Edits, Exterminators, and NaNoWriMo

Progress on edits:

In the last two mornings during my mental meltdown over the mice, I was able to edit eight chapters of my WIP that my writing partner marked up for me, five of them this morning while waiting somewhat impatiently for the exterminator.  They aren't the final edits, but I feel great about the changes and amazingly lucky to have such a talented CP.

Tomorrow (unless a mouse runs across my foot or shows it's little face) I am going to jump back into final edits.  I was hoping to do a chapter a day in October.  At least I kept writing on days that were difficult instead of making excuses.

I have made plenty of excuses about exercise. I have done zero - although I think I may have burned some calories in my cleaning frenzy yesterday.

And I'm having a hard time keeping up with comments and reading other blogs while obsessing over revisions and rodents.  I'm sure you all understand.


Exterminator update:

The dude walked into my garage and found tons of mouse poop.  Definitely mouse poop.  Apparently he can tell the animal from what it leaves behind and explained in great detail how to tell if it's fresh.  Awesome.

He thinks they will go to the attic, where they will eat the rodinocide (cool word, no?) and then they will leave the house and soon go to the spirit in the sky.  I prefer to be humane about removing creatures from my home, but I can't cope with this. 

He also thinks it's going to be a problem if they crawl into an open bag of cheesy chips.  My kids did not clean their rooms yesterday.  Today is the day.  And now I'm a bit of an expert on mouse poop.  Hopefully there isn't any under the stinky laundry in their rooms.  Must remember to wear gloves.



NaNoWriMo update:

I've got the badge on my sidebar and signed up.  I added a little graph for my word count.  If you want one, go to http://www.svenjaliv.com/wordmeter/.

I've decided I'm not going to write through Thanksgiving.  I need time with my family, and, well, I like cooking on Thanksgiving Day with my kids.  So I'm going to try to double up the first few days and write more than 2,000 words a day so I won't have to write as much at the end of the month. 

Honestly, it would be cool to finish the whole novel, not just the first 50K. 

Just an observation - the regional group in the area I live in is run by teens.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Good reason to stay off the forums and just write.

I had to change my user ID because, well, the system said my email didn't exist when it did the day before.  I'm not sure I care. 

Progress on the Edits...

I think I do my best work under pressure.  I know I did in high school (what I remember of that), in college, and at my normal job when I had one.  I don't like to fail.  Nothing is more motivating to me. 

Today I was able to finalize the edits to the first two chapters of the final section of my novel.  I sliced the novel into thirds to make it manageable.  I thought this section was going to be the easiest, but it's been a rough day for sure. 

I also marked up the edits to several other chapters, so I have work to finish later tonight or tomorrow. 

My kids and my back are telling me it's time to stop for the day.  Right now.  So I clock out.

Rewrites and Revisions

A few days ago, I was able to write one new chapter - one in the middle of my otherwise finished story.  I was very emotional while I wrote it and equally excited to have completed it.  I let my husband read it.  He gave me a very lukewarm opinion - something like "well, hmmm, maybe I need to read the chapters that come before it to put it in context."  Super huge bummer.

All my excitement about finally writing that one chapter deflated like a balloon with a tiny leak. 

However, this middle section isn't something I'm willing to give up on.  The middle part is where the main character has real-time interaction with the protagonist, her mother.  When I reread it last night, I could see places where I held back.  I didn't entirely go to that completely raw place that hurts when you touch it but makes for good writing. 

Today I'm going to try to poke that spot, to get to it, to say it, to show it. 

Over the last few days, while I've been moping a little about my husband's reaction, I have been fighting the urge to set aside writing and build databases and study for a database administration certification (which would also provide steady, reliable, and very good income). 

The attraction for me besides the potential to make a lot of money without having to work too terribly hard is that database design and development is creative but has constraints.  How you choose to design the database has a direct impact on performance and usability.  The certification exams as well as the administration end of databases (as opposed to development) are black and white - which is very attractive to me right now.  There's no gray area.  It is what it is in a very fact-driven sort of way.  My mind is craving an activity that is that solid.

It's much more difficult with writing (especially when you are stuck getting the middle part just right) because writing is so gray (actually, rainbow colored with sparkles) - so creative.  But the more I stare at the words in the middle of my novel and think about building databases, the more I see what I need to do to optimize the experience for the reader.  I need to take out the extraneous stuff so it flows faster.  I need to expose the raw conflict.  I need to apply all the techniques I applied to the first eight chapters. 

When I look at my novel like I would look at designing a database, it makes it easier for me.  I can detach my ego from it.  When I think logically about the changes I need to make to this section of my novel, it seems very do-able, like I can do it today. 

Specifically, I know I need to combine two chapters, change the dialogue just a little between the mother and daughter, and take out some lines that don't need to be there.  I need to write the next chapter and add in one particular mother-daughter conversation and a chapter about a bike ride.  Then it works. 

Wish me luck and forgive me for not visiting and commenting more.  I'm going to reward myself for getting this work done by giving myself a day to catch up.  Must do my work first....

One Chapter a Day for As Long as It Takes

I have been struggling to edit my novel for a couple of months.  Yesterday, I forced myself to shut down everything on my computer except Word to minimize distractions.  Two kids were asleep and one was at preschool.  All I had to do is write.  I told myself I could get up from my chair only to get another cup of coffee or when one chapter was completed. 

On Monday, I planned out exactly the changes I needed to make to existing chapters and the ones I needed to add.  It was a little overwhelming.  Overwhelming to the point I wondered whether I should walk away from it and give it more space.

Yesterday I worked up some determination and wrote one chapter.  Once I got started, it seemed to write itself.  My character's marriage is starting to fall apart a little, something I hinted at in the original version but only included in the first few chapters.  This new chapter only has the main character and her husband in it.   I can see now that it really needed to be added.  The chapter took some turns I didn't expect, that I didn't plan out in my mind before I wrote it. 

Within minutes I was lost in it.  Any worries I had about finishing this story or the amount of work it will take to do revisions was vanished within two sentences - completely gone without a trace.

I think sometimes as writers we think there's magic to writing.  It's easy to think that if I'm having a bad day, my story might turn out bad so I should wait until tomorrow.  But I truly think that if I had sat down to write that chapter any day of the week, it would have gone pretty much the same way because I know who my characters are.  They couldn't have behaved differently in the chapter - not a chance.

So I think it won't be so difficult to write another chapter today.  And another tomorrow.  And rip apart and reassemble another one on Friday.  I make a commitment to myself to work on it one chapter a day for as long as it takes.

I love this story before I made these changes.  I can't wait to see how it turns out when I'm done.