A Writer’s Journal: Is the finish line in sight?

I think that I’m almost done with Matching Time. Really.

This morning, I went back to the beginning of the story.

Last week, not sure when, but I did journal about it, so…

Last week, I decided to move two chapters. I moved chapter four to the opening position. This is now followed by chapter three.

(Did you know that if you use ‘headers’ in word, you can move sections in the hierarchy and everything under it — the text itself — will move, too? It’s pretty cool. Go to ‘navigation.’ There’s probably a really cool program like ‘Scriverer’s’ that will help with this, too. But I say, ‘work with what you have.’)

I had already deleted the prologue and chapters one and two, hence, the novel started with chapter three.

But then chapter four happened chronologically BEFORE chapter three, so I thought it made more sense to stick to a more linear timeline.

That could be argued. And since the book is about time travel, there are other options.

Originally, dear reader, I had include all these little asides from the author. Some might call that ‘post modern.’ I’m not really sure what that means, and since I don’t know, I thought that perhaps I should NOT do that. So I took all of those first person narration OUT.

I always save scenes that I’ve deleted, just in case something feels empty or incomplete later. But truthfully, I don’t go back.

I had even gone through this extensive idea that my author interruptions should be spaced and grow in length (word count) as the story progressed.

The idea was to interrupt the reader and to
S-T-R-E-T-C-H
O-U-T-
T-I-M-E…..

But I’m not a post modern writer. IDK.

Here’s the thing!

When we write, we often include shit that doesn’t belong.

Anne Lamott wrote about ‘shitty first drafts.’ And it’s true.

The quality of the writer may be directly correlated to the author’s ability to take out the shit later. To know what is crap.

In today’s session, I tried to evaluate the purpose and the effectiveness of the story as it is now.

My next step:

1. I want to check the time stamps for each chapter.

That’s another way to manipulate time for the reader.

If I note the date and the time of date as a chapter header (?), that would reinforce the passage of time.

It moved slowly at first.

Then, it speeds up as Katte and Sam get in too deep.

But then, it slows down again.

And this morning I was writing a NEW little ending where Sam contemplates taking an extended vacation from The Chicken and The Egg by asking Estelle, the real estate agent, about renting how house in order to have passive income that would finance her and Wendy’s year long trip.

I had toyed with the idea that Estelle would be selling Sam’s house, but this morning I came up with the idea of being a rental property broker instead.

2. Another little issue that I need to deal with: Sam’s cats.

They disappeared. Can’t go away for an extended vacation unless she finds them a home. Nathaniel? But he has Wally, the parrot. Katte’s kids are allergic to cats. (Or was it Barney… If it was, then we’re good. Simple change.)

3. Depiction of time travel

In one scene, Sam and Katte see themselves speeded up in the mirror as they time travel.

In another scene, they feel a rumble.

Deal with those indiscrepencies. [Why can I never spell that word correctly?]

4. Finally, print out the manuscript and re-read the whole.

Enough for today. Now to boxing!