Dr. Catherine Schaff-Stump

Well, the gall bladder won the skirmish yesterday, and after a painful day returning from the hotel and waiting for the cardiologist (no heart trouble as predicted--we are blessed), there was only heating pad and sleeping. I did get my surgery consultation moved up two weeks, so I did win a minor battle. As soon as we get this bad organ out, the more predictable my health will be.

Meanwhile, something new from chapter seven. It's here to redefine Andrew's character, build tension, and move things along in a more definite direction. It's an argument scene, but it is new to some of my readers from the past.

( Stephan argues with Sam while Andrew tries to apologize )

We're being graced with another heavy snow storm here in Iowa. AT LEAST this one isn't happening Saturday, the day of two postponed family Christmas gatherings. We'll see what this does to website plans for the day, as I intended to go into the city...

Stay warm, all of you!

Catherine

You want progress? Okay. :D

Chapter 5 is done. New scenes added, the whole thing revised, and proofed. Chapter 6 is about half done, new scenes added, the whole thing revised, and proofed. This whole process took 79 minutes. I know this, because I played the new Battlestar Galactica Season 3 CD that Santa brought me in my stocking this weekend.

If I can get up more gumption tonight, I'll hit the latter half of Chapter 6. There are four scenes left--one in need of heavy revision (by virtue of eliminating one character and substituting another. Can I use character folding as a technical term? Is there a technical term?). Two are in great shape and need tightening. One has to be produced from the ground up anew.

Then we're into Chapter 7. Chapter 7 has Esme's trial in it. Critical decisions. Do I keep the whole Michael Hamwich prediction thing? I need a layer of bad kids acting badly at the trial, so I need to weave that in. What sorts of bits are in there that I like that don't move the plot forward? It's a pivotal chapter, so I have a lot to do with it.

Chapter 8, the transitional section to Errol's trial isn't too bad, although I have to introduce the main bad cheese in it for the first time in this version. So I'll have to shine that up.

That's as far as I want to look right now.

I'm pleased with today's progress. It's a lot like being a full time writer today.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, has some cooking in it, and maybe a church service, so both writing and meal preplanning have to be done. Do I take the day off on Christmas? Probably not. Why? I'll be vacationing on the 26th and getting tortured by doctors again on the 27th. (Really, it's a consultation with a cardiologist, and I have no idea what, if any, exciting tests they'll want now that I have a demonstrative hepatobiliary scan on hand.)

manzabar, it's looking like the 28th for website stuff, barring zany, horrible testing. Pretty excited about getting that done!

I hope you're all warmer where you're at than we are here in Iowa.

Catherine

*sob* Good bye Crystal Vortex scene. You were witty and cute, but redundant, especially now that there was no reason to run casually into Amanda Welkin.

It looks like chapter 4 and chapter 5 are going to become one room. The other half of chapter five and six, also. Expect more bullying, and expect more Andrew stuff as well.

Yes, I did do some writing tonight. Why do you ask? Nope, I don't have a new snippet for you yet. Not yet.

Catherine

Well, that's chapter 2. The chapters are cashing in around 20ish pages now, which I think will also make them friendlier to a YA audience.

Here's a brand new scene, so those of you familiar with previous versions of the story might like it. This is how we introduce Professor Borgia this time around, give Stephan a little confidence, and clue you all in on what happens sometime in book 2, which has yet to be written (this guy, although no one really needs to know, is book 3).

( Cauldron Gazing; Italian Meeting )

I went ahead and looked over the first two scenes of chapter 3, which introduce necessary characters and conflict. I think they mostly stay, and I can't see a whole lot of necessary tightening. That takes me to a very blahblahblah scene. I'll be substituting some active, scary villainy. Let's see what my dark side can come up with.

Priorities are in the right place. NOW to check some papers.

Catherine

Here it comes!

Tiredness, flagging enthusiasm, and just plain ole don't want to slog through editing any more.

It seems that I haven't worked on anything brand new in a surprisingly long time (reality says since May). I look forward to Hulk Hercules like a hungry wolf eying a beef steak. Anything new that makes me feel sparkly again!

However, and rightly so, I want to get this revision back to Agent A in a timely fashion. I do wish there was a break from Substance to be had now, but there isn't.

I'll just ride the wave and roll up my sleeves. I am curious, because I know this happens to all of us writers, no matter how much we love our stories. How do you combat the slog? And if it's drinking, well, I need another solution.

Bored now.

Catherine

Apparently, part of my writing agenda today is to procrastinate, to respond to other people's writing, and to seek out interesting opinions in the blogs of my friends. You might have noticed more chattiness out of me today, for example.

I'd like to suggest that this is all about me percolating ideas for the revision of Chapter 2 and a couple more intense scenes I want to put in there. I would not like to suggest that this is me avoiding writing an Elements of Writing syllabus for next semester, which is what good English Language Acquisition coordinators would be doing now.

Allow me to live the lie. Please.

More writing tonight, I'm guessing, because I'll bet dollars to donuts inclement weather will cancel my friends coming to dinner.

Catherine

All righty then. I've cut everything I'm cutting out of the old draft of Substance.

I've taken some notes on extra things that need to be added into the draft to activate the plot. You know, things like action and confrontation? Things your average 13-17 year old can relate to? Also things that lead up to major confrontations and revelations.

I've got to go through and decide how to activate some necessary exposition as well, or at least reduce the blahblahblah factor of it. Yes, that is a technical term. You can quote me.

And I have to go back to the ancient days of when this was on the internet and reinstate the poisoning plot.

But I've gotten as far as I can tonight, because the poisoning plot is at school on a disk, not here at home with me.

Tomorrow, after I plan for Saturday night's dinner with Dana and Peter (I get to cook! Wow!), I'll start a deep deep comb through. The first chapters will go easy. It's the Rowther chapters that need the most work. I probably need another good Enid scene before Stephan goes to school as well.

I need readers for the rewrite. Can anyone still stand to read yet another version of this story?

Catherine

Well, Mistoreth's Eyes came back rejected from Apex and Abyss.

The comments are fun.

I wish you the best success in placing your story elsewhere, and hope to
see more of your work.

The first few sentences are quite lyrical, but the last sentence of the
first paragraph is unfortunately hilarious and breaks that illusion
(forget for a moment that The Farmer's Wife is an inn, and read the
sentence with the title as regular words).

After that, the feel of the piece changes -- it's no longer the poetic
piece it started as, so this needs some revision.

I did go back and read that, and yup, the name of the inn will have to change. Oh dear.

You know, when I wrote the first piece, it was a river. Then, I revised it into something else. Sometimes if you try to turn a piece into something it isn't, you can break the original spirit of the piece.

Well. Won't be coming back to that one anytime soon. I've got a lot to do before I'll have time to play with that again.

***

As to Substance, I've whacked out about 7000 words. Some of that hurt, but it wasn't exactly related to the main story. No more Welkins Menagerie scene. No more Hamwich family scene. No more warm and fuzzy Klarion family scenes. I liked them, but I don't think they need to be in there. Missing them doesn't detract from the story. You still get the idea of the piece with all those scenes off camera, and the characters still exhibit those qualities.

What this does mean, though, is I probably will go a little further with my original source material, and rewrite the Stephan unbound scenes. Stay tuned. Because I've whacked 7000 words out of the first six chapters, and I don't know how much more I'll whack out of the remaining ones.

At any rate, I've whacked through chapter six. I'll continue whacking, add a couple more relevant scenes for the ending, and then read things with a roller coaster meter to make sure the action is rising.

And if it's rejected again, well, we're no farther behind than we were before.

Time for Christmas decorating.

Catherine

And then, Sister Night, Sister Moon was done. With a better ending. Would any of my writing peeps (you know who you are) want to see a terribly melodramatic story with an unhappy ending? It's all about the angst! It's all about the clothes! It's all about 12K words.

I need to give it another quick proofread, and then send it out to my two markets, one next week, and one after December first.

Received contract from Cats Curious. Looking it over, thinking about deadlines, based on what happened today.

Sorry, Gossamer and Viridian fans. Looks like you'll have to wait through a little longer. But I will get to it, I promise.

The question is this one: how long will it take me to revise Substance, and write Hulk Hercules? I think I need a time table. :)

A bientot.

Catherine

Well, me and the stationery pdf files will be going to FedEx Kinkos tomorrow for some cash type expenditures. Today I bought labels and big envelopes.

I've done the tutorial on how to print envelopes and labels. Good. I will have to configure and experiment with the labels on my rather funky leftsided (but oh so pretty and professional!) stationary. By Wednesday, I should be able to enter the land of the snail mail query, head held high.

Then there will be this conference in Minneapolis, and then I will return next week to send out my little soldiers. March boldly, little query buddies, when your time comes. I tend to think of the equeries as more pilots than infantry. Maybe you shouldn't ask.

So, here's a sanity check from blackaire which was crossposted in fangs_fur_fey.

Finally, expanded and rewrote the ending for Sister Night, Sister Moon tonight. It has a nice twist now, that diabolical Xiao Ping! It is stinky pipe laying right now, but I'll comb through it this week and polish it up. After that, I'll search for a market. It's about 12,000 words, give or take. I know there are some novella spots out there.

Catherine

ps Hot tip of day: Number 9 envelopes fit wonderfully into number 10 envelopes, and I'll be using printed number 9s for responses. No folding because we're trying to look tres pro.