1/16/06: Happy MLK Day

[davidlevine]

Word count: 900 | Since last entry: 197

And so we come to the end of a three-day weekend. Took it easy, didn't get a lot done. Tonight we had a book group meeting (discussing Sabriel by Garth Nix, which I found lacking in depth... but when I found out it was intended as YA, I became much more favorably disposed toward it) and then I took kateyule to the airport, to catch a red-eye to New York. She'll be there for a week, helping Lise WINOLJ clean up her late mother's apartment.

It's been a lightweight weekend for writing, as I said, but I did get some stuff done. Saturday I finished up the edits on the Jupiter story and sent it off for critique. Sunday I wrote about 200 words of notes on "Moonlight on the Carpet" (the story itself is only 900 words long) in response to critiques I received last week. Today I revised the story according to those notes... and the story died on the table.

The main problem with this story is that people get to the end and aren't sure what has happened. But when I added the information they need to understand the situation, the twist ending became obvious. I think I'm going to go back to the previous draft and revise again, this time trying to sneak in the necessary information closer to the end, so it's part of the ending rather than part of the set-up.

"In the dark outside the living room window, seagulls cawed and the surf rumbled, while the babysitter snored in the armchair with a book open on her lap. Mommy and Daddy never took Liam along when they went to the island on a full-moon night. They said that Ritual was not for little boys -- like the other deck of cards, the one with the pretty colored pictures that moved."

(That snippet is not going to be in the next revision... it gives too much away.)

Anyway, even though I only got in a net word count change of 15 today, and I'm going to undo that change tomorrow, I'm giving myself a silver star for an hour of editing.

Neither Kate nor I is very good at going to sleep at a reasonable hour when we're apart. So I braided some yarn and made us a couple of bracelets: blue to remind us to go to sleep, green to remind us to eat right, and red to remind us we love each other. We tied them on our wrists and will cut them off when she returns. Mine is telling me right now to stop blogging and go to bed, so I will do so.

Comments

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Oh crap, Lise's mom died?!

[davidlevine]

Quite some time ago, actually, but she hasn't yet cleared out the accumulated stuff.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I am so behind in the news--at least, the stuff that hasn't made it to LJ. Thanks.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of the braided bracelets. Yeah! And put them together when she returns.

[davidlevine]

What a sweet idea!

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

They only seem to be in two places at once. Soon the bracelet function will collapse.

Together, or apart?

[snarke.livejournal.com]

The bracelets are Clever, and Romantic. I love them. But put them together in what sense? Certainly, to my eye, they are symbols of promises made. Upon Kate's return, they would be cut and discarded: promise kept, covenant fulfilled. I suppose they could be burned together in a little brazier if you really wanted to fling ritual and symbology around the room like some kind of metaphysical monkey poo, but that seems a bit much for a promise to get sleep and eat well. :)

Re: Together, or apart?

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

My idea was tack them up next to each other on a bulletin board, but however they felt "together" worked would be fine for them.

Re: Together, or apart?

[davidlevine]

I suspect they will be a little ratty at the end of the week...