Friday, April 13, 2012

I'm On Page 103 (I Checked) And Not A Single Character Is Dead Yet

But who knows what'll happen on Page 104.

My thanks to all of you who participated in the Who's Gonna Be Dead Meat poll on the right. Poor Mom seems most likely to be a goner (sadly, in my mind as well).

I put in the "new character" option almost as an afterthought, and until Scooter woke me up this morning, I hadn't really considered knocking off any of the new ones. Scooter's been doing a very good job waking me up the past few mornings. He's been holding off until about 6:45, and then he gets into full snuggle mode. For the week or so before this, he's been waking me up while in full attack mode, and I can't concentrate on anything if I'm throwing him off the bed, in a desperate effort to keep from being viciously mauled.

What can I tell you? He thinks it's fun.

But when Scooter snuggles, and it's too late for me to fall back asleep, I can get a lot of work done. The other day I came up with a semi-brand new ending (basically the already planned action, but an entirely different response to it), and sort of worked out a particular plot problem (I'm still pondering that one).

And this morning, as I thought about a very big scene in the fairly near future, things got worse and worse (you know how much I love worse and worse) and two new characters ended up dead.

It makes sense. Why should new characters get a bye just because they're new?

I'd like to say I've found a great writing pattern, but I haven't. Now that I think about it, I only worked this week on Wednesday. I had thought I would on Thursday, but I discovered I had a dentist appointment at 1:00. Just a cleaning, so I planned on returning to work with sparkling teeth for most of the afternoon.

Only my dentist decided to go mining for decay, and I'm still recovering from the drilling. I couldn't do anything after I got home except quiver and gobble aspirins.

Today I've recovered (although a couple of aspirins isn't a bad idea), but it's the Yankee home opener, and I don't want to miss a single moment of the opening ceremonies. I think I'll watch those and maybe an inning or two, and then try to get back to work. I'm not going to be working on Monday (I'm having lunch with a friend) and Tuesday morning is devoted to mother stuff, and it's getting to the point where the only time I'm writing is on weekends, and I'm really deeply opposed to writing on weekends.

My current estimated time of completion is after the 2nd USA Science And Engineering Festival and before the 7th Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival.

Assuming Scooter lets me sleep and I don't get any more teeth drilled!

6 comments:

Kyra said...

Hi!
I read your book Life as We Knew It and I must say it's like the best book ever! I'm going to read the others in the series and I can't wait! You're an awesome writer. Can I ask you a few questions? :)

1. Did you want to be a writer from when you were a child?
2. Do you ever have Writer's block?
3. If you have Writer's block really badly what do you do?
4. Would you maybe go on my book blog? It's called: www.blogofabookaholic.blogspot.com

Thank you! And I can't wait to read more of your books!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hello Bookaholic 007 and happy Sunday-

To answer all your questions, and many more you never even thought of, scroll way way way down and on the right side of the blog you'll see links to lots of interviews I've given. At various points I've discussed just about everything concerning my career, so you should be able to find what you're looking for there.

And thank you for telling me about your blog. I'll be sure to check it out!

Mr. Cavin said...

...but all the married characters are dead, right? I knew it!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Oh Mr Cavin, you're too clever for me!

Tori said...

Hello Susan!
I was wondering if you'd ever considered making the books into movies?
My friends and family have read all the books and would LOVE to see them in film!
Thanks!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Tori-

I'd love it if someone made any or all of the books into movies.

The problem is it costs a lot of money to make a movie, and no one seems to be willing to take the risk!