Finding the Bad Spot

I was very good today and took care of all my errands in the morning (though I spent WAY too much money at Target). Now I can spend the afternoon writing. I hope. I've been pretty stuck for the last couple of days. I figured out what needed to happen in the middle of the book, got it outlined, realized I'd need to cut a scene, then still couldn't come up with what happens next.

After a lot of fiddling around all afternoon, including revisiting my soundtrack for this book and realizing that I had no songs that applied to this section of the story (a potentially bad sign), I finally figured out that the problem was a little further back, that the previous scene ends at the wrong place and goes in the wrong direction. So cutting one more paragraph should do the trick. Unfortunately, I had this realization right before it was time to get ready for choir. So maybe today I can move forward.

I'm already planning on a Saturday write-a-thon. I'll do my socializing on Friday, work Saturday, rest Sunday and then on Monday I've got a Memorial Day concert Monday evening, but I can also work during much of that day. I kind of pity the alto I was sitting next to last night. The Battle Hymn of the Republic ends with a high B-flat, and now that I've been working my upper range, that's easy for me to hit, so instead of straining and coming out with it shrill, it's full-blast. She said she was worried her eyeglasses would shatter. I have to work on some music for another piece because I need to learn both first and second soprano parts and decide which one I need to sing based on who shows up. I switched to first for part of last night because it was sounding a little anemic, but I think one of the bigger-voiced people will be there Monday.

I'm going to have to hit the library tomorrow morning because the last batch of books was hit-or-miss. There was one I really liked, a couple that were okay, and two I didn't finish. One I think I might have liked, except it was written in second person (you did this, you did that), and there was no dialogue, just indirect quotes (he told you this), and I just couldn't get past that to get to the story. The other involved the "hero" shooting up heroin early in the book and I had a "no, just no" moment because I don't need that kind of edgy. Yeah, he's an immortal being and it has a different effect on him, but I also don't need a hero so dark and angsty that he needs drugs. I have one book that was on hold ready to pick up, but I'll need to find some other fun stuff to read.