book – Page 4 – Meilo Zaborowski: Author

Down with the moral majority

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 17, 22 scenes in
Where I am: Lesson 17, 25 scenes in
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
One of my cats, Ruby, has been really getting on my nerves while I’m trying to work. She hangs out in the kitchen and just screams at the door the whole time. I don’t know why, because she’s in the same room as me. Maybe it’s because she can’t sit in my lap when I’m at the table. Who knows.

Also, it occurs to me that only my dad actually sees what I’m doing, so here’s a pic of my setup on the kitchen table for the cut.

The 3 ring binder has my previous lesson worksheets so when I come across reference tags in the manuscript I can go back and look at my notes. Front and center is the stack of pages I’m currently working on for that scene. Just above that are my scene cards so I can stay on track; they have the scene sentence (which is just a single sentence describing what happens in the scene), page numbers, time, purpose, and list of relevant characters on them. Then on the right is the rest of the manuscript, separated into “unedited” and “cut” folders. There is a third “perfect” folder that I have yet to use in any of my revisions, but this one isn’t done yet, so there’s still a chance. The blank notebook paper is hopefully self-explanatory, but the cutting mat hanging over the stray box of tissues (don’t ask) may not be.

So when I call this the “cut”, I mean there are places where I will use an Exacto knife to literally cut parts out and glue them (glue stick is hidden in the shadow of the mat there next to my pens, sticky notes, and the box for my knives) onto another page. There are of course the way more common giant red “x”s and hand-written additions that will go on these pages.

Yes, I know we are living in 2025, and no, I will never do this process any other way.

I only feel alive when you hurt me

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 17, 11 scenes in
Where I am: Lesson 17, 16 scenes in
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
The first few scenes here were pretty light work, so I tried to get through more than I really needed to so I don’t struggle as much later when I have to write completely new scenes. Sometimes those can take me a couple of hours to do, and on the days I work, I don’t have that much time after.

I will say, it felt amazing to read through some of these scenes and have them fall in line, like they were always meant to be in this order…I mean, I knew what I was doing all along!

I’ve been here before

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 16, complete
Where I am: Lesson 16, complete
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I don’t know why I originally gave myself 2 weeks for this lesson because, uh, I definitely don’t need it. But it makes up for that week I was sick.

I start the cut next week. Here we go!

Walls are shakin’ and they’re closin’ in

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 15, complete
Where I am: Lesson 14, complete; Lesson 15, complete
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I was sick all last week, so no, I didn’t get anything done.

Just finishing up these time lessons. The irony of nailing down how long a scene is supposed to take as someone who suffers from time blindness is not lost on me. But I’m trusting the process. Does it help me in the long run? No idea, but I’m doing it anyway. It’s tedious, but not in a horrifyingly boring and/or annoying way, yanno? It makes me think about the scenes in a different way, so maybe it does help in a subconscious way. Idk.

One more lesson, then I start the cut.

The red ones make me fly and the blue ones help me fall

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 14, complete
Where I am: Lesson 14, uhhh and Lesson 15?
On Target or Behind: technically behind?

How’s It Going:
Okay, so hear me out. Lesson 14 and 15 both deal with time; 14 with in-scene time and 15 with between-scene time. The only problem is I needed to figure out the between-scene time (i.e. the order) first. Because if there’s ever been a book I wrote completely out of order, it’s this one. But I got through most of 14 and the essentials of 15, and I should be able to finish both next week.