Day 1 of Who Knows How Many Days?

If I'm going to start doing this as a daily check in, I have no idea how I'm going to title my posts.  Am I going to have a different kind of title on the days I have something interesting to say, than I do on the days I'm just reporting?  Should I do it like Dean Wesley Smith is doing with his Writing In Public posts -- and simply post a separate post for updates and for other things, even if it means posting several times in a day?

I don't know.  I'm making this up as I go along.

Today - Resetting Timers

I finally started to get back to my routine.  Max and I walked.  I did some house and health related stuff, and then I settled down to my computer.

One problem I have when things get off balance is with decision making.  So I have a method for that. I have a list of ongoing current projects, and the items are numbered.  I use Random.org to choose a number and I work on that for 15 minutes. I have a timer on my computer.

And then I spend the next 15 minutes getting organized and working on that list and prioritizing.

Most people do the organizing their day first, I don't because it's easy to get caught up in that. If I do something useful first -- something that actually gets real work done -- then I am eager to get past the organizing.  I'm weird that way, but it works.  Any day I don't get much done, it's because I did the organizing stuff first.

The tasks I did today were:

*Brainstorming on the layers of the mystery for The Man Who Stepped Up.

I have a lot of backstory, etc. for this novel, but it's all kind of scattered and equal.  A mystery really needs to be structured around peeling back layers.  You don't have to have it all ahead of time, but you need certain key things, and I just don't have them yet.  I find that figuring out, generally, four layers of action -- four different directions for our detectives to investigate -- helps me nail those key questions.  Also, it helps me see if I'm getting stuck on an idea that goes no where.  Today's question is: is the person being shot at in the opening who I think it is?  It makes for a great first act revelation when we find out it's a certain person, but is that good for the whole story? Or is that just a cool end to the first act?

*Artwork

I've been missing doing artwork so much while my computer has been down.  I didn't do much today, because I had nothing in mind.  So all I did today was sketch about five or six silhouettes. Three of them were inspired by an old cover I found on Gutenberg, with three boy scouts sitting around a fire. However, my figures feel more mature and even sinister.  I paired them off in different ways, this is one of them.

It has a pulpy, conspiratorial look to it.  But the effectiveness will depend on the final colors and what is in the background.

*Stone-Cold Dead At The Trading Post

I only did about 500 words on that tonight, but I'm glad to get back into the swing on that story. I think the key to making it work is the relationship between Mick and Casey.  Casey is off-screen for most of the story, but her presence in Mick's awareness is important.

And, actually, tonight's bit was a little interaction between them, where she kind of sets him on the right course, both letting him know she is expecting a lot, but also making a gesture of confidence in hm.

*Reformatting The Misplaced Hero

I'm going, slowly, through all of my existing books and reformatting them in html.   In some cases, I'm actually doing a read-through and looking for typos.  I'm doing a little minor line editing on this one. Mostly for clarity and voice.  I figure this might inspire me to get more done on The Misplace Baroness.

Otherwise, I spent too much time blogging and on the internet.  Tomorrow I intend to focus more directly on Stone-Cold.  I won't be publishing it next week as I hoped, but I would like to get it done, by next Friday, and maybe even published by the end of the month.

See you in the funny papers.