Making progress….HONEST!!!

I really did have a good work day yesterday next to the mummy woman (even though I could see people walking around outside in short sleeves). I’m not sure you could say I made FORWARD progress, but I made a lot of BACKWARDS progress. It’s weird…usually when I write a book, I start at page 1, rewrite it 50 times, then move on to page 2, rewrite that page 50 times, then move on to page 3. With this one, I go forward a few pages, then think of some new thing with one of the characters that forces me to cycle back through the whole thing and work it in. I think it’s this multi-viewpoint format that makes me do that. But the story gets deeper each time I do it. Six characters is a LOT to juggle…it’s a whole different process. But I’m learning a lot (i.e. it takes me a lot longer to write a book this way) and I’m enjoying the process (especially right now when I’m not working on anything else at the same time…though I know I have a revision of a junior high script coming sometime this week). I definitely wouldn’t have done this particular book any other way.

I’m planning to go back to the library again this afternoon and put in another good day (especially because I don’t know how much writing I’ll be getting done over the next two and a half weeks). Teen has threatened to come with me this afternoon because Preteen has five friends coming over again. They’ve got like five different Risk boards set up for this fancy variation on Risk that Preteen invented, so they should be pretty much confined to the basement the whole time (I bet my husband’s glad he finished off that basement!). I don’t know how serious Teen is…for one thing, he THINKS I’m going to the coffee shop (and I may move to the coffee shop halfway through the afternoon for a change in scenery…and some nourishment…), but I’m definitely starting out at the table next to Mummy Woman! The other reason I’m not sure Teen is serious about joining me is he would actually have to be up, dressed and fed by noon because that’s when I’m leaving. (Though I guess he could drive down on his own later…)

When I finish this afternoon, I’ll stop and pick up Pagliai’s pizza on the way home. This is also “luminary Sunday” in Coralville, which means every sidewalk in town will be lined with luminaries. So that’ll be nice to see…if everyone else in town isn’t out driving around looking at the luminaries and preventing me from getting home while my pizzas are still hot. I much prefer “luminary Sunday” to the week or so that follows because while there are many people in town who will make sure EVERY three squares of sidewalk has a bag with sand and a candle in it, there don’t seem to be quite as many people who are interested in PICKING UP the leftover luminaries after it’s all over. So there will be flattened bags lying around for the next week or so. Sometimes it’s not unusual to see leftover luminary bags in spring…but considering there’s no snow on the ground right now, MAYBE more people will get out and deal with their bags this year.