Common Cause Revision: Day Nine (July 30, 2019):
General Blathering: It’s been another goodly stretch of days since the last time I had the chance to sit down and work on Common Cause, though not as long a gap as the one between Days Seven and Eight. Part of the reason for the gap this time around is because my work schedule has changed again. Long story short is, I am working the early morning shift at work, so I’m having to acclimatize myself to that. So far, so good. This is (hopefully) going to be a temporary change.
So, today, I came to one of the local library branches where I like to go and do my marathon typing sessions. I tend to vary which ones I go to, because of some weird discomfort with the idea of being seen as a regular. Today, that kind of got shot in the foot, since the library I chose was having an emergency evacuation drill.
I showed up at the library, found the computer I wanted to use, settled in and decided to go to the restroom before I got stuck in for the day. After the bathroom, I put some money in the pop machine to get a cold and tasty beverage (the fact that I can buy a pop at the library and drink it in the library is still just a mind-blowing thing). It was right after I put my money in the machine that a guy came over and said something to the effect of “We’re having an emergency evacuation, we need you to leave the building.”
Of course, I’d put a five dollar bill in the machine. I hit the change return button, hoping that the machine would give me the bill back. It didn’t. So I stood there, waiting for 20 quarters to be spit out and watching the guy checking the bathrooms. I gathered my change, went over to the computer station where I’d logged in, logged out and left the building while the guy was informing other people that they also had to leave.
It was around this point I heard him say ‘drill’ to some other patrons and was like, “…ok, either he didn’t say ‘drill’ to me or my still sleepy brain just drifted over the word ‘drill’ in favor of focusing on ‘emergency evacuation.’
Once I got outside, I ended up following some of the library employees who were going to their safe meeting space (mainly because I didn’t know where else to go and I wanted to know when I’d be able to go back into the library and I figured if anyone would know, it’d be the librarians).
It wasn’t a long wait; I got a nice little walk out of the experience and the librarians were like, “Hey, how’s it going?” Of course, now I think my attempts at remaining semi-anonymous/under the radar are kinda shot, but it’s all good.
Actual Revision Information: Once the evacuation drill was over, I came back to the same station I’d logged into before and logged back in. Since the computers keep track of how much time you use, I found out that the whole exercise took about 4 minutes. Fortunately, I had over 590 minutes left (seriously, this particular library system allows you 660 minutes of computer usage per day; it’s crazy! Crazy awesome!).
Once again, sitting down and doing the actual typing/revising/writing of the story is the most difficult part of the day. It’s especially difficult for this chapter because, as I’ve said previously, this is where I need to tie all the plot threads I’ve been spinning into a cohesive whole (aka the thing I’ve been trying off and on (mostly off) for the last thirteen years).
One thing I’ve learned as I’ve been doing this rewrite is that there are some problems with internal consistency that were either in this story to begin with or that I’ve managed to put in during the rewrite because I’ve altered some earlier points. Because of this, there are now some places where I’m going to need to edit and/or alter earlier elements of the story and there are other parts where I’m going to have to write new bits, whole cloth, to help this piece hang together.
None of this is necessarily particularly difficult, but it’s more than a bit frustrating. At the moment, I’m focusing mostly on typing up Chapter Five, but including notes about where I’m going to want to change things when I go back through for the next series of rewriting and revision. Which is going to start, if the typing goes well, on August 1st.
Well, huh….: And, we’re done. As of 1906 on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, I have finished typing up an entire draft of Common Cause. The total word count - which includes a lot of notes to myself for the next round of the rewriting process, is 25,064 words. This story isn’t complete, not by a long stretch. I’ve got at least one new chapter that needs to be written and may end up inserting a new chapter near the end, which may become the new epilogue with the old epilogue either being chucked out entirely or turned into epigraphs on the previous chapters. Right now, I’m done for the day and I’m looking forward to going home and eating some delicious food with my girlfriend.
And figuring out just WTF I’m going to be doing with myself tomorrow….
W00t!
This entry was originally posted at https://dunmurderin.dreamwidth.org/205373.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
So, today, I came to one of the local library branches where I like to go and do my marathon typing sessions. I tend to vary which ones I go to, because of some weird discomfort with the idea of being seen as a regular. Today, that kind of got shot in the foot, since the library I chose was having an emergency evacuation drill.
I showed up at the library, found the computer I wanted to use, settled in and decided to go to the restroom before I got stuck in for the day. After the bathroom, I put some money in the pop machine to get a cold and tasty beverage (the fact that I can buy a pop at the library and drink it in the library is still just a mind-blowing thing). It was right after I put my money in the machine that a guy came over and said something to the effect of “We’re having an emergency evacuation, we need you to leave the building.”
Of course, I’d put a five dollar bill in the machine. I hit the change return button, hoping that the machine would give me the bill back. It didn’t. So I stood there, waiting for 20 quarters to be spit out and watching the guy checking the bathrooms. I gathered my change, went over to the computer station where I’d logged in, logged out and left the building while the guy was informing other people that they also had to leave.
It was around this point I heard him say ‘drill’ to some other patrons and was like, “…ok, either he didn’t say ‘drill’ to me or my still sleepy brain just drifted over the word ‘drill’ in favor of focusing on ‘emergency evacuation.’
Once I got outside, I ended up following some of the library employees who were going to their safe meeting space (mainly because I didn’t know where else to go and I wanted to know when I’d be able to go back into the library and I figured if anyone would know, it’d be the librarians).
It wasn’t a long wait; I got a nice little walk out of the experience and the librarians were like, “Hey, how’s it going?” Of course, now I think my attempts at remaining semi-anonymous/under the radar are kinda shot, but it’s all good.
Actual Revision Information: Once the evacuation drill was over, I came back to the same station I’d logged into before and logged back in. Since the computers keep track of how much time you use, I found out that the whole exercise took about 4 minutes. Fortunately, I had over 590 minutes left (seriously, this particular library system allows you 660 minutes of computer usage per day; it’s crazy! Crazy awesome!).
Once again, sitting down and doing the actual typing/revising/writing of the story is the most difficult part of the day. It’s especially difficult for this chapter because, as I’ve said previously, this is where I need to tie all the plot threads I’ve been spinning into a cohesive whole (aka the thing I’ve been trying off and on (mostly off) for the last thirteen years).
One thing I’ve learned as I’ve been doing this rewrite is that there are some problems with internal consistency that were either in this story to begin with or that I’ve managed to put in during the rewrite because I’ve altered some earlier points. Because of this, there are now some places where I’m going to need to edit and/or alter earlier elements of the story and there are other parts where I’m going to have to write new bits, whole cloth, to help this piece hang together.
None of this is necessarily particularly difficult, but it’s more than a bit frustrating. At the moment, I’m focusing mostly on typing up Chapter Five, but including notes about where I’m going to want to change things when I go back through for the next series of rewriting and revision. Which is going to start, if the typing goes well, on August 1st.
Well, huh….: And, we’re done. As of 1906 on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, I have finished typing up an entire draft of Common Cause. The total word count - which includes a lot of notes to myself for the next round of the rewriting process, is 25,064 words. This story isn’t complete, not by a long stretch. I’ve got at least one new chapter that needs to be written and may end up inserting a new chapter near the end, which may become the new epilogue with the old epilogue either being chucked out entirely or turned into epigraphs on the previous chapters. Right now, I’m done for the day and I’m looking forward to going home and eating some delicious food with my girlfriend.
And figuring out just WTF I’m going to be doing with myself tomorrow….
W00t!
This entry was originally posted at https://dunmurderin.dreamwidth.org/205373.html. Please comment there using OpenID.