Lauren B. Davis's excellent essay on rewriting

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I'm keeping to my writing schedule, although I continue to feel a bit lost. Middles!

When I finished today, I puttered: rearranging my books, entering titles into my bibliography, putting articles in binders. Getting books up off the floor. (I've a long way to go on this.) I like order in my spaces — which helps explain why I've been a little frantic.

I'm also trying to organize the blogs I'd like to read, and so finally tackled setting up Google Reader. In doing so today, I read writer Lauren B. Davis's excellent blog post on rewriting: The death of my darlings. I highly recommend it.

I loved her Chekhov quote, his advice on description:

“very brief and relevant . . . one ought to seize upon the little particulars, grouping them in such a way that, in reading, when you shut your eyes, you get a picture.”

I'm reading Evening by Susan Minot. She writes beautifully spare descriptions.

How to recover from a plot derailment

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For the first time since I started my Write Every Day Without Fail drive two months ago, I stopped. I more than stopped: I crashed.

It wasn't a plot derailment so much as discovering I was in unknown territory, discovering that I had to know more. I needed a map! So I dove back into the research. When was a particular play performed? Who played what role? How was it received?

It's simply amazing what one can find out on Google Book: I was enchanted, staggering from one ancient text to another, making fantastic discoveries ... but I wasn't writing.

I looked at my schedule for the two months ahead — I am exactly mid-way: interesting that I should crash now — and realized I was in danger of not finishing the draft. I regrouped, got some sleep, told my husband I would recover ... and began again.

Today: over 2000 words, and a chapter behind me. Tomorrow I should be able to finish another. I'm on the road to recovery.

The stand-up comedy school of writing

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I absolutely loved Elizabeth Stout's novel Olive Kitteridge, so I especially enjoyed this in-depth interview with the author in "The Washington Post." For example:

"By 1994, she had published a number of stories, but she had also begun to have a distressing feeling that "something wasn't happening" in her work -- that she was "holding back on telling truths."

"She wasn't sure exactly what these were. So she signed up for a stand-up comedy class to find out.

Don't you just love that? Read the article -- and better yet, read the book. She's an astonishing writer.

I treated myself to the article after finishing a 1500-word day. At last, I've finished a massive duel scene. I've a busy week this week — we're going to Toronto tomorrow — and I'm a little anxious about loosing ground. I'm going to try to work in 100-word-day minimums, just to keep stirring the pot.

Where I'm at: page 157, 48,277 words. My weight is gaining as well, alas.