Happy Wednesday! Our household is once again back to the pre-holiday schedule. All classes and rehearsals have started. Last night, neither the kids nor I had anything, and the busyness the rest of the week makes us appreciate it all the more.
Meanwhile, I’m feeling like 2017 isn’t off to the greatest start in my professional circles. Let’s just say there’s lots of drama already. I think what makes me saddest is seeing how the behavior isn’t any more mature than middle schoolers. In fact, my own middle schoolers and their friends are mostly more advanced than a lot of adults.
Enough of that. On to my WIPpet. I’m still deep in edits on Keeping the Faith, and I did promise I’d post the next bit which follows last week’s. Micah is visiting with LR, and he’s asked if he can talk to her about something. It’s a sensitive subject for them both.
WIPmath: 1/11 = 1 + 11 = 12 sentences.
“Of course,” LR replied. She accepted Robbie into her arms and carted him to the living room, where she plopped him down with some toys. He promptly dropped into crawl mode and scooted away, dragging a stuffed bunny by the ear.
Micah fidgeted a little. “I don’t know how to say this, but…I can’t clean out his room. I just can’t.”
LR frowned. “I thought you already had.”
“Mostly, yeah. But I’ve got his shoes and his cello and some of his clothes, plus an attic full of his old tools.” He drew in a deep breath, holding it together. “I need to move on, but I feel so stuck.”
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*cries* Oh, Micah. This one is going to kill me, I can tell. Or at least have me in tears a lot.
Aw. Well, hopefully there will be some not-so-sad moments too.
“Mostly, yeah. But I’ve got his shoes and his cello—
*wails*
But I like ‘dropped into crawl mode’, like a lil marine on a mission. 🙂
Yep. 🙁 This is why it’s taken almost 2 years to finish. I remember having a conversation with an author friend ages ago saying, “I don’t kill off characters.” (She does so regularly.) And she actually laughed at me when I said later, “I think I need to kill off a character. Help?”
The crawl thing is what my older child did the second he was on the floor. He could creep (hands and knees, but what most people call crawling) by the time he was 6.5 months, and he was standing up by 7 months–and he couldn’t even sit unsupported yet. Spouse and I looked at each other and went, “Uh oh.” Younger one was perfectly happy to stay put, which was great until we learned she could undo every single baby-proof latch in the house because “staying put” = “plenty of patience for figuring things out.”
It’s the pits killing off a character – a main character, at least. I’ve only done it once, and even thinking about the equivalent to KtF in HBTC…all of the nope.
Clever little sausage, your youngest. 🙂 Our two never figured out the baby-proof latches, although they were actually there to stop the dogs from stealing (except for carrots – dogs and babies both had free access to those). Our eldest didn’t crawl at all. Youngest was a crawling speed demon.
Killing a main character is the worst! I wasn’t ever going to write anything about these characters after PoF. I was happy with the mildly ambiguous ending, leaving it with “we can pretend they have forever even though they don’t.” But they wouldn’t leave me alone, and I started writing KtF. I just couldn’t finish it. It seemed too…final. I can promise this has a happy ending, though.
Older child had no patience for the latches, but he was the sort to make messes when he got into things. He ate an entire pack of gum once, LOL. Younger child’s *entire goal* was getting it open. She didn’t want what was inside! They’re both still the same way in general.
Phew! (For the happy ending.) 🙂
It’s amazing how often people surprise us with that kind of behaviour. My partner is also dealing with colleagues acting like teenagers in the work environment. Not fun.
Poor Micha. Even just in this little bit, I can feel all his sadness but also feeling a bit ridiculous at himself and feeling he should be able to do better (even though the reaction it totally understandable).
I don’t even get it. There’s no reason to create drama, especially as authors! I wonder what people get out of doing it.
Yes, Micah is torn between knowing it’s okay to grieve and thinking he should be done by now. He’s learning it’s not a neat, straight line.
Heartbreaking, yet beautiful. It brings back every moment I’ve ever lost someone. ;_;
Yep. 🙁 That’s why it was so difficult to write this particular story.