1/28/05: Briefly...

Word count: 119953 | Since last entry: 494 | This month: 1703

A really nasty week at work, with two projects still both in crunch mode (one of them having an offsite meeting all day Thursday and Friday). I didn't have the energy to write in the evenings, but I made Kate promise to make me work on my novel tonight. Then I came home and noticed we had a party on the calendar. Kate very generously told me to go and write for an hour while she made soup for dinner. I love my Kate.

I wrote almost 500 words of the new prologue, then we had dinner and attended a fine party at Sam & Shandra's, featuring much fine conversation and a keen variation of the game Bottecelli in which one player thinks of a person (announcing the first letter of thenir name) and the others must stump him with trivia questions -- whose answers begin with that same letter -- to earn the right to ask a yes-or-no question about the person.

More writing tomorrow!!

Mispronounciations

I just learned the other day that I have been mispronouncing another brand name. The marketing departments at the phone companies Verizon (which I persistently pronounce verry-ZAHN rather than ve-RYE-zon) and Quest (queue-WEST vs. QUEST) and PalmOne, makers of the low-end Palm handheld the Zire (ZEE-ray vs. ZEYER) put a lot of effort and money into creating names with specific meaning and resonance... which completely bounce off me for some reason. I don't have this problem with real words. I wonder why?

1/29/05: Brutally killing a sweet little Jewish mother

Word count: 120476 | Since last entry: 523 | This month: 2226

It took me almost the entire afternoon today to write, rewrite, edit, trim, rearrange, polish, tweak, and finagle what turned out to be only about 500 net new words, but I think the new prologue is done. I think it's good, too -- I got that little twinge at the back of my throat that's close to tears, and that means I hit something that really hurts. I think one reason it took so long is that I had to back up and take a running start at the Cedar Point disaster a couple of times before I could actually write the scene. But once I found the entry point... yow. It just came pouring out.

Basically I just introduced a new character, built her up, and killed her off in a little over a thousand words. But she's not just a throwaway -- she links to Jason and makes him more sympathetic and his motivations clearer. The act of writing this prologue also helps me get a handle on Jason in a way I never quite managed before. So although it took a lot longer to write than 500 words normally would, I think it's worthwhile. Especially because it's the beginning of the novel and it has to hook the reader.

Thanks, Dean!