In Which Our Heroine Rips and Shreds

12 January 2005

Here is what I learned from doing revisions today: if the character says, "That makes sense to me," reread the stuff that comes before it and analyze very, very carefully, because it probably doesn't. Turkey City Lexicon stuff, I know, but still it pops up.

Also, what on earth made me think I could write a book with chapters inherent to its structure? Everyone knows I don't understand chapters. I certainly know I don't understand chapters. They're getting squished and stretched and pulled and prodded. I think I've lost track of renumbering at least once and am ignoring it for the rest of the draft for ease of reference. That's one thing I can run a check on pretty easily in a later draft: search on "Chapter" and make sure it goes "1, 2, 3, 4...." Because, all appearances to the contrary, I am not Robert Anton Wilson.

I am in a savagely bad mood for no particular reason today, so it's a perfect time to rip at my book and think, "What the hell was I thinking of?" over and over again. I'm not in a bad mood with anyone, so naturally they shouldn't have to bear the brunt of it. I caught myself thinking, "Now if I was only done with the revisions on this thing, I'd have accomplished something," which, when approached logically, reads as, "Now if I'd only moved the other half of this mountain, I'd have accomplished something." Bah. Books are big and scary. At least books for grown-ups are. And it's not my turn to write more YAs yet.

I have my Christmas pictures -- the ones from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day -- in my possession. I don't yet have them cropped and sized down to be reasonable on the webpage yet, though, so you'll just have to be patient.

It snowed here today, finally enough to make a substantial difference in how things smell (and look), and just in time to maybe protect a few of the plants a bit in the upcoming cold snap. It's not supposed to get above zero again until Monday. So that's something going as it's supposed to, at least; that's Minnesota winter behaving like Minnesota winter.

I'm going to go finish reading Ellis Peters's st. Peter's Fair, and then I'm going to bed and hoping to manage a better mood by morning.

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