Friday the 13th

I always wince when I have to print out a copy of my book. Hundreds of pages! Not only bad for the environment, but also bad for the wallet, as our printer cartridge always seems to run out when I'm printing manuscripts. Those things are seriously expensive. But, it is necessary. I am a very visual person, as evidenced by the Amazing Wall of Post-its. So, as I write scenes that need to be added into the New Improved Book and cut scenes that need to die, I have to see some physical representation of those processes. Printing it out seemed a good idea, and I started this morning. Of course, halfway through printing, our cartridge ran out. And we are broke. So I yelled at the printer for a while, then did a sort of angry hopping dance around the house. Now I am annoyed and working on-screen until pay-day, when we can get a new cartridge. It's just not the same!

I found a good article on revising your novel by Holly Lisle. I particularly liked this part:

"When you finally finish the first draft of your novel, the temptation to just print it, box it, and start it on its rounds can be almost overwhelming. By the time you've written anywhere from 90,000 to 150,000 words, you can be pretty tired of the storyline, the characters, the plots and subplots, and you're generally itching to start that new project, too -- the one that started creeping into your dreams three or four months ago and that has now become almost an obsession."

Very true, and it's hard to take time away from my new project to dive back into the old one. Especially since it's such a daunting task. I have already cut about 10,000 words from the novel, and I'm just getting started. Whole scenes have to be added in. Whole sections have to be rewritten. The chronology of the book is changing completely. It's going to be an almost completely different book, in lots of ways - but still the same, in the way an axe would still be the same axe, theoretically, even if you replaced the head and the handle.

Being me, I need a deadline by which to complete the revisions. Holly Lisle says she does it in one or two weeks. I don't think I'm there yet. I'm giving myself one month - till 13 March. Which my calendar tells me is also Friday 13th. Is this a good omen or a bad one? I choose to think good. I am a little freaked out because I'm not sure when the oral examination part of my Masters will be, or what client work will come up in the next few weeks (the cursed unpredictability of freelancing!), but then my natural state isn't far from freaked out anyway.This weekend's job is to complete the new outline. I've started writing down long lists of notes on all the changes, but I want to go through chapter by chapter and write a summary of what happens in each. Wish me luck!

On the plus side, the Masters thesis (book plus supplementary essay) is all handed in. It will be ready to pick up from the Registry next week, and I have to cough up $40 for the privilege of having the university print and bind it. You think after paying thousands of dollars for the fees that they would throw in the binding for free. That would be nice.

I completely recommend reading that Holly Lisle piece if you're at the same stage in your novel as I am - it's ridiculously helpful. And it gives you permission to go out and buy lots of fun stationery, which is one of my favourite things to do.