I'm here at Martha's Vineyard. The plan is to blog everyday, just as a sort of writing journal.

I've been here three days and I am very pleased with how the work is going. I planned to re-read the whole manuscript and then start writing fresh, but I looked at the 366 pages and I just couldn't stand the idea of taking all that precious time reading over it. Besides, reading my own work can be sort of listening to my own tape recorded voice.

So, I hit the ground running on the first day. I have been re-reading, but only the last 100 pages or so. I like what I have written, but it sounds sort of like a trio when I need an orchestra. I have been going through and filling things out.

A huge issue that I am seeing is that the narrator, Chaurisse, keeps falling out of voice. Even worse, she sounds in some places just like the OTHER narrator, Dana. I have been going through weeding out all the Dana-isms. Charuise's voice is more straight forward. She would never say "they inquired about the cost of the Magnolia Room." That's Dana's lingo. I changed it to "They asked the man how much the Magnolia room was going to cost them."

But, that said, I like the story. More tomorrow.