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In process -- February 2012

First Draft


“Fairfax”. Started month with around 61K words, in Chapter 23. Now I’m on Chapter 26. There was actually a day when I got two pages, instead of just one!


“What Would Musashi Do?” This is the essay I had to write for karate class. I did it from start to finish this month, and I’d say it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write. I’m not even sure if it ever got read.

Editing


“XTree”. (short story) Typed this one up. It turned out to be 9600 words, which is absurd. Still, I find when I edit, sometimes I just chop, chop, chop, and don’t improve things really, just gut the tale. However, this time I’m trying to do better, work with a plan. Last night I did the second pass on the first 28 (of 40) pages. At VP, Jim MacDonald talked about leaving little presents for yourself that you can decide to use later, or not. Some of them I use, the ones I don’t need, I’m taking out. Also, Hal Duncan had a blog post a couple of days ago about editing good sentences. This was good because it’s focused me on the words, on tightening the sentences, not taking out the thoughts but making them clearer.


Knitting


“Joy” from Rowan Vintage Knits. Back and both fronts done. I was reluctant to do the beads, but now that I am, I’m loving it.

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