Revising

I've got a system for writing up until about the sixth draft. First draft = mess with some glimmers of ideas. Second draft = flesh out ideas, but still messy. Third draft = work on plot. And characters. And...well, everything. Fourth draft = look at worldbuilding. Feel some despair. Keep at it. Fifth draft = polishing characters and plotlines more. Sixth/seventh draft = examine awkward parts again. Make them less awkward. Write, read, repeat.

It is after this point that I'm trying to figure out stuff. And I came up with an idea that seems to be working--usually I try to work on a chapter a day when I revise, but this time I broke up my book into sections. Some of them are a couple pages long, while others are a mere three paragraphs, but I put all my focus into making one section (or so) good a day. This is time consuming. I'm surprised, though, at how much better I'm making my eighth book just by breaking it down. I feel like my manuscripts are always this close, and I'm hoping that this time I can figure out more about the magical process of rewriting.

Some more tips from here. Tell me if you have any nifty revision tricks!

Secret leprechauns?

I'd never heard of the secret leprechaun. But today, several of my sons' friends were apparently visited by a tiny leprechaun, who left footprints on their tables, turned their milk green, and dropped little chocolate coins.

Is this a Utah thing, maybe? Or is it more widespread?

At least I bought stuff for a green fruit salad and green eggs and ham. There's no leprechaun, but we did manage to get everyone wearing green. This counts as awesome, right? Right?

I really want to know: what do you do for St. Patrick's day? Have you ever heard of a secret leprechaun?
 

If I could knit, I would make a secret leprechaun. The one from here is adorable! Mine would look a tad less human and a lot more like tangled string at this point, but hey...

Three is more than two

Someday our cutest of babies will sleep better. Someday I won't have grading looming over the horizon, or lesson plans to poke, or kitchens that are better off unseen by outside eyes. Until that day, I may be sort of sporadic on the bloggy-thing! To compensate, here is a video of cats.

I like cats.*

* worthwhile link, if'n you're a reader or a writer and you like cats, too!

International Women's Day

I admire a lot of women. My mom, of course. Grandma Hart and Grandma Williams. My sisters, aunts, cousins, friends. Our pediatrician is a woman. My two favorite college professors are women. And even though I'm surrounded by cute boys all the time, I've got all my author-friends who are women to help even out the gender score at our house.

There's Marilynne Robinson and Madeleine L'Engle. Patricia Wrede and Patricia Coombs. Holly Black and Ursula K. Leguin and Barbara Kingsolver and Virginia Woolf and Margaret Weis and Robin Hobb and Amy Tan and Harper Lee...

Well, you get the idea. Women are worth celebrating, and those brave enough to send stories out into the world are the ones I thought I'd celebrate today. Yay for mothers! Yay for authors! Yay for books I can fall in love with!

Marilynne Robinson, from this article. It makes me want to go reread Housekeeping...which I will do before Baby milkivore wakes for another snack!

Wheel of Time

I don't like to read series before they're done. Especially long series. I can make an exception if I trust the author to meet deadlines, and I really like them, but...in general, I wait for a series to be finished before I start reading.

For those of you who don't know, the Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan, is a set of books I've been resisting for years. See, my husband loves them, and rereads them every other year or so. I'm impatient and horrible, though, so I refused to read them--until now, because Brandon Sanderson just finished the last one! (Robert Jordan died before he could complete the final book, so Brandon Sanderson completed the series).

Anyway, my point is this: I am enjoying the books. I'm also glad I can go grab the next one as soon as I finish the one I'm on. And I think that your favorite character in Wheel of Time says a lot about you.

For those who've read the books, here is a quiz that allows you to see which character you are. This one is just for female characters, and this one is for male characters. Who you are in the quizzes doesn't matter as much as who you like, though. Maybe. I'm working on a theory.

By the way, my favorite art for the series is by Seamus Gallagher. And my favorite character? Well, here's Gallagher's illustration of her...

A shooting star...

Here is a video for you! It seems appropriate, given recent astronomical happenings...

How to sleep like the parent of a seven-week-old baby

Feed baby at 6:30. Hold baby until he falls asleep on your chest.

Put baby down in his bassinet (maybe).

Feed baby again at 9 or 9:30. Sink into your bed when you finish around 10.

Wake up again at 1 or 2 a.m. Feed for a half hour as your head droops and your eyes keep shutting. Put him back into his bassinet.

Get up at 4 or 5 a.m. Stagger over. Pick up baby. Repeat the twenty-minute feeding thing. BE VERY CAREFUL. If you are not soothing enough at this point, he will start to hiccup. Then you will not get to climb back in bed, and you will be sad.

7 is the end-time when five-year-olds leave their rooms. There is no sleep after then.

Aw! So cute--although those eyes can look more than ominous in the middle of the night...