Biding Time

Well, with my manuscripts dropped off to Charlie and Stephie (who is subbing for Cheri) that gives me a couple of days to step away from the story and focus elsewhere.

In this case that means getting the house ready for Rowan's 4th birthday party this weekend. That will give me plenty to do, and should clear my head so I can consider other stories. Sometimes once I finished a first draft, the story remains in my head for a while, making it difficult to revise effectively and also to come up with something new. I'm not sure how to describe it better, other than to say that my head is still IN the story, and once done with the first draft I need to get it out.

Oh well, I need to get the six year old off to school. Update later.

Update #1

Charlie must have stayed up last night working on it. She stopped by today and dropped off the manuscript and we talked about it. She had some good suggestions, and also pointed out what my "word" for this story was. Every story, it seems I get hung up on some word and use it repetitively. And I'm totally blind to it. Even rereading the story for myself afterwords, I can't seem to see it. It turns out that this time the word "anyways" got a little overused, and used poorly. Thanks Charlie.