Back into the Book

I may have been boasting too soon about adapting to the time change, though I think this morning's late sleeping had to do with not sleeping well the night before, and for a change that wasn't because I was mentally writing (though there may have been some of that). I seem to have done something to my left shoulder, which has been a bit sore lately. At first, I was wondering why that shoulder, since I'm right-handed, but then in tracking my activity (which is easy when something gives you a twinge when you use it) I noticed that I use my right hand for fine motor skill type stuff, like writing or using a knife, but I use my left hand for anything involving heavy lifting. I also sleep mostly on my left side, in a position that hunches that shoulder into a funny position. So, I'm trying to be good and not use that arm much. I switched to canned milk with my tea so I'm not hefting the gallon jug of milk so many times a day, and I'm trying not to sleep on that side. Unfortunately, not being able to get into my favorite "ah, sleepytime" position is making getting to sleep difficult. Fortunately, this is spring break week, so I don't have ballet. That's not heavy lifting, but holding your arm out to the side and totally still for long stretches of time isn't easy.

Speaking of spring break, I'm planning to take one when I finish this draft. I'm setting Easter weekend as an internally imposed deadline. Then I'll take a couple of weeks mostly off. I'll be doing some prep work on the next project, but that will involve vast amounts of reading, both research non-fiction and fiction, and that's the kind of thing I can do at the park or in coffee shops or maybe on the train while I go have adventures. Otherwise, I'll do some spring cleaning, maybe get my new computer and get a new dishwasher. Then after the Texas Library Association conference I can dig into revisions.

But before then, I have to finish the book, and I'm ready to plunge back into writing today. I've totally rearranged my "soundtrack," and it's interesting how some songs that were on it no longer make sense for it (there were some plot threads I imagined that haven't come about) and how some songs that I initially put there now mean something else entirely to me, and changing the context gave me ideas for new scenes. I've also got the rest of the book more or less outlined, with some scenes clearer in my head than others. I may kill my first person (in a book, at least). But some of this new plotting kills my working title because it's all wrong for the tone I'm taking.