Day 7: July 8 2013

Day 7 = half way. Time is going way too fast. Just starting to get a rhythm and routine going. Finished reading the entire manuscript today. Did you know writers are architects too? I've now drawn the structure of this novel. With the help of Robert J. Ray's The Novelist Re-Writes the Novel I've plotted the 3-act structure, identified Plot Points I and II, the Midpoint, the Climax, and of course THE END. It may sound easy, but seriously it's not. Especially since this is the first time I've examined the draft as a unified narrative. This is arduous work. In addition, I've traced every object throughout the novel and noted recurrences. Why do this you ask? Because it lays the foundation for the REWRITE. Yes, I have a 133 page draft, but to rewrite is more than fixing grammar or changing a word here and there; it's "fixing the subplots," which involves several characters' core stories and how they collide with the protagonist and the plot. Now I have a blueprint, a complete arc from which to revise. So tomorrow the fun stuff begins . . . This may look like scribbles, but it's my map to the buried treasure.

So this evening I drove to the library. Temecula's library is the jewel in the crown among all the Inland Empire's libraries. It's open every night and I must say it's a good sign when you can't get a parking spot at the library.