Rough return to daily grind. Food coma sets in at the usual time. Since coffee is not available for revival, the primary recourse is exercise and water, itself a false remedy. Desperately need caffeine. Might require blood transfusion if blood sugar continues languishing.

The Wife’s cat behaves oddly. First ack attack at 8am. Later, the striped beast demands a ride around the apartment on my shoulder, and multiple head butts. Suffer a traumatic brain injury when cat rams pointy skull into forehead at high velocity.

Orders are strong, with a substantial bump in sales in the Xmas wake. Perhaps everyone returned nonessential gifts and are flush with ducats.

Writing is rough going under such conditions. No word from agent. The trial continues….

New Years Eve is a time of reflection and new beginnings. Every December 31st the Wife and I record a number of goals for the coming annum. Goals break down based on category, be they personal, professional or as a couple. A year later we review, discuss and write new goals.

2004 was rocky on my end. The Wife did well, satisfying four out of five personal goals and every career goal. I flubbed three out of four personal goals. The goal fulfilled: write every day for three hours. Man, I’m so fired.

Lost in the crush of self pity and yearning for a half dozen martinis, the Wife studied my list. She put what happened into perspective. Of the four personal goals, only one goal was under my influence, the writing schedule. The other three depended on the actions of others. Hearing that, made it clear why I 1) I failed and 2) felt bad about missing the target. The endpoint was never mine to hit.

The Wife took one goal and re-framed.

Before : Get a literary agent.
After : Query, contact and work towards securing representation for the Ridge Runner.

Not only is the re-framed goal more accurate, the statement now emphasizes my personal responsibility and influence in the situation.

And so we enter year 2005. Rock on….

After no word from the prospective agent ( sent the completed manuscript just over three weeks ago ), it was time to share the love and send a holiday greeting.

Since their religious persuasion was unknown, I selected a generic seasonal card with a snow man on the front. I consider a snowman a neutral ( and neutered ) symbol of the winter solstice.

Hopefully, this prompts an answer and our good old friend Frosty doesn’t offend. Hmm. Wait, is it snow person now? Must consult the PC dictionary, maybe the word snowman is out. Damn it! Why isn’t this in the writer’s guide to getting agents? Ack!

Though this string of blogs about writing may seem like a broken record, it’s where my head is at lately – the revision process in particular.

After every fifteen to twenty pages, I review the pages against the outline and synopsis. It’s not a critical or exhaustive analysis, but it does help preserve or restore focus and identify big disconnects early.

Three possible outcomes result from review:
1) Pages fit with the plan. Keep them for later revisions
2) Pages = donkey chum. Ditch, burn or tag for extreme revisions
3) Pages work yet have nothing to with the book whatsoever. Spin off and archive

So today was review time for Velocity. Only there wasn’t much to work with; the output the past six working days on the light side, begging the question, what the hell happened? A new challenge to tackle is what happened.

Let’s just say two stories of consequence wanted out at the same time. And lets say the first was plotted to a T, while the second was unorganized, untitled and otherwise unwritten. Enter the dilemma: a mind yearning for an outlet for the second story and no space to roam. So what happens? The hyper-focused mind constricts the output on the first story. It’s like writer’s block in reverse � too much attempts to escape at once and everything suffers. That’s my theory anyway. The real test is tomorrow when I do a little free writing on the second project and see what happens.