The plot bunnies are revolting!
So I've been plugging away rather steadily at my novel rewrite since mid-August. I'm at 15 chapters and about 180 pages. Not bad, considering that I started the rewrite in, like 2005 and was on a major semi-hiatus for almost a year somewhere between then and, oh, my wedding. I'm pleased with what I've gotten so far. I've added a couple characters that, I hope, will provide some interesting perspective on events and create some moving sub-stories. It's promising. I haven't referenced my original version since the beginning, and have a feeling I only will need to reference it to get my Civil War facts straight - why should I re-research what I already researched? There are only a few things I do need to brush up on in that respect, either because I was never fully happy with the way the historical details were woven in originally, or I'm adding another aspect of the war that wasn't present before, the research for which has been cursory at best. Wikipedia is my new best friend. It's like Cliff's Notes for history books.
So why are the plot bunnies revolting? They've been pretty cooperative so far. I've had to wrangle a few into submission, and I nearly killed one outright recently because, well, I was sucking at the writing thing. I had a bit of a battle with one last night; I've been working up to writing this big argument between the heroine and the "villain" (can I really call him my villain, or is he just misunderstood?) and it got written at 11:00 last night. But I'm not sure if it's any good. I'm afraid it's choppy, makes no sense, is poorly worded, and otherwise would make readers' eyes bleed and their brains explode from its sucky-ness. The thing that is really frustrating is that this argument is supposed to set up this series of increasingly tense and emotionally charged moments that will lead up to the book's climax. My plot bunny was being very uncooperative. It would've been justifiable homicide if it'd been Holy Hand Grenade-ed.
The other thing that's bugging me is that I hate, hate, HATE the title I chose for this novel in its infancy, way back in 1994 (yes, that'd be seventh grade). I was enamored with it until about tenth grade, and then I was sort of lukewarm about it. Tepid, if you will, about this title. However, I remained pretty faithful to it, even to the point of coming up with a title for the sequel (which thankfully doesn't need a full rewrite, just a good cleansing edit) that echoed the original's sentimentality. I changed that sequel title pretty quick, though, and have been really happy with the new title since. But that original title for the original novel... it's stuck around persistently, but only because I cannot, for the life of me, THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE!!!!!!
*sigh*
So, in other news, more pertinent to real life and thankfully less dramatic:
- I only have 4 more class meetings for my grad class, one of which is an online mod. However, said online mod is when I have to finish the first 10 pages of my research paper draft. Sucky.
- I was able to get into the practicum section being held at Minetto Elementary in the spring (spring semester - what a hoot! It'll snow till April break, just you watch!), which will be awesome because a)it's on my way home from work and b)it's my last class for this literacy program. The downside is that it's twice a week from 4-7, so I'll need to farm out my students at like 3:30, if not earlier, if I'm going to make it on time. It's not the sort of class you can sail into 5 minutes before the prof starts, because we'll be tutoring a student for the first hour. My understanding is that it's a beefed up version of the course I took from Dr. Kagan last fall up in B'ville. So an hour each night of tutoring and then 2 hours of class.
- Aaron and I got our plane tickets booked for our spring break trip to San Antonio. I'm very excited. Texas will be state #24. Plus April's a great time to go to Texas, and we'll be spending my birthday there. It's their big Fiesta celebration that week too, so there'll be lots going on. Plus, best part, we get to visit with Steph and Phil and Elle. :)
- In other travel news, we're hoping to go to San Francisco next July for a wedding. Obviously we'll go for a few days, not just a weekend (how stupid would that be?), so we'll get to be all touristy in San Fran. Plus, if we make it to California, it'll be state #25. I'll have either traveled through or to half of the United States.
- I'm ridiculously excited to decorate our house for Christmas this year.
- I'm ridiculously dreading the tension that could potentially be present on Christmas Eve this year.
- We ordered living room furniture and a new table for the breakfast nook! If we are crazy-lucky, we'll have the new furniture before Christmas. That would be awesome. Hopefully we'll be able to save up to get the dining room set that we like. Then we can have Christmas at our house next year. :)
- Aaron built a "mezzanine" in the garage. Now we can park both vehicles inside. He's also almost done with the basement. My laundry room, even without a ceiling and only one of four cabinets installed, is awesome.
- I love my hubby and he loves his wifey. :p
That is all.
So why are the plot bunnies revolting? They've been pretty cooperative so far. I've had to wrangle a few into submission, and I nearly killed one outright recently because, well, I was sucking at the writing thing. I had a bit of a battle with one last night; I've been working up to writing this big argument between the heroine and the "villain" (can I really call him my villain, or is he just misunderstood?) and it got written at 11:00 last night. But I'm not sure if it's any good. I'm afraid it's choppy, makes no sense, is poorly worded, and otherwise would make readers' eyes bleed and their brains explode from its sucky-ness. The thing that is really frustrating is that this argument is supposed to set up this series of increasingly tense and emotionally charged moments that will lead up to the book's climax. My plot bunny was being very uncooperative. It would've been justifiable homicide if it'd been Holy Hand Grenade-ed.
The other thing that's bugging me is that I hate, hate, HATE the title I chose for this novel in its infancy, way back in 1994 (yes, that'd be seventh grade). I was enamored with it until about tenth grade, and then I was sort of lukewarm about it. Tepid, if you will, about this title. However, I remained pretty faithful to it, even to the point of coming up with a title for the sequel (which thankfully doesn't need a full rewrite, just a good cleansing edit) that echoed the original's sentimentality. I changed that sequel title pretty quick, though, and have been really happy with the new title since. But that original title for the original novel... it's stuck around persistently, but only because I cannot, for the life of me, THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE!!!!!!
*sigh*
So, in other news, more pertinent to real life and thankfully less dramatic:
- I only have 4 more class meetings for my grad class, one of which is an online mod. However, said online mod is when I have to finish the first 10 pages of my research paper draft. Sucky.
- I was able to get into the practicum section being held at Minetto Elementary in the spring (spring semester - what a hoot! It'll snow till April break, just you watch!), which will be awesome because a)it's on my way home from work and b)it's my last class for this literacy program. The downside is that it's twice a week from 4-7, so I'll need to farm out my students at like 3:30, if not earlier, if I'm going to make it on time. It's not the sort of class you can sail into 5 minutes before the prof starts, because we'll be tutoring a student for the first hour. My understanding is that it's a beefed up version of the course I took from Dr. Kagan last fall up in B'ville. So an hour each night of tutoring and then 2 hours of class.
- Aaron and I got our plane tickets booked for our spring break trip to San Antonio. I'm very excited. Texas will be state #24. Plus April's a great time to go to Texas, and we'll be spending my birthday there. It's their big Fiesta celebration that week too, so there'll be lots going on. Plus, best part, we get to visit with Steph and Phil and Elle. :)
- In other travel news, we're hoping to go to San Francisco next July for a wedding. Obviously we'll go for a few days, not just a weekend (how stupid would that be?), so we'll get to be all touristy in San Fran. Plus, if we make it to California, it'll be state #25. I'll have either traveled through or to half of the United States.
- I'm ridiculously excited to decorate our house for Christmas this year.
- I'm ridiculously dreading the tension that could potentially be present on Christmas Eve this year.
- We ordered living room furniture and a new table for the breakfast nook! If we are crazy-lucky, we'll have the new furniture before Christmas. That would be awesome. Hopefully we'll be able to save up to get the dining room set that we like. Then we can have Christmas at our house next year. :)
- Aaron built a "mezzanine" in the garage. Now we can park both vehicles inside. He's also almost done with the basement. My laundry room, even without a ceiling and only one of four cabinets installed, is awesome.
- I love my hubby and he loves his wifey. :p
That is all.