Monday, December 23, 2002

I had written an entry, all about how lousy I feel, snarly, etc. Then I forgot to post it and closed the window.

Snarling yet more, I finally opened Ada Nish Pura and determined to cover a couple points in the outline before Russ and I go off to do our only Christmas shopping of the year. (Mostly just a present for my mother. I got a small check while he was in New York, for which I am grateful!)

Snarl, snarl. Looked at the outline. Didn't like the arrangement of events in the next three steps. Changed them. Started typing.

I've only done about 400 words, but you know... this is going fine now. Not great, not earth shattering -- but it's moving.

I did the outline much like I did for Freedom and Fame. I broke it down into little tiny steps -- and set an arbitrary 200 word count for each step. F&F had a higher per-step word count, but it hardly matters. It's just a number to aim for in general, because I do well with number goals. Some of the steps go way over, some fall way below. But it puts the story out there in easy pieces (200 words) that I can handle without much effort. And it makes it look as though I'm making progress because I can mark off each step as I go through it.

The steps are not absolute. I've ended up deleting quite a few steps, rearranging others... but it keeps me moving at a time when I really don't want to have to stop and try to figure out the next step.

Time to get back to work!

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