Sorting it all out....

You know how it is when there's a million things that are demanding your attention. Then things keep popping in from the sidelines like maniacal cheerleaders, waving those horrid pompoms and listing off yet one more job that you should do now, or yesterday. :)

So...I need to check blogs, read blogs, sort e-mail, check my favorite newsgroup and respond, begin the editting process, clean my house (decide on baby steps and there's a charity coming on Friday to cart off what I can clear out), pay the bills, begin tax work, make stew, ASL study, write my mom & sis, clean the fridge, re-organize the freezer, check the menu for the week and make a grocery list for tomorrow, prepare deposits and remember to stop at the bank tomorrow, wade through Wally World to pick up photos of the fact that our no-pets tenant has a cat (sigh), take out the trash, motivate ds to make his bedroom navigable. Doesn't seem like such a bad list. Oh, and laundry. Arg.

Did I mention updating my website? I may give it a rest in December. I might even get a poll going, or a feedback section or something that will let me know what might make it continue to be attractive. I get more hits every month, but lately the growth hasn't been as good. I'm not sure the prompts are doing anyone any good anyway. I would like to do more reviews and articles. I'd love a 30-hour day. No, no I really wouldn't. This is enough.

It looks like we have a stormy afternoon ahead, and then a week of sunshine, so perhaps tomorrow I'll feel more energetic. The garage sale went well, but I'm worn out, and G even moreso I'm sure. I had high aims for today, and I may still reach more goals than I expected. I've been doing 5-minute bursts in most rooms of the house and it really is amazing at how much you can deal with in 5 minutes. It's probably the most encouraging thing I've done all day.

I'm getting a handle on the editing. What I'd like to do is develop my own checklist. I highly recommend reading Sol Stein's book "On Writing" in which he outlines a "triage" method for editing. He edits beginning with the most fundamental structure on which the entire work hangs, making sure that everything necessary to support the story is strong and healthy, then moving on to less significant details. In other words, critical wounds dealt with before minor problems that will improve the health of the story but might be fixed when the larger things are tackled. Does that make any sense. He feels that too many chapter by chapter read-throughs will make you go "cold" on the story, and I have a tendency to fear that. It's happened several times with Widow's Peak. I get going but then a change here means changes where I've already been, and before you know it I've read a chapter six or seven times and feel so confused I want to throw my hands in the air and skip it. Which I do.

I feel the old "resting on your laurels" syndrome coming back in that I was so eager to start editing last week, and now that Cousins has mellowed for a week, I'm backing away thinking I need to do this and that and the other thing (like a revision checklist!) before I get going. It's comfortable here. I've accomplished something. And if I try to "fix" it, I might just make it worse. Or make it work. Better. Positive thoughts, positive thoughts.

Well, I ramble because I promised myself I'd get back to the blog, get back in the swing. Maybe I do need those prompts. Or maybe you, dear reader, need me to need those prompts.

Or what about a serial story.....Hmm.....That would be something different wouldn't it. And I have plenty of starter seeds from last year's blog.... Hmmmmm...... It does me good to get back here, ya know?