Jennifer Crusie's Blog: Argh Ink

So today i went to my appointment and to Lowe’s to pick up hardware cloth for the deck so Milton cannot fling himself in his exuberance through the cables to his death, and then I came home about 4 PM and caught up with Lani and Krissie in Campfire.

Campfire is an online conferencing site with private rooms for, well, holding conferences. Since it’s for business, you can also upload photos and files, which makes it perfect for us. We open the room in the morning and go in and out as we work on things, posting scenes as we finish, critique, and revise them; asking each other questions and talking out thorny points in the story; and sometimes just being us: you can’t work 24/7 without getting giddy. (There are Campfire transcripts up at the Dogs and Goddesses website until the category “Sundays” since that’s our weekly meeting day.)

Lani and I already had our first two scenes from Act Two up, but Krissie is still finishing her copy edit for her novel, so we caught her up to speed and she told us she’d fried her computer by shorting out the power cord, and we expressed sympathy and told her to join us when she could. Then we talked about what we had done and were doing today: I had a Kami vs. Sam scene to write and Lani had finished a Daisy vs. Jamie scene for me to look at, which I had to do because my scene after that was a Kami vs. Jamie and I had to know where he was coming from. She also gave me a Word doc with the questions that Jamie would be asking Kami. Then she went off to see her family and I started work: Lani and Krissie are morning and afternoon writers, and I don’t really hit my stride until the sun goes down. That meant that I was posting my Kami vs. Sam scene and my revision notes (using track changes in Word) on Lani’s Daisy vs. Jamie scene at 2AM this morning, so it would be up there when she rose with the birds at dawn.

One of the visuals in the Kami vs. Sam scene was a poster that Kami has made to advertise her temple, and after I wrote the scene, I went into Curio and made the poster. Actually designing it showed me that some of the wording had to change, so I went back into the original scene and changed that, then uploaded the rewrite to Campfire and deleted the old file, and uploaded the poster so that Lani and Krissie could see it. Then I put the poster up on the Dogs and Goddesses website since that’s what we’re using to keep track of all the work we’re doing, post our research, and generally have a good time while leaving a record that can be turned into a website page if and when we sell this sucker.

And then, since it was only 2AM and I was still going strong, I went in and wrote the Kami vs. Jamie scene in very rough form and posted it at 3AM so that Lani could go in and fix Jamie’s dialogue and we can talk later today (Wed.) about what the scene needs to be. These are all roughs because we all have to look at them, tweak them so our characters are right (Kami is my character, Jamie is Lani’s), and generally tighten and escalate them through rewrites. So getting the roughs up is a fairly fast process. And now I’m writing this blog entry and then I’m going to crash.

So that was Tuesday, into Wednesday morning. Today, Wednesday, I have to write a Shar vs. Sam scene that’s going to be tough, but not as tough as the elide and later Shar vs. Sam scene I have to write. We’re trying to get the roughs for Act 2 done by next Monday, but I’d like to beat that and get started on my Act 3 stuff. How do we know what’s in each act? We make a list of the scenes we’re likely to want to do for our romance plots and likely to need for the external Kami plot, put them in order, number them (the first scene in Act 2 belongs to Abby, so that one will be labeled 2.1.Abby.draft1.doc), and then mess with the order when new things crop up as we write.

The key to all of it is flexibilty combined with hammering out the roughs. Because we do so much of the writing collaboratively in the rewriting, we just need to get the basics down on the page so we all have the same thing to look at. For those of you who have been with me for my previous Twelve-Days-Of posts, you’ll notice how much more focused I am. In part, it’s because this project is pretty far along, and in an even larger part, it’s because I don’t want to let Lani and Krissie down, but I think the biggest difference is that collaboration just makes writing easier for me. And definitely more fun.

And now I need to get some sleep because I’m babbling.

So I have insomnia. I have to be up by noon, which wouldn’t be a problem except it’s 7AM. But I can’t sleep because Dogs and Goddesses is running through my head like Milton through the house with a tuna fish package. (Don’t ask.) We’re pedal to the metal this week on Act Two, and that’s where everything kicks into gear. It’s interesting writing with Lani and Krissie because we have such different processes that you’d think we’d clash, but we give each other such freedom that it loosens us all up, I think. I’m the one who’s the drag on the process because I rewrite incessantly, but they’re patient and I’m grateful.

So Act Two is where I have to put Shar and Sam in motion, and as usual, there’s too much talking in my scenes, I’m forgetting to arc the character, forgetting pretty much everything I know, so these nights when I have insomnia are really good because my mind races and I can think things through and all kinds of stuff shows up. I have five scenes to write for Act Two: one of them on its third draft and the rest are roughed in. So I decided to do the Twelve Days of Shar here, even though we’re blogging the book on D&G because that would be hogging D&G. And because this is going to be the fastest I’ve ever done a book–we’ve decided to crash on through since we’ve done so much prewriting and brainstorming–so for once the Twelve Day Plan should work.

Fingers crossed anyway.

So with four dogs and one cat, you’d think the cat would be in trouble, but if you think that, you don’t know cats. Or Annie.

Annie was a rescue from the mean streets of Dayton, so even as a kitten, she had street cred. Then she lived for a good chunk of her younger years in German Village in Columbus which, while not exactly Beirut, had its share of rats and raccoons, neither of which ventured into our yard more than once. And then, of course, we moved to the country where she had nine acres of wildlife to quell. She’s a tough old broad, which is probably why we get along so well. Annie’s been in one book–she was the model for Elvis in Bet Me–but that was before I began Argh, so I’ve never really blogged about her. And now, due to popular demand, here’s Annie:

Annie and Lucy get along great. Annie and Wolfie have issues they worked out. If you read Faking It, you may remember Steve’s approach to cats. This was also Wolfie’s approach to Annie, and then she’d swat him good, and they’d curl up together and go to sleep. Now, they just exist together. Well, you know family, there are always problems but you stick anyway.

Milton is taking longer to absorb the “cat is family” idea, but they’re doing better. They can sit on the bed together now. Well, Milton sits on the laptop, but the proximity is the same.

Which is not to imply that Annie has any respect for him.

Meanwhile, Lucy and Veronica lounge:

It’s a peaceable kingdom.

As long as Milton is asleep and everybody recognizes that Annie is not to be trifled with.

There was a post in moderation Thursday night when I checked this blog, from someone who said, “Please contact me about Pink, there’s an urgent health issue.” I freaked of course and then I googled for the e-mail and found out it was from the woman who had bought Veronica from a breeder in North Carolina. Which meant it had to be Pink’s owner, too, and I knew health issues had forced her to give up the dogs, so I e-mailed and said, “What’s wrong with Pink?” Turns out, nothing, Pink is as healthy as a horse; both Pink and Veronica had clearly been well taken care of (unlike poor Milton who had to be nursed back to health and socialized by Kathleen at Dachshund Rescue). What was wrong? Pink had been her kids’ dog, and she’d given her away with Veronica and the kids were distraught. She wanted Pink back. After that it got complicated because I didn’t like the idea of Pink being in a revolving door, and because I’d signed a paper promising not to give the dog away to anybody but Dachshund Rescue (which shows you how much Dachshund Rescue watches out for the dogs it takes into its care) and because I thought she’d been forced to give up Pink so how could she take her back?, so there were many phone calls and much discussion but in the end, for me, it was about Pink. Veronica settled in here fine, but Pink just wanted to go home. She’d curl up with me at night, but she just was not happy. And at six, she’d been with the family a lot longer than Veronica, so I had figured it would take her longer to fit in, but then the woman called and her kids wanted the dog back and . . .

I gave Pink back. I’m still not sure it was the right thing to do, but it was the best solution I could think of.

After I handed Pink over, I came home and ate an entire pint of Dove ice cream. Then I passed out from sugar shock with the four dogs draped over me. When I woke up, Milton had eaten the ice cream carton. So we’re all fine. Veronica seems more settled now; I was afraid she’d miss Pink but she wrestles with Milton and curls up with Wolfie to sleep and she’s getting gutsier every day. In fact, all the dogs seem more settled. I think maybe Pink’s tension was getting to all of them. Annie has even returned to sacking out on the bed, although Milton still has issues. So I’m sure it was the right thing to do. Kind of.

Argh. I can’t even adopt dogs without drama.

But here’s Pink, right before I took her back to her family:

Really, it was the right thing to do.

Milton ate all the buttons off my duvet cover.

At least, I’m pretty sure it was Milton. It might have been Veronica who was the one I found inside the duvet cover, but it’s so much more likely that she waited until someone else did it for her that my money is still on Milton. Milton is living proof that being brainless makes you happy. I’m sure someday he’ll grow up and be very smart, but at the moment, Milton has no fear and no boundaries, which pretty much makes the world his oyster, which he would eat, along with the edge of my post-it flip chart, the pizza I had on the nightstand, my antique wicker side table, and those duvet cover buttons. Milton also chases the cat after being told many times not to, leaps from everything he stands on including the floor, and runs through leaves that are bigger than he is with wild abandon. I need to be more like Milton: the only way through it is to do it, so you might as well enjoy the ride.

On the other hand, a little self-control is a good thing. He sat on my laptop and did something that froze it. He managed to climb up on my sideboard and then tried to jump off (I caught him). And he continually gets himself lost under the duvet. One thing about having four of one breed, you really notice their quirks. I knew that Wolfie was a burrower like most dachshunds because they were bred to go down badger holes, so squirming into dark places under things is the best thing ever for them, but I didn’t realize what I’d gotten into until I had four of them crawling under the covers. Lucy the beagle mix just looks at them, rolls her eyes, and goes back to sleep.

In the afternoon, when the sun’s out, they each pursue their own interests:

That’s Veronica languishing, Pink looking for somebody to beat up, Lucy pretending she doesn’t know them, and Milton making his move on my laptop in the foreground. He’s a happy dog.

Thank God I’m out of duvet buttons.