Monday, August 18, 2014

Reading, Relaxing, and Revisioning

The week started off just like I like it: slow.

On the couch watching Pink Panther

It included bedtime reading, such as On the Banks of Plum Creek. This was a childhood book, and this copy is one my father used to read to me. Notice the hash marks he made to explain the story to me so many decades ago...
This was such a wonderful find

And then the weekend started to loom, when birthdays had to be planned and guests were overnighting. 

We cleaned and we went shopping. A value-size container of creamer caught my eye. I have no need or want of a creamer that is larger than my head or one that tells me it's a "Great Value." But it makes me think about giants and their coffee and how this might be the equivalent of a drop of milk.*

*I have random thoughts like this all the time. My brain is surprisingly full-slash-empty at any given moment.

I'm a skim milk girl myself

Our weekend guests came and so did La Husband's birthday. What do you get a 38-year-old computer programmer who really lacks for nothing? Why, a platter with 14 kinds of cheesecake and a Darth Vader candle! (Loving how the candle is light-saber-esque.)

"Luke, I am your...birthday cake topper."

And what makes a get-together more satisfying than one that comes with dogs? Especially 60-pound dogs that climb into your lap and attempt to curl up like a cat. I think that can only happen if the lap is a giant's.**

**See above discussion about giants.

"Light as feather, stiff as a board."

Sometimes, the Visiting Cousin Dog just wanted to laze in the sun and roll in the grass. He didn't care that 2,345 spiders call that grass home. Or that Le Boy Bebe thought he's one mighty odd-looking cat (since Le Boy Bebe only has cats).

"Let us co-exist and keep a respectable distance." -Le Boy Bebe

So that was my Saturday and Sunday. (Wow. A lot happened in two days!) What didn't happen? Writing or revising. Luckily, I worked my tutkiss off Monday through Friday. One story was given a thorough Revision #2 and Revision #3 and is now with my Beta Readers.

I begin revisions on the next story today. 

What? I can just keep revising? How is this possible?

Well, I got into a fast-writing mode in July. I fast wrote:

    6000 words on the short story (a Bad Mom story)
+12000 words on the novella tied to the short story (another Bad Mom story)
+23000 words on the novella for my other series (His Favorite)
  41000 fast words/3 stories/2 series

I just finished revising the short story, taking it from 6K to 15K in nine days. I had put aside seven days, but that put me only through the second thorough revision. And I needed to do three thorough revisions before it went to the Betas.

Two extra days. Not bad.

Now I have the 12K novella to do, and I'm hoping to bring that to about 25K. (This one will be challenging. It's pretty awful where it's at. Some chapters only have two paragraphs. A lot of the story is "Yawn." So in other words: Yuck.) I have given myself twelve days to get through three thorough revisions. We'll see. I'm pragmatic and also ambitious.

I'll let you know which of those two are winning out when we meet again...

Until next Sunday,