The atmosphere almost has a hint of Monterey about it except that it’s not nearly as cold as Monterey.
For the last three days I have spent the afternoon at either Soldiers Estuary or Soggy Peso Beach. I take Frances and my binder with my Coyote manuscript. We go for a walk – half mile or so – getting our feet wet and pick up a few seashells. We have a drink of water. Then we plop ourselves down on the sand and I begin re-reading and editing these pages from “Point B” that I wrote last November.
I say I’m re-reading them because I actually don’t remember a lot of what I wrote. It’s been kind of fun, and while of course it’s far far far from a finished product, I’m pleased that I’m pleased with portions of the story.
Frances and I find a place in the sand where we have some privacy. In order to catch the many little typos in the manuscript, I find it is best to read it out loud. So I don’t want to sit too close to anyone. I think that would drive someone else crazy to hear me nearby looking at a binder and mumbling. Of course it takes much longer to read out loud, and every page has multiple red pens marks, to correction on the laptop later.
The manuscript thus far is 72 typed pages. I’m up to page 55 so I hope to finish this little task today. The story is nowhere near complete. The further I get into the manuscript, the more convoluted my story gets. I don’t have an ending yet. But there are fun scenes – I think!
Every November there is a national event called NANOWRIMO – National Novel Writing Month. It is an exercise for all level of writers, amateurs, hobbyists and professionals. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. The goal is the word count as opposed to a quality product – and to just keep writing, writing, writing. It forces you to keep writing even if you have no idea what you’re going to write about. And it develops the discipline of doing it every day. You submit it online, and get a certificate when it’s all done. I accomplished this last November. But I wrote most of mine in the last two weeks.
When Mom passed away in November, I felt like it was something she wanted me to finish. I had told her about in the hospital. I had only written 10,000 words when she passed. Mom was always pleased with awards and certificates and my creative efforts, so in spite of my many emotions, I focused and finished the last 40,000 in the last two weeks of the month and got the certificate!
Given the circumstances, I’ve been quite certain that what I wrote was probably mostly crap. How delighted I have been these past three days to find that I not only really like some of it, but I love my characters, and some of it even makes me laugh out loud. Yes, it’s a comedy. I mean – it’s about a coyote – it HAS to be a comedy!
I probably will complete this early round of editing at the house today. It’s a bit too cool to plop in the sand and read, although Frances and I will still find time for a nice windy walk. Frances will probably miss seeing the lone pelican that joins us every day and thrashes about trying to catch a fish in shallow water. Frances is usually quite amazed by this. At the end of a few hours, we walk the half mile back to the car and towel off the sand on our bodies. We drive home. I shake the sand out of my binder and rub lotion on my sun and wind tanned skin. I'm so grateful for my olive complexion. Thus far I have had no need for sunscreen.
Betsy and I are going to Yoga, then running errands. We are in charge of bringing lunch to an outing tomorrow, so we have to shop and then cook.
After today I’ll make the first round of corrections, and hope for some brilliant ideas on how to fix my story.
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