Screen Staring

Wow, when fall hit here, it hit with a vengeance. We went from one day when normal people (as in, not me) were using their air conditioners to a day when normal people (again, not me -- I had my windows open for much of the day) might need the heater. I love the cooler weather, but is a gradual transition too much to ask for? I wouldn't mind so much if I could be sure it would stay in this general range for a while, but I have a feeling we'll have another sudden warmup before long. That almost keeps me from enjoying the cool and surrendering to it because I don't want to be disappointed when it suddenly isn't fall-like anymore. It always seems like I get out the sweaters and get ingredients to make soup, and then it suddenly warms up a lot. But for now, it's the perfect crisp, cool fall day, and I think my exercise for the day will be to take a walk.

I didn't get as much accomplished yesterday as I hoped. I spent a lot of time staring at the screen, and then I ran into the rewrite vs. revise dilemma again. I'd copied over a scene from the first draft, spent some time revising it to fit the second draft, went on, then came back and realized that scene didn't need to be there at all. The problem was, I wasn't sure what needed to go in its place. This book has two parallel plot lines, and I came to the conclusion that one whole plotline needs to be totally revamped. The problem is, I'm not sure what needs to be there. I finally gave up on the screen staring and moved ahead with the other plotline, leaving blanks to fill in. I'll need to do some brainstorming today. I am about halfway through with the book and making decent progress. I keep telling myself when I hit a snag that the idea is to make the book the best it can be. It's not as though I'm on a deadline, but I am impatient because I'd like to get another sale, and I can't do that without something to submit. I'm wavering over whether to send the first 50 pages or so to my agent to get out on the market (and then I'd probably have the whole book in time for anyone who wanted to see it) or whether to just finish the whole thing first. I may send the beginning to my agent later in the week to see what she says and at least get a sense for whether my rewrite is on the right track.

This weekend, I had yet another "meeting my characters" moment. There was a young woman standing ahead of me in the checkout line at the library who looked very much the way I imagine Katie's best friend from back home (you'll meet her in the next book). The really weird thing is, the stack of books she was holding was exactly what my character would be checking out of the library. Spooky.

And now I think I may put on a jacket and take a walk before lunch. That may rev my brain up enough for me to come up with some ideas and get down to work.