Monday, January 04, 2010

2010: Day 4 & Counting

I think I might have found the answer to my writing madness. During my recent 14-day holiday vacation, I continued to get up around six in the morning to write. It felt wonderful—really wonderful to work in absolute silence.

Evidently, I’d inadvertently gotten myself into a good routine. This morning, on my first day back to work, one of our dogs, Candy (4 year-old mini Doxie) woke me up with her barking around four. Fully intending to go back to sleep for another two hours, I tossed and turned until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I threw on my robe and slippers, walked down the hall, turned on my laptop and edited two more chapters before my six o'clock shower. OMG!!

I was able to work on a chapter 35 during my lunch hour, but about half way through the read, I decided it needed some minor changes. It’s not a bad chapter, in fact, there’s some good tension going on in there between two characters, it just needs to take place somewhere else other than in Rhonie Lude’s living room. It made me wonder how many other chapters I began with my character arriving home and answering a phone call. Boring, but that’s what happens during the writing of the early drafts and why we edit ruthlessly.

It really won’t take too much to change it, but I’ll probably spend the next day or so tossing ideas around until I find a better location. Whatever the change, it’ll be worth the effort.

Today’s word count: 65,035, six more chapters to edit and I've yet to write the ending.