Adjustments.

My significant other’s schedule change is presenting what I’ll optimistically call ‘opportunities.’ This has been the first week of the new schedule and, to be perfectly frank, I’ve predictably not gotten to grips with it all.

But I will.

Read Through Update.

Working at the Kitchen Table.

A plan being a list of things that aren’t going to happen, my scheme of getting this post written before getting back to the Old Man didn’t work out. On the up side, however, that means I get to report having made some progress through the small number of hours I’ve been able to dedicate to the second read through.

The New System.

I mentioned it before, but this time my plan is to mark any changes I want made at their location along with a reference number and a shorthand note of what kind of change it is. The reference number leads to a clearer explanation of the change in my cheap little notebook. More often than not it’s something small, but on some occasions it’s a little longer of a description, for instance, explaining what that particular sentence was intended to convey, but doesn’t. That way when I come back for the edit, provided I can read my scrawled handwriting, I’ll have a better understanding of what motivated me to stop reading and leave some sort of note.

That wasn’t quite so successful last time.

It’s based very loosely on an amalgamation of the systems I linked to on my Helpful Resources page. This time, I don’t think there’s much about the plot that’s likely to need fixing, so I’m more concerned than I have been with the nitty-gritty, the actual meat of the text – grammar, spelling, capitalization, etc.

As I go, I’m also collecting continuity critical notes about people and places, so at the end of the read through and prior to the second edit phase, I’ll have a definitive picture of all locations and people, as well as an indication of the changes that they need to undergo during what is really an incredibly simple story arc.

Progress.

Progress on the Second Read Through.

At time of writing, I’ve just called a halt for the day to get this blog post written and get the kids fed, bathed and ready for school tomorrow in good time. In terms of pages right now, I’m 12% of the way through following the reading I did yesterday and today. I have more planned for tomorrow which, at this rate, should see me a quarter of the way through.

Up Next…

Apart from the planned read tomorrow, I have a number of other projects seeping out of the wood work:

• This week I’ll be starting the planning for a second crack at the Auto Immune Protocol to see how it affects the eczema I keep getting and perhaps the migraines that seem to like to show up more on Thursdays than any other day of the week.
• Weather permitting I’ll be working at the Mini Barn – which I usually call the ‘Rabbit Barn’ because that’s where I’ll be moving them when it’s finished.
• I have a Mini Chickshaw to build soon once all the parts are in, so that when our eldest starts her ‘Chick-Chain’ project with 4-H, the birds will have somewhere to live.
• …and a dozen other wonderful things!

I’ll be taking pictures of the more interesting ones and I’ll share them off when they’re completed for your amusement. Meanwhile, I have about an hour to get dinner ready so I’m off to roast some pork.

Have a safe, warm week everyone, and next Monday we’ll see just exactly how far I can get in what will be the first full week of the second read through.

Categories: Readthrough, The Old Man, Work Update, Writing