Saturday, July 23, 2005

An Unintended Reaction...

Quote of the Day: "Confucius say too much."

I am happy to announce that Thing One has kept her bedroom clean (and bed made every day) for an ENTIRE MONTH. This is more than just momentous--it's a miracle.
Hopefully she's a reformed seven-year old. Before, well, lets just call her Queen of the Shove Job. Closets, under the bed, drawers, anywhere she could cram toys and paper, that's where she hid them and claimed that her room was "clean."
(Now, granted, I was the exact same way when I was her age, in fact, I still kind of am that way, so I wanted to teach her right to avoid learning my shortcuts.) So one day, we tackled her room together, organized it, threw away a lot of broken toys and junk, boxed up some clothes, and organized her closet. She's very proud of her room now. I'm proud of her room too.
But the other day she did tell me: "Mom, clean rooms are so boring!"

Yep, she's my daughter...

On the writing front yesterday, I got in 2500 words in two hours. I mean, this is the first time that I've had a novel truly seem to...well...write itself. And my characters keep surprising me. For example, I had my heroine finally break down and confess The Big Secret to her long-time boy/neighbor friend--and I was planning on having him be incredulous, aghast, stunned, and freak out on her a little, but he surprised me.
Instead, he told her that he believed her, and that he'd help her. Then he left her in his wake with her mouth hanging open stupidly.

You see, my 14-year old boy character is intelligent beyond his years, and apparently, he sort of already knew the secret, and had suspicions before my heroine confessed all to him.
This made things MUCH easier, and I soon realized that he's too pragmatic to be all freaked out over something so cerebral and scientific. So I'm not changing his reaction. I probably would have wasted precious pages having him stunned/upset/disbelieving/mad at her for being kept in the dark, etc. anyway.
I like getting surprises. You plan on writing the story one way, and sometimes the characters take over. Hey, I'm all for that!

Hubby is coming home today from L.A. He of course ran into famous people the entire time (I don't think he even gets starstruck anymore) but I think it was a good trip for both of us because, well, to be honest, I don't get much writing done when he's home. He likes to "hang out" at night and that means no computer time for me. But I'm glad he's back. I missed him.

Have a great weekend!
Lara

1 comment:

Michelle Miles said...

Mine came home yesterday too... but leaves tomorrow night for DC.

Congrats on the words! That's wonderful! :)