Robynettely

Worked on the wretched TBC again last night, for probably an hour, moving scenes around to make them make sense. Seems I had no action for about the first 30 pages of the story. Now at least something happens. I move one thing, and then I have to move about six other things to make it make sense again. And then this afternoon I looked at the second half of the print-out I made weeks ago. I've barely touched the second half lately, so I was thinking I should have a go before I printed it out again. OMG, dispair really is an integral part of the writing process. I booked my vacation for 18-22 August, and my goal is to have a readable draft by then, to fob off on my poor, unsuspecting sisters. Maybe I should go back to the beginning again, since that's the part they would start with...

I started working the brilliant Shakespeare theme into Toothbrush today. A couple of elements had already been there, which is kind of funny. I had these girls, and I needed to give them names... so they got MND names. And now, those names are actually motivated, and the element that they comprised seems more rooted in the plot. It's this sort of thing that makes me not feel so bad about how long it takes me to edit. The idea popped up somewhat unbidden as I was falling asleep on Monday, and it's remarkable that I was able to start working it in. Often, by the time I get around to exercising my genius, it doesn't seem nearly so clever any more. So that was probably 40 minutes of a sonnet and some new conversation. On about Tuesday I realized there's a scene that just has to be removed, as it doesn't work with the ages of the characters. Maybe I should take it out now, and then have some lunch.

If I only have to look at it for ten minutes, turns out I can work on this wretched rewriting thing. Yesterday I picked the first page in Toothbrush that had no writing on it (I assumed that's where I'd left off, on page 3) and marked it up. Then we went out to play for a few hours, and when we came back I made my changes in the draft. That wasn't so bad, now, was it? Turns out, actually, that I had marked up page four and five earlier, but whatever. I got rid of two named characters, turning their dialog into an introduction to two other characters, the kind-of Nemisi (I have a vague feeling you can't really have two nemesises, it's a word that seems like it shouldn't take a plural) of my main character. Maybe later I'll change their names (to protect the innocent). I think I know their true names now.

When I was at band two nights ago, one of the flute players was lamenting that she'd be way better if she'd just take her flute out and practice it for an hour every day. Except that's totally unrealistic. Nobody who is a normal adult and has normal adult responsibilities (I believe this woman has a business contracting to sew home decor items, which she sometimes does until 2am, and has a child, etc.) has time to practice for an hour per day. I don't manage to practice for an hour per week (though that may be partly because I don't want to wear out my reeds). So I mentioned that back when I took oboe lessons, my teacher told me to practice for 15 minutes a day. And that was good, because it got me to take the instrument out and put it together every day, with a minimal time commitment. Who doesn't have 15 minutes? And in fact, once the instrument was out, I used to often practice far more than 15 minutes some days. And then I said "In fact, this is somethi...