I’m sure you’ve heard the advice to write about your book in letter form, to a person you love/respect with whom you would like to share your story, but not send it? Even better: write it out in narrative form with the intention of sending it to someone whose opinion you value. This made all the difference.

Revising the outline, I fine-tuned things I may have been lazy about otherwise. I thought of the overall themes and how these are evident in action and dialogue sequences throughout the book. And I didn’t hold back any good bits.

It still needs work, but I think this is a good start. Mind you, I’ve been working on this book for nearly a year, so the fact that this is ANOTHER START could be intensely frustrating if I think about it too long but lalalalala I can’t hear you what are you saying? Anyhow, it has COMPLETELY transformed from the book I started late last summer – all in exciting ways. Now I just have to write the darn thing.

In other news…I came across these dark and enchanting Harry Clarke illustrations from a book of Poe short stories. And I am in love with them. You can view them here: http://50watts.com/#Harry-Clarke-Illustrations-for-E-A-Poe.

Also, it’s the day before May Day, which is Walpurgis Night, celebrated with lighting bonfires and dancing. I think we can at least manage the dancing part.

And now, the theme of the day, my favorite Norwegian ladies: Katzenjammer. I posted Demon Kitty Rag on YA Outside the Lines, but for you here’s a slice of Cherry Pie:

Also, listening to Dracula on audiobook and I am stunned all over again with how subtle and scary it is: Mina is sharing a room with Lucy who is walking in her sleep, trying to open the locked door and searching for the key…creepy! And beautiful. And you know how I love Mina. She’s practicing shorthand and typing and journaling! She wants to be useful! I love her.

That’s the sum up for now. And just in case you missed this April Fool’s post, here is a bit of dork humor for you. Please note: no unicorns were harmed in the creation of this post:
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/04/unicorn-cookbook-found-at-the-british-library.html

In other news, I saw a basset hound on Friday – the first one I’ve seen in the flesh since losing Roxanne. She was waddling down the street – I recognized that waddle. I tried to catch up as dog and owner turned into an apartment building. The owner didn’t hear me yelling “Is that a basset hound?” (or maybe she did and wanted to avoid the crazy woman). But the dog heard me. She turned around, all fat and droopy and jowly. And beautiful. I miss my dog.

I’m looking for good books or movies about creative geniuses who go insane – like “Amadeus” or “Black Swan.” I know that those two movies are very different, but there is that theme of “brilliant person pushed to the brink for his/her art” in both of them. Any thoughts?

(Painting by Odilon Redon.)

I have been reading a lot. In fact, I would like to be reading right now. I think this weekend I am instituting a holiday: Reading Day, a day spent on the sofa with THIS BOOK and some tea. And chocolates. Bliss!

My current reading list (though I always change my mind on what to read next):

Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand (Just finished this. Not YA but so wonderful. I’m sure I didn’t understand it all…but such lovely writing, I couldn’t put it down)
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Matched by Ally Conde
Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand
Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I read for entertainment, but also to learn about writing and to be inspired. I really don’t know what happens next in my book…I’m hoping that reading everything I can get my hands on will help generate some ideas. If you know of any books of the “girl gets an opportunity to go away on an adventure” persuasion, let me know. Boarding school books? Haunted castles? These are the adventures I want to read about. And anything else that you thought was wonderful.

Anyhow, the other night we noticed “A Study in Pink: The Pilot” on the DVD. A Study in Pink is the first episode of the series, but this was the pilot episode – a one hour show they produced, shared with BBC, and were told that yes, this is great. But it was so good that they wanted three 90 minute movies, as opposed to more episodes of a one hour show. They couldn’t just add another 30 minutes to what they had, that wouldn’t work. So they had to dismantle the whole thing and rethink it.

So they revisited A Study in Pink, revisited the script, the plot, the subplots. That is evident from watching the pilot. They rethought where specific scenes should take place, which shots should be used, how the dialogue would be delivered. Even the scenery is altered (221B Baker Street gets some fantastic new wallpaper). In some scenes, the pilot is very much like the first episode. But in other cases it’s much different, and the longer version is far superior. Not only did they get much better cameras for the 90 minute version, they had that luxury of revisiting and reworking the entire script.

This was a good lesson for me, courtesy of the genius minds who recreated Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century. Revision may be a lot of work – a lot of reworking what you already thought you had done. But it’s not a drag, it’s not a pain. It’s a second chance to make something terrific into something brilliant.

* I’ve been steadily working my way through the pile of books I’ve amassed. Some of them have been useful and I took notes. Others I perused but decided not to spend much time with them. It feels good to see that pile shrink, it was starting to bug me.

* I’ve been writing relatively steadily all week. Just come home and write a scene before dinner. That’s all. Just one scene. You can do it. And when you’re done, yes, you can watch Angel on Netflix.

My future challenge: I already know there are things I want to change and develop in what I’ve already written, but I don’t think now is the time to backtrack. Now might be the time to forge ahead. Take note of all my future changes and keep moving into the book. I’m sure that more changes and ideas will be added to that list as I continue, anyhow. And I don’t want to get stuck in that loop of constantly nitpicking Part One and ignoring the fact that I have no Part Two or Three. I might take a break to read a novel (I have a hard time writing a novel and reading one at the same time – especially if it’s YA) and brainstorm ideas for Part Two. But limit the time spend brainstorming and make sure to get back to work before long – I know a good Avoidance strategy when I hear it!