Right. Trying again! (Yes, Yoda, I heard that…)

7:20 – page 2, near the bottom. Drinking: ginger concentrate. Feeling: a bit bleary. Listening to: birds outside the window, the gentle susurrating hum of the airconditioner. Ace Frehley’s decapitated head is close to my heart, and the clock is ticking…

8:25 – page 3! Still a few sticky little sentences left on 1 & 2, but nothing to worry about too much. Breakfast time!

10:07 – taking words out, putting them back. I know this could be made better, but not by me, it seems. Added a tiny bit of weight to a nuance. Well, I think it’s a nuance. I could add a little more weight to it, but I don’t want it to be more than a nuance… Anyway, I’m up to that tricky bit again. 15 min break to gather wits…

10:40 – crap, distracted by salamander limb regrowth. Ok, now have giant steaming mug of ginger coffee. Onto The Tricky Bit!

11:47 – Hmm, so I’m changing this important bit to have a different tone…this could be perilous….

12:19 – was that lunch? I guess it was. Should’ve been paying more attention. Can I has another lunch, though?

12:58 – page 3 done. 1/2 of page 4 to go, also tricky, then it gets easier. I think I know why this first part is so hard. I’m trying to write about strong emotions without dodging off into minimalism or imagistic “show don’t tell”. And the main character is an angry woman. Isn’t female anger a hard thing to write about? The angry woman deserves eloquence, but it can be hard to find words to serve her. Kali, I hope this offering pleases you…

1:35 – crap, getting distracted. Ok, break, run around with pants on head.

2:45 – Tricky bit done. And changed. The changes aren’t big in themselves, but they increase the dose of science fiction in the story, so that what was almost entirely a metaphor becomes potentially — it’s still open to interpretation — not so metaphorical. Blame Ace Frehley. I guess if Gillian doesn’t think it works, it won’t take long to change it back. But maybe the thing that just came to me wanted to be there all along, and its absence was the reason I couldn’t get this story tuned right. TV break!

3:50 – random thought: are we just as phantomlike to the aliens and ghosts and fairies and spirits as they are to us?

4:03 – flailing thought: did I just improve the story or disimprove it? Don’t look down!

4:54 – end of page 4, by Kali. The next couple of pages should be quicker. Distraction! Kali Barbie (but no Shiva Ken, sadly). This guy could make Kali Barbie’s dream house and Kali Barbie’s dream car, the Chuggernaut.

6:12 – oops, long bath is long!

6:55 – on page 5, attention still good but ability to have thoughts and use words starting to nargle wuzzn phht. I know I’m an inefficient writer, but I’m beginning to wonder if I’m an inefficient or deficient thinker, too. When I write, I often feel like a piece of my brain that would be very helpful to the process is missing. But maybe this is quite normal?