Genius...or not

Suspect I am a bit of a genius. I figured out how to bypass writertopia's designated 50,000 word cap in my cute pictometer to make it what I really want (100,000 is my target for now). However, I finally updated my blog template to the new fancied-up blogger beta, and my pictometer would no longer fit on the sidebar without cutting off the cute typing potato man. I can revert to the old version of Blogger, but this one has so many other options that it would be silly to switch back just for cute potato man to fit in. So not genius after all (though I did learn all this html coding on my own with no help from classes or computer-nerd friends, so I'm still proud of myself). Hope you're not too sad, but potato man is gone and for now we have a boring tracker on the sidebar, but I will figure this out. I suspect the new layout has some stupid html code limiting the size of the sidebar, I just have to figure out where it is. (And if Joey knows already, he better darn well tell me!) You may not notice any changes in the layout, but I updated a few teensy weensy details and I added a tracker to my blog so I can catch all the secret blog-reading lurkers among you. Ah ha! Found out the husband's mom reads the blog (hello and welcome!), but alas, the husband is still too lazy, arm-twisting and all.

As for the writing, chapter one has been giving me grief for the last week as I've tried to edit and re-write and it has done its best to resist. I've known since I first wrote the chapter that parts of it were weak, I've just been having a hard time identifying why. I like the beginning third of the chapter and the last paragraph, but the section in between is the problem. I realized this weekend that I have a time problem. I'm trying to cover too many events and not all of the events are key to setting up the main character's story, so the key events in her life are lagging behind less important moments. This week I've been updating my notes with the dates most important to her experience and last night I wrote up a list of which dates I should highlight in this chapter. Then I made a handy little chart of what I want to cover in the chapter and when, etc. Very good progress. The chart is detailed, but I need to flesh it out even more today and start re-writing using it as my guide.