I spent a lot of time today staring out the window.  But it was solid, productive staring out the window.

I am elbow-deep in a revision of my as-yet-untitled novel that is coming out in 2016, and I won’t lie – it’s been rough.  I’ve already done at least four major, all-out revisions of this story, and it’s hard to believe that the process will ever be finished.  As this revision requires rewriting my opening chapters and rethinking the climax of the story itself, it is proving to be the most challenging so far.

But all my staring out the window today, along with some spot-on, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that advice from my betareader, has me feeling more optimistic.  Now I just have to propose these ideas to my characters and see if they will accept them.

Oh, and just for fun, here are some of the random topics I have gotten to research today:

• ancient flood defenses
• the origins of the flamethrower (ancient Greece, in case you were wondering)
• tightrope walking

Here’s hoping that the actual writing and rewriting is half as productive as the staring out the window has been…