It's cool, though. Maybe it'll be groundbreaking to be the first Lutheran Schlemiel. Not exactly the barrier-busting I'm after, though. And it's harder to cope with because the whole blessing-counting thing is filled with so many more pauses...I'm not even sure I can count "my health" strictly speaking, although I usually do because it's not really a disease to be wired like a Fiat(Tony is apparently not a researcher in neurology)

I am really thinking about quitting right now. So what? I can turn a phrase a little. But the thing that sets me apart the most is also my biggest liability and keeps my writing for the specialty press(AKA the writer short bus)

erika, I have admired your sharp wit and your ability skewer with one twist of phrase since I first started lurking here. I think many of your columns are spot on. I think you have the potential to be a killer procedural writer, true crime writer, script writer, political writer or professional snarker. If you can use the "short bus" press as a springboard, do it. If you think it's holding you back, we can brainstorm about approaches you can take to break out. But please don't stop writing. I can hunt you down. I know where you live...

Thanks...I don't know that I would really stop(or even how much of option that is past the first week or two) I'm just in an annoying phase at the moment. Because I feel like I've learned too much to just make a mess like a newbie and feel okay about it, but I'm not quite a pro, either. Especially since I started in a new form and get to be stupid all over again. It's just another place to not-quite belong, and where do I feel like that, besides, I don't know, *every* place else. And, with my new ethic to try to do it every day, I have lost my Shiny Fun Hobby too,(Keith Olbermann used to feel that way about sports too, but I don't make enough to get jaded like that. Also, he used way more words than that.Naturally.) and these Script Frenzy people are so*stoked*...they are the people that buy all the mugs with the sayings on them, and they go over their scenes with multicolored pens, even though it's been pointed out that that's insane. And I think they are tremendous dorks...Inner Billy Walsh is already planning how to take their lunch money and spend it at the racetrack. But. They are having fun with their fingerpaints and I am not. And I know there's tons of crap I don't know, but quite frankly, if I could afford to take courses and be mentored, I doubt I'd apply myself this much. And besides, in every group or class I've ever been in, I make the facilitator Good Daddy or Bad Mommy and spend most of every class kissing their asses.(um, not literally)

Still cleaning up 59,60,61,and 62. Hopefully tonight I'll get the suckers knocked out, then the read-through which might take too long for tonight.

By Thursday I'll be working on the conclusion.

After that, I'm be digging in on the next revision which will probably not be linear. I'll almost sure I'll add a sequence toward the start where A & M get isolated from the rest and take an excursion into the subplot. That'll help flesh out the subplot and give A & M a real relationship instead of the hurried one that doesn't bring them together enough for later developments to have any impact. I think it can be a good addition.

I got 59-62 cleaned up. Now I'm working on the conclusion, I have the whole conclusion that I'm tweaking and filling in the gaps of right now. Once I've not it all cleaned up--no easy task--I'll be done with this revision.

Then it's chop, rephrase, and tweak time. I have a couple of new bits to do and at least three significant chops. After that, I'll see what the word count is and see if I should chop or expand. I have a few places where there could be some interesting expansion.

Also, I redid my map. See as the original looked like a diagram and is now wildly inaccurate.

Map with grid.

Map without grid.

Also, I realized it's now been one year since I started work on my book. That's a long time considering I still have a lot to do.

I'm working on the conclusion now, however I'm having to redo more of the rough draft of it than I thought. Shocking, I know.

Then I'll rough out an outline of the additions to the next revision. I'll be chopping a good chunk out of the beginning to get things moving a little faster, chopping a sequence out of the middle to remove some characters and eliminate a bunch of words, and maybe chopping a few selected scenes to kill words (besides if they're choppable, they probably don't need to be there).

Still working on the conclusion, but its coming along. Maybe another push this weekend will finish things off.

Also, I added my map to my blog. It's very exciting, well, not so much for anyone that's not me.

I Play a Writer on the Internet

I need to do better blog entries, but I'm always in a hurry when I write them. Maybe I'll do better when I'm refining instead of rewriting. Right now I'm grinding away without really trying to improve the quality of the writing and learning more bits of craft.

If anyone has a blog you'd like me to link to, let me know so that my literally ones of readers can know about it.

Gud, I keep meaning to say, considering you wrote it and are already almost done rewriting it, a year is not long at all. You're being methodical and very dedicated, and that's awesome.

Meanwhile, I just asked my editor for a short extension on my deadline, and am feeling Made of Fail. And waiting for a reply.