Sunday, November 15, 2015

More Time In The Editing Cave

As most of you know, I've been editing and re-editing my manuscript The Forgotten Debutante. It's been going fairly well, but one scene, the Thanksgiving dinner, wasn't coming together as it should have. I had my two females, Saffron and Grace, discuss the menu, make certain the silver was polished and the tablecloth was clean. But then I glossed over the meal altogether. Left it on the proverbial table, as it were.

After thinking about it for a few days, I went back and added in one paragraph about the dinner, and thought I had it fixed. I just reread the section again and I realized my hero, Zeke, was jumping up and down trying to get my attention.

"I want to taste the pie, not just see it, Becky," Zeke yelled at me from across the table. "And what about the mashed potatoes and gravy? Did they just eat themselves?" When he picked up a dinner roll and lobbed it in my direction, I flung my hands in the air.

Okay, okay, Zeke, calm down. I went back to my paragraph about the dinner and added in some actual conversation, referred to the two available pies, and how Zeke could have a slice of both, etc, etc, etc. Finally, Zeke had a full belly and he quit yelling at me.

My dog, Mary, has lately been reacting the same as Zeke. She's decided she likes to cuddle, either with my sister on the couch, or with me in my chair. Since she's a puppy mill rescue dog, she never learned how to jump up on the furniture, so we need to pick her up each time. Picking her up is still a challenge, though, since she needs to be herded into her little bed (not the big one, mind you). But once she's in her safe place, she'll allow us to pick her up, and she'll loll for hours in one place or the other.

A few days ago, she sat quietly with Pat in the morning when I was working. Then, she got up for a potty break, came back in the house, and went to her little bed. I headed for my chair to check my emails. She got out of her bed, stared a hole through me until I looked up from the screen. When she had my full attention she gave a full body sigh, nodded her head in the direction of the bed and walked back to it, ready to be picked up. Thank goodness, there were no dinner rolls in the house.

So I missed Mary's cues, just as I had Zeke's. Time to pull my head away from the computer and pay attention to the folks that matter.

Hopefully, both Zeke and Mary have now been taken care of. I haven't heard either of them yelling at me today.


14 comments:

  1. I'm always being yelled at by my characters. They are always trying to hog the page, and get their two bits in. Good luck on the edit, and don't ignore your four legged friends.

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    1. And sometimes, they do make valid points. I try to listen, but it makes the writing challenging, since you were all set to go down one path and the characters insist on going in another direction. Keeps life interesting.

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  2. Fun post, Becky. We all suffer from talkative characters from time to time, but not ones throwing dinner rolls. Poor Mary, you're too busy and she feels neglected. Give her a little loving and back to edit mode.

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  3. Thanks, Barb. Both Zeke and Mary have calmed down, now that I'm through with the edits. Of course, I'll have more edits coming, but hopefully, not until December. Need to do some serious writing now.

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  4. I love this - I can soooo relate to both the characters and the pup, except I have two and they are not passive about trying to jump in my lap any time, any where with no common sense that they both can't jump up at the same time and land in the same spot. Glad there's no more biscuit throwing for you.

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    1. Glad you can relate. I love that most of us have animals who help us with the writing. I'm feeling so good about things I'm going to buy some dinner rolls tomorrow. We'll see what happens.

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  5. Eating is an important part of my writing research. That's my story and I'll stick with it. Glad there will be food on the table when your next story comes out.

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    1. It took a while to get the food to the table, but I finally figured out how to do it. It does help to eat pie. Thanks for visiting here today.

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  6. I hope the editing keeps going well! And I hope you get 100,000 hits! Good luck!

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    1. Thanks, Christine. I love finishing up a project and hitting the 'send' button.

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    1. Thanks, Catherine. My characters have quieted down since I wrote this.

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  8. It's a comfort to know that my characters aren't the only ones out there bossing around authors. Great post, Becky!

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    1. Thanks, Betty. This was a fun post to write. Mary's reaction when I ignored her was what set me off. I thought she was acting just like my bossy characters. It went from there.

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