Catherine Ensley's Words World and Wings: Writing Update

Wheat Harvest 2012

We?re smack dab in the middle of harvest, which generally takes about three weeks for us to complete. ?I?m not impacted as much by it now as I was in years past. Now, I do little more than cook dinner each night for three hungry harvesters when they come in at anywhere from 8:30-9:30 pm.

As for what I?ve been doing apart from that, it took me a full three weeks after leaving my job at the library to finally complete all the errands and loose ends that were preventing me from launching fully into my writing.

But I am happy to say that as of this week, while the family is putting long days in the field, I?ve been at home, writing, in a mostly quiet house. ?

In addition to replacing all of our windows and siding, we had our heating/air conditioning system replaced recently. Men are still here practically every day doing this and that. Who would?ve guessed it would be so complex, and take so many trips out to our house on their parts?

And that?s just the heating/air conditioning technicians. First, they had to install the exterior unit, the heat pump. Then the interior unit, the back-up electric furnace.

?It turned out it was beyond their expertise to complete the job, and so they had to subcontract an electrician to do some wiring. Before the electrician came out, the heating people made two more trips to the house. One was to install a U-V light bulb that behaves like an electronic air filter. Another was to determine why our newly installed air conditioning unit wasn?t working. They determined it had tripped the circuit breaker.

Today, the electrician came out to wire up the electric furnace and discovered a new batch of troubles.

Our house was built in 1979, and there are some things near our electrical panel, namely a sink and a nice stretch of cabinets with new countertops, that won?t pass code. Our choice is to rip out about 15? of cabinets (which would also mess up our 3-years new basement flooring), or have the electricians drill through 6? of concrete and relocate our electrical panels outdoors. Then when a circuit breaks, we?ll have to go outside to trip it. Won?t that be fun in the snow?

Hubbie will not be pleased when he learns our choices. But I?ve already talked to my son-in-law who remodels kitchens and bathrooms for a living, and he estimated it would probably cost about as much to have the electricians relocate our electrical panel as it would for us to have him rip out the sink, cabinets and countertops and leave an ugly, unfinished space, just to comply with Washington?s ?insane? electrical codes. And ultimately, it would ruin the pretty basement we worked so hard in the past few years to create into a livable apartment, where two people are currently living.

So apart from writing, these are the issues I?ve been contending with this week, my first peaceful week at home since retiring, when I have actually had time to work? on my writing, assuming I?m not talking to various builders. ?

Regarding writing, I have decided to rework my Young Adult manuscript instead of launching into my inspirational historical romance. I have been studying Dramatica theory for several months, and I wanted to see how what I had done squared with what the Dramatica software suggested I do in terms of plotting.

Frankly, the manuscript is an enormous mess!? But I am so happy for my new understanding of how to successfully plot this particular story, which means keeping it on target. I have an awful tendency to go off on tangents.

?It will be a joy to truly understand what I am doing for a change, and not spend weeks, months, maybe years, flailing in the dark with it. Maybe never really coming to understand how it should roll out. Had I not studied Dramatica, I am sure I would not have ?gotten it.?

Hours spent re-plotting my manuscript from Monday-Wednesday: 26.

Gee, it?s good to be back on the job. Had I been working at the library, it would?ve been 24, and none of those hours would?ve been spent occupying my mind with the things I want it to be occupied with.

I?m feeling no regrets about leaving the old job and taking on the new one.

Source: http://wordsworldandwings.blogspot.com/2012/08/writing-update.html

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