I completed my first full editing pass through the story-in-progress after having whipped it into shape by completely rewriting it. At the end of this morning’s session, I discovered what was fundamentally wrong with it: an unclear viewpoint. I think I intended it to have an omniscient POV when I wrote it (by hand, in a journal, in 1983), but that’s not working out so well. There really is a viewpoint character (he emerged from the background during my rewrite)—I just hadn’t realized it until now. There’s a single paragraph in the middle of the story that breaks the POV which I think I can either delete or work around. The ending is a little more complex, but not hopeless. Now that I have that in my mind, I think I can really focus this story during my next editing round.
I watched Boston Legal (so-so. The word salad was a little ridiculous. Shirley gave a good closing speech), Law & Order: SVU (interesting witness character and Homeland Security complication), both from tape. With one eye on the TV and one on book reviews I’m writing I watched Pushing Daisies and Criminal Intent. I could have missed both shows and not been the least bit perturbed. I’m growing to like Kelsey Grammar’s character on Back to You. He’s pompous, rude, full of himself, and just a touch aware of it. I thought the subplot with Marsh (Fred Willard) and Gary carpooling was hilarious.
The podcast version of “Harming Obsession” (see yesterday’s entry), read by me, is now up at Podango.
I finished Playing for Pizza (click for my review) by John Grisham last night. I wrote the review as soon as I finished and am working on one for Interred With Their Bones. I read the “What Has Gone Before” section of Fatal Revenant but didn’t have a chance to get into the book yet.
