February is my least favorite month. It is pretty much 28 days of gloom and dank. Oh, and the bonus? Every four years we get an extra day of it. Whee.
Oh, sure, every so often you get a teaser day. Sun, warm temperatures, and it feels like Spring. But then it’s right back to grey, cloudy, and sad. Even the precipitation is unpleasant. It’s not really snow or rain. It’s snow-rain-freezing rain-rain-slop. It’s like even the clouds don’t know how to deal with this month.
All those grey skies and damp, chilly weather makes me feel damp and chilly and grey, too. I just want to grab a self-filling mug of tea and crawl under some warm blankies until the month is over.
But, hey! Guess what? It is just about gone. March may come in like a lion, but at least a lion has some personality! And once March actually gets here, we know Spring isn’t far off. So long, February! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
We did spend some time this weekend working on garden plans for the year. We are planning on adding a 2×8 foot elevated garden box this year so we can grow a lot more stuff. We planned both a cool weather and warm weather rotation. I will grow some of the cool weather crops in the basement when the weather gets too warm. Seems odd to say I move the lettuces and stuff that likes it cool inside when it gets too warm outside, but the basement stays pretty cool all year round and with the lighted plant stand down there, it works well.
I started a read-through of the draft of Two’s Company this week. It’s a sci-fi space opera sort of thing. Sitting at just under 50K right now but that’s for just the main plot line. There’s a sub-plot that needs working in there, but I wanted to get the main story down first so I can make sure the main through lines make sense. I’m trying, for this read through, to just read it as if I picked up the book, without looking for corrections or thinking about how to improve sections. I’m trying to make sure the plot makes sense. After that, I will go back through it more critically and make notes and corrections and such.
Revising is a tedious process for me. Most of the time, when I write shorter things, they need just a bit of tweaking to get them polished up. Longer forms, though… Ay! It always amazes me how much I can drift off plot as I go along. Gaps in timeline, stuff that just shows without explanation, jumping from one scene to another without connecting the dots, it all seems to happen without my realizing it while I’m drafting. And then I have to figure out how to tie it all up in a neater, more sensible package during revisions. It’s not always easy for me to do that, but, of course, the story is far better for it.
What’s your opinion on February? Like it or not? How about revising? I know there are some who love it.
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