raising my blog rating by overuse of the word crap
Yesterday's GrapeMo progress: 110 minutes.
All on one chapter. Not even the whole chapter. Oh my holy crap, how I crapped up that chapter! So much crap we could fertilize death valley, plant corn, feed chickens, and bring down the price of eggs.
First though, heart failure when I clicked through My Recent Documents and was informed, "Your Windows Briefcase is Corrupt."
AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGG!
It's the big one Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you honey! Because Windows Briefcase is where I, you know...keep my NOVEL.
The error message went on to say (paraphrasing), "The documents are fine, just drag them out and then back in again to reestablish a sync relationship..."
So I did that, then got drunk. (Not really. I did semi-clear off my desk though. Semi- because, among other things, there is still a Minnesota Vikings baseball cap and a tube of Queen Helene Mint Julep Facial Masque on there. I guess in case a muse with clogged pores and bad hair arrives.)
First I noticed my heroine driving around for hours in a tank we've already determined (ad nauseum, prior to edits) is almost out of gas. So I shorten the time to five minutes. Go, me! Yay, three out of four scenes finished! I open the spread sheet to update the word counts on the story grid, and to fill in the summary column.
(The summary column is an after-the-fact outline. The outline I made before I wrote is not necessarily accurate anymore. I might even swear I never saw it before.)
After I hit SAVE and before I hit X to close it out, my eyeballs wander beyond the conditions column and over to the date and time columns which is when I realize--crap, crap, crappity crap on a crap-encrusted stick at a crap convention--the tale has now vaulted from early morning to full darkness in those five minutes.
So I go back and find something for them to do until dark, which is when the next bit of action can take place. (Trust me, only an idiot would perform this activity in daylight.) Readjust the Excel grid (while sending good karmic thoughts to Bob Mayer* who inspired the Story Grid concept that took my old word count tracker sheet to a whole new level). And then, just before I hit X...
Oh hell. I even have the structure wrong here. The scenes just end wherever. This would be because I was doing
novel_in_90 at the time, and those aren't scene breaks. Those are just where I hit word count and stopped for the day. Crap!
And did I say crap?
At least I know what I'll be working on tonight.
* There used to be a jpg of his grid at the online workshop he gave with Jenny Cruisie, but they have taken it down pending the conversion fo the workshop into an actual book.
All on one chapter. Not even the whole chapter. Oh my holy crap, how I crapped up that chapter! So much crap we could fertilize death valley, plant corn, feed chickens, and bring down the price of eggs.
First though, heart failure when I clicked through My Recent Documents and was informed, "Your Windows Briefcase is Corrupt."
AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGG!
It's the big one Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you honey! Because Windows Briefcase is where I, you know...keep my NOVEL.
The error message went on to say (paraphrasing), "The documents are fine, just drag them out and then back in again to reestablish a sync relationship..."
So I did that, then got drunk. (Not really. I did semi-clear off my desk though. Semi- because, among other things, there is still a Minnesota Vikings baseball cap and a tube of Queen Helene Mint Julep Facial Masque on there. I guess in case a muse with clogged pores and bad hair arrives.)
First I noticed my heroine driving around for hours in a tank we've already determined (ad nauseum, prior to edits) is almost out of gas. So I shorten the time to five minutes. Go, me! Yay, three out of four scenes finished! I open the spread sheet to update the word counts on the story grid, and to fill in the summary column.
(The summary column is an after-the-fact outline. The outline I made before I wrote is not necessarily accurate anymore. I might even swear I never saw it before.)
After I hit SAVE and before I hit X to close it out, my eyeballs wander beyond the conditions column and over to the date and time columns which is when I realize--crap, crap, crappity crap on a crap-encrusted stick at a crap convention--the tale has now vaulted from early morning to full darkness in those five minutes.
So I go back and find something for them to do until dark, which is when the next bit of action can take place. (Trust me, only an idiot would perform this activity in daylight.) Readjust the Excel grid (while sending good karmic thoughts to Bob Mayer* who inspired the Story Grid concept that took my old word count tracker sheet to a whole new level). And then, just before I hit X...
Oh hell. I even have the structure wrong here. The scenes just end wherever. This would be because I was doing
novel_in_90 at the time, and those aren't scene breaks. Those are just where I hit word count and stopped for the day. Crap!
And did I say crap?
At least I know what I'll be working on tonight.
* There used to be a jpg of his grid at the online workshop he gave with Jenny Cruisie, but they have taken it down pending the conversion fo the workshop into an actual book.