Well, dear readers, let’s just get the best thing about yesterday out of the way first. I printed out the first thirty-six pages of the new novel and took them to Muse Margaret. Normally, I like to wait until I’ve done a week of writing, so that I have fifty or sixty pages, but I wanted to make sure she thought I was on the right track. As the pages were printing I read over the first four pages, made several changes and reprinted those. I also reread the first chapter and I have felt from the beginning that something didn’t feel right about it, especially in lieu of what follows. I’ve been thinking it for several days now. I wrote it the way I did because I thought it was funny to phrase things certain ways and to do that it had to be in the third person. In any case, when I delivered the pages, Muse Margaret asked if I was happy and I told her I was except I thought that chapter one was probably going to have to change to the first person. She’d just taken some fresh chocolate chip cookies out of the oven and I had one and boy was it good. She gave me a few to take home with me and home I went.
She called me about two-and-a-half hours later after she’d read it. I was especially nervous about this book as the form of it is different for me and it’s not really like any other book I’ve written. But she said she really loved it. She said she’d laughed out loud and then got specific about the things she said that really made her laugh. She also thought there was a certain sweetness to it, and that made me really happy, because if I don’t achieve that the book could become kind of a bore. The only comment she had was about chapter one – she agreed with me completely that it didn’t feel right in the third person. Unbeknownst to her, I’d already rewritten it in the first person. It was actually very simple – it was only about five lines that had to be slightly changed and it’s so much better in the first person. I read her those changes and she thought they were just right. She had one other really tiny thing, which I adjusted in about ten seconds. I could not have been happier with her reaction. That was the best part of yesterday.
Prior to that, I’d gotten just eight hours of sleep, arising just before eleven. I futzed and finessed for ninety minutes, making many little changes and adding a few things. Then I wrote a new page, printed it all out and went to Staples. Once that was done, I went to Jerry’s Deli and had a Chinese chicken salad and a bagel. Then it was directly to Muse Margaret’s house, then home. Once home I wrote about six more pages over two hours. I took a little break, then wrote four more. By that time, I needed a longer break, so I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the first two episodes of Top of the Lake starring Elisabeth Moss. It’s interesting, but a lot of the dialect is hard to understand and thus far it hasn’t really grabbed me in a way that the Nordic Noirs do. I’ll stick with it because I like Ms. Moss. Holly Hunter is in it, too, but the characters are just so weird – the men are horrible – you wonder what century you’re actually in. I’m sure in the region in which this takes place it’s probably an accurate portrayal, but it’s just plain weird.
After that, I showered and then wrote five more pages, for a total of fifteen. I’m not sure I really need to do that many, but if I can and am feeling it, why not?
Today, I’ll obviously do more writing – at least seven to ten pages. In the morning I’ll go to the SAG pension office in NoHo and get my paperwork turned in, then I have to make a quick stop at the El Portal Theater. Then I’ll come home and write, then eat, then hopefully pick up some packages, and at some point I have to do the show order and begin the commentary.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week is writing, meetings and meals, praying for miracles so send lots of excellent vibes and xylophones for same, and that’s about it. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite kinds of cookies – homemade, store bought and brand names? And what brand name cookie that’s no longer made do you miss the most? I can give you my answer on the latter: Cherry Newtons. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have told you about the best thing that happened on Sunday.