Back from Seeing Alpha Centauri

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Summer vacation this year took us to Peru, where we greatly enjoyed experiencing another culture and exploring the Inca ruins, including the magnificent Machu Picchu. I also enjoyed photographing the moon and stars that can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Cross looks like a kite to me.

View from our Lima hotel room:

Peru-Lima-View

View from our Cusco hotel room:

Peru-Cusco-View

View from our Aguas Calientes hotel room:

Peru-Aguas-View

Moon through Inca doorway:

Peru-Door-Moon

Shadow Selfie with Moon and Inca Stonework:

Peru-Self-Moon

Moon with Inca Stonework:

Peru-Stone-Moon

Moon over Urubamba River with stone piles:

Peru-River-Moon

Southern Stars from Aguas Calientes – Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri:

Peru-Stars-2Peru-Stars-1

Machu Picchu:

Peru-MP-1APeru-MP-2Peru-MP-3Peru-MP-1Peru-MP-4

Killing Your Darlings

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There’s a phrase used in writing that you have to “kill your darlings”.  I don’t think that means that if you like something, you should automatically cut it.  What I do think it means is that if something isn’t working for the story, even if you love it, you have to cut it. 

While editing my current WIP, I realized that I was letting the main character off the hook in the middle of the story and that the tension died at that point.  The way I let her off the hook had some funny lines that I really liked.  I didn’t want to cut them.  But I did.  And it worked—the tension increased.

Are you willing to kill your darlings?

January Stats

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This was a month of editing: totally rewrote one story and started a simpler revision on a second.  Editing drove my words/hours down, but I did achieve the mythical hour a day on average, although I didn’t quite succeed at writing every day.  How was your January?

WORDS WRITTEN: 4371

HOURS SPENT WRITING: 32

WORDS/HOUR: 136.6