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Reading the Draft

March 4, 2010 by becca

This is funny. I’m reading through the draft and laughing here and there. Laughing at my own writing is a very happy thing.

One funny thing happening is this: I have a major character who used to be named Nate, but is now named Charlie. This has nothing to do with a brother who may or may not be named Nathan, and everything to do with another character whose name is Nick (and Nate and Nick being too close = too much possibility of confusion). Anyway, so many months ago I did a search-and-replace Nick with Charlie (because this thing is 45K words long already, and I’m all for shortcuts). This morning when I started reading? I read the word “unfortuCharlie.” I laughed. Out loud. Then, thousands of words later, “extermiCharlie.” More laughing, and I made Kids 1 and 2 come see it. They laughed too. Yes. This is what passes for comedy around here.

(Did I mention that I sent the ms out to my critique group? Without reading it first? As in, unproofed and totally unprofessional? They may still love me. Or they may lock me up for six months. UnfortuCharlie, indeed.)

Since I unearthed this thing, I’ve realized it’s not as terrible as I thought it was when I slammed it into the dark file six months ago. And this is a metaphor for life, I think. If you think you hate me and I’m worthless, just lock me in a closet for six months, and I’ll bet that on retrieval, I’m far more witty and charming than you thought I was when you threw me in there. Just saying.

In other news, Kid 3 got her glasses yesterday, so I’ll be sure to pester Husband to take a photo of her cute face that we can post here. Then, in a month when her braces go on, we can post another, and you can refrain from calling DCFS because I rocked my Kid’s world by getting her glasses and braces At The Same Time. I know. Mom of the year, out the window once again. *Sigh*

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(12) Comments for this blog

  1. March 4, 2010

    It’s such a neat experience to shelve a manuscript and then pull it out however much later, and discover it has some merit. Had that experience recently myself. So sweet.

    And the typos are hilarious. Especially extermiCharlie. Hee hee.

  2. March 4, 2010

    It’s such a neat experience to shelve a manuscript and then pull it out however much later, and discover it has some merit. Had that experience recently myself. So sweet.

    And the typos are hilarious. Especially extermiCharlie. Hee hee.

  3. March 4, 2010

    So are we saying, based on the previous few posts, that lemon merengue (I love that song) and various other pastries are the key to good writing? UnfortuCharlie, I am NOT a baker! I think I’m in trouble.

  4. March 4, 2010

    So are we saying, based on the previous few posts, that lemon merengue (I love that song) and various other pastries are the key to good writing? UnfortuCharlie, I am NOT a baker! I think I’m in trouble.

  5. March 5, 2010

    LOL! Don’t you love find and replace? 😉

    And of course you love it. Your writing rocks. Really. You pull emotion out of me I didn’t know I had.

  6. March 5, 2010

    LOL! Don’t you love find and replace? 😉

    And of course you love it. Your writing rocks. Really. You pull emotion out of me I didn’t know I had.

  7. March 5, 2010

    I love finding secret writing treasures that I hid away. =) I have one in my lappy folders that I keep thinking, I’ve have got to do something with that thing. Maybe next year. =)

  8. March 5, 2010

    I love finding secret writing treasures that I hid away. =) I have one in my lappy folders that I keep thinking, I’ve have got to do something with that thing. Maybe next year. =)

  9. March 5, 2010

    I had a character with the screen name Boo Radley which I replaced with HC (for Harold Crick). I didn’t know until I sent it out and had the evals returned from Covenant (ON MY FIRST MANUSCRIPT) that when I did the find and replace, I had ended up with shelves full of “HCks” to read (instead of books) and closets full of “HCts” to wear and so on. How humiliating. That’s when I learned the beauty of a space bar in the find and replace function as well as the wisdom of “Replace Next” instead of “Replace All.”

  10. March 5, 2010

    I had a character with the screen name Boo Radley which I replaced with HC (for Harold Crick). I didn’t know until I sent it out and had the evals returned from Covenant (ON MY FIRST MANUSCRIPT) that when I did the find and replace, I had ended up with shelves full of “HCks” to read (instead of books) and closets full of “HCts” to wear and so on. How humiliating. That’s when I learned the beauty of a space bar in the find and replace function as well as the wisdom of “Replace Next” instead of “Replace All.”

  11. OmaHeck
    March 6, 2010

    I find it most interesting that your ms includes words like extermiNick and unfortuNick. Being unfamiliar with those words, I had to look up definitions. Urbandictionary.com rules!

  12. OmaHeck
    March 6, 2010

    I find it most interesting that your ms includes words like extermiNick and unfortuNick. Being unfamiliar with those words, I had to look up definitions. Urbandictionary.com rules!

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