Friday, January 08, 2010

Beat Sheets, Pot Holes & Puppies

I’m still working away on the revisions for Fractured Sight, my YA novel. Using Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet has proven to be a huge help in keeping my page count down, my pacing in forward motion with all its required highs and lows, my character arcs on track, and my plot holes plugged. It’s hard work trying to figure out where to put scenes for maximum benefit and sadly, saying good-bye to scenes that just don’t work to the benefit of the story, but I think in the end I will have a better book because of it.

So I continue to slog away and wrangle my story into submission. I had a great breakthrough on the plot this morning as well as the best way to work the whole structure so that it will feed into a series rather than a stand alone book.

Meanwhile, back in Every Day Land, my car is making a strange sound – somewhere between a clunking and a rattle. We’re pretty sure it’s the brakes, but I think the sound is coming from my back driver’s side and my significant other (hereto for referred to as the SO) is convinced it is from the driver’s side front end. I’ve decided to leave it up to the professionals, although explaining the sound to them over the phone made me feel like a bit of an idiot. I’m sure my podmates thought I had lost my mind. However I think my warranty on the brakes runs out next month, so regardless of how foolish I appear, I figured I better get that sucker in before the cash came out of my pocket.

And speaking of cash out of my pocket, mid-month is fast approaching w
hich means the puppy comes home soon! We had a last minute change after visiting the breeder. We had originally picked out a female so pale she was almost white, but when we went to see the puppies first hand we fell in love with a big bundle of boy who melted in your arms when you picked him up.

It’s hard to believe I’m going to have a puppy again. I have some anxiety that I’ve forgotten everything Cooper taught me. It’s been 15 years since I’ve raised a puppy and I really had no clue what I was doing then. Granted I learned as I went, and Coop was a great teacher, but I still have a bit of a fear that I’ll screw it all up and make a mess of things. Which is foolish. All my dogs have been well trained and well behaved. I need to stop worrying.

And I can't remember if I mentioned in my last post but I became an aunt again for the 6th time. My newest nephew, Gabriel Xavier, was born December 17th but had to stay in the NICU for a little bit. My sister surprised everyone when he was released on Christmas Day and she showed up to Christmas dinner with three kids instead of two. Below is a pix of me and the other two, Maggie (wearing my hat) and Malcolm in front of tree, George. Yes... my sister names her Christmas Tree every year.



6 comments:

Melissa Amateis said...

Excited for you and the new puppy! You'll do just fine. :-)

Tess said...

Great pic :)

And I'm so excited for you re the puppy!!!! You'll be just great!

Unknown said...

Love those writing breakthroughs, Kelly.

I had a strange knocking in my car, can't remember the cause but it was covered under warranty. So good thing to take it in now.

Those kids are so cute. Congratulations on the new nephew and the soon to be new addition to the household. Never trained a dog, can't imagine how you get it to do it's business outside.

Lilly Cain said...

I love the puppy pics! But I love even more the fact that you've had such a positive breakthrough with your book. Sometimes I hate the breakthroughs because you suddenly realize that you have a LOT of work to do. But when you have a really positive attitude they can be awesome because those are the moments that teach us!

Lilly

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Wonderful picture of you with the kidlets, and what a gorgeous puppy. How can you not melt when picking him up in real life?

Anonymous said...

Congrats on becoming an aunt again and congrats on the new puppy!!! :)