Restructuring complete!

I finished setting up the structural analysis on Thursday morning, and spent all day Thursday reading and re-reading the book as it was laid out on the foam boards. I moved topics (and entire chapters!) around, added things, and deleted things until I was content with the flow of the book. I have now eliminated most of the bold leaps into nowhere, the redundant bits, and the nonsequiturs. And I have expanded upon some fundamental ideas, which now appear in every chapter, unifying the book.

Since then I’ve reshaped the outline/mind map for the book, cut and pasted the topics into the appropriate chapters, completely rewritten Chapter 1, and done radical surgery on chapters 2 and 3. Now I’m working on Chapter 4.

I’m very happy with how this retreat has gone. I’ve literally accomplished more in one week than I did in the preceding two months. And I’ve been able to do some deep thinking about the structure of the book, something I wouldn’t have been able to do without a large chunk of focused time. I love the cottage I’m staying in (the sauna and hot tub on the premises are wonderful too), and am already planning to come back in July to put the final touches on.

And my plan for the rest of the day? Revise as many chapters as I can before the massage therapist arrives. 🙂 I’m getting a hot stone massage, which I’d never heard of before but which sounds positively decadent. Seems like a wonderful way to finish off the retreat!

Meanwhile, my dragon inkle loom arrived, and it is just gorgeous! Debbie at To-Ply Fiber Arts did a wonderful job. I asked for a custom loom with longer pegs, and she made a loom with 6″ pegs. To support them, she had to make the body of the loom thicker, so she sandwiched two layers of African mahogany around a central panel of American cherry, and voila!

I can’t tell you how pleased I am with this loom – it’s a work of art, and should be quite useful, too.

Tomorrow morning I pack up and drive back home. It’s been a wonderful and very productive retreat, but I can’t wait to see Mike and these furry faces again:

And now, off for lunch! The Ft. Bragg Fire House is hosting an all you can eat crab feed, and this girl can eat a lot of crab. I grew up in Maryland, after all – so I’m a trained professional when it comes to crab-picking.