Revisions for ch. 2 done

Yay!

That took much longer than I had hoped, but even though it's summer, I'm finding it difficult to find time to write/revise. I'll have to arrange my days so that I have scheduled time to write, otherwise it won't get done.

R3 really liked Ch. 1, which is awesome. She even unknowingly noted that she liked a place I had revised as a result of R1's comments. Excellent.

I think my research paid off, too. We'll see how the rally near the Marine base plays to the audience.

time for sleep. *yawn*.

m

Hooray! I'm working again!

Finally some work on Chapter 2!

Also, my dear friends (Reader 2--R2-- and Reader 3--R3)now have copies of Chapter 1. There is no motivator like a friend asking, "So, when's the next chapter coming?" Plus, R2 and R3 are both girls who either write or like reading the for-girl genre, or both. They will be members of the target audience, in other words. R1 can't claim that, though he holds me to standards above those of said genre.

In short: I have two more first readers who have manuscript now! One small step, etc., etc.

AND, I found time to work on the second draft of Chapter 2. I may even find time later today to work on it more. Bliss.

m

Library Quest

I am working with Robert Monge at the WOU Library on a series of short "web-isodes" that are set in the library. They are supposed to introduce viewers to different parts of the library, but mostly they are just a fun creative outlet for us.

I'm trying to make a campy revisit of Scooby-Doo with a Pushing Daisies kind of schtick set in a college library. There'll be monsters and ghosts and puns and local references galore. It ought to be silly and fun. Not educational at all.

la

m

Visit to Military Base?

Hey, blogosphere/twitterverse: What kinds of things would happen if a liberal, anti-war Presidential candidate were to visit a Marine base on a campaign stop? I need some help here because I don't know the following:

• Would there be a protest? Where would it be? Outside the base? the building?
• How big would the crowd be? Would anyone show up? What would their mood be? What kinds of questions would they have?
• What would the be absolute WRONG thing to say to a room full of military families and personnel on a base that has sent troops to the Middle East?

Leave me a comment and help a novelist get it right...or at least less wrong.

m

banging on chp 2

I'm now focused on re-working chapter 2.

Re-reading the chapter reminded me a little of the fever I was writing under during NaNo. I pounded out this draft, with little attention to the language. It's pretty sparse. Next time I do a first draft, I'm going to take some more deep breaths and think about the words more carefully. I was really concentrating on getting from point A to B, and not so much on HOW I got there.

That said, maybe that's not a bad thing. Revision is a more reflective process, so maybe it is the "correct" time for me to attend to the craft of writing.

This is a long way of saying that chapter 2 needs some work.

Oh, and I can now when the interviewer of the future asks me, the famous author, how much research I do, I can say honestly, "some."

Liz goes to a military base for a rally early in her campaign. Originally, she was going to one in Arizona where her original radio show aired, so I Googled "Arizona Military Bases." Curiously, there are only two army bases in that state, and neither of their servers were working that day. However, I learned from other sites that one is only a testing facility and the other only trains intelligence officers. I need Liz to visit a base where soldiers are deployed and leave their families behind.

Now I'm thinking Liz visits Camp Pendleton in California, since Liz lives in L.A. It's a huge base and lots of Marines are deployed from there. I need to read up a bit on it, and possibly review some speeches other candidates have done on military bases to see how it would work.

So, fact-finding melds with complete fantasy. Fun!
m

At what point does the dead horse protest?

I'm still whacking at chapter one of Liz, and I think it's coming along.

But, as I was editing along, a very strange sub-plot occurred to me. Really strange. Like, mythological-strange. But I like it. I like it a lot, and I think I may keep it. It's just kooky enough to make the rest of the kookiness make sense. Why not? It is fiction, after all. I'm currently reading a chick-lit book about Greek Gods who now live in modern-day London and can't get jobs (Gods Behaving Badly). Why can't I have a little weirdness?

Even Shakespeare did it:

Hamlet--There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

So, I'm in good company. Right?

I know. I'm only right if it works in the book. But now it's fun again. :)

m

Editing the first chapter

I hadn't realized how long it has been since I've posted here. Naughty Maren.

I have been working on Liz, by re-writing the first chapter. It is beginning to take shape--a shape that is quite different than the original. I've moved a lot of episodes around to try to paint a picture of Liz Stratton and her crew before the "beginning" of the story, which is much more difficult than I thought it was going to be.

Here's the "craft"part. It's different than the "I'm a crazy writer running on caffeine and adrenaline, get out of my way!" rush that I get when I'm plowing through a first draft. This is the "I'm a crazy editor, hunched over the draft wrapping my mind around storytelling, plot and character, stay the heck out of my office!" focus, which I am also good at (writing teacher for over 10 years), but which I don't always apply to my own work.

I have come up with a few goals. I am going to the "Fiction Carreer--a.k.a.Kris and Dean Show" writing workshop in September, and I'd like to have a polished draft of Liz to take with me. To do this, I'd like to devote about 2 hours a day, 5 days a weekover the summer to re-writing the draft and possibly working on new stuff, too. I may be dreaming, but it's good to dream.

m