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Nov. 23rd, 2004 12:09 amEvening writing progress: 590 words. I'm knocking off for the day, I think. My usual weekday goal is 500 words. (My weekend-day goal is 2000 words, though I didn't make it either Saturday or Sunday this past weekend. I came close yesterday, though.) The total word count on the novel right now is 23,000 words. I'm feeling a little bit less grounded than I did when I was writing Freedom's Gate and Freedom's Apprentice, I think because those two were pretty thoroughly outlined (even if I totally disregarded much of the outline) before I started, whereas the proposal for Book Three was more vague. I think it's going to be okay. I'm hoping that if it's NOT okay I'll figure out something to pull out of my hat before the book is due in August of next year.
*
Kiera is so smart. If you start putting your coat on, she gets all excited and goes and gets her own coat, too, even if she's barefoot and you were really only going to take out the trash or move the car and weren't going to bring her along.
It would be nice if she'd apply some of this clearly superior intelligence towards learning to sleep through the night.
*
Molly has a subscription to Highlights for Children that was a gift from Ed's parents. I read to her from the magazine yesterday, including Goofus and Gallant. I think probably everyone remembers Goofus and Gallant -- even if you never had a Highlights subscription you probably read it in pediatric waiting rooms and dentist's offices and so on. It's the children's equivalent of Reader's Digest, right down to the covert conservatism and the sugar-sweetened morality tales. Anyway, Goofus and Gallant are unvarnished morality stories: Goofus kicks dogs; Gallant is kind to animals. Goofus steals the blind man's white cane and whacks him with it; Gallant offers to escort the disabled citizen across the street. Goofus plays in traffic; Gallant obeys all traffic laws and would never dream of jaywalking. They're drawn to look similar, implying a Good and Evil Twin. Weirdly, Goofus and Gallant were always my favorite part of Highlights. In fact, I think they were everyone's favorite part. Probably because we all fantasized about being as bad as Goofus, with as few consequences.
I do think Goofus did more interesting bad stuff back when I was a kid. This month's offering included, "Goofus stays up too late and is tired the next day. / Gallant goes to bed early and is well-rested." The pictures show Goofus at his desk, chin in his hand, looking tired and miserable while his show-off classmates all raise their hands to answer the teacher's question. Gallant, meanwhile, is shown flirting with a female classmate. Well-rested. Heh. Anyway, Molly, as usually had questions that were not answered by the story. If Goofus isn't raising his hand because he's tired, what about the girl at the desk behind his, who is also not raising her hand -- is she also tired? Why does Goofus stay up too late? And most importantly, when is he going to start to go to bed earlier?
"Never," I said.
"Why?"
"Goofus will never start behaving himself. Ever. He exists solely to provide a bad example."
"What's a bad example?"
"He's supposed to show you what not to do. So he'll never start behaving himself. He'll always be bad. That's what he's for."
I'm not sure she found this very satisfactory.
I have to say, I like Ladybug magazine better, even if it was Ladybug that had her shouting "Go baby go! More baby more!" at the top of her lungs for weeks on end in public places.
*
Kiera is so smart. If you start putting your coat on, she gets all excited and goes and gets her own coat, too, even if she's barefoot and you were really only going to take out the trash or move the car and weren't going to bring her along.
It would be nice if she'd apply some of this clearly superior intelligence towards learning to sleep through the night.
*
Molly has a subscription to Highlights for Children that was a gift from Ed's parents. I read to her from the magazine yesterday, including Goofus and Gallant. I think probably everyone remembers Goofus and Gallant -- even if you never had a Highlights subscription you probably read it in pediatric waiting rooms and dentist's offices and so on. It's the children's equivalent of Reader's Digest, right down to the covert conservatism and the sugar-sweetened morality tales. Anyway, Goofus and Gallant are unvarnished morality stories: Goofus kicks dogs; Gallant is kind to animals. Goofus steals the blind man's white cane and whacks him with it; Gallant offers to escort the disabled citizen across the street. Goofus plays in traffic; Gallant obeys all traffic laws and would never dream of jaywalking. They're drawn to look similar, implying a Good and Evil Twin. Weirdly, Goofus and Gallant were always my favorite part of Highlights. In fact, I think they were everyone's favorite part. Probably because we all fantasized about being as bad as Goofus, with as few consequences.
I do think Goofus did more interesting bad stuff back when I was a kid. This month's offering included, "Goofus stays up too late and is tired the next day. / Gallant goes to bed early and is well-rested." The pictures show Goofus at his desk, chin in his hand, looking tired and miserable while his show-off classmates all raise their hands to answer the teacher's question. Gallant, meanwhile, is shown flirting with a female classmate. Well-rested. Heh. Anyway, Molly, as usually had questions that were not answered by the story. If Goofus isn't raising his hand because he's tired, what about the girl at the desk behind his, who is also not raising her hand -- is she also tired? Why does Goofus stay up too late? And most importantly, when is he going to start to go to bed earlier?
"Never," I said.
"Why?"
"Goofus will never start behaving himself. Ever. He exists solely to provide a bad example."
"What's a bad example?"
"He's supposed to show you what not to do. So he'll never start behaving himself. He'll always be bad. That's what he's for."
I'm not sure she found this very satisfactory.
I have to say, I like Ladybug magazine better, even if it was Ladybug that had her shouting "Go baby go! More baby more!" at the top of her lungs for weeks on end in public places.
