Saturday, 06 March 2004

Just another couple hours of work and I think I'll finally be done with the task that's kept me so busy these past few weeks. One more person needs to review my work, I need to fix any problems she finds, and then I need to run my tests one last time on the final version. Then I'm done and back on my old team.

I did some rewriting on my story, adding about 500 words. I think that's about as much bigger as it'll get, although there's still a little more to add. One scene that I added turned out to slow down the story a lot. I think I'll take it out as a scene and just mention in passing that it has happened. There's one more scene that gets a rewrite, but I don't think it'll get any longer, so I'm about at the final length.

I got some really good feedback on this story from my critique group. In particular, everybody saw my hero as much more of a slacker than I'd intended. It's not totally off the mark--he's supposed to have no interest in making money or being a success--but slacker was not exactly what was in my head. So, I'm fixing it. I'm giving the hero something to care deeply about and work hard at that is totally non-remunerative. The only other changes are just putting in bits of description where I can make the world richer without adding substantially to the word count.

It's been great to have some time to do some writing. I think I'll be able to wrap up this rewrite tomorrow and have some time to start something new.

Besides my writing today, Jackie and I also went furniture shopping. We found just what we were looking for (a mission-style chair and love seat) at an Amish furniture store a half-hour south of here. If we can get our antique rocker fixed, that'll just about take care of the living room and dining room furniture.