July 18, 1998
8:05 p.m.
Somedays it's all in your perspective, you know?  I worked my butt off today, really. Up at 5:30 (hey, it was a weekend, okay . . . and we were up late last night watching a movie and doing research for Lisa's (my wife) new project, so there). BY THE WAY: I've been asked to identify my Lisa's better since I have a tendency to talk about both my beloved Lisa and my best writing buddy Lisa in the same breath. So I'm going to try and do better, okay? I probably spent eight hours--maybe more in front of the monitor today, and I really cranked on the word count. Something more than 36,000, actually. There is one little problem with that number, though. You see, what I did today was go all the way back to the beginning of my book and read from word one of the prologue to the end of chapter 10 (or in other words, pretty much where I left off). All total, I added about a thousand words today in real numbers. But the book is better for it. The transitions are smoother. The settings are firmer, and the pieces are in place. It's another Kris and Dean-ism come to roost. Personally, I'm intending to blame them for this entire effort. One of the things I learned at the Kris and Dean show is that it's a really good idea to have all the pieces you'll need throughout the book identified in roughly the first third of it. I'm just a shade past that point now, so I figured it's a fine time for a "1st third review". I'm sure this makes total sense in Louisville (Inside joke there, sorry). It took a whole day, and it was a lot of work, and I'm farther behind than I wanted to be (it will be done before Worldcon). But it was a great exercise, and I learned a lot. Mostly I learned that I did a damned good job plotting the thing last week. But still I decided to make two or three subtle, but fairly imortant plot changes because of it. Like I said: blame it on Kris and Dean. Who knows, someday I may have to blame them for helping me get a book into print. I'm sure nothing would please them more.   Congratulations to Lisa Silverthorne for finishing her latest  Novel Dare  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
|
"You owe me" Ann-Marie Horcher |
BACK TO 
|