This is my daughter’s second week of remote learning, and we
are settling into a routine again. Unfortunately for me, every school-time
routine means I don’t get enough sleep. No matter how hard I try, it is always
later than I want it to be before I get to bed, and that alarm goes off awfully
early in the morning.
However, a routine is helpful. My daughter is old enough now
that she does not need constant help with her schoolwork. Unlike the spring
remote learning, where we were all simply trying not to drown, her teacher is
online live with her and the class for 4 straight hours (with small breaks in
between lessons so the kids can move around, go to the bathroom, etc). Then a
lunch break, then my daughter goes back up to her “art studio” to do her
Specials work and anything she hasn’t finished in class.
Since she also makes her own breakfast and lunch, that
leaves my day more open than it has been all summer. It’s still hard to
concentrate, because my daughter pops down at every break to chat, but I can
get some work done during the daylight hours (if I can stay awake!). As a
result, I have been able to work some more on revising Veritas later in the afternoon and evenings.
As I said in a previous post, I have been using Lisa Cron’s Story Genius to revise, but I got hung
up on what she calls the third rail—those competing desires that fuel the inner
conflict of your protagonist. I wasn’t quite understanding it, or at least I
could not clarify it enough to find one that felt “right” for Veritas, until I spoke to my friend
Kathryn Craft, who is a wonderful developmental editor. She reframed the idea
for me, coming at it from several other angles, and at last I “saw” what I
needed.
I have spent the past week chipping away at the rest of Story Genius, laying the groundwork which
will both support and propel the story. I feel like it’s finally coming
together. This is a major revision of an already well-polished story, and what
I am finding is that all the pieces I needed were already in the story—I just
have to put them together in a different way. So, yay to my subconscious for
knowing what needed to be in there, even while my conscious brain missed the
point.
My plan from here on out, now that I think I grasp what I
need to do, is to use Cron’s Story Cards concept to examine my existing scenes
and align them with my new insights, and figure out if any more need to be
added (or deleted). We shall see how it goes.
How are you settling into your fall routine? Is it much
different from your summer one?
Routines and Revisions – CoronaLife Day 187
This is my daughter’s second week of remote learning, and we are settling into a routine again. Unfortunately for me, every school-time routine means I don’t get enough sleep. No matter how hard I try, it is always later than I want it to be before I get to bed, and that alarm goes off awfully early in the morning.
However, a routine is helpful. My daughter is old enough now that she does not need constant help with her schoolwork. Unlike the spring remote learning, where we were all simply trying not to drown, her teacher is online live with her and the class for 4 straight hours (with small breaks in between lessons so the kids can move around, go to the bathroom, etc). Then a lunch break, then my daughter goes back up to her “art studio” to do her Specials work and anything she hasn’t finished in class.
Since she also makes her own breakfast and lunch, that leaves my day more open than it has been all summer. It’s still hard to concentrate, because my daughter pops down at every break to chat, but I can get some work done during the daylight hours (if I can stay awake!). As a result, I have been able to work some more on revising Veritas later in the afternoon and evenings.
As I said in a previous post, I have been using Lisa Cron’s Story Genius to revise, but I got hung up on what she calls the third rail—those competing desires that fuel the inner conflict of your protagonist. I wasn’t quite understanding it, or at least I could not clarify it enough to find one that felt “right” for Veritas, until I spoke to my friend Kathryn Craft, who is a wonderful developmental editor. She reframed the idea for me, coming at it from several other angles, and at last I “saw” what I needed.
I have spent the past week chipping away at the rest of Story Genius, laying the groundwork which will both support and propel the story. I feel like it’s finally coming together. This is a major revision of an already well-polished story, and what I am finding is that all the pieces I needed were already in the story—I just have to put them together in a different way. So, yay to my subconscious for knowing what needed to be in there, even while my conscious brain missed the point.
My plan from here on out, now that I think I grasp what I need to do, is to use Cron’s Story Cards concept to examine my existing scenes and align them with my new insights, and figure out if any more need to be added (or deleted). We shall see how it goes.
How are you settling into your fall routine? Is it much different from your summer one?
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