Renewed

I finished Great Expectations this weekend and was reminded what a true masterpiece of story-telling looks like. A co-worker finished reading Star of Justice and tells me she wanted to re-read it immediately, so I've gotten my kudos for the week. I'm not only waiting for Kat Heckenbach to send her second draft of Book II for edits, but I'm supposed to be writing a non-fiction article of 3000 words by the end of June, so I'm in the wonderful-for-procrastination-purposes position of having other things to do than write on my book.

Which means I'm ready to write on Price of Justice.

I thought I would start writing last night. I took the laptop and the turtle-shaped flash drive into the bedroom (away from the Internet and the newest Farmville release Jade Falls) and settled in for what I hoped would be a few productive hours of writing.

It wasn't quite what I expected.

I had to remind myself of what I have already written. It's changed so much in my head, I can't remember what's on paper anymore. That led to a strong realization that I need to edit while I go, which I simply cannot do on the laptop with that little finger-mouse-pointer thing. I hate those. Then Skamper decided the space between the laptop and my belly was exactly his size so I had to deal with a cat hair arm rest that didn't appreciate the use. Within minutes of turning on the computer, I had five fuzzballs within five feet staring at me with a "what'cha doing, ma?" intensity that was quite unnerving. Miss Kitty didn't join because apparently some ghost had entered the house and she was the only one capable of chasing it around and around.

I suffered another setback when I couldn't find my map of Ah'rahk or even remember where I last saw it. That was an intense two minutes, but I found it in a totally logical place. I need to draw more detailed maps of the specific areas my characters travel this time around. The wide-view is no longer adequate.

Not willing to be completely distracted (though Jade Falls whispered), I turned off the laptop and fetched that monster binder you've seen on FB for some pen and ink time.

I did (I hope) resolve some important issues in the first four chapters, mostly by staring at the ceiling while the cats stared at me and considering all the possible story implications. I also uncovered a few issues I'll have to think about some more. Yes, this time I took notes.

I am now prepared to make useful edits on the first 73 pages of the currently written 406. Those are double-spaced pages, by the way. I haven't hit the 100K mark yet in actual words. Fresh writing will come soon enough once these modifications are made and the cats will just have to adapt to the change of location.

So hurry up, Kat, or I might accidentally make progress on my own WIP. Can't have that, can we?