Tuesday, March 30
Here we are, not entirely starting over on the book, but kind of. Keeping fav characters and their lives. Saying bye to less fav characters. Totally reworking plot and structure. One day I will reread the first months of this journal and think, “Oh, poor writer, if you only knew how many [...]
Monday, March 22
After work: Semi-hard to get going again after stopping for research and life. Now I’m doing what’s necessary–taking the time to get to know a crucial character better. I had thought she was saintly, but it turns out she’s just a very good-hearted human who stands up for herself and for people [...]
Monday, March 15
During work: Didn’t feel like writing. Wrote anyway. So glad I did. My poor heroine. She’s in for it, and she doesn’t know it yet.
Hindsight says: should have paid attention to “didn’t feel like writing.” My poor heroine is going to vanish from the book, because it turns out she’s not the real [...]
Saturday, March 6
Taking the weekend to work on stuff I need to write/rewrite for my website. Plus, I’m thinking of sleep.
Monday, March 8
Just got a call from my editor: starred review from Publisher’s Weekly for The Scent of Rain and Lightning. So relieved and happy. You tell your self this stuff doesn’t matter, but that’s [...]
Saturday, Feb. 27 No writing, but a bit of scribbling of notes & ideas, plus a little research, on the next book. (Poets’ advice)
Sunday, Feb. 28
After work: I’ll be darned. Now I know why Wayne married his third wife. I really couldn’t figure out what he’d have seen in her, and turns out it was [...]
February 20, 2010 – 6:47 pm
Saturday, Feb. 20
Not capable of writing today, so I’m doing internet research. I’ve learned a lot of facts I hope I have enough sense not to put in the book. But they’re so interesting! Like, the word “galena” comes from Pliny. And only 12.8 miles of old Route 66 is in Kansas. Okay, I’m [...]
February 19, 2010 – 9:33 pm
Saturday, Feb. 13
Work: mostly thinking about the organization of my chapters in the first half.
Monday, Feb. 15
At work: Ugh. Plotting. Who knew, how did they know, when did they know, what did they do when they found out? Sounds like politics.
After work: had an idea for a plot twist, did some research on churches [...]
February 13, 2010 – 5:45 pm
Saturday, Feb. 6
Middle of work: rewriting the rewriten scene from yesterday. It’s getting there, but I peeked at the pages that come next. Shouldn’t have done that. I had myself fooled into thinking they weren’t the usual crappy first draft pages. hahahahah
After work: I will never stop being impressed and mystified at how something in [...]
February 13, 2010 – 5:33 pm
Saturday, Jan. 30
Before work: the middle muddle just broke through into sunshine. I figured it out by thinking about what Don Maass wrote about my own book, The Virgin of Small Plains, in his book Fire in Fiction. It’s not the size of the storm–weather or otherwise– it’s the breadth & depth of its impact. [...]
February 13, 2010 – 3:13 pm
Sunday, Jan. 24
Mid-work: More filling in, rearranging, moving scenes around, tying them together, thinking about timelines, paying attention to first lines and last lines of scenes, making sure settings feel real, double-checking emotional responses of characters, stuff like that. Suddenly I have 32,000 words. Virtue rewarded.
After work: After work: Okay, back up past 32,000 words [...]
