Dear Journal,
What a glorious day! Sorry I took so long to get to you, but I lay about in bed reading a very fun book, called McCarthy's Pub by Pete McCarthy - a delicious and hilarious ramble through Cork by a fair funny lad. Then I got onto my cushion and meditated for an hour.
My plan today is to revise two of the ten chapters I have left (to change from 1st to 3rd); walk with my pal, Marion, and Hoagy; go to Peggy's Cove with Marion; and clean up this dumparooni a bit before the lad and I head out to celebrate a dear friend's 80th birthday. Not a bad day, all in all.
Yesterday I worked on three or four chapters (I'm not sure). I have some major changes going on and once I've decided on them, I can't just change the point of view - no, I had to go in and change how things went. Of course! And I'm happy with it. I made my protagonist a little more selfish and stuck - especially in the affair she enters into. Initially, it was some sort of idyllic romantic dream - a very sweet guy, and poor Libby, tragically left with a brain-injured husband and wanting some love. Nope! That is all gone. The guy is a sweet guy but Libby isn't a sweet victim. She cold-bloodedly seduces him because she wants sex without ties. She resists all intimacies with him and he is left irritated and baffled. Things will change later on, but I'm afraid her awakening won't include acceptance of her lover - maybe some amends will be made, but really he is not going to be part of the bigger picture.
One other aspect of the novel that I want to enrich, I've talked about a fair bit, these past few posts. I have the skeleton of it but I want it to take up much more room. And that is how Libby learns from the land by walking on it, and by the medicine woman, Teesa, who takes Libby in hand and gives her an education on Native healing techniques.
This is tremendously exciting to the writer in me - this is where revising turns into art, as opposed to copy editing.
My biggest problem, dear journal, is something I've mentioned before. I am in a hurry and this won't do. Speed is aggression, that I know for a fact. And I don't want to be aggressive with this story. I want it to be born when it is entirely ready to be born. And so, I must work with my mind, my longing to be published before I start getting my old age pension. Never mind, I tell that ambitious voice, this will be worth it, if you just slow down and take all the time you need.
And now, I'm off to work on my two chapters.
And for you, journal, and my dear readers - a photo I took the other day.
2 comments:
Sounds like your making good progress! Lovely picture!
Sounds like you can do both--two chapters is manageable if you don't have total new scenes every which way, and that gets you done in a week! It sounds like a great day, Jan--I hope it's wonderful!
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