Dear Reader,
Today has turned into a bit of a writing triumph. Last night I finished the James timeline, which meant that when I reentered his thread today, I knew what needed doing. Word Raccoon is totally immersed in the novel now, I’m happy to say.
This was not the post we were going to write. We have a great idea, but we are pleasantly tired from writing/reading/revising all day, and we want energy for our fun idea. So today, please accept this humble little progress report.
James’s thread is now rough-draft finished. Two threads down, two to go! And August is only half gone! I may make my (self-imposed) deadline yet.
After finishing his thread, I “rewarded” myself by taking WR to the gym. Despite my best efforts, when she gets wound up about her writing she gets snacky. I will not tell you about the poor manners she used on a small bag of Cheez-Its. I don’t even really like them, but she didn’t care as she found the bottom of the bag. Poor things didn’t stand a chance. (I wonder what the origin of “stand a chance” is. Too tired to find out.)
Wait, WR insisted we look “stand a chance” up, and I’m glad we did: Jane Austen uses it in Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813: “Mrs. Long and her nieces must stand their chance.” Even better, chance ultimately comes from a word associated with the falling of dice. I mean…I must be tired because now I’m thinking, isn’t all of this somewhat self-evident, WR? I wanted to know how stand and chance actually got married (Austen/see what I did there?) into a phrase, but I really am too tired. The Austen thing was cool to learn, though.
I added dates for the third thread to my timeline spreadsheet and confirmed a few facts before plunging back into a 105-page section, which I quickly shrank to 84 pages by getting rid of a scene that made me and WR both go, “No!”
I wish we could do that in life sometimes. Highlight twenty-one pages and delete.
Quick bit of good news before I close shop for the night: my poem “Bonnie and Clyde Without Guns” has been chosen by Molecule: A Tiny Lit Mag for publication in their fall issue, out September 15. I’m so happy that my fun little poem has found a home. I remember writing that one scorching night at an uptown cafe last year on my Freewrite. I sat there going, “Okay, now what?” and as I was writing the suite of poems, I had a good time just free associating. I would blame WR, but what’s to blame? It’s getting published.
Getting deeper into the third thread of my four-thread novel both thrills and scares me. This is a real, live book. I think I am going to be able to finish not only this rough draft, but meet my goal of a solid draft by year’s end.
Oh, I did change not the POV but the tense in the third thread: she’s now in present because she sounded like she had a big stick up her…anyway…now she’s sound better. So far.
I still need to write an important poem by James, though. I hope I can do his writing style (or what I imagine it is) justice. I’ve really gotten into his letter and journal writing style, so I hope I can. He’s still one of my favorite characters in the novel.
The happiest of Sundays to you, dear reader.
Ugh, that closing is so greige. Maybe it’s greige enough that you can paint whatever you’d like me to say onto it.
Drema