A short but productive week

My new schedule continues working okay, but I definitely need to make a break at mid-day—not just a hurried pause, but something to relax me. Read. Sit outside. Whatever. Just not chores (unless it’s something fun like bread baking) or anything on the computer. I’m getting much too tired and slow-thinking by the time 5 pm rolls around.
That said, things went well:
•I got a rough plot outline for the next draft of Southern Discomfort. It looks satisfactory, and I’ve fixed several things that bothered me about the last draft (more black characters, no plotlines that just disappear). I’ll give it one more look near the end of May, then start writing.
•I did some more plotwork on the last section of Brain From Outer Space. As I mentioned Tuesday, that part of the plot is still fuzzier than I’d like. The hour I put in this afternoon was dogged by that dragginess I mentioned above, but I do feel strongly that I’ve got the right setting (inside the TSC’s underground base, where everything’s going to come to a head). I’d prefer to have more details fleshed out but I’m going to go ahead with the rewrite starting next week. My biggest worry is less the ending than that it’ll still turn out too short to be marketable. Sometimes I think I’d have been much better off when a big genre novel ran around 70,000 words.
•I gave Mage’s Masquerade another draft. It’s improving, but still needs some tinkering and tightening. The villain’s plan is looking particularly silly—I can explain it (mages aren’t prone to subtlety, they’d much sooner do something dramatic) but I’d rather change it if I can figure out how.
•I got the first 2,000 words or so of my new Monster Earth story under way. It’s tougher than the first one, as I don’t have the Vietnam War to give it a focus, so it’s a very vague discovery draft so far. With lots of talking as the characters say all the things I’m trying to work out. But it’s a first draft. I know it’ll improve (it had better!).
•I also gave blood without letting the schedule disruption throw me off-course too much.
•Demand Media articles approved this week (slow because I did so few last week):
•How to Get All the Deduction Possible When Filing
•Roth IRA Conversions for Married and Filing Separately $
•What Are the Disadvantages of Withholding Taxes?
•Can College Students Deduct Car Mileage on Income Tax?
•Can Legal Expenses in Tax Amnesty Be Claimed as a Tax Deduction?
•Do Senior Citizens Have to File a Return on the Sale of a House?