Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Back on Track

Well, I finally finished the reworking of the first hundred and twenty pages of The Babylonian Codex. I sat down last night and read through it. The pacing is good and the action tight, so all systems are now go to chug forward again.

I had a brief moment of panic when I couldn’t find my outline for the rest of the book. That outline—much scribbled over after Steve and I spent several nights intensively replotting—still isn’t finished, but the thought of losing the progress we’d made had me sick to my stomach. I spent several frantic hours cleaning up my office and my bedroom (I do a lot of my writing perched on the porch swing of the upstairs gallery). On the off chance I'd somehow mixed it up with my research material, I even sorted through and filed a huge stack of notes and print outs on everything from sailboats to the Gospel of St. Thomas (at which point I realized I’ve done way too much research for this book). I even went through the trash. And still no luck.

Of course I found it sitting on my desk, stuffed in the back of a note pad but so well aligned that nary a hint of its presence showed. I swear I looked in that pad a dozen times.

Note to self: become more organized, or risk stroke.

6 comments:

Lainey said...

Great news. Life is good. :)

orannia said...

YAH for getting the first 120 pages sorted and for finding the notes. Tricky thing, hiding like that :)

Good luck with the writing!

Oh, and I finished Where Serpents Sleep on Sunday. The whole book blew me away! *hands shake* But I can't wait untill November! I want to know the consequences of....everything that happened! Just...WOW!

Steve Malley said...

Couldn't tell you how many sheer man-hours I've spent wandering from room to room, sometimes frantic, looking for something that was

a) right where I'd thought in the first place but I'd missed it

b) in the right place but with something else on top of it, or

c) in my hand at the time...

Steve Malley said...

Couldn't tell you how many sheer man-hours I've spent wandering from room to room, sometimes frantic, looking for something that was

a) right where I'd thought in the first place but I'd missed it

b) in the right place but with something else on top of it, or

c) in my hand at the time...

cs harris said...

Lainey, it's definitely an improvement.

Orannia, thanks so much. Great to hear you enjoyed it.

Steve, that's the story of my life.

Charles Gramlich said...

I'm glad it turned up, but I can imagine your frustration. Organize or risk stroke. Yes indeed.