Sad lack of Wiscon
This is the first Memorial Day weekend in a good long while that I haven’t been at Wiscon, and I can’t help feeling a little melancholy. I’d gotten very used to that moment of connection and thought and outright silliness. (And there’s a very materialistic part of me that misses the clothing swap, but since I hit the jackpot last year I really have no right to complain.) My thoughts are with everyone there; raise a glass for me.
In the meantime, I’m drowning my sorrows in Rock Band, cinnamon rolls, and hiking, not in that order. I also took a quick break from revision to write something new, and while I’m still too close to know whether I did a good job, it feels like a good story. Not least because I got to write several mad-science monologues.
Best part of revision recently: fixing a logistics problem and in the process making one character delightfully more sinister. No matter how well it’s justified or how true it is in-story, the line “this is for your own good” immediately makes the scene a little more unsettling.
Bring back the extras!
Best part of revision today: bringing back some minor characters in order to create some emotional resolution. Also, there’s something satisfying about cutting out whole swaths of text. I know I’ll have to write more to make up for it, but the act of paring down has its own satisfaction.
Or by turning the fight scene into a dance-off. That’d work too.
Best part of today’s revision: realizing that I can fix most of the problems with a chapter by moving the action to another location — which will give me a little more of a chance to flesh out a previously-flattish character. Simple solutions rock.
also, hijinks and/or mayhem
Best part of revision today: reducing an entire chapter’s worth of comments to “ADD SHENANIGANS.”
Margaret Ronald 