Sunday into Monday

[ksmith]

I'm tired. I may have hit 5000 words today. Technically, the chapter I rewrote contained passages that didn't need editing, but you move things around and tweak words and redo business and save the dialogue but rework the setting or save the setting and rework the dialogue and before you know it...I may have hit 5000 words today. Which would be a record. Wish it hadn't taken me, like, 12 hours to do it. Still have tomorrow off, but damn, the days are going so fast.

I still have 210 pages to rework. I have a week in which to do this. I may be sacrificing another vacation day on the altar of this book. And my last threads of sanity, but that's what the duct tape's for.

Could get a few inches of snow tomorrow. In honor of that, I went out for an hour this morning and bought a new snow shovel, one that can push the snow. Also bought deicer. And wine. And chocolate. And Pinwheels, those chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies that don't taste as good now as they did when I was in high school, but oh well. And I filled up the truck with gas just in case. Just in case of what, I have no clue. Alien invasion.

I don't want to think about where my head would be right now if I hadn't gotten that extra weekend. I tell myself that this is some kind of divine intervention--Scribulus, the writer's god, knew I needed another week, and Arranged Matters. If I'd needed two, he'd have gotten me two. But I must only need one.

Why does it take so damned long to rework a paragraph?

I had a massage yesterday. I think it's already worn off.

I never thought this book would take off in the direction it has. It's the right feel--it goes with the cover. But even a month ago, I didn't see it coming.

Aren't I supposed to be able to figure this stuff out by now?

Comments

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

If I could figure out where everything was going before I started writing, I don't think writing would be much fun. Honestly, I don't think I'd write. My third book didn't end even remotely close to where I thought it would end when I started. I just got this feeling about halfway through that the characters were plotting something behind my back . . . and they were! The sneaky bastards.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I just wish that plot uncertainty and approaching deadline weren't directly proportional.

FYI--nothing in the mail yet. Did you go First Class or Media?

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I went media. It was $3 cheaper. If it doesn't make it there, I'll send another copy first class.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Ok--good to know. I'll keep an eye out.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the revisions.

Glad to see our snow preparations lists are similar--I'm planning a run tonight for chocolate, wine, tuna, and nutrigrain bars. That plus water and I'm good for days.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

If snow is bad tomorrow, I may not go in. If it's middlin', I'll take a half-day and shovel myself out, go in for the afternoon.

Snow Prep is an Art.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Why does it take so damned long to rework a paragraph?

-->Because you actually give a damn?

I suppose there are people who can write solid, non-hack prose without a lot of effort, but I've never met them. And if I ever do meet them, I will ask that they please give me some of their drugs.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Their drugs would make millions.

I read somewhere that "I'm not a writer, I'm a rewriter" is considered hackneyed, or not always true--well, ok, it isn't--or something. But it's a fact of life for me. Wish it wasn't, but I didn't get a vote.