writer again. Last night I wrote so long my hand cramped. Of course, I was sitting in the truck, so not a great setting for writing. *g* I was so concentrated that I literally didn't hear the radio and a whole hour passed without my really noticing. This was at the fairgrounds, where Birdie had a master gardener meeting - and where she may have been snookered into working the county fair. *g* They've been trying to get her to run some of the vegetable competitions, because she's fair and works hard. Of course, she keeps laughing in their face... ;-)

Anyway, I completely broke through that block that's been stopping me. I got most of chapter 11 finished, and hope to complete the first draft this afternoon.

More Character

Had some really good ideas pop into my head in the shower this morning. As expected, half of them fled before I could write them down, but I got most of them pencilled into my little notebook. I love the flashes of ideas, but not getting them written down frustrates the hell out of me.

This afternoon I wrote more words than I have in a long time. I *finally* got a handle on that rough stretch in chapter eleven, and I'm convinced it's because I understand the characters a lot better than I did before. Happy camper, here.