Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Panic Sets In

Last night I was reading the "Thursday: Hymnsing" section of my novel. I had just finished the part where Maya (ex-deadgirl) and her mom are bookin' it out of town to get to the hospital in Pendleton. Geri is certain that her psycho ex- is following, but they leave the valley without incident.

Then I turned the page to the next chapter and there was David Graham walking up the steps to Rev. Gantt's office trailer.

Wait, hold it a sec ... where was the chase out of town from the crazy ex's perspective? Did I forget to copy it from Mac to PC? Did I neglect to print it out? Did I only dream of having written it?

So I checked the master file on the PC: no chapter. I checked the individual daily text files on the Mac: no chapter.

Aaaarrrrghhh!!! I know I typed it, I know I typed it.

Wait ... maybe I added the passage at the end of one of the days and forgot to separate it back out. Nope, not at the end.

Beginning? Didn't make sense that'd I'd do that, but by the end of November I was fresh out of sense.

There. Beginning of the second section in the Hymnsing. The chase out of town. Told as a flashback.

Suddenly I remembered why I wrote it that way - it occurs simultaneously with Graham visiting Gantt and I didn't want to start a chapter with "Meanwhile...". Apparently I did have a bit of sense at the end of November after all.

I just haven't restocked the shelves since then.