WiP Wednesday: Still Writing

This week has been kicking my rear end (to put it nicely). By the time the Dashingly Handsome Sidekick gets home in the evening, I'm ready to keel over.

But I've still been writing, mainly because writing relaxes me.

Not Stories-A-Week like I should be writing, but my WiP. I'm addicted to it. Even if I have fifteen minutes free, I grab my laptop and try to edit a few lines.

Laptops are wonderful for this.

But the blog suffers.

And the Stories-A-Week are neglected.

The good news is, I think I'm almost finished with my first big edit of my rewrite.

I split up a few chapters (this WiP has very short chapters), and since it's a mixture of prose and verse, I have a few more free verse poems to write to fill in gaps. I have one more plot point I need to introduce a bit earlier.

But I can feel that I'm almost there. I'm close.

Meanwhile, Blogger has also been booting me in the rear end, too. I just wrote a very elaborate comment on Krista V's post (very cool post!) about all the BIG places I've been in the world and all the BIG places I still want to go. But then I tried to post it and got an error message. Blagggh.

I read a very informative post on dialogue on Kelly's blog. I tried to comment there, too, but had the same problem. Thanks, Kelly, for the post, though. If you read this, your point about editing dialogue at least 20 times helped me to push through to make my dialogue better these last couple days. Sometimes I feel like I've worked on a stretch of dialogue enough. What I need to remember is that it's never enough until it feels perfect. Until it's seamless. The number 20 helped me realize just how long that might take! Rewriting something five times might seem like a lot, but it still may not be enough.

My mom also shared a fun tidbit with me through email this week. She read an article about author Richard Peck who wrote one of my favorite books of all time, A Year Down Yonder. He has a lot of quirky writing habits. I won't share them all here, but this one struck me:

After he finishes a manuscript (he rewrites every page six times, by the way, all on electric typewriter) he'll "take this first chapter, and without rereading it, I'll throw it away and write the chapter that goes at the beginning. Because the first chapter is the last chapter in disguise."

Hmm. What do you think of that? I think it's a great practice to rewrite a first chapter after you've finished a book. But what do you think about that quote -- "the first chapter is the last chapter in disguise?"

That little tidbit, however, motivated me to rewrite my first chapter AGAIN. I don't know how many times I've rewritten it now. A lot. First chapters are so important, though, I know nailing it is crucial. I don't think I'm quite there with this one, though. Getting closer, but still not there.

How about you? Anything strike you as interesting this week? Epiphany moments? (They don't have to be about writing, either.)

Have a golden rest of your week!