Friday, November 18, 2011
Waning Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Neptune Retrograde
Uranus Retrograde
Jupiter Retrograde
Sunny and cold
I woke up at 3:30 AM yesterday. Not 5:30, when I wanted to wake up. 3:30. And couldn’t get back to sleep. By 4:45, I gave up and got up.
The cats looked at me and said, “You are INSANE. We, however, are CATS, and therefore will stay in BED until a reasonable hour.” Of course, all that dignity went out the window when they heard the can open!
So, I got up to write, even though I knew it meant I’d be toast by noon.
Very disappointed in the quality of yesterday’s words. I learned a lesson — don’t assume you remember what you meant while writing the outline unless you’ve also put in some detail. I had a note in the outline that two characters were “talking”. Um, about what, exactly? Yes, one of them arrived in a unique way, but the scene has to be about more than that, or it’s just wasted words. I remember how I felt when I wrote this part of the outline — the excitement, the sense of how much fun this scene would be. But it’s nearly 80K into the book, so by the time I got there, I couldn’t remember the details. I no longer had the excitement. The scene fell flat.
I either have to re-imagine it and bring back the verve I had about it initially, or it gets cut.
Learn from my mistakes! 😉
I outlined more for this trilogy than I usually do for a book, and it STILL wasn’t enough!
Did follow-up from the Writers’ Night Out, both before and after yoga. Yoga was great. Yes, I’m muttering sometimes in some of the poses, but she really makes us work, and that’s what I need.
Stopped at Staples on the way back to get some envelopes big enough for the media kits. Did more follow up from the previous evening. Was invited and accepted the invite to a beta testing program of a new business model for writers. The head of it had spoken to us at the meeting and then was gracious enough to take extra time after to answer some of my specific questions — since a lot of what I do is very different than many people in the group. He gave me some very interesting statistics that make me feel better about what I do in my own work, and how I’m guiding my students — more and more of them are successfully publishing,
Got one manuscript out on submission and have three more to get out this weekend. I’m doing a final proofread on each of them before they head out — lots of reading!
Spent time with students, did follow-up, worked on book club research, mulled over the short story I have due soon. I think the short stories queueing up to be written will be good palate cleansers in the proofreading I do this weekend.
Went to a holiday event at a local garden center last night. It was beautifully done — the place was gorgeous. The vendors were tucked in and around the lush plant displays. The music was definitely lounge-lizard variety — but the guy was in on the joke, so it was okay. They had local food vendors, which was good, in one sense, but I wasn’t about to buy something gooey and walk around with it. If one of the bigger restaurants had partnered to cater the event, circulating h’ors d’oeuvre trays or something, I would have been impressed and tried out the restaurant. But the food element didn’t quite work the way it was set up. And it was packed — had to park in the very last spot in the far corner of the event (and trudge back to the center in the pouring rain).
I was hoping to get some of my holiday shopping done, but there really wasn’t anything that was right for those on my list. It was lovely stuff, but not what I’m looking for.
I’ve got another event at another garden center tonight! 😉
My new camera arrived. It’s similar to my old one, but just annoyingly different enough so I have to use the manual! 😉
I went to bed crazy early last night. More busy dreams — this time, I behaved thoughtlessly and totally out of character for me, and then had to fix it. I did something I’ve never done that lead others in the dream to a type of worry I’ve been careful to never cause, so it’s interesting I had that kind of dream.
Back to the page — I have to do this morning’s words on the trilogy, work on the short story, proofread manuscripts before sending them off, and work in the garden. Oh, and run to the store to buy coffee. I’m out, after this morning’s batch, and that does not bode well for anyone!
Devon
Total word count (as of yesterday): 80,683