(Fall foliage — nothing to do with the post, but it’s pretty, isn’t it?)
So in answer to the question I posed last week, yes — figuring out my problem with the ending of Southern Discomfortwith my journal was the key to fixing it. Wednesday of this week I sat down and started scribbling ideas. And then scribbling different ideas. And then scribbling how to change the ideas I liked. It took the afternoon and some of Thursday morning, but it worked. I have at least a rough idea for the ending arc.
That feels soooooo good.
Unfortunately Thursday I was definitely off my game for some reason, so I didn’t focus on actually writing this. I ended up with only 71,000 words as of Nov. 30, about 4,000 short of where I wanted to be. However I don’t see any reason (barring dead computer, house burning down, major health issues, etc.) that I can’t end the book by the end of the year. So yay.
I got 66 percent of my goals done for November, which is also a yay. Writing-related goals included replotting Southern Discomfort, rewriting No-One Can Slay Her and completing some research reading. And rewriting the first 5,000 words of Undead Sexist Cliches. The paying stuff I’m doing for Leaf the past couple of weeks precluded getting more done. However it’s also covering my Christmas gifts with a little left over so I’m not complaining. Okay, I’m complaining, I wish I could have met all my goals and done the Leaf stuff. But given I couldn’t …
A minor monthly goal is keeping the bird feeder filled. This used to be impossible because squirrel raids would empty it every couple of days, but this squirrel-proof feeder really is squirrel-proof. I spent several minutes this week watching Mr. Squirrel (above) trying to get through the bars and chew a hole for snarfing. No go, even though he managed to force the cap partly off.
For December my big goal is to finish Southern Discomfort so I can do a final hard-copy review and correction next year. To rewrite No-One Can Slay Her. And to complete corrections (and slight rewriting) to my Applied Science short-story collection (I don’t think I’ll get the book done in time for Christmas, alas). The Leaf work is mostly done, so I’m hopeful I’ll make it.
The pups are continuing to be needier than usual, and TYG’s schedule is putting more dog-parenting on my shoulders than usual. Hopefully this won’t be too big a drag on my time. It’s really frustrating sometimes in the evening when Plushie gets into his I WANT SOMETHING mood but nothing I do meets the bill (except feeding him treats, natch, and I can’t keep doing that). And after a certain point, constantly caring for dogs becomes mentally draining. I do not write well with a drained mind.
Good thing he’s so adorably cute.
