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Had a great practice today. The kids had fun and they were rocking the passing. The game itself was fun, but a bit less successful: final score: 4 - 8, and not for us, alas. The 4 points were all from the same kid. He's quiet and intense and really loves playing the game. Which is good, because he was in the final lineup for the evening and his three teammates completely lost interest in the game and were chasing each other around the wrong end of the field, leaving him to take on the opposing four players by himself. Which he totally did.

Ros is doing okay, but I swear she overthinks the dribbling more and more every week. My mission this week is to just get her kicking a ball around the park so she isn't carefully considering where she's going to put her foot every time she gets hold of the ball. (Her form is impeccable, but she's four times slower than all the other kids. Which I know, because I had them run the field with their balls as a warm up and she did one length in the time the other kids did four. ::sigh::)

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In other news, my mom was visiting this weekend, which was lovely, and I took her to see the local production of War Horse on Sunday. The show was every bit as good as the NT version in London, minus a couple of dodgy accents. (Canadians should not be allowed to do Welsh accents. I'm just sayin'.) But man, that audience had hearts of stone. When I saw it in London, the entire auditorium was openly weeping at the end, but the Toronto audience...wasn't. There were a few discreetly dabbed eyes, and a very enthusiastic standing ovation, but you could tell the story didn't have the same resonance for this audience that it did for an English one. Interesting... (For the record, I was a total mess from the opening scenes of the show, benefit of knowing what was coming.)

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Also, I've broken 14,000 words on the Pros Big Bang story, well over the rough draft limit. Yay! I was beginning to think that I might get a complete draft done in the next week or two, but then I sat down and mapped out the rest of the story and realized that there's 15 to 18 scenes to go. At 1,000 words a scene, that means I'm going to hit around 30,000 words again, and that's not getting done in the next week. But still, it's well on the way.

I took draycevixen's pledge yesterday, and promised myself 23,000 words on the Big Bang story by the end of the weekend.

So what did I spend this afternoon and most of this evening doing? Writing? Nope.

Instead, I completely purged my closet of every piece of clothing I no longer wear, no longer fits, is no longer a style I can carry off, or just leaves me wondering what the heck was going through my head when I bought it. I actually found a summer blazer with shoulder pads. Shoulder pads! Obviously, it was one I haven't worn in years, if not decades.

The closet is now kind of amazing. Things aren't squished together anymore. I've organized the clothes in a way that makes sense. I may even now start on my fashion dream project: photographing every piece of clothing I own and uploading the pics on my iPod, so never again will I look at a skirt or a turtleneck or a pair of awesome funky tights in a store and wonder if I have something that'll go with it.

The writing wasn't a total write off, though. Look!



It's still possible I could hit 23,000 words tomorrow, if I have an awesome writing day. So, fingers crossed...

I've added almost no new words in the last few days. Apart from the prep for Ros' birthday part, which took the better part of last week, I was mostly mulling over, and pulling apart the second half of the plot, and trying to put it together in new and more compelling ways. And thanks to a handy plot consult--waves to draycevixen--I think it's in much better shape.

And look, there have been new words added today:



I'm going to ignore the fact that I've revised the final word count up again to 30,000. (I've got 12 scenes left to write, and the scenes are averaging 1,000 words or so. The math is pretty clear.)

My goal is a complete-ish first draft by the end of the month. Giving me nearly three weeks to revise it and produce vids for the two stories I claimed.

Piece of cake.

I hope.

Didn't quite make 500 words tonight. Almost, but not quite.



I'd reached the end of a scene, and I need to do some hashing out of plot structure before I start the next scene, so I'm just stopping.

It looks like I'll be making the 10,000 word mark well before the June 28 deadline. But whether I can finish the whole thing by the end of the summer still remains a mystery.

I actually got some new words written today:



This was amazing, not just because it was a busy, errand filled day--I managed to get new shoes and shorts for me, a new swimsuit for Ros, and chickenwire that will, we hope, keep the morning glory seedlings we're about to plant from getting eaten by the local wildlife--but also because the Sweetie and I got babysitting tonight so we could go to a private film club we belong to that screens all sorts of culturally suspect films. The current month's offering was Cruising

Yes, that Cruising. The one with Al Pacino playing a cop undercover in the gay leather bar scene. It was an awesome, fascinating film, though far from perfect. The murder plot is screwy, and the slasher in me wishes we actually got to see Al go for it with another guy. But the club scenes are astounding. And filmed, for my money, mostly without judgment. (Any judgment up there, you bring to the film yourself.) I'm still amazed they got a pretty explicit fisting scene in there.

At some point, I'm going to do my own cut of the film. One which eliminates the murder plot entirely and is just Al exploring the leather bar scene and then going to diners with his Gay Best Friend next door.

And for the record, the Sweetie thought it was as awesome as I did. And that's why he's my Sweetie.

I didn't think I'd add words tonight (I got home later after seeing a wonderful Rufus Wainwright concert) but I actually did!

Here's the new count:


I also found several possible cool locations for the final section of the story. Now I just have to try and avoid getting caught up in the research at the expense of getting actual words down.