Off and running on revisions!

Book 2 notes are in from the Delightful Editor! So I’m going to spend a week or so doing a preliminary plan and then start revising. I’m so excited. As usual, her insight is great and she has a fabulous way of pulling me back when I “cheat.” Her suggestions and questions force me to look at the root of the problem and deal with it, rather than patching over it. There’s something about an additional point of view that energizes me!

In preparation for the rewrite, I rearranged my sewing room. The room is a decent size, but the space is kind of awkward, so I’ve always had problems finding a place for my desk and sewing table. I think I came up with a good configuration… my little sister approves, so that’s good!

Speaking of Little Sis, she’s been here for two weeks and is doing wonderfully. She’s still looking for a job, but I love having her around. We have the same goofy sense of humor, and she puts up with me very nicely. She must be a saint. I keep thinking of “Emma,” where Mr. Knightley apologizes to Emma for always telling her what’s what and what to do. I’m like a less apologetic version of Mr. Knightly, ha ha. If she would just learn to close the garage door when she drives away, life would be perfect!

Thank you all for your comments, and I’m sorry I haven’t been good about replies. I don’t like feeling invisible at a blog, and I don’t like the thought of making others feel invisible. So booooo on me. I will make a real effort to get better!

I’ll wrap this post up with a quote I just read that really resonated with me. It’s from the introduction to the book Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers by Stephanie Wellen Levine. The line itself is from Carole Gilligan:

Americans place a high value on individuality and independence, but these values quickly become hollow in the absence of practices that cultivate an inner voice and relationships that encourage its expression.

This really struck a chord with me. Lately, the thought running through my head has been, how many more Jennifer Anistons and Elin Nordegrens and countless other women have to be mistreated in their relationships for our culture to realize that good looks and money don’t equal the promise of a happy life?

6 comments February 11th, 2010

I get by with a little help from my friends…

I’m at the Debutante Ball today, blogging about mentors in a post that is really more about collaboration.

Speaking of collaboration, can you spot my helper in this photo?

4 comments March 10th, 2009

On the third, fourth, and fifth days of Christmas…

…my true love gave to me… one liar lying.

Yes, yes, so I failed.

I thought about picking up with “three French hens”, but when I tried to look up the symbolism, my sources said, “This probably refers to a variety of hens from France.” FAIL.

Let me instead pepper you with excuses. The dog show is in full dog-show swing, and just yesterday I sent off the next revision of TGLL to the Delightful Editor, who apologized, saying she will not have a chance to read it until the day after Christmas because she has something else due on Christmas Eve. I am shocked! I can’t believe these poor editors are working in sweatshop conditions. I always thought that scene in “Elf” where the guy (a publisher) has to work on Christmas Eve was a sick joke. But no.

Poor, poor Delightful Editor. I think it’s for the best. Supernatural thrillers don’t generally add to one’s sense of celebration, although maybe she will read it and enjoy the gift of Not Having to Do Any More Notes.

Let us all add this requests to our letters for Santa, please.

In spite of my failure as a blogger, as a human, I am having a pretty good week. I hope the same for all of you.

k.

10 comments December 20th, 2007

My dog is a grouch and so am I.

Winston and I are in a funk.

You know how you’ll be at the store and see something you desperately want, and then you’re like, “Oh, but that costs $75 and I don’t want to spend that kind of money! I’m saving up for [a rainy day/groceries/gallbladder surgery/a trip to Hawaii].”

And you’re all good and feeling great about the money you didn’t spend, and then you go home and the plumbing in your kitchen explodes and it costs like $500 to fix it? And you’re like, “Dang, I could have afforded that thing at the store after all… of course, I really can’t buy it NOW.”

That’s how I feel on the time management front. I never knew how much free time I had until NOW. I never thought, during all the time I spent sewing skirts and tiny quilts for dogs and even a very low-cut yellow and orange cocktail gown, that at some point that ceaseless supply would dry up, but here we are with a dog show to produce, a manuscript to revise, hundreds of loads of laundry to finish, and thousands upon thousands of special edition holiday calories to consume.

And I have no time to sew. Or to read, really. I get to listen to podcasts in my car, but that’s pretty much it. At work, I’m — how unfair is this?? — working all day. On the weekends and every morning at 6 am and every evening after I get home, I’m finishing up revisions.

And when I’m not doing all that, I’m obviously whining about it.

Phooey. Winston and I need a week on the beach in Hawaii. With a sewing machine.

4 comments December 12th, 2007

Wooooooooo, scary!

Happy Halloween! Last night I had a panicky dream that we didn’t have any of our Christmas decorations up yet. (I must secretly be a department store — oh, snap!) And I came home and the husb was taping Happy Birthday streamers to multicolored balloons. At least he was trying.

I made myself a really simple skirt yesterday out of Halloween fabric, but this morning I have to tackle Winston’s costume. I don’t know what to make him. Last year we were both Dalmatians.

I’ve been letting the book sit for a few days while I decompress… I have to jump back in soon, probably this weekend. I’m sure I’ll find tons of stuff to change. That’s just the way it is. The thing is, I get it in the best shape possible before I send it in — I really do ask myself, “Would you want it published exactly the way it is?” And by the time I send it off to an editor, the answer is, “Yes, if it had to be.” Because while it would be wonderful to hear that I am a perfect writer and got everything right the first try, I like feedback and I like having the input of an editor. So far, between the Lovely Editor and the Delightful Editor, I don’t feel that the book has been led astray at any point.

So that’s good. And that means editors’ notes aren’t scary to me… But yesterday I did take a peek back at the first couple of chapters of the WIP — now that’s scary. Both the prospect of finishing it AND the prospect of revising it.

Have a good day! Anybody dressing up?

3 comments October 31st, 2007

Multitasking schmultitasking.

I went back to work this week.

It wasn’t as bad as I feared. In fact, due to the facts (1) that my job is pretty cool, (2) my co-workers are pretty cool, and (3) I get PAID for going to work, unlike sitting at home during hiatus, I have had a good week.

It does cut down on one’s free time, but since it’s not making me miserable I won’t even bother whining about that.

In actual writing news (imagine that!), I continued a three-week morning-noon-night revisions effort this week, using fewer noons and more mornings and nights to finish up the revisions and send them to the Delightful Editor on the day I promised them to her many weeks ago. I sat back feeling extremely accomplished and very relieved, and then she immediately sent an email saying she might not get to it for a couple of weeks and if I continue to revise just send it on over.

All right. I will continue to revise. I have a horrible sinking feeling, in fact, that somewhere in the manuscript is a paragrah that ends with an unfinished sentence. I couldn’t find it yesterday for the life of me, so that will be something I can continue to look for.

In reading news, I am loving A.J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically. I have read some books lately that felt so effortless and conversational, and this is one of them. It’s a fun read.

In life news, five years ago yesterday…

8 comments October 27th, 2007

Neglect

I owe my editor a revised draft of my manuscript next week, so in the meantime, I’m crazy busy.

In sewing news, last week I busted out Butterick 4919 because, and this is not the kind of thing you can really announce in advance on the internet, we went on the husb’s company cruise this weekend! I finished the approximately 12 feet of hem Friday morning an hour before we left to catch the boat. The dress was great except that it was soooo low cut in front, especially compared to the illustration on the pattern. Before I wear it again, I’ll definitely tack that closed. The result is that the photos are going to require a lot of Photoshopping, because not only is my bra showing in most of them (just the tiniest bit), but that tiny bit of bra has a weird little tuft of thread on it, so it looks like I’m just wearing the most ghetto support garments ever. (Tim Gunn would faint dead away.)

Oh well! The dress was kind of a statement — the fabric is crazy bright colors that reflect the husb’s company colors (what can I say, I love a theme!), and it looked especially bright compared with everyone else’s sedate blacks and blues and dark greens. But it was very fun to wear, and I would definitely make the pattern again. I’ll post a review over at Pattern Review within a week. I don’t have any photos of myself on my camera, or I’d post one.

Okay, off to write! Duty calls!

October 16th, 2007

Fall reading lists

I know it isn’t fall yet, but a girl can dream!

In other news, I made a dress the other day and you can see it here. Now I need to get working on a dress for the wedding coming up in a few weeks.

So, as usual, I’m stockpiling book upon book and looking forward to reading them all. Wait, didn’t I promise not to buy any more books until I’d read the ones I had? Oh well. Recent additions:

Lottery by Pat Wood
The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by AJ Jacobs (and just the preface had me laughing, so I have high hopes)
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Blue Angel by Francine Prose (whose non-fiction book Reading Like a Writer I’m listening to on audiobook)
a bunch of Meg Cabot books

One great thing I’ve learned is that barnesandnoble.com stocks bargain books the way the stores do — so while it might depress the author of The Historian, I’m quite happy that I got a hardcover copy for $6. Also, they have the same free shipping on orders over $25 that Amazon does, but bn.com is “FAST and free”, which beats “SLOW and free” any day (and no, I’m not getting paid to say so).

Yesterday I placed an order that won’t ship until October, because I preordered this book: The Year of Living Biblically. I just think the concept sounds so hilarious and intriguing.

Plus I have a new download credit waiting at audible.com and I haven’t finished the last one, what’s a girl to do? I’ll have to break my “nothing under 8 hours” rule and pick out something quick.

In writing news: I have a phone call today with the Delightful Editor to talk over the direction for this revision. I discussed the changes with the husb last night and it was pretty amazing to realize that a lot of what I’m doing is a bit of info-shuffling — the structure of the book feels essentially unchanged. There are a few discoveries being moved for greater impact, but the bones of the story are still in place. Let’s all cross our fingers that she likes it!

*** Back on topic… any good reads coming up on everybody’s roster? I’m always looking for new books to buy… even though I said I wouldn’t buy anymore.

12 comments August 14th, 2007

Like writing, only faster.

A very wise and wonderful woman, an accomplished artist, once told me that if she’s away from a painting for even a day, she comes back to it feeling a little bit like a stranger. Overall, this is true of my writing as well. The more I write, the better things go. And when I really get stuck, agonizing weeks can pass before I hunker down and get past it. (Note: this isn’t writer’s block — this is writer’s laziness.) The point is, sooner or later, I move ahead.

Revising is kind of like that, only instead of having the luxury to spend two weeks quilting and trying to forget what a slacker I’m being, I have fifteen minutes to go sew three crazy quilt squares (side note: anticipation is high for this being the Ugliest Quilt Ever), stare at the wall, stare at the dog, eat some pretzels, and then sit down again.

My typical feeling is that solutions are out there waiting to be found. When revising, that becomes, “Solutions are out there, so start covering ground like a cocker spaniel at a field trial.” Flush those suckers out of the brush. Go go go!

In a way, this is painful, and more frustrating and soul-sucking than I would have guessed. Because it must. be. written.

And then, it’s also freeing. Because it must. be. written. And that’s that. And hey, if Idea #1 flops, take five minutes and think of a fix for it. I’ve been pleased to realize that the fix does come. Maybe fifteen minutes of staring agonizedly into space is as productive as two weeks of quilting and soft focus on the writing.

I hope so, because it’s all going in. Some may come back out.

But it’s liberating to do this speed round. Like finally amping the treadmill up to “run” and then realizing you can actually keep up.

March 1st, 2007

Revisionary

I like revising. Especially if I have a plan in mind. Borrowing from my friend Amber, who says she can’t remember life before her daughter, I find with each subsequent revision that I can’t remember the story before the changes.

I’m not an outliner (well, not really), I’m not one of those people with a massive color-coded index card system, I hate to do research (I prefer to make things up), I don’t do profiles on my characters, and I drink way too much Kool-Aid. But I am the queen of revisions. I love them. I love revising and pulling things out and putting things in and finding threads to weave through the story. I like setting out to change a scene 10% and then rewriting the whole scene. Bonus points if you can do that without changing the scene on either side.

My point is, I am having a great time revising The Girl Least Likely. Perhaps more great a time than is warranted. But I also find that I like my main characters; I’m rooting for them. I want them to win, and every day I spend mired in revision is another day I get to spend watching the outcome on the horizon.

Five Other Things I Like:

1. The Next Door Tapas Lounge
2. Winston!!
3. Quilting
4. Kool-Aid (duh)
5. Reaching that time of the evening where your contacts try to form a glue to keep your eyelids closed, and only needing to make the coffee before you can get ready and get in bed.

That would be now, in fact. *yawn*

July 25th, 2006