It rained today, and it rained, and it rained some more. Rain all day. Like it was northern california.
Rain has always meant winter time to me because that’s how it happens up in Humboldt. It rains for, like, 7 or 8 months out of the year. I never really realized how much that actually is until moving down here to LA where it almost never rains. But, this whole storm is good news. It’s dropped a ton of rain up in Norcal, which is where we actually *need* it to rain. That’s where all the water comes from, really. I don’t think rain down here in LA does us much good. It just kind of washes down the sidewalk drains and flows out to the sea. Rain up north of us, however, runs down the mountains and into the reservoirs that feed this place.
I was a little under the weather again, and I slept most of the day. Went grocery shopping, though, after doing apartment stuff related to rent. Will do that again tomorrow.
I got my writing done. Wanted to send it off to a friend for some catch-up, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that on my iPad š See, I don’t use the built-in apple mail client. I don’t like using it, really, not since the gmail app came around. But, that makes emailing anything that needs to be attached as a file somewhat problematic.
Anyway, I think I just realized for reals that this book, Starstuff, is not one single book. It’s two. I’m in the last third of the book, solidly in the last third…like 10,000 words in the last third…and I’m about half way into the narrative. That doesn’t add up. I’m not making the final rise and fall of the action super compressed. That’s not any fun, nor is it good writing. But yeah…it’s not going to happen, this being one single book.
I guess I’m glad to figure that out, but at the same time, it means more writing is ahead of me. Another whole three months of it, actually, before I’m finished with this first story of mine. I’d been looking forward to being able to move on to my SECOND project…but hey. It’s not the end of the world. It’s actually a good thing even publishing-wise. Everyone wants a series. Books that are pre-sold as sequels. People love getting hooked into a story and then getting the new book or books to find out what happens next.
I guess I just feel married a bit to that original outline, and not finishing it through to the end doesn’t actually feel like it counts for a first book being finished. Because the story’s not finished. I think I can get over that, though š And, it is *definitely* a good thing to have my second book lined up with an outline that can pretty much be plug-and-play. Much of the grunt-work being done.
I might look into Scrivener for the next book. It’s got cool features like outline form, notecards you can re-order around, notes sections for your chapters, and then of course, your actual body of text where you can completely write your whole novel out. It just is a way of breaking down the whole process into very definable pieces, which makes the entire experience a little less daunting. It is, in fact, how the outline to Starstuff was fleshed out in the first place. I’m definitely of the mind to do my outlining a little more in depth the second time around. I’ve hit a couple snags in this turn that I think could have been avoided with more planning. The whole “one book becomes two books” thing as well. Could have been pegged much earlier on in the process. Same thing with my next pilot script. More outlining!
Okay, that’s all for tonight. A pretty major discovery on my 400th entry, and I didn’t even plan it that way. TWO BOOKS. Can’t just write one, right? Right.
Goodnight!
PS- as a final note, I learned that Trudy Williams, the lovely woman who ran Trudy’s Sweets and Treats in downtown Ferndale for over 40 years died last week. I saw last christmas that she’d closed her shop, which made me sad to see. She had this photo wall by the front door with photos of all the “Ferndale Kids” as she had it labelled, and I was one of the kids on that photo board. It was a rite of passage, really, and she was just one of the nicest people I’ve ever ever met in my life. She truly loved children, and everyone, I mean EVERYONE loved Trudy in that town. I’m more sad today to hear that she’d no longer with us. I’ll miss her very much.