I got an update from home on my son's activity.

He's hard at work on his book. He just came to ask me about which animals would be good for being his protagonist's "arch enemy." I believe he's settled on a dog.

I got done with chapter 8 in my revision. That's a bit of a milestone since I consider that to be the end of the opening part of the book. In the draft the chapter ended a bit later, but I moved up the ending for better drama. Nonetheless close enough for me to call it a milestone.

Now for an area of the book that will probably need some cutting down.

Last night, I went back and did some revision on chapter 1 after blogging that I decided to press head to chapter 9. I ended up make more changes than I though.

One thing though, I'm having trouble coming up with a physical beat that suggests annoyance or maybe disapproval (not disgust). I just have a frown right now for annoyance.

Could he spit, click his teeth, slam his hand down on something? (how annoyed is he?)

Slamming something is a good beat. There's nothing for him to slam, but doing something with excess force would probably work. He's fairly annoyed, it's a turf dispute between two different organizations on the same side.

I'm starting to feel much better about doing the book alone. Relieved, actually. It's a lot of work, but it's mine, and I like depending on me, even if it means if it fails to find a publisher, it's all me.

I'm starting to feel much better about doing the book alone.

I think it will be a better book for it too.

I revised chapter 1 again and I'm starting to really feel good about it. It feels tight.

I also added this current revision to my 'Evolution of Chapter 1' blog page for those ones of people interested in seeing the process of going from rough draft to final revision (not there yet).

[link]

And yes, my mom left a comment.

I had a major a ha! today about my story and what was wrong with it. I think I may be able to fix it and finish it by Christmas.