indescribableIt was pretty much rearranging the story furniture, and somehow the story wound up 12 words shorter when I was done. But hey, it has a line of direction now, which it was lacking before, and I have elements of plot (though not theme, yet, which is a problem) and I figured out what the story was missing.
Which is to say, er.
An antagonist.
Oh, right. Those help. What with the introducing conflict and everything, instead of just lining up neat story elements and expecting them to grow a narrative through watering and benign neglect.
I did get handed a big chunk of thinking to do on a Secrit Collaborative Projekt that looks to field quite a lot of fun, sooner or later, and there may be additional symptoms of my head continuing to regenerate after All the Windwracked Stars. Which would be good, because I have three rewrites to do before November, starting whenever my editors hand me the revision notes. *clears throat, does not look at editors.*
It feels good to do some actual work, though. As if I were justifying my existence for a change. And yes, I know I've actually done rather a lot of work since finishing Stars. Because I mean, it's only six weeks ago that I finished the draft, and since then I have revised it, revised "Shoggoths in Bloom," written "Skull Ring," written a fanfic, written several pieces of nonfiction, done a ton of reading, and gone over the CEM for Dust.
It's not like I'm sitting on my thumb, here.
It's just that the Guilt Gorilla gets these Ideas, see. Which basically boil down to me not feeling as if I have much intrinsic value unless I'm actively working on writing something.
And actively involved in finishing it, too.
