A snail's pace will still get me there, right?

So, the boy turns one this weekend. (Oh my God, how has that much time gone by already!)  I'm excited, but have also been swamped.  Apparently, planning a child's birthday party involves a lot of work.  I still have to get all of the food and party favors together.  Needless to say, I haven't really had much time to devote to the book lately.

Even though I've been pressed for time, another chapter has gone under the red pen and been converted into digital format! Hazzah! Still only up to chapter seven though.  I realized tonight that this chapter will be the first one that hasn't been marked up with a highlighter and red pen.  That means I have to pay way more attention when I'm typing it into Google Docs.  I'm happy to say that it means I've made more progress than I did with my last attempt at editing this book.  Minimal progress still counts, naysayers.

Distractions

I'm trying to focus on writing while my son screams in the other room.  I don't mean yells a little bit and then gets over it.  I mean, wailing until his every breath is a ragged sob and his voice is hoarse.  Papa is convinced that he can get him to go to sleep without my help, but I have my doubts.  Needless to say, it isn't the ideal background noise if I want to get anything accomplished.

The good news: I've managed to get the book edited through chapter five (also, the boy has quieted, so Papa may be successful after all).  The bad news:  I still haven't made any headway on what I'm going to do with the manuscript once the edits are finished (and the screams have resumed).

So, as the screams have once again quieted to sad, halting sobs, I'm going to try to tune the little man out.  For the record, I feel like a terrible mother for just sitting here while the boy cries himself to sleep.  I know Papa is right, and that he needs to learn to sleep without me, but damn, this is hard.

Another day with little progress

I really think that I was born on the wrong continent.  Bear with me here. I've got nothing against being American, but I think I was meant to be British.  Why else would I find refuge in a hot mug of tea (with cream and sugar, of course) and some toast with jam? It's seriously the best comfort food.  I totally understand why they favor tea so much. It destroys coffee.

I'm about to begin the edits for chapter three. I still don't have a title that I like. I'm still unsure if my main character is strong and likeable enough. Is anyone really going to care about her? My doubts jab away at me insisting that she is boring.  There's nothing worse than a mediocre character.  It would be better to have a drab plot or weak dialogue than to have a character that can't engage the reader.  I really need to get cranking on these edits so that I can pass the manuscript along, by which I really mean, force some loved ones to read this thing.  Outside opinions are needed at this point.

On the plus side, a wonderful co-worker has allowed me to borrow her copy of the 2012 Writer's Market. Have I even cracked it open yet? No, but I hope to make some headway later this afternoon. *Fingers crossed that the boy takes a nice, long nap*  He's been sick, though, so sleeping even more poorly than normal, poor guy.

Alright, enough chatter. Time to get focused on chapter three so that I can finish it before he wakes up. Cheerio!

Unexpected Surprise

I finally began work on the edits for chapter two.  Hooray! However, I didn't realize that there was a giant break in continuity at the very beginning of the chapter.  The main character goes from sipping coffee in her kitchen to cresting a hill in her Civic.  Unless she has magical powers of teleportation (and, alas, she does not) then this sequence of events is absolutely unacceptable.  I wasn't expecting to have to write such a large chunk of new text this early on in the game, but it had to be done.  I'm happy to say that there is a much smoother transition between the two scenes now.  I've made far less editing progress on the chapter than I had planned though.

I've only managed to take baby steps in the research of my publishing options.  I checked out the 2011 Writer's Market from my local library (shout out for free resource materials!).  It's rather thick, and a bit intimidating, but I hope to get some useful information from it.  It lists publishers, literary agents, magazines, and writing contests.  I like that it also gives you the best way to contact each listing and, in some cases, lets you k now if they are currently accepting unsolicited manuscripts.  I wish they had the 2012 copy, but since I'm getting the information for free, I'm not going to complain.