Right on Shed-ule

So this weekend, I tried something new. I wrote out a schedule for the writing stuff that I wanted to accomplish. Weekends are pretty much my only time where I can devote big chunks of time to writing and revising but because I'm so tired by the end of the week, I often waste time watching Buffy reruns (though I prefer to think of that as research into a kickass heroine instead of wasting time) and searching for a movie, ANY decent movie, on HBO, TBS, or USA. (For example, I found myself watching 50 First Dates a couple weekends ago, and I actually liked it. But I kind of like Adam Sandler...sometimes. Don't tell, okay?)

As for the schedule thing, Saturday worked out better than Sunday. I find that I really have to keep moving on stuff, otherwise I get distracted. I didn't quite get everything done that I wanted, but I found time to work on Zara II, plus some new stuff. All before the Buffy rerun at 4:00, which I let myself watch as a reward. It was a good one. Where the teacher/student murder suicide keeps getting re-enacted over and over again. (They still didn't answer the question, though, that either Buffy or Willow raises. Which is, if the original act happened in 1955, why haven't we heard of this murder/suicide re-enactment before? Nobody answers the question. They just kind of gloss right over it. Hmmm. Interesting way to handle a viewer's potential continuity objection. Raise it, which helps verify belief in the characters. But don't answer or explain it -- other than the old standby of "The Hellmouth is weird in its Hellmouth-ishness." Joss Whedon is awesome.)

I also need to cut back on my television watching in the evening. That would probably help me find even more time. But I'm tired in the evening when I get home. I can't believe I used to write at night! (Right now, my husband is grumbling under his breath...something about "stubborn" and "told her so" and "YEARS ago." *grin*)

I got one of the major plot snarls for Zara II...well, unsnarled this weekend. At least I hope it's unsnarled. You never really know until you go to make the changes. Actually, you never really know until someone else reads it. But there's still some snarliness happening toward the back end of the book. Scenes that I actually--eek-- skipped in writing the first draft because I knew the feeling of what should go there and what happened afterward but not how it all happened in detail. So, now I have to go in and sort things out. Figure out what happened. I'm hoping it all matches up. But we'll have to see...

So tonight, my goal is to put a little more time in on that snarl and see what happens! I'm hoping to be able to get this book out there to my first readers very soon : )