How to Kill a Lunch Break:

Thirty minutes and a brand new header for my blog. Pretty. Shiny. New.

Also built in some pages into the header area. I've got a spot to fill in a bio. That's kinda dull, but hey, why not. I've also put in a writing page, where I'll post some excerpts from I Had to Fall once I get this rewrite all done. Aren't you excited?

Eh? Eh?

Onward!

Made it through all my hard copy notes today.

According to my records, I printed that copy out on October 30th last year, let it sit for a couple months, and made the notes for changes during the last week of January. As I said yesterday, I've revised my editing process. One of the things that wasn't working for me was jumping back and forth between my new digital notes and that old hard copy. So today I finished converting my red-pen notes into digital comments.

Now, those red-pen notes were made almost three months ago. In that space of time I've gone ahead and finished the first draft of the second Deyl Parker book, To Rise Again. A lot has developed and changed in regards to characters, world, history, etc. Which means my next step is to review again, keeping all those new developments in mind, and make nice new little digital comments.

I really have no idea how long that will take. Tentatively, I'm hoping I'll be done by this weekend, though that might be a tad ambitious... we'll see.

Experimentation

I'm an avid reader of Kim Harrison's blog, by the way. Her writing advice is what made me take up the pen (well, keyboard really) in the first place, and got me into this whole mess. One of the things she's repeatedly mentioned is that the writing process is a not a science, that it changes and evolves.

Today, my process evolved.

So far I've been tackling the re-write chapter by chapter. I've copied comments into the document from the last hard copy I printed out (more on that another day), read my notes for important changes to the world, characters and plots, re-read each chapter and made new notes, then gone back and re-written the chapter. Then all over again for the next chapter.

I feel slogged (what does slogged mean? not sure. I'm going with sluggishly-bogged-down) by that process. Jumping from notes to writing and back again. Instead, I'm going to try working all those notes and changes into document comments during one big read-through, then go back to the beginning and just write. Everything I need to change will be there, just a matter of re-writing it nicely. 

Wish me luck.

Also, countdown to Air: 34d

Shifting Gears

Yeah, today did come together more smoothly than yesterday did. I finished re-writing chapters seven and eight, and got about halfway through chapter nine. I've still got some concerns, but so far the re-write is cleaning up a lot of the ugly writing and building a much more solid world around Deyl and her friends. And enemies. Stronger story, better writing. All good things.

And those concerns I've got? Basically, how will these changes affect the overall story. But I figure, once I've got all the major changes done I'll spend a few more days re-reading the whole thing just to tweak and polish the finished story. Yeah, it will all work out. I'm sure of it.

So I'll hope that my work schedule is a bit more under control this week, get in an extra day of writing on the long weekend, and really shift gears back into writing mode.

Also: super-excited to get my new Air next month. Do you know how old this iBook is? Well, it's an iBook for starters, so that tells you something. I need to update. Badly. If I go out and buy the Air on my birthday (which is the plan...) I'm officially on a 35 day countdown!!

Back from the Dead

Okay, I wasn't dead. Just overworked. As I've probably already mentioned, spring is trade show season. And as I design trade show displays for a living, that means I'm super busy at the office. And when I'm working long days and weekends I usually don't have the energy to be creative.

Hell, I don't have the energy for anything at that point.

The house is a mess, I haven't done a German lesson in two weeks, my exercise gear is gathering dust and my friends think I'm ignoring them. But I did get back to work today! I got back into the re-write of I Had to Fall, though it didn't go as smoothly as I was hoping. I'll just chock that up to being rusty from my two-week hiatus and keep my fingers crossed that tomorrow is better.

In other news, a foot of snow fell here in Calgary last week. So as much as I've been looking forward to working on the re-write outside in the sun, that's not happening anytime soon. Sigh.

Seriously.

Seriously, I'm tired of having to sign a petition every time an election rolls around. The Green Party of Canada has nearly a million voters, and more than that in supporters. They shouldn't have to fight for a spot in the leaders debate each time our government fails. C'mon.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Work at the office has put the rest of my life on hold for the past few days. March to June is typically our busiest time of year, and as a growing business Exhibit Studio is busier than ever this spring. I've put my German practice on hold (thank-you Rosetta Stone) as well as my writing. Mostly, when I finally make it home from the office I've been curling up in my comfy chair to read. And then sleep. That's it.

Now that the weekend is here I've got a bit more time on my hands. I've already done some of my Deutsch lessons this morning, trying to catch up, and I should be able to dedicate this evening to the editing book one, I Had to Fall. I mean, it's not like I'm going to be getting any gardening done... seeing as another foot of snow fell last night. Sigh.