Second Draft

These dendroglyphs from the Chatham Islands are nearly characters in their own right in my book... Isn't this one beautiful?


This is a picture I took in the Chatham Islands. Not really much more to say about it, really, except that I loved seeing this on the sand.


I'm 45 pages into my second draft, and so far, it's easier than the first one was. This makes me a little wary because I've heard so many writers say that the revisions were the hardest part--cutting out mass quantities of writing and then adding new scenes. I'm not doing this all that much...which begs me to question, am I doing this the right way? Am I creating a novel that's worthy of reading or am I just kidding myself?

Maybe it's easier because I'm not messing with plot and storyline as much. I'm just making things smoother, less cliche (I hope), and adding some info here and there as needed. Hopefully, things will come out nicely in the wash (ah! a cliche!) and I'll have a real story here.

Jim has Tuesday off (like most people), so it'll give me some more time to work. I also found out there's a "Kid's Day Out" one day a week here where you drop off your kid, pay $20, and pick her up six hours later. It's a daycare I can afford, and since it's just once a week, I won't feel guilty about it. She needs interaction and loves playing with toys we don't have.

Of course, she's got tons of toys at home now that Christmas has come and gone. Elizabeth's favorites seem to be her Little People Noah's Ark, her rocking horse, her play laptop, and her baby doll. To her father's delight, she also likes playing with the Duplo's (Lego's) we got her. Everything else came from the family.

After Wednesday, I'll be able to post pictures because we'll finally have internet connectivity. It's been difficult setting it up here, for some reason.

Wish me luck with the re-write!