10/24/08: Grind grind grind

Word count: 120659 | Since last entry: -91

I think the reason this revision process is going so slowly and painfully is that I am trying to do something (specifically: get into the head of a religious character) that I know I tried to do in the first draft, and tried harder to do in the second draft, but the comments I received told me it wasn’t working, so I’m trying again, but I don’t really believe I can do it. This is the biggest problem the book has (several reviewers have commented on it) and I’m really worried about it sinking the book’s chances.

Wherever possible, I am trying to address specific comments either by removing the problem passage or rewriting it so that it is shorter as well as addressing the issue, which is why the word count keeps going down. This is good, but I don’t feel I’m being very productive.

The bathroom, though, is very close to complete. Today was a bit of a goat-rope, as the electronic exhaust fan timer the electrician had ordered when the first one didn’t work wouldn’t work either. (The first one required a neutral wire, and the second one didn’t but turned out to be for incandescent bulbs only.) We looked into a number of possibilities, including running an additional neutral wire (the relevant wall isn’t accessible from above or below) and putting the timer on a different wall (kind of a pain now, since the paint and stuff is already done), and finally settled for an old-style spring-wound timer which is not as pretty as the electronic one but works. All of this while the painter was trying to paint the trim in the same tiny bathroom.

Just a little more work to do — sealing the tile, painting trim in the hall, attaching door and window hardware, etc. — and we get our house back. This may or may not happen before we leave for World Fantasy Con (where, by the way, I am currently scheduled for a reading at noon on Saturday with Garth Nix) but should definitely be done by the time we get back.

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