A Particularly Odd Writing Day

I've been splitting my time today between a freelance edit for a friend and my own revisions for my WIP. (Remember how I promised myself it would be ready to submit on May 10th? That's one week away, and I have two field trips I'm chaperoning between now and then, plus a book signing. YIPES!)

So I've had two windows up on my computer all day, and I've been swapping back and forth between them (and that's between attempts at conquering the mountain of laundry and dishes and other sundries).

Sometimes I'd click on one window, thinking it's my book but get confused when I'm reading about something totally different, only to realize it's my friend's book.

Can we say "brain fry"?

And then there's the fact that I'm pulling out stacks of critiques from my group (things I should have addressed and rewritten months ago but sorta didn't get around to because of other things like, oh, Whitney judging, reading Whitney finalists, preparation for the Storymakers conference, chocolate cookbook photo shoots . . .).

I've been grabbing a stack here and there of critiques and working through whatever's on top.

So far today, I've been at chapters eighteen and nineteen, near the end. Later I hit chapter fifteen. Then fourteen. The next stack begins on page 65. It's a bit of a time warp to be revising your work so out of order. I hope the story isn't getting all redundant or wacko in the process.

It works in my head, and yes, of course I'll do a thorough read-through from start to finish before turning it in, but for now, it's sure been weird to fix stuff that happens in the last fourth of the book and then suddenly be working on a scene from the first fourth and then hop to the middle.

Some of the changes are really small (extra adverbs, clunky phrasing, an inadvertent POV shift). But there was one scene in particular I dreaded rewriting, to the point that I was messing around on Twitter this morning to avoid it.

When I read it aloud, everyone in our group (including me) agreed that it just didn't work. On more than one level.

So I knew the scene would need a serious overhaul, and I've been putting it off. (Much easier to fix an errant comma or missing word.) The great news, though, is that I found a relatively easy way to fix that scene. Yes, a lot of it is new, but as fixes go, this one was easy. Best of all, the scene is much truer to the character, emotions, and events, and now I like it. Yay!

Other notables from the day that likely no one but me will care about:

• Made a great Costco run today, writing down what everything cost as I put it into the cart. This time, the total wasn't a surprise, and it was under what I wanted to spend for the trip. (I know! Call Ripley's!)
• I washed, sorted, and folded four loads of laundry. This is particularly notable. Plus, there's one load washed but not sorted. At least we have underwear.
• Bought kitty litter but didn't change the old stuff. I mean really, there's only so much I can be expected to accomplish in one day.
• Brought the vacuum to be fixed. It should be done tomorrow sometime. Fourteen and a half years ago, we splurged on a Kirby. For a long time, I thought it was a stupid thing we'd done, but in hindsight, I'm thrilled we did it. That's been the best vacuum ever. It really keeps the carpets nice and is sturdy. This is the first major repair we've ever needed. (And it's not on the motor or anything like that; the accordion tube split. Easy fix.) I didn't realize what a bargain it was until I realized that most people replace their vacuums every few years. Our Kirby will be running for years hence, I'm sure.
• Taught a daughter to grind wheat flour. She's decided that any time we need more, she gets to grind it. (Fine with me! One more thing off my to-do list.)
• Got to do some rewriting while eating cake with chocolate icing . . . made by my husband, not me. Oh, yeah.

And now I'm tired and want to read a little before bed.