Retrenching

[ksmith]

So much of what I'd written on ENDGAME as of several weeks ago was out of whack--not in order, not connected to any particular chapter. I wrote things as they occurred to me, scenes I thought I'd need later on. Anything to get up to speed again.



When it got to the point where I started confusing myself, I decided to go back, renumber chapters, split out sections, and in general organize the mess. I cleaved out the unaffiliated scenes because they have no firm place. Linked together the solid chapters. Not quite done with Chapter 7, but as of now we have:

Pages: 128
Total words: 26, 564

No word count for today because I was no wrapped up in finishing Chapter 7 that I didn't keep track. Several pages, though.

The next task is to make sure that iMac, iBook, and pendrive all contain the same versions of the same chapters. You'd think this would be easier than it is. You'd think.

******************

"I don’t see it." Jani leaned close to Tsecha and squinted at the horizon, following the direction in which he pointed. The sun reflected hard off the water, and her eyes ached. "No wake. No plume. Nothing."

"Then you are most blind, nìa." Tsecha shook his head in one of his more humanish expressions of exasperation. "It is a Service bay skimmer. They float too close to the water's surface, and thus leave a long plume." He sat forward, elbows on knees. "I can see it most readily."

"Desert eyes." Jani sat up slowly in deference to her stiffening back. "Either that, or you're just pretending to see it. You'll wait until I say I see it, too, then tell me that it was never there to begin with."

"Why would I do that, nìa?"

"Gotcha."

"Got-cha." Tsecha cocked his head. "Such would be a waste of time."

"You'd think so, wouldn’t you?" Jani stood, shoving her hands in her pockets as she kicked at the sand at her feet. "Tell that to some of your friends at the Trade Board."

"My friends." Tsecha folded his arms. "Those who give you difficulty--you always say that they are as I am."

"You all tend to follow a certain familiar pattern." Jani bent low to the sand, picking through the smoothed stones until she found a flattened oval.

Comments

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a very productive day--I'm impressed. Since W was not feeling the best, I spent most of the day being a slug and watching FIREFLY DVDs with him.

It was pretty good--a shame it didn't make it.

Now, to be good and visit the chapter myself...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yes--I have friends still awaiting the next Allie book.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

*drools discreetly in the corner*

It's fun yet weird hearing how it is an author gets a book from the idea in their head down into the form that I read it in. It tends to remind me of game design a lot "oh, didn't you know that if we change the doors this way we *need* to remind players about the danger of this group of badguys dumping boiling oil on their heads?" A lot of stuff all linked together that you might never think to mention... except that someone else is seeing it.

Thank you for drooling!

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

One problem I'm having is that I know I need to rewrite the first several chapters in order to take into account 1) a timing issue that I didn't figure out until midway through Ch 7, 2) different plot points that have now solidified somewhat and need to be tweaked/altered/accentuated. I want to rewrite them *now*, but I also need to get on with the book *now*. So, I'm making more use of the Insert Comments option in Word. Little yellow alert tags now dot the master document.