Baby Steps, Baby Steps…

So a long, multi-tiered discussion of my main characters with R-, *may* have kicked the chocks out from around the wheels and allowed things to move.  It feels very…vulnerable…right now, so I’m not saying much, except that something under the surface is moving a little.   I know some things Ky *isn’t* going to be doing (anything to lessen the number of branches!) and ditto about Rafe.   Plus two or three things she might.  Plus a better analysis of what has to be covered by the ending.  (The Mmph! isn’t coming at the end now, but somewhat before that.   Which means the Errrrum can be there and lead to the Wrrmph?)  Making notes in the Ideas file.  (Every book has a main text file, a Names file, a Timeline file, and an Ideas file…that started when I put the Paks books onto the old IBM PC with DOS and WordStar and those 5 1/4 floppies.  Though I still often *drew* the Timeline, calculations were done in the Timeline file.)

7 thoughts on “Baby Steps, Baby Steps…

  1. Pruning some branches is good.

    I get “choice fatigue” I seem to have a budget of choices for a day and if I go beyond that I just dither. This became obvious when we were preparing to move from our last house that we had lived in for twenty years, and as part of that were trying to reduce the number of possessions we had, especially books. The important thing I learned was to recognise when I’d reached my budget for the day, so I could go and do something more productive than the dithering.

    I hope you are finding that the pruning continues to help and that the wheels are continuing to roll steadily.

  2. Hi – hope you are still safe and sane.

    Baby steps – Ky going to have a child? Wishful thinking? Maniacal laughter.

    Seriously, I think the best advice you can give to aspiring authors is that writing is often simply hard work. Very few authors can sit down and have the Great American Novel just flow out their pen. I have read that Zane Grey would write his novels by hand in copy books which is why some were published after he died. Rex Stout was said to sit down at the typewriter and flow out his mystery stories in a matter of weeks with no revisions. But for most authors it is just plain hard work – and we do appreciate it.

    Take your time – survival is important. Enjoying the equines is important. And of course, family is important.

    Stay safe and stay sane.

    Jonathan up here in cold New Hampshire

  3. Only this “peep” from me with no further speculation.

    From what you’ve posted it sounds like you received some sound feedback from your alpha readers.

    1. and on that thought, the canine named Honey that rules our household who is a mix of who knows what, looks like a young Golden Retriever at age 11, and howls like a banshee would like to recommend the term “arooooh! or “araaahwoowoowoo…”

  4. Hope all is going well with Tigger and Rags, R & M, the reports, and the book. Today if my first class in the new semester, apparently a lot of students have not returned to our small private college, so we shall see how many I have this time. Thinking of you!

    1. Leslie: Good luck with your students and the semester. Please, please wear a mask and make them wear masks, if they’re attending in person. Tigger and Rags enjoyed the snow, though not the cold rain that preceded it, and insisted on staying out in it, unblanketed. I’ll do a quick picture post of them. It wasn’t a deep northern snow but it was in the 3-4 inches range, which after the mere sprinkles we’ve had the last few years is a lot of snow. Still a little in the really shady bits.

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