At 1:30 this morning, I realized that the purple mug that I'd only refilled twice had actually finished off the 6 cup pot of coffee.
Pro: 1500 words written last night
Con: I couldn't actually fall asleep until 3, skipped the elliptical this morning, and am dead tired right now.

my favorite bit of last night's writing

If she just said yes, all of this would be gone and life would go back to normal. No more man in the lake, no more craziness in the fish tank. She would go back to the morgue, enjoy her afternoon coffees, practice yoga at the Y on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and watch medical dramas on television until she fell asleep. And maybe one of those Fridays, she’d take Mack up on his standing dinner and a movie invitation.
She stared at the window pain, watching the droplets gather, merge, and fall. Gather. Merge. And fall. She thought maybe that normal life would be the best thing in the world.

I did another one of those pitch/query contests. I sent the pitch to an agent (Jessica Faust over at Book Ends) and she posted her responses on her blog. So I know the pitch was jumbled – I was pretty hyped on caffeine when I wrote it, and she pointed out the confusion, but she liked it!

31. ChristineLittle FishPeter Dodge fell in love with a woman he was not sure even existed. Fifty years later she came back for him on a foggy cloud, leaving his aged body behind with a dagger in his heart. When Evie, the beautiful coroner, touches the dagger, she catches a glimpse of the watery world Peter's murderess came from, and the beings there could help her understand one of the town's long unsolved cases, if only she gives them the one thing they are fighting for, a child she'll lovingly call Little Fish.

The first line is really good and definitely grabbed me. After that though I was confused. Is the story about Peter Dodge or Evie? Is the conflict of the story Peter Dodge’s love and later death or is it Evie fighting for a child called Little Fish? I think you have some very intriguing elements here, but it feels like two different pitches. Would it be better to say something more like, “When Evie, a small-town coroner, touches the dagger in Peter Dodge’s chest she is somehow able to see the watery world Peter’s murderer came from, and the beings that help her understand one of the town’s long-unsolved cases. To do so she’ll have to give them (who them?) the one thing they are fighting for, a child she lovingly calls Little Fish . . .”? I think it needs one more line about Little Fish and why she’s so important. Otherwise, you’re right on the verge of a fantastic pitch.

I had a tough time of it yesterday. At work, I came up with an idea. It seemed a phenomenal one at the time, an extra character filled with reams of possibilities that would throw a chaotic factor into the story. Then I got home, made dinner, and sat down in the papasan to brainstorm on the new character a bit more, it's relationships with the current ones, its goals and desires.

Then I got irritated.

I didn't know what was wrong. I just kept drawing pictures of the relationships and mini-dialogue between the characters and grew more and more frustrated as less and less of it worked.

Then my wonderful cohort suggested that I go to bed. He crawled in with me and suggested that maybe the extra character didn't offer me anything more than problems and another slew of rewrites that didn't add anything to the story but another tangent, and the other characters didn't need him because they could pick up the slack.

May I just say that I have the most wonderful writing partner in the world?