Thought Patterns

Okay, I'm tired of me dragging my ass.

I am setting a deadline. Not a "try" deadline, but a "gotta" deadline.

Butch Girls and Stereotypes WILL be finished and edited by April 2nd. Of this year.

No word count goal. Just get 'er done goal. No reward, either. Just. Get. It. Done. Dammit.

Arrgh. I hate this!

I went to bed at around 12:30, a little earlier than usual but I'd been up most of the night before. Laid there until 1:45ish. Dozed off until 3ish. Then woke up at 5ish. And here I am. Awake.

Part of the problem is I am hating my CPAP mask. I can't breathe out very well and it drives me nuts!

Good news is that I did some editing/smerging/writing last night and hope to pick it up again today. I went through all of my BG3 versions and made a text file of notes of what each one had, what I thought of it, etc. If it weren't like, oh, 300 pages total, I'd print all the versions out, take a pair of scissors, and cut out the parts I like, tape it together, make notes, and rewrite it.

Hmm, sounds like I may need to get a new printer cartridge.

…let me count the ways.

BGCFA started as a title.

Simple Sarah/The Blessed started as an idea.

Mutts From Wayback started as a joke.

Butch Girls and Stereotypes (aka BG3) was already an idea when something happened to trigger the title.

Currently, I am working on Simple Sarah and BG3. I keep waffling between the two as to which one should get all of my attention. I am doing some light editing and filling in some spaces on Simple Sarah but doing some major changes (again, dammit) to BG3.

All this and trying to avoid moving my head and getting another migraine. I am so freakin' tired of headaches. I really am.

So I got this ball of string, see it? It is my novel. Here, read it.

Well, see, that's the problem. Readers need to unravel that string in order to read it from beginning to end.

Which means I need to write it that way.

I've yammered about this before, several times actually. I need to yammer about it again for my benefit, to remind me of where I am going with this story. With any story.

I've dug myself into a hole and I need to figure out how the hell to get out of it. I think I'm going to chuck that entire concept and pretend I never wrote that drivel.

Please ignore the fraying you may find as you unroll the ball of string.

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Listening to: The Jeff Healey Band - I Can't Get My Hands On You
via FoxyTunes

I've decided to continue with BG3 vs working on SS pt 2. It is well over halfway finished and I am more sure of just how it will finish. I also read through BG4 last night. I had forgotten how interwoven with BG3 it is so I made a few changes to BG3 and made a lot of note changes to BG4.

These BG books, which is short for the Butch Girl series, are fun to write. I so love the characters I have created and the new ones that are in notes waiting to be made real in the novels. Kelly and Grace, the MCs from BG1 (aka Butch Girls Can Fix Anything) appear in all the books as does the side characters Harri, Kaye, Annette, Nikki, Rain, and Lucy the Brat. New ones will be Liz, Ellen, Sam, Chaz, and a few others I've not got firm names for.

At any rate, thought I'd update y'all on what I am doing. Lorna has the print-out of SS. When she's done, we'll discuss what she thinks of it and I'll either edit more (the most likely scenario) or I will send it off to RCE.

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Listening to: The Jeff Healey Band - How Much
via FoxyTunes

I finished the edits of Simple Sarah. Phew.

It is a freakin' fantastic story. I have always loved it and believe it will be one of my best work.

Now to decide how to deal with it. Do I keep going and write the next one? Or do I send this one off as soon as Lorna is done reading it?

Keep writing is a good thing because then the facts are kept in line and I have the privilege of changing the first one should the second or third one change it.

Sending it off is a good thing because then it is OUT OF HERE.

This is different that the BG books. In the BG books, each one focuses on different characters. They all share the same geographic location and characters from one book will/can appear in other books. But there's no real story line that is shared other than location and time. Any of the books can be read in any order.

With the Simple Sarah books, it is the same storyline in each book following the same characters.

Opinions? Thoughts?

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Listening to: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Heartbeat
via FoxyTunes

I've made great strides in the editing of Simple Sarah. I went through all of the print out, making notes as I went. My beta readers, D and R, did a freakin' fantastic job!

I am on page 310 of what is so far 365 pages. It has climbed to over 91K, which is the best part. There are sections where I will back up and add a scene or two and there are scenes to add and/or work on in the sections coming up.

I've still not come up with a name for the nation. I stare at it and my brain freezes.

Meanwhile, I have been slowly going through the huge honkin' double spaced print out of BG3. I am only at page 59 with about 200 more to go. The story isn't finished but I need to go over it and decide where it is going.

When finished with SS, I will print it out (single spaced) and turn it over to Lorna for her critical reading. She's read it so many times, though, but I don't think she's read this version so it will be a treat. While she is reading that, I will get back to work on BG3.

So that is where I am now and what I have been doing.

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Listening to: Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
via FoxyTunes