Robin Watch April 5

If you've been watching the drama box, you might remember last week I put up a bird shelf under my eaves for the robin who had been thinking of building a nest on the one-inch window sill.  After three days of checking it out, she instead chose to build in the old bush right behind me.  :-)  How cool is that?

So now I have a behind-the-back view of what hopefully doesn't become too much drama.  I don't see too many cats back here, so maybe there is hope.  Guy was the first one to spot her early this week, and I watched her first collect twigs, and then yesterday, mud to finish it.  I came together amazingly fast.

Sort of like this plot for book 13, which is the new 12, actually.  (nice segue, eh?)  I've got a very nice chapter-by-chapter outline done, but it has problem, and last night I thought about all the faults it has.  Today I'm going to explode it open and try to put it back together.  This is where my character grid comes in handy, helping me keep track of when I see someone so they can bring in whatever piece of information Rachel needs.  Once it's exploded, it's a mess, but if I can go back and see that Edden calls in chapter five, we see him in six, seven, and twelve, I know that whatever new thing I need him to bring into the story has to be in those areas and go right to them for repairs.  It also tells me when I have too many chapters crunched into a day, (which is what I'm running into now) and when I'm seeing too much, or too little of a character.  (For example, f the story isn't about Quen, he doesn't need to be there in six chapters, and I can give his "lines" to someone else who does.)  It also helps make sure I don't have three chapters in a row take place in the same location, and that there is a flow from place to place, sunrise, to sunset.

So today I'm ripping it apart and putting it back together.  Right after I make a list of what's wrong with it and a second list of a few more quirky things I didn't manage to fit in the first time.  I'm going to need a steady stream of caffein today–and lots of it.  I have to get it all done today, or it will take me an hour to pick up my train of thought tomorrow.

P.S.  Planted a row of asparagus last night.  The small patch I put in the ground last year did so well, I'm going to try for more.  Weeding out maple seeds kind of came to a halt once I realized the ground by the drive was dry enough to work.  Yay!