Ready!

Hair: cut and colored
Backpack: purchased and packed
Planner: bought and filled out (w/ the syllabus info I have already, of course -- I'm not telepathic)
New clothes: bought and put up
Dreamweaver: Learned and still learning
Laptop: researched and almost ready to buy ☺
Dog: bathed and teeth brushed

I think I'm ready for school to start on Wednesday!!

I'm not sure what the dog had to do with that... but I'm pretty proud to have accomplished all of that stuff today, and after sleeping in too. In my sweatpants, because today was the first day cool enough to wear them.

The only thing I still have to do before my senior year starts is... write. I'm working on a sci-fi short of 5K for a contest. Let's face it, "working on" it right now means I'm reading David Gerrold's "Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" and brainstorming. And it's due August 31. Gulp. But, no fear...

Oh, and I'm still stuck on a few chapters of IE revisions. Chapters 6-9 are giving me some trouble. I had planned on getting to at least 10, if not higher, before school started... it can still happen, if I can figure out these tiny issues. We'll see.

Otherwise, I'm ready!!!!!

Rewriting

Rewriting Isaac's Eyes is going SO much better after I let it simmer for a while. Just this month, I have rewritten/revised 6.5 chapters. Since finishing the first draft on New Years' Eve of 2008, I had gotten exactly 3 chapters revised before now. And I had to re-revise those this week. So, it's been pretty productive! I just hope I can keep up this momentum and get the whole 2nd draft of the book done by the end of the year. I never wanted it to take this long to get finished in the first place.

After d2 (draft 2) is done, I plan to let IE sit for another month or two and then work on d3. Hopefully (fingers crossed!) I'll only need to get to d4 before I can start working on the dreaded query/synopsis/praying to God someone in the publishing field even remotely likes my work. The way I see it, d1 is for writing, d2 is for rewriting/revising, and d3 is for editing. Of course, there will be many half-drafts in between, and probably a few more editing drafts. In the case of IE, d2 is mostly for reWRITING, instead of reVISING, because I have added so much to the plot, characters, and overall complexity of the story since d1. So, what I'm doing right now is more rewriting than anything. In some cases -- like chapters 4, 5, and 6 -- completely re-writing the entire chapters... which is nice. It's back to the ole' blank canvas of d1 that inspires me to keep writing. I like it.

Stephen King and Elizabeth Lyons didn't have much to say to me about rewriting, but I have a feeling I'll be using much of their wisdom -- and that of many others -- to finish this draft. Especially if I want to make headway before school starts on August 26th (senior year!!! for real this time!).

Off to write some more. I'm adding a new series of flashbacks to the story, told backward from chapter 2 throughout the story (which is a basic forward-chronological structure, no tricks), and this flash is all new. And exciting. And hopefully gives some of my critters (those who critique my work, not small animals ☺) a taste of what they've asked for. Just a taste.