Editing… it’s not just for breakfast anymore.
Just a quickie update…
I’ve been doing a ton of editing lately. Chapters 8-10 are nearly 15,000 words apiece, and that’s a lot to edit. On top of that, I’m still busy with real life, which means that I rarely get uninterrupted blocks of time. So it’s been slow going.
While I haven’t had much time, that’s not really the problem. After I finished Chapter 10, I didn’t really “see” how I wanted Chapter 11 to begin. You’ll understand when you read them. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, but I’ve also been “writing ahead” in my head.
How to hang a cliff
I’ve been writing a lot lately. Once again, it’s a bit of an escape from real life. So, an update.
After my brother went downrange, I sent him a note about something “business” related: I asked if he had one of the keys to a set of locks on a storage room. We use the locks on our storage room as well as his (he stored a lot of his household goods here in town when he moved to Germany). The set of locks have a set of matching keys, which makes my life simple if I need to get into one of the rooms.
Anyway, I couldn’t account for one of the three keys, and I thought I might’ve given it to him when he moved his things into the room. So I sent him a polite note, all business. Now, I was genuinely interested in the key, but part of the reason for the note was to test the waters, of course.
From the trenches…
I’ve been writing a lot lately. It’s an escape from real life. I have to force myself to start writing, but it’s as easy as ever once I get going. Also, the stuff I’m writing about isn’t easy (think B3-Ch27), so that makes it harder to start. But like I said, once I get going, it’s much easier to keep in the groove.
Now, a quick note about my real life.
Life, the Universe, and Chapter 6
I had a rough day today.
I don’t want to go into too much of my personal life (it would take too long), but the short version is that my brother recently married a woman who is systematically breaking our family apart. The new wife and my brother have alienated my mother (who was living in Germany with him, but is now moving back to the States), and I’ve been trying to play the part of “calm intermediary.”
I tried to stay impartial, to see things from both sides, but I had my first phone conversation with my new sister-in-law today. I think it went well.
I only called her a “fucking cunt” once before she hung up.
Writing? What’s that?
I should breath a heavy sigh now. You know, a nice moody sigh that people use when they want to say, “Pay attention to me… ask what’s wrong.”
Instead of a sigh, I have a nice blog where I can just blurt out what I wanted to say in the first place. I guess a blog cuts out the passive attention-seeking behavior and goes straight for the active behavior. Lucky me, huh? 
But I digress…
Crazy Eights
Whew!
Last night I finished a marathon revision of Ch8. It was late when I finished (well after midnight), and I had a headache, so I didn’t update the blog then. It’s morning now and I’m well-rested, with no headache. So, you get a blog post.
Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!
Time for an update.
I got Ch4 back from my editor a couple of days ago, but I just survived the busiest weekend I’ve had in a long time.
Breaking up is hard to do
A quick update to move things along after the prevous post.
I sent Ch3 off to the editor a couple of days ago. I haven’t finished Ch6 yet, but I made an important decision. The erstwhile Ch6 has grown to 18k words, and I still have ~4k left to write before I close out the mini-arc. So, I could cut the hell out of it to get it to a “super-sized” chapter of ~15k words, or I could chop it in half and call it 6 & 7. I chose the latter.
Talk about a marathon…
It’s 2:52am. I’ve been writing for… I don’t know how long… 5 hours, at least. I have a bit of a headache, and my arms and shoulders are sore from a heavy workout yesterday (not to mention sitting at my computer and writing for 5 freakin’ hours!).
I just checked my word count for today. Not counting any editing, I cranked out an astounding 6,223 words. What’s more, that doesn’t count the ~1,200 words I wrote this afternoon and then deleted tonight because I didn’t need the scene. No wonder my neck and shoulders are sore. That’s a freakin’ short story by itself!
I love Wren!
Just a quick update, since I haven’t posted in a while. (I have a good excuse, of course, but the Great Server Adventure of ‘07 is fodder for a whole post by itself.)
In any event, I’m up way past my bedtime. I’ve been writing for what seemed like thirty minutes, but was closer to two hours. Actually, I think I sat down a little after 11pm, so it’s been more like two hours and twenty minutes. But I digress.