My soul longs for this solitude.
The other day, I made a commitment to write five hundred words before I would walk the dogs.
Work Wednesday: Distractions
Category: Work Wednesday
Updates on the latest novel
Work Wednesday: Underestimating the Task
Second week of tackling the prep for the painters next week. The front door is painted and looks lovely. Although with the current trim colors (green and purple), the teal door looks like I might be living in a circus performer’s home. Or I had a stroke.
Regardless, by the time the new colors arrive, it will all make sense to the neighbors.
Work Wednesday: One Foot in Front of the Other
I love my neighbors. They decorate their lamppost every month. Sure, they do seasonal – Halloween is always spectacular – but their random ones are my favorites. They did two full months of Trans Awareness this spring, including literature (!). During the pandemic, they would do various healthcare workers, all wearing masks, and one time, I think it was a giant vaccine needle. This one is by far my favorite. Just brings me joy to walk by it each day.
I am on overwhelm and not wanting to do anything. But there is much to do: the front door needs to get a third coat of paint; the outside of the house needs to be prepped before the painters arrive in a week; and as always, the dogs need to be walked. And let’s not forget that the gardens need to be weeded.
Oh, yeah and I have a book to rewrite. I’m working on that.
How are you approaching your weeks these days?
Work Wednesday: TJ Speaks
Continuing the discussion on the rewrites for Full Sail and what is working and what is most definitely not.
By the time I was editing chapters twelve and thirteen, I knew I had to stop and regroup. The entire feel of the book was off. And most importantly, I had lost TJ’s voice around chapter five.
TJ’s voice is complex and filled with self-deprecation, humor, self-doubt and defiance. Sharp edges and deep emotions. And somehow, I had flattened out all her fun curves.
The only way I knew to find her again was to go back to the beginning. And the beginning was Run Aground. I queued up the audiobook and began to rediscover my muse.
When I can manage to write again, I think she is back strong, in all her depth and complexity. I suspect, as I return to the process, she’ll bring me comfort as we complete our journey together.
Work Wednesday: Joy of Rewriting
I wrote this on social media this week: “I feel like I have hammered and honed chapter two into a lovely opening to act 1.” No matter how I might gripe about the process, rewrites are actually very satisfying. Watching a story come sharply into focus is thrilling.
As I mentioned last week, Full Sail, the third book in the TJ Wilde Trilogy, needs some major rewrites. The problems were glaring by the time I hit chapters twelve and thirteen.
Annie DeMoranville 