Sunday 11 October 2009

Theatre of Ideas

Five thousand word day for the win. I could have made it to six thousand but my need to declare it to the world via twitter led me to the main pc and it trapped me there for several hours. I swear, I've been hammering at the monitor but no one would let me out.

The rewrite of Theatre of Curious Acts is going well, the publisher didn't like the first fifty or so pages of the book and I've slashed them down to about ten, removed two characters, reduced the other two characters to bit parts and pulled my main MC from the rest of the book to the front (don't ask, the original version of Theatre had a complicated layout as it was set out as four novellas/novelettes and one short that all tied in together) and now the story starts in the trenches of The Great War with some nasty trench rats. The positive thing is, I've fallen in love with the story and am eternally grateful for this kick up the ass that will hopefully help me build a much better book.

In other news, the wonderful Kurt Newton has reviewed Olive Lemon on his blog. Happy, happy, happy. Plus, whilst panicking that I wouldn't have a story for the Cafe Doom competition this year and that I wouldn't have any flash stories to send to 52 Stitches when it reopens, I played with some words hoping to make an inspiring title. I found my title, I found my character, and they fit neither of the above. Oh, but it does have butterflies flying about my insides. Either that, or I have gas.

19 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

What a fantastic day. I am glad you managed to get out to tell us about it.

Cate Gardner said...

Oh, I'm not out... They let me have a tea break.

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Wow, that's one hell of a word count. You have inspired me to stop reading tweets and news sites for the rest of the day and spew some wordage.

Aaron Polson said...

I can't name the last week in which I've written 5K. Let alone a day. Awesome.

Laura Eno said...

Ha! I was waiting for you to take a breath! Congrats on such accomplishment. Your tea break is over now.

BT said...

Just in case - stay away from naked flames. I've also heard rubbing naked Korean boy band members can also cause sparks so you'd best stay away from them as well - just in case it's not butterflies :c)

Danielle Birch said...

Impressive :)

Cate Gardner said...

Jeremy, then my job is done. :D

Aaron, I'm cheating a little because it's 5,000 rewrite words not new words.

Laura, I get that all the time when I speak. ;)

BT, I've heard the whole gas/naked flame thing can be quite interesting.

Danielle :D

Fox Lee said...

Trench rats, you say? I am deeply intrigued.

Barry Napier said...

I am also trudging up the muck in my brain for 52 Stitches Ideas

Carrie Harris said...

Good lord, woman. You do realize that whenever I need to get motivated to put words on the page, I just visit your blog, don't you? Because I figure if you can do 5000 words, I can manage 5!

K.C. Shaw said...

That's great about your edits! It sounds like you're making some massive changes. And your wordcount is awesome. Great day!

Cate Gardner said...

Natalie, they only have a small part but they do nibble on some eyes.

Barry, I'm convinced I'm not going to come up with anything.

Carrie, I don't believe a word of it.

Kate, my word count aims to sit in the shadow of yours.

Katey said...

Holy god, what an awesome day! You, ma'am are rockin.

Glad to hear about the progress on the re-write, and how it's making you feel. I'm fascinated, as you'll know by now, with the whole process of kicking a book into shape.

I love looking at the bright green SOLD OUT over there under the Olive blurb, by the way. So cool.

Cate Gardner said...

Katey, I could do with a handful of those days per month.

Katey said...

So could we all, man. I'll drink to that! (What, it's surely after 5pm over THERE.)

Cate Gardner said...

It's 7:13 pm, a respectable drinking hour that many call happy.

Ray Veen said...

This actually made me sad:

Aaron, I'm cheating a little because it's 5,000 rewrite words not new words.

For me, revision is a much slower, and more upleasant process, so
Congratulations anyway.

Cate Gardner said...

It's the fourth draft, does that help? :D