Well, dear readers, it was mostly a productive writing day yesterday – not a particularly easy one, but I got a lot done. I wrote about fourteen new pages, but then went back to the first chapter and added two pages based on some research I’ve done. That bit is now much more detailed and therefore more fun to read. So, sixteen pages all told and I’ll probably add another two before going to bed, just to get the research stuff done. While I was in that long first chapter (forty-one pages), I thought about flipping the very beginning to a little later in the book but while that was an interesting idea, I feel opening it like I do is fun because it’s a little unexpected, and then you get the details filled in as I go. So, I left it as is and we’ll see what Muse Margaret feels when she gets pages on Monday. But a forty-one-page first chapter was bugging me, even though it’s really only twenty pages in actual book pages. So, for now I split it into two chapters – the split point kind of works fine and if ultimately it doesn’t feel right, I’ll just put it back, but what used to be the second chapter and is now the third is also very long, about twenty-three pages, so I think this new way is for the best, but we shall see. And of course I began the day with a lot and I mean a lot of futzing and finessing.
I did end up with eight hours of sleep, arising around eleven-thirty. Once I’d futzed and finessed and written a new page or two, I went and picked up packages, and got a foot-long spicy Eyetalian Subway sandwich. I came home, ate that all up, and then began writing in earnest, which is basically all I did during the day, with a couple of small breaks. But boy was it a slog – part of that was because I’d only done eight pages the day before and I wanted to catch up (daunting) but every page was taking so long to complete it was like I wasn’t getting anywhere at all. Finally, I needed a longer break, so I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I endured a motion picture thriller on the Flix of Net entitled Law Abiding Citizen. The set-up is rather like Death Wish – a home invasion, wife and young daughter offed in a vicious way, while the husband helplessly watches (he’s been stabbed, too, but lives), and then one of the two culprits gets a plea deal when he testifies against the other, the other actually being guilty of only participating, while Mr. Plea Deal is the actual killer/rapist. Mr. Butler, the husband, gets very angry and ten years later decides to exact his revenge, although he doesn’t call it that. Well, this is simply one of the worst-written movies ever, and yet the critics, who pretty much hated it, still gave it too much of a pass, especially Roger Ebert, who must have been at the end of his sanity back in 2008 when this came out. The other star is Jamie Foxx. But no one has a chance with the writing, and the violence, even in the R-rated version (there’s an uncut version on Blu-ray, no thank you) is disgusting and rather Saw-like. In the end, the film drowns in its own stupidity and the director is F. Gary Gray who did Straight Outta Compton – his work here is beyond horrible. Highly NOT recommended by the likes of me.
Then it was back to writing, and I had another sour thing come my way, along the same lines as last week’s sour thing that I needed to turn sweet. That one did manage to turn sweet, and I really need this one to turn sweet, too, and quickly, so send all excellent vibes and xylophones for sour to sweet quickly. I didn’t want to let the sour thing get to me and ruin or make difficult my writing, so I went to Gelson’s and got two chicken tenders and a couple of egg rolls, plus some Swiss Vanilla Almond ice cream. I’d only had the Subway thing, so even though I probably shouldn’t have eaten again, I needed to get my mind back in a productive place and that bit of food plus the yummilicious ice cream helped immeasurably and I was able to add the revisions based on the research.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven or so and it will be another all writing day all the time, with breaks for good behavior and hopes that the sweet will replace the sour. I want to do at least fifteen pages, so that Muse Margaret gets a really nice chunk of the book, in fact what will be the first third of it if I’m figuring the ultimate page count correctly. I’ll eat something – not sure what and I’ve got to be strict about calorie intake for the next few weeks – listen to music on the breaks, but mostly just write.
Tomorrow, I’ll Xerox pages in the morning and get them to Muse Margaret, and then I have a short walk-through at the Autrey regarding the upcoming concert that’s in three weeks, and then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal later in the afternoon, after which I’ll write. The rest of the week is writing, meetings and meals, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, then our stumble-through and then sound check and show. There are less than twenty seats left, which means we’ve sold 110 already, which is huge for us. But I’m hoping the other seats will go so that we’re totally sold out – that would be great.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, replace the sour with the sweet and quickly, listen to music on my breaks, but mostly write all the livelong day and evening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping to replace the sour with the sweet and quickly.