Got some good writing done today. I've gone back and edited some of the chapters I put in while editing (so in essence I'm editing my edits, just in case you haven't had your daily dose of weird yet) which sounds like a bad (or procrastination) thing but isn't. In fact I've been able to greatly improve a few things, and have officially decided that my plot twist, which I've been ranting about for weeks now, was in fact a good idea. See, the only reason I was worried is because I was having to delete huge chunks of dialogue, interaction, descriptions, etc., most of which was pretty good. And I was very concerned that what I was replacing it with wasn't nearly as good, therefore I was seriously wasting my time. As usual upon rereading what I'd written (surprise, surprise, I'd forgotten what most of it was! Am I drunk when I do this and just don't know it? Bloody hell) I discovered that, YES, AMANDA CAN ACTUALLY WRITE, and that I was OK. Nothing bad had happened. I hadn't deleted anything that was so mind numbingly cool that it...well, numbed my mind. And better yet, what I'd replaced all that old stuff with was actually pretty good. The only thing I need to tweak is one particular chapter, in which there are excellent character descriptions that don't really go anywhere. What I mean by this is that the descriptions themselves are fine, but some of the characters I'm describing don't get used again in the entire book. (In fact, there are five of them and only two get used, though to be fair one is a secondary char.) So I'm kind of torn between whether or not to keep the descriptions. I think I will, though, because while I may not use all of those characters, the two I do use need that set up. They need those descriptions so the readers understand the environment in which they spend their day to day lives. (The characters I'm speaking of are all a family, and, like it or not, the people you grow up with/live with/were born to shape a lot of your life, for better or for worse.) So I think I'll leave them as they are. :) Though I am a little sad that they don't get used again, (unfortunately I don't really see a way to fix this) because man, this is one dysfunctional family. Oh, if only I still had a copy of The Sims, the fun I could have in my off hours. XD Mwahahaha.

Anyway, aside from that tiny little snag, the rest of the editing went great. I'm really pleased with myself with what I've written. XD I think it's good, solid, and has great flow. Part of the thanks must go to the Young Wizards series, which I'm devouring at the moment. (I sat down to read High Wizardry this morning at breakfast and didn't get up again for TWO HOURS. And then I only stopped because there was no more book left.) I had forgotten the positive impact reading fiction while you're writing fiction has on the quality of your work. You really do absorb small things through osmosis, and those small things can go a long ways towards making your own work sound and feel better. I look forward to rereading a few other series I've had on my bookshelves for many years but have forgotten about. That's the only scary thing about this Young Wizards reread I'm doing at the moment. I'm really shocked at how much I forgot. I finished High Wizardry this morning shaking my head muttering, "How could I possibly have forgotten all THAT?" because as anyone who's read the book will know, events in that book are pretty huge. And all I remembered was that Dairine didn't have a knife for her mustard and loved Star Wars. Shameful. I won't even hazard a guess at what happens in A Wizard Abroad, because I truly have no idea. I don't know why I have no idea -- maybe the GRT got ahold of me in the night and wiped my memory? -- but I was actually kind of confused during Wizards at War because at first I had no idea who Ronin was. (I'm assuming he appears in AWA. I could be wrong.) Yeah. It's that bad. *shame* I wonder if such forgetfulness is normal in teens/young adults, due to some kind of brain growth, or if I was just under so much stress as a kid that my efforts to forget my circumstances were a little too effective and wiped more than just the arguments with my dad? Or am I just weird? The world may never know. =P

In the meantime though - need TV. Body is sore. Eyes are tired. Must veg. (Also see: turn on the TV on to old Law & Order reruns, put the volume down, and read. *is a geek*) Apples and/or strawberries and/or copious amounts of cheese may need to be ingested. We shall see. *dematerializes*

...that woke me up at 5am. Obviously I need to stop eating cheese before bed, because I think I spent pretty much the whole night having bad dreams. Naturally of course I couldn't remember a damn thing about any of them, except that Hoshi and Detective Goren may have been involved, though not together. (Do not ask me why those two are running my head at night, because I don't know. All I can tell you is that I was watching Enterprise before bed.) It might seem strange to be frustrated by not being able to remember a nightmare, but I find it so because I like to analyze my dreams afterwards, to help me deal with them. A lot of nightmares that seem scary at first turn out to be completely ludicrous and silly when you think about them properly. But no joy tonight. All I can remember is a lot of darkness, death, torture, fear, and destruction. I stumble around for a few minutes getting water, tripping over the dog, ejecting my cat from my room because he snuck in, making enough noise to wake the dead, etc., lay back down, and promptly realize that I can't get back to sleep. Insert profanity here.

So I grab the nearest book at hand, which is saying something since they're currently taking over the desk next to my bed. (When are books ever NOT taking over the desk next to my bed?) Turns out to be So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane, which I decided to reread yesterday because it's been a very long time since I've gone through the series and, honestly, at 5:30am in the morning after a nightmare, the last thing you want to read about is Dog Law or a depressing tale involving Dragons. It's fun. I remember now why I bought the whole series, retail, every time a new one came out in paperback, and haven't regretted it once. I wonder why more books don't have overly curious talking white holes that appear at random. And then, ( this happens. )

And now I realize I don't really have anything else to say. =D (Actually I could probably rabbit on a great deal about last night's Heroes, but that's been done by so many folks already I think I'll skip it for now.)

THIS HAS BEEN AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD FANGIRL. THANK YOU FOR TUNING IN AND HAVE A GOOD NIGHT!

Got more writing done today. The short story is almost finished, and my initial predictions of it ending around 10,000 look like they're coming true. I don't know what it is about me that insists on being such a bloody windbag, but I'll go along with it and just do a lot of editing. I've already got in mind some things I want to change, and after reading Nancy Kress's Dynamic Characters I'm so very, very excited to make those changes because I finally feel like I know what I'm doing. I have a very clear picture in my head of where I want the protagonist to start and where I want her to end up. And now I feel like I can actually accomplish that in a succinct, believable way. I'm still not sure if I should be doing this story in third or first person, though. I've been working in third because that's kind of my default mode when it comes to writing, but it occurs to me that writing in first person might actually help keep my word count down. So I'll read through it when it's finished and see what I think about that. In the meantime I'm just happy that I got some really good writing done today. :) I'd continue, but it's getting cold, my eyes are starting to blur, my shoulder is starting to ache and it's only two hours now until the Writer's Workshop starts at the library, so now would be a good time to eat some food and rest up. I'm very excited to be attending another workshop and I can't wait to see what the professor's got in store for us. He mentioned something about critiquing work on the second class, which promises to be interesting. I'm not bringing anything in but I've never critiqued someone else's work before. At least, not publicly. I usually do it in my head but I don't always say anything.

Wow. I'm rambling. Definitely need to stop doing that.

Someone asked me how I was doing over at the ISBW forums. It brightened my day. :) I love those guys.

I wish the weather were better. This week has been nothing but an endless string of cold, gloomy gray days. I'm sick of it. SICK, I SAY! Either get it over with and start snowing or just go back to spring like you should have done by now. I'M LOOKING AT YOU, WEATHER GODS. DON'T MAKE ME COME UP THERE. I WILL BRING LEAH WITH ME AND SHE KNOWS TAEKWONDO.

Also, I love Diane Duane. I don't know why precisely, but I just do. Could be because she's a fellow dragon. Could be because her books are addictive and delightful. Could be because we're long lost sisters of a long lived alien species from the dawn of space-time. ...Probably not that last one.

*ninja-poof*