Dr. Catherine Schaff-Stump

Yesterday I did nothing but decadate all over the house. :) Niiiccceee way to spend Christmas when your health has been trying: good (and healthy for your gall bladder) food, champagne (which doesn't affect any of my organs in the least...), romance, relaxation, presents. You wonder why life can't be this good all the time!

Today, Bryon and I are off on vacation. So I exercised my discipline and worked on chapter seven. The lion's share of chapter seven is revised and ready for proofing. Tomorrow, when I get back from my appointment with the cardiologist (I'll be glad when we can finally tick heart trouble off the list, moving us closer to the appropriate surgery), I will do the following:

Proof what has been revised of chapter seven.
Rewrite Esme's trial.

Esme's trial is important, and needs to be tightened and expanded. I need Andrew to have a role, and I need Eustace, Laurence, and Miranda to try something...really, anything...on camera. Then it'll be a matter of taking away a blahblahblah scene with parents and teachers, and waiting for Esme to wake up. I figure this scene gets a whole writing day of its own.

On the other hand, chapter 8 is already a thing of beauty, and all I really need to do there is sharpen a bit and proof.

Then we start activating Errol's trial. So, we make steady progress.

What happens after I get this guy revised? Back out to Agent A, as well, as the new 5 queries a week. Then (and you will all be very bored) I have to work on a paper comparing the way English is taught in Japan and the U.S. I have this conference in April.

I also have several paper proposals to shoot off for conferences, we've got to get the Wiscon multimedia reading shored up, and I've got to get the website up and running again. And new fiction. :)

I hope you're all enjoying the holidays.

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

Well, in the two hours I had to write today (hepatobiliary tests take around two hours from start to finish) I finished chapter four. I will proof it tonight, and I will begin a substantive revision of chapter 5.

In other news, all gall bladders must go!!! To the bare walls!!! More details in awelkin, but they tell me I get to see a surgeon next week. First...surgery...ever.

Hope you are all doing well. Gall bladder surgery is really easy, and I'm supposed to feel a lot better fairly soon.

Y'all hold on to your own internal organs.

Catherine

Okay. Part One: Mistraldol and Prologue turned into 90 pages of fairly relevant action oriented prose that doesn't really repeat.

Prologue and first two chapters proofed.

Third chapter needs proofing, and then we're off to Part Two: Esme's Trial and Chapter 4.

All in all, a good night's work.

Tomorrow: If I can find a plug in during the nativity display at Faith, I will work on chapter 3 proofing and chapter 4. If not, I continue reading Foundling by D.M. Cornish, which those of you found of seafaring, Dickens, and orphans might like. Oh, and monsters.

Productivity rules!

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

So, that's through chapter 7 whacked. That's through Esme's Trial, and 2/3 through.

I probably don't get to revise tomorrow, as I have company coming. However, we'll be back in the saddle on Wednesday.

I'm probably going to add some things onto the end, and then go through and really activate the prose where it's a little more lackluster.

So, moving along.

Catherine

Oh, I've eaten soooo much food...

But I spent the afternoon while everyone else was napping whacking words out of Substance. I'm looking at it with a kid's eye, and yeah, there's a lot of expository blah, blah, blah in there.

So, I've whacked the prologue and the first two chapters. Chapter three will require both whacking and rewriting.

Hee. I'm about to become one of those authors who knows more than the readers do. That means I will have things to talk about at press conferences. You know. All those press conferences. That I have in my head. And in my sleep. Yeah. :)

I hope you're all having a great holiday.

Catherine

Read one half of Sister Night, Sister Moon last night. Should finish oral reading tonight and will begin serious edit of last two new scenes.

Then off to Fantasy Matters in Minnesota tomorrow night, so probably will not finish it until Monday.

Still need website photos and update. Photography was delayed last weekend.

Well, small steps.

Catherine

Complete! We are in the homestretch!

Catherine

After a day of lots of niggly things, lots of meetings, two rejections, and even almost choking to death (/drama), I actually managed to get home at 8 pm and orally read a scene. It's been heavily edited for action and conflict, which were lacking.

Stick a fork in me, because I'm done today.

Catherine