Dear Diary . . . day by day

Friday, August 25th - Write or wrong?
Last night was the my last writing class. The rest of the class will meet again next week, but I'm leaving for Burning Man that morning. So I had to say goodbye.
I put my email address on the board and told everyone to email me. I wrote a note to the best writer in the class, asking if coffee and writerly talk would be a possiblity. I handed out tomatoes.
We had Cornelia Nixon in to read a brilliant passage from her book, "Angels Go Naked" and to answer our questions. It took her 4 months of writing 8 hours a day to write the short-story passage she had read. It took her 9 years to write the rest of the novel. 9 years! I don't know if that's encouraging or disheartening! I meant to ask her if she wrote anything else during that time.
My story, "Secondary Situation", got critiqued. People liked it in general, but the problems were many and glaring. That's ok. I literally finished my first draft, printed it out, copied, collated and passed it out to class. It almost felt like cheating, as I had this roomful of respectable writer types giving me advice and ideas on how to tighten up the story. I'm not sure where the story is going, or what it means yet, but now I've got lots of different ideas.
It's always very interesting to see everyone's differing interpretations of the plot. Most people wanted more on the poly stuff, which I admittedly glossed over. It's not the point or focus of this story, although without it the story doesn't work. Of course, I know a lot about polyamory and almost the entire class was totally ignorant about it. So some of their suggestions don't quite work - they want to see it NOT working because of jealousy; they think that's more interesting than the more subtle ways it's affecting my main character. Oh well. If I had written a tighter draft for them, maybe I would've avoided such things. It's always interesting to see everyone's biases - including my own :-)
Thing is, I really really want to revise this story RIGHT NOW. Cat Enchanter is farther along - I don't mind letting it sit (and I'm nervous about ruining it when I revise, so I want to have lots of time to do it). But this story, "Secondary Situation", is soooo very rough and ugly right now. Really sloppy in places. People were nice in class, but the drafts they marked up did not spare me (and I'm glad of that). But it makes me want to revise it ASAP so this isn't sitting around making me look lazy. Which I am, but only part of the time.
No time, no time! I'm going to Ian and Elle's tomorrow to use their DSL to finish the SH bookstore. I'm also going to help sew up the parachute and figure out other Burning Man details. Sunday I garden. Monday, I pack. Tuesday, I party (company party for the tradeshow - should be a good time). Wednesday I get the rental truck and pack my stuff in it. Thursday morning I get up, shower, wash hair and shave, pick up Jeff and his stuff, meet Aaron (gods help us - I'm giving him a meeting time 2 hours earlier in hopes that will make him on time) and caravan out to the desert.
Yeah. And I'm still waiting for that damn laptop. Now they're saying Tuesday. Fuck. Don't buy from MacZone. They keep saying it's the Apple Loan, but that went through earlier this week and as far as I can tell they're using it as a scapegoat for jerking me around.
Exercise log:
Did a little weight lifting for my legs, but then I spent 20 minutes running HARD on the elliptical machine. Seroiusly - 168 strides per minute (I usually try to keep it about 130, which leaves me drenched in sweat). A walking pace is about 105.
Writing log:
Last night in my writing class.
I'm currently reading:
Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
The Clewiston Test by Kate Wilhelm
Who am I kidding?:
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

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