Back in the Hospital

My father is in the hospital again. His potassium level was too high, so he went into kidney failure. They've returned his potassium to normal, but he has pneumonia and other health issues. Just keep him in your prayers that he continues to improve.

Types of Editing

In writing, there are three types of editing, with differing levels of severity. Today, we will explore the three forms of editing.

Minor editing is precisely what its name suggests. Minor editing involves some details like spelling and grammar issues, and a few things that could be phrased better.

Major editing is another story entirely. (No pun intended.) In major editing, the writer goes through their story more thoroughly, concentrating on those clunky sentences, obsessing over whether the dialogue is believable and flows well, whether things were explained well in this chapter.

Memories of Love

In a conversation I was having with my friend, we began discussing a movie we had seen.

In the film, a woman had lost much of her memory. She didn't even recognize her own children. During one scene, her son, bitter about everything that had happened, was talking to her. She had believed in God, kept her faith even in times of trouble. And now, he said, look what had happened to her. He lived his life completely differently, and things had gone well for him. In fact, throughout the movie, he had proved himself to be self-centered, unkind, uncaring. The man asked his mother, not expecting any real answer, what was the point? He lived selfishly as a bad person, and his life was good; she lived selflessly as a good person and she was an invalid who didn't remember her own family.

To his surprise, the woman answered him, giving a spiritual-oriented explanation to what he had said. Her words proved that she had not forgotten everything of her life; she still had her love for God. There was much she could not recall, but her faith in the Lord, her knowledge of His word, was still there in her mind.

Camp NaNo vs. Q

During the month of April, I made it my goal on Camp NaNoWriMo to write 30,000 words. I worked feverishly, sometimes writing three or four thousand words in a day. I was determined to accomplish this enormous goal I had made for myself. Although I admit there were a few days when I could have worked on my stories but didn't, I made a fair amount of progress.

April 30 came. This was my final day to reach my goal. I had 28,748 words written, and was so close to reaching my word count goal. Nothing could stop me now. Absolutely nothing.

When I went into the living room to eat dinner, my mother was commenting on the great episodes of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' that were on that day. I started watching the shows, of course. The episode ended, and I was thinking to myself, Okay. Now I have to work on my story.

"Hey, I think this is the pilot episode." Mom said. "I haven't seen this in ages. It's a two-part, and it's really good."
Needless to say, I didn't reach my goal of 30k. And it's entirely the fault of BBC America. If they hadn't played all those wonderful episodes, I would have become the Camp NaNoWriMo champion.