May Sweeps - Day 464

This is the first time I've been to the library in a while.  Today's workload was lighter than the usual Monday load (next week's will be bad, though), and I actually found myself falling asleep in the afternoon while sitting down to edit the next "Delusions of Grandeur" podcast.  I awoke to the horrible sound of that pubescent neighbor kid screeching outside my window . . . which was closed.  Honestly, the sound is so grating and rage-inducing I could never possibly replicate it for you.

Maybe Bill Sienkiewicz could illustrate what it does to me, if he's still working.

(typical Sienkiewicz art)

So, I got up and threw my shoes on and drove over to the library, with plenty of time to spare (although, a month ago, they'd already have kicked everybody out and closed by now).

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In May: 994

I called up Big today and talked to him about the ending of "Exact Duplicate," or whatever I'll end up calling my twin story.  In my original idea, I had a lapel pin or a necklace or a broach be the object that Layla--the good twin--focuses on.  In the actual writing of the story, it has become a white letterman jacket.  And I needed a way to get the jacket away from Shayla--the evil twin--in a way that would be believable.

Big had a couple of suggestions, and ended up giving me an easy segue into the confrontation toward the end of the story.  So, I just skipped ahead and wrote the jacket scene today.  Pretty good, considering I turned it over and over again in my head last night during my run, and couldn't figure out a solution.

Push-ups Today: 100
Push-ups In May: 1017

I got it into my fat head that it would be amusing to grab a children's book and perform it as Morgan Freeman.  This is the book I chose:

Remind me if you don't hear it soon.

So, I did grab the argument scene from "Two Month Retreat" and emailed it to myself, intending to cut it down a little bit.  At the library, I spent twenty minutes or so revising it, cutting out a few lines, eliminating two redundancies, shortening sentences a bit, the way a good editor would.  I stuck in one minor clarification paragraph, then saved it and compared the two.  The scene started out as 1373 words, and after cutting it down . . . it was 1394.  Sigh.

Words Today: 961 (I could've managed a thousand if I'd just worked a tiny bit harder, but of course, my revision of last year's story was a lot more work than the few additional words it counted as)
Words In May: 5740